House windows and doors - very long wait time
In the beginning of dealing with Alpine, I felt that things went fairly well. Emails and voicemails were responded to within hours. There was a very positive atmosphere in all discussions leading up to the purchase of the windows and doors.
**Purchase was made on 20 March 2020
**Basement windows installed May7-8 **Other windows and Doors delivered May 8. They charged $550 per door for install - I hired a carpenter who installed the door for a fraction of their price.
The guys who installed the basement windows were really nice and friendly. They installed 4/5 of the windows in about 5 hours on May 7th and took a full day to instal the final window and dap them out (no trim on the outside). The $275 to install each window seemed a bit high and really felt like they milked the second day of the install but they did a great job. However, they did leave a few windows scuffed and put the alarm sensors on backwards (See picture) - not a big deal but it seems pretty straight forward on how it goes.
On May 11, I noticed that the bathroom window was not the obscure glass like we ordered and sometime shortly after that we discovered that one of the doors was the wrong swing. So I phoned Alpine to have that corrected. I was told the new stuff would take 2 weeks to come in and 3 weeks tops! I was told that the error happened because their system crashed and they were going off of old notes? Something along those lines. I don't know why they didn't just take the 10 minutes to check their measurements once more.
It was from about this time that the good communication ended. It felt like I was being ignored/ghosted for their mistakes. Voicemail responses now took days - week to get a response. Emails were not even being responded to. I would have thought if a company made a mistake that they would do everything they could to keep the customer happy and fix the issue ASAP. Boy was I wrong.
The new frame for the door finally arrived around June 4th (no windows). The installer was working on the door for about an hour in my garage then he loaded the door up and left. No communication from them so I called Alpine to figure out what happened. The door returned 3 days later in a lot worse condition than when it left. A few deep scratches that look like they were touched up with paint or primer - very clearly see the scratches through the paint/primer; no screw plugs with a couple broken plugs left in the window frame; the door sweep was/is only attached or screwed in on the bottom half of the door and white paint smudged on the black weather stripping. No communication when the door was dropped off so I called Alpine about the door. They said that they had the plugs ordered (still waiting for them) and that they did not think that their guy would scratch and put paint on the door. After waiting about 7 weeks for the sales guy to speak with his manager about a discount on the door I just contacted him directly - he was very supportive and understanding and was great to deal with. He offered $200 off the bill - better than nothing I guess. I would have preferred a new door as it was damaged before I even had it installed on the house.
Throughout this time I have been sent multiple emails about what I still owe. I respond everytime that I am still waiting for the products and will happily pay once they are received and installed - this has never been an issue. I have been told multiple times that things will be 2 more weeks and here we are, September 3rd with another email saying, "The glass is scheduled to arrive next week for both windows for you and the materials for the door are on the way as well".
I have used Peace Glass and All-West Glass for other custom mirror and glass shelving work for other renovations while I have been using. The longest wait was 3 days.
167 days since my order was placed. I would feel horrible if I recommended this company to my family or friends and it took them this long to get them their products.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $8,812.00
- Company Response
Hello,
I am very sorry that we did such a poor job of dealing with the issues that we had. We really pride ourselves on getting our customers the products that they want in a reasonable amount of time. We did not do this Our installers are paid by the hour and are trained to do the job properly. I am sorry that our salesperson missed that your bathroom window was not frosted and that the swing of your door was not correct. I wish that we could have dealt with the issues in a much quicker fashion. Covid-19 has caused some serious delays in getting product. (Your windows and doors were from Jeld-Wen who is one of those suppliers who has been very affected from Covid. We are seeing 8-10 week lead times from them) I am sorry that our system auto-generates a statement that shows that you owe. We absolutely do not expect payment until we are all cleared up which should be later this week.----Koyne Kursteiner-General Manager