Home Depot

[mjozwiak]

Sorry to break this into two, but I was also wondering if anybody has used any of the 8500 series windows from Home Depot?

Thanks in advance...
Mark

[jforbes]

I just had 5 windows installed by the Home Depot. I'm not sure if they were the 8500 series or not, but I do know that the windows you buy at the store are different then the windows they sell you if HD does the installation (the sales man said it had something to do with the warranty - I can explain more if you'd like.).

I'm very happy with the quality of the windows - but that's when comparing them to the original 1950's single pane wood windows that they replaced. I don't really know many "specifics" about their windows but I could immediately appreciate their insulating properties (we can't feel the hot sun anymore when standing in front of the windows) and they have even GREATLY reduced the amount of outside noise that we used to hear - which is something we weren't expecting. I compared HD with two other window companies before purchasing - a small local company (Windows Plus in Media, PA), and Empire Today. The HD's prices were right in the middle but their warranty was much better than all the other companies (it even transfers to the next home owner when we move).

As for the installation - ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!!! I'll never use them again! We were told a crew would arrive and install all 5 windows in one day. What we got was 1 guy and it took 4 days. The first day he was there from 11:00 till 8:00 at night. The second day he disappeared for 2 hours. Several locks and one screen needed to be replaced (I'm not sure that was his fault), but it took him forever to do it. The entire kitchen window had to be replaced (a week and a half later!!) because it was damaged. It is a casement-picture-casement and the molding inbetween the casement and picture was damaged. The guy installed it anyway and when we noticed the damage (as he was leaving!), he said he could fix it but it would void our warranty or we could replace the entire window which would take 3 weeks! We choose to replace it, but I had to fight to have it done faster. Needless to say the whole experience was a disaster but we're happy with the windows now.

Jen

[Tom R]

I've never (or rarely, at least) heard of a Home Depot installation that was anything but a total nightmare, - - yet it always amazes me that people keep dealing with them, - - if the installers were so good, they sure wouldn't be working for Home Cheapo, - - sorry you had to learn the hard way.

[TnAndy]

Well ladies and gents,

There are two sides to every story.....and the other side of that story is IF you're any good, you can't stand to work for idiots like Home Depot.

I've installed windows for 15 years. I could do 5 windows in a day by myself and be home in time for the soap operas......so what you got jforbes was not a decent installer.....but HERE is why:

The problems I encountered the VERY short time I had anything to do with Home Depot:

The idiot regional manager that was over installed sales that I dealt with for hiring in had been there one month and his background was "the last 10 years, I've worked as a manager for grocery chain"......THAT right there should have told me how this was gonna go.

The make you install a fax machine because all their work orders are sent by fax. First one I get is Monday morning of the first day at 3 A. M. My phone rings, I roll over and answer it to get a Fax tone in my ear.....go in the den and there is a work order from HD. I go up to the store at 7am and ask WHY 3am ?? "Oh, we put those in the computer and it auto dials starting at 3am.....no, we can't change the time ".......so the rest of the short time I was with them, I'd take the phone off the hook at bedtime, and put it back on on wake-up.....and usually it would ring within 2 minutes with a fax from HD.

What they spend Sooooooooo much time faxing are NOT just work orders, but "status reports".......you get a WO on Monday for "Jones".....you are supposed to contact the customer within 48hrs and make arrangements to go measure. So, fine....you call "jones"...set a time of say, Friday to measure. Next day you get this status report you are supposed to fill out and fax back. OK....I put "jones".....have contacted, will measure Friday.
Next, same request......and every day thereafter until the job is closed out......I finally wrote on one "THIS IS INSANE.....YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT READING THESE THINGS AND THIS IS THE LAST ONE I'M SENDING IN !!!! " and threw the rest of them in the trash for the short remaining time I was with them. They are way more interested in paper than results.

One of my first jobs was an install on a front entry door. Guy had come to the store, purchase a 3/0 door with two sidelites. I asked the store installed sales idiot "Uh.....did anybody go acutally LOOK at the house before you sold him this ?".....no, of course not.... So I drive out there, and the guy has a set of double 3/0 doors in there now in a brick house.....rough opening, probably 76" wide.....RO on the new set, probably about a foot less......I tell the guy he needs to go back to the store, and get a refund, this won't work, and leave. When I get back to the store, he's already called raising hell wanting THAT DOOR.....install guy turns to me, says "Any way you can make it work ?" Well, sure, if you don't mind a filler pc of 6" on each side to the brick, and resheetrock about the same on the inside AND sure as heck not for the price of a regualr install. "No problem....do what you have to and just bill us".....and THAT was a theme I heard over and over with them......their policy is "throw enough against the wall that some will stick, and to heck with what falls off ".........at least when the did screw up, they'd pay you some for it.

They want you to run 40 miles to install one storm door....ok....a little of that I can stand, but a steady diet of it will make you broke....Gross $35 for tying up a 1/2 day and 80 miles on my truck ? I wouldn't do it for someone that called me on the phone, but you'll do it IF you want to stay with HD.....they are like Walmart....put as much of the cost of doing business on your subs/vendors whenever possible.......steal from his pocket so you can keep your prices low.......

This went on with piddly little jobs, mismeasures, and general PITA jobs where you make no money for about a month.

FINALLY, came a job of 15 windows.....hot damn...finally make a little money with these turkeys......some store idiot had done the measuring.
EVERY SINGLE ONE of them was incorrect.....and to add insult to injury, I had driven 25 miles from the store to the house. Took them all back to the store where I'd picked them up just an hour or so before, and the installed sales idiot comes running out as I'm offloading them on a cart....."What's wrong"......incorrect sizes....here's a list of what is REALLY needed. "Well, no problem....we'll get them ordered" Fine.....when you do, get some other fool to do your "work".....better still, get the hell out of the installed sales business, because ya'll have GOT to be loosing your backsides in addition to POing your subs and customers, as you have no clue what you are doing.......and have a nice day.

As to damage, I can't even begin to tell you how much stuff is damaged by these guys......even today, when someone gets a door or something from there, you have to go over it with a fine toothed comb or you'll get on the job with crap that you then have to deal with. NEVER accept anything in a "box" from them.....I think they throw them off the trucks just for fun as some point in the distribution.

And as to their "warranty"......again, good luck.....you'll never get the same person to deal with twice in a row......you call or go up there today at 8am, and speak to "Sam in millwork" ( Must be a HD rule that you give up your last name when employed there......ahahahaha).......Sam will give you one song and dance today.....call back tommorrow to speack to Sam..."Oh, he works 4 til closing today"......and tommorrow is is off, and the next day he works someother shift.......JESUS.....how do their employees even put up with them ????

Now don't get me wrong.....the bigbox stores are great for variety, and all
( as long as you don't need a whole LOT of anything, because they generally only stock a few of anything ), and as long as you can pick it up, EXAMINE CLOSELY FOR DAMAGE OR MISSING PARTS, and put it in your buggy to go thru the checkout, they are OK........but God help you if you need any customer service, special orders or installed sales. They don't have a clue.

AND THAT, folks, is why anybody worth anything will not end up working for places like Home Despot. So just like their "house brands" of windows, which are obtained from the absolute mininum bid vendor, and thus right down there with the cheapest pieces of crap going, the installers are also the lowest common denominator.

Like Walmart......home of Loooooowwwwww Prices....you really DO get what you pay for a lot of times.



Rant mode off

:shock:

[TnAndy]

Ok...rant mode not quite off....ahahahaaaaa

their warranty was much better than all the other companies (it even transfers to the next home owner when we move).

Paper promises are cheap, effective sales tools.

Read the thing closely.

Most likely, if you have a problem.....like a glass fogging, which is your most likely problem with any vinyl window......what they will do is hand you a glass if YOU can tell them what size it is, and after a month or so to order it.

Yep....."here ya go".........well how do I get this put in ?......you'll get a blank look and a shrug.

And if it's one of their "welded" vinyl windows, they use a little keeper strip to hold the glass in place.....after a few years exposed to the sun, that strip becomes brittle as heck.....so when you go to take it out, it goes "pop" and splits into several pcs.......now you got to find one of them......good luck.....they probably changed vendor three times since yours seeking the cheapest guy out there ( Like Kenmore appliances )......or they discontinues that particular style 5 years ago and that particular keeper strip doesn't exist anywhere in the universe anymore......

ahahahahahaaaa.......yeah.....hold onto that warranty......at least it's better than the little local window outfits that give a "lifetime" warranty, the re-organize under a different corporate name every couple years so they can answer the same phone number at the same location and 'honestly' say "that company went out of business....sorry" ........ahahahahahahaha ( Yes...they DO do it )


I alway recommend people go to Blockbuster and rent the video "Tinmen" with Danny Devito........you'll learn a whole bunch about the home improvement business !

Now....really.....rant off....I gotta go to work.

[Tom R]

TnAndy,

That's frikkin hilarious, - - sorry it's so true. Don't forget to invite us all to your 'book-signing'!! :lol:

[TnAndy]

Yeah Tom....really, I feel So much better now....ahahahahaaa......who do I send my therapy check to ?

[Tom R]

Pay it forward, - - send it to the next poor soul who hires Home Despot!! :lol:

[grumpydasmurf]

I've been in the remodeling industry since 1998. About a year ago I worked for home depot at home services for a few days (3 weeks actually). It was a horrible experience for me. Nobody, especially the management, knew what they were doing. The Home Depot, Renovations, windows are manufactred by Simonton and are exactly available by a variety of contractors. www.simonton.com BTW it is a very good window.

The installations are all done by subcontractors so you might as well go directly to the source... the same source whom they slander in their sales presentation scaring you into thinking "you don't know what your not getting by paying a lower price."

Hire a professional.