This is one story I love to tell...It fascinates me! This past Spring I had all the windows in my home replaced. I contacted a company from a personal referral. I love personal referrals for service companies.
One of the owners is the quoting manager. He came out, answered my questions, told me the procedure and what to expect, then gave me a quote. I had done my homework before hand and pretty much decided on him before he arrived. The only pieces I needed were to gauge him personally and get the amount. He was easy to deal with and the price turned out to be about what I expected and I wrote the 40% check.
It took a couple weeks for my windows to come in. His administrative assistant called me twice during that time to check in. Very nice touch.
When the windows arrived she called back to schedule the install. We set a day and she told me what to expect: vehicle, number of guys, names, etc. (VERY nice touch). I mentioned to her, I'd like to get the company to do some other little touch up things to my siding edging and roof. They have a department for those requests and she told me the owner would come out on my install day to check on his guys and to show him what I wanted done. Sounded great!
The two guys that came to install: I couldn't have been more pleased with them. They were polite and respectful of me and my home. They told me in the beginning what they'd be doing and when they'd need to be inside. They also worked around my need to keep my cats in safe rooms while they were working. If you've never had windows replaced, they take the old ones out and leave holes in the walls until the new ones are put in...in my case, one guy was taking the old ones out and the other was a couple windows behind him putting the new ones in. So there were some challenges moving the cats around so they wouldn't be in a room with no windows or in a room with a strange person making strange noises.
Anyway - the whole install went beautifully. I was extremely pleased with them and the new windows. But the owner never did come by.
A couple of days later I called the assistant back and asked about getting a quote to do all those other little things. I also told her I wanted to talk to the owner about the guys who installed the windows. She said she'd have him call me. No one ever called or came by.
The next week I called in and left a voice mail. The owner finally called and came out the next day. We looked at what I wanted done and he told me what it would cost and promised to have someone call me to schedule a day to get it done. He asked me about the installers. I told him I wanted to tell him how pleased I was with them. That they did a great job and I appreciated their attitude and work. The owner seemed shocked. He apparently isn't prepared for compliments.
Now - to finish the story. It's been almost 6 months. My windows are still great, but no one ever called back or showed up to do all those other little things I wanted done. About half way through the summer, I hired someone else.
To this day - even though I'm pleased with the windows and the actual installers (and the reasonable price) - I will not refer that company to any one. Point blank. The owner, who was a personal referral ruined my perception with terrible post install customer service and a complete lack of follow up.
However, this reinforced my own follow up practices.
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