Pella may face a class action suit

http://www.windowanddoor.net/latestnews.php?id=2775

Here is a link that might be useful: Pella Class Action Suit

I second your opinion of Pella. I have been fighting with them for almost 2 years over a whole house of windows. They replaced the sashes once and the second set is just as bad, scratches on the glass and all kinds of glass defects ( an independent expert has inspected them). Don't bother sending a letter to the company president, he doesn't care! We have an attorney.

OMG! I thought I was the only one. Pella runs such a fraudulent operation. Their "professional" installation "experts" are just a bunch of incompetent boneheads who probably wouldn't survive without being funneled work through Pella dealers. A two-day install stretched into six days spread over 4 (FOUR!!) months, and three of those days were days where the installer (Brian McCarthy) or installation manager (Don Olson) just failed to show up! When Brian did come, his crew left garbage strewn throughout my house and did not even flush the toilets. The installation job they did was sloppy and amateurish -- they didn't caulk around the windows; didn't install the flashing on the exterior of a large picture window and left a gap at the bottom through which the wind blew and light shown; mis-cut the trim stop leaving 1/8"-1/4" gaps around several windows; scratched/cracked/gouged the plaster around several windows and the front door; and didn't align the front door lock with the frame! They almost left without installing the storm door (the truck was all packed and Brian was asking for full payment when I pointed out he hadn't installed it). Even though the Don had made all the measurements, Brian said the storm door was the wrong size; he remeasured and reordered the storm door, but still couldn't install it, saying again that it was the wrong size (even though he had made the measurement himself!). Third door did finally get installed but, less than 3-months later, it is already falling apart. When I complained to Don about the installation and scheduled a walk-through with him, he just didn't show up. To add insult to injury, the first time Brian was not able to install the storm door, he told me it was Pella's policy to allow me to withhold 10% of the balance due until the job was finished, which I did. During the intervening 3-4 months it took Pella to finish the job, I received no less than 4 letters demanding payment of an "overdue balance" on a "completed" job. Rather than the aggravation of fighting with the Pella dealer (DHD Windows & Doors of Monroe, CT) to have them fix all the problems which, given that all these problems are solely due to their authorized installer's incompetence, I had no reason to believe they were even capable of fixing, I had my own contractor come in and fix the mess they left.

Bottom line, AVOID PELLA INSTALLATION "PROFESSIONALS". They are extremely expensive and do shoddy work!

"HELL"-O YELLOW......yeah that new marketing campaign says it all!!!!

I have also tried contacting the CEO of Pella and are getting no where, DON"T GIVE UP, that is what they want you to do.

It is my opinion that any brand of window is only as good as the installers. We had PlyJem (Great Lakes) windows installed about four years ago. Their distributor/installer, Brennan Enterprises, did absolutly fantastic work and never so much as scratched anything. One window lost its seal a couple of months ago and within four weeks they had it replaced. There are good windows and competent installers. I'm equally sure there are folks who have had good experience with Pella. When we were in the market for windows we got an estimate from Pella. They were very expensive and have a limited warranty so we moved on.

Great Lakes and PlyGem are fantastic replacement windows.

Michael

texasredhead,

All window manurfacturers have some type of limited or lifetime warranty.

What is a warranty anyway?

It basically tells you how long it will take before the window starts failing. For example - tens years on the glass. That basicly means in ten years the glass will probably start to fail, and so on.

Along with every window warranty is the exclusion section. It usually starts out something like this...

"Warranty is void if window is found to be improperly installed." And the more you read the exclusions, the more you will understand that the warranty is there not to protect you, but rather the manurfacturer themselves.

Anderson and even Pellas' warranties have about the same exclusion section.

I challange you to find one manurfacturer that has a lifetime warranty without an exclusion section. They all do.

Carefully choose your window brand by its' features and the benefits you will receive. Speak to dealer referrals and ask them about their whole experience from date of order right through installation.

A window is only as good as the man who installs it and the reputation of the dealer.

Bye, bye,

The PorchGuy

Here is a link that might be useful: My Album

I am in the begining stages of dealing with them on a special order they messed up. So fay the Rep has not contacted me nor givien me his phone number. I am ready to contact the President of the co. along with any and all Board of directors and etc. They made all the windows .25 inch to big!! And they dont think anything wrong with that!!!!!!!!!! They SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I TELL YOU THE PRACTICES AT DHD WINDOWS AND DOORS ARE BORDER LINE USERY. THERE INSTALLATION PRICES ARE OBSCENE AND THEY DON'T PAY THERE INSTALLERS MUCH. THE PRICES FOR THE PRODUCT ARE 300% WHAT YOU CAN GET AT LOWES.THAT'S RIGHT THE SAME PRODUCTS AT LOWES. THAT'S WHY THERE IS SUCH A TURNOVER AT THE COMPANY. BUYER BEWARE BUY AT LOWES. GET YOUR OWN CONTRACTOR.

I have a house full of Pella Proline Casement Windows. About half of them are rotten.

I called and wrote Pella, and they basically said tough luck because they were beyond the warranty period.

We'll I paid twice the price to get the Pella brand, only to learn that they were worthless. I expected these to be essentially lifetime windows, regardless of the warranty, but instead they were rotten in 10 years.

I've found that Pella management is negotiable, but hides behind a very hard shell. They denied my claim about 6 different times. Only after I told them that I knew of other similar cases where Pella either gave the homeowner free windows or windows at 70% off did we start making some progress.

They started at 30% off, then 50%, then 70%. I said ok to 70% and in the end they ended up GIVING THEM TO ME.

It took a year and perhaps 40 phone calls and emails but that was the result.

To win this game you have to ultimately get the name of a high level manager, and I mean a really high level manager. All of the low level folks are told to deny, deny, deny. You can have the low level person to give you the name of their manager and work up the line persistently this way.

In the end, it was access to a top level manager in PELLA IOWA (outside of customer service), and my pictures showing the bottom of the sashes rotted completely through that won this for me. If you are not unusually persistent you will fail. Ultimately I had the names and email addresses of possibly 4 top level managers.

Good luck to all who try. I did my own installation, and with some good help, you can replace one in about 20 minutes)

If Pella Windows were free I would decline them. They are junk through and through, in my opinion, and the Pella folks will try every trick in the world to make you go away.

THE SALESMAN AT (DHD) PELLA ALL CARRY THESE LAPTOPS THAT ARE DESIGNED TO STEAL FROM THE CUSTOMER. LET ME EXPLAIN HOW: THEY SAY THEY ARE GIVING YOU A % OFF THAT REALLY ISN'T REAL. UNLESS YOU SEE EACH INDIVIDUAL LINE DISCOUNT THE OVERALL DISCOUNT IS USELESS. ALSO ALL THE ADDITIONAL WORK, CAPPING,WINDOW INSTALL KITS, MOLDINGS THOSE ALL PAD THE BILL. BUYER BEWARE. THE SALESMAN JOHN R. IS NOTORIOUS FOR LYING TO CUSTOMERS ABOUT HIS DISCOUNT LEVELS AND HOW HE IS NOT ALLOWED TO PRINT OUT SIZES OR INDIVIDUAL PRICES. IF YOU NEW YOU COULD BUY THE SAME WINDOWS FROM LOWES AT 50% OFF WOULDN'T YOU BUY THEM?

Anybody can take a price make it whatever the hell they want and tell you they will give you 50% off, truthfully that means nothing. That being said I would not purchase Pella from Pella or anyone else and it would have nothing to do with what your speaking of, it would go to the lack of quality of the product. Also any dealer would have the costs involved with the items you mention to "pad the bill" and would add them to the quote. Any window dealer/installer is allowed to make money and if the purchaser does not get more than one price and do some homework on the product and install then in my mind you get what you ask for.