A company utterly lacking in integrity. They installed a large Great Lakes Window (Ply Gem Windows) bow window in my mother?s house (now ours) in the 90?s. They installed it with NO support by chains or cables from above, and NO support with braces from below. About the *only* support was from a few screws driven diagonally through just the inside cut edge of the seat. They simply told our mother not to let anyone sit on it, then left. Not only that, the only weather protection they put in above was a seven inch wide strip of sheet metal?which sticks out past the fascia?and caulked some of that. (An architect told me this is a horrible approach.) They didn?t even bother to stuff some insulation up there, so it?s always been cold near the window. (And don?t get me started about the weird tilted sill they put in.) Recently we noticed leaking near window top, plus rotting seat. Took close look and discovered that the window had slumped from the lack of support, ripping open the caulk seal on the sheet metal strip, letting in tons of water. I asked that American Thermal Window send someone out to give an estimate on window replacement--didn?t mention that they did the original install themselves, because what I really was dying to know was what they had to say about their own ?work.? The estimator said it was a bad install. (I?m told the owner is really angry about my doing that. And he *should* be angry?at himself and his company, not me! I even gave the estimator some money for his time.) I showed the Great Lakes Window (Ply Gem Windows) people a web site I made with photos of the situation?I?ll soon make it public after I update it and optimize it for search?and I have a voicemail confirming that PLY GEM?S OWN FIELD SERVICE GUY SAYS IT WAS AN IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THEIR PRODUCT.
I didn?t want a whole new window from American Thermal Window, just a new window seat and to install the supports they should have included in the first place. But they already had the money, so? they told me to get lost, saying it?s past the one-year warranty?as if the first thing my mom should have done when they left is to rip out the caulked-in sheet metal to see if there were supporting cables, and opened up the wall and window bottom to look for covered support brackets! I can understand that a good company could sometimes get a bad crew that does shoddy work. But when they later find out about it, any company with an *ounce* of integrity would make it right.
(I?m also not terribly happy with Ply Gem. Not only didn?t their rep pay very good attention to what I was saying, but he didn?t seem concerned about the way American Thermal Window mis-installed their product. But then I don?t represent lots of future window unit sales to them, the way American Thermal Window does.)
I see from some reviews that some people are happy with American Thermal Window?s work. If you?re one of them, please take a closer-than-superficial look at the work they've done for you, just to be on the safe side. If Iver Johnson thinks you should rip everything open before the warranty runs out, well, maybe you should.
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