Windows, doors, and more lousy customer service

I've avoided naming the Seattle-area company that's been holding our new screen door hostage for three weeks, but summer's half over and they still haven't called to schedule installation.

My dealings with them in the past had always been pleasant. They represent several of the better manufacturers, and have supplied our back door and our sky light, and did some outstanding work tracking down the sliding screens that fit our French doors.

That's why, in early May, I stopped by their showroom to order a screen door with installation package and didn't choke on the $1000 price. (It was a nice design, with a special type of hinges that would allow me to remove the door in the winder and pop the hinge pins back in every spring.). They charged my credit card for the full price May 10.

Then, silence for six weeks. I suspect there'd be silence still, except I called them June 27 to check on the order. The woman at their front desk told me that the door had arrived and that someone would call me later in the week to make an appointment to install the door.

No one called.

A week later, I called again, then stopped by to enquire. At that point, the salesman told me that he needed to run over to Builders Supply (a mile down the road) to pick up the correct white hinges, and after he had the hinges, the installer would schedule installation.

Silence.

A week later, I emailed the salesman to check on the status. He emailed back July 7 and said he'd been busy but "we should have everything done by next week."

Well, next week is over. There's been no call, no email -- and no door. I'm steaming.

At this point, the door has been languishing in their warehouse (just a few blocks from our house!) for three weeks. Summer -- the reason I ordered a screen door -- is half over.

I've sent off another email, and will call Monday morning. If they don't install it next week, there's no reason to believe they ever will. At least not this summer. It appears our only option is to cancel the order and demand a refund.

This is incredibly frustrating, because I'm fairly confident that this is a lovely, high quality door that we would have enjoyed if it weren't for this company's inexcusably bad customer service.

(It's not my custom to pick apart local companies in my blog, but in this case I felt that there was no option. Their website does not list a president, CEO or manager, and I have no confidence that sending a letter to their general address would get it delivered to anyone but the salesman -- who already knows my views on the matter.)

[OK, here's what happened after I called the company headquarters.]