I would like to thank others on this message board for taking the time to write about their experiences with Power Windows. You all confirmed every creepy feeling I had about these people from the moment we were solicitated by them up to the the moment we cancelled our contract. I wrote them a letter which I cut and paste below which basically outlines the experience my husband and I had with them. This is still a work in progress as matters are still unresolved. Please use caution when dealing with these folks. I have read more bad experiences than good ones, so I would guess that any positive experiences were the few lucky ones ...


Teresa

I am writing this email as a follow up to our conversations on both March 28, 2011 and again on March 31, 2011.

Recapping events prior to when we spoke:

On March 26, 2011, we were visited in our home by your sales person, Mr. Brian Patterson. After a lengthy almost 4 hour presentation we hesitantly signed a contract with Power Windows for the installation of 14 windows and 1 sliding glass door. A few issues before we even signed our contract – your company sent a few representatives into our neighborhood in an effort to solicit business and unfortunately my husband was approached by them while doing some work outside of our home in the driveway. We live in a private townhome development with signs everywhere in 50” font that clearly state : NO SOLICITING – NO TRESSPASSING. Your representatives apparently chose to ignore all of those signs and continue to walk door to door soliciting business which should have given my husband and I a BIG SIGN right there to not let Power Windows into our home.

Your representatives approached my husband by telling him that “we have done work here in your neighborhood and we were just stopping back to see if any other neighbors were interested in our services”. That was lie number one. We have never seen a Power Windows job done in our brand new, only 7 year old townhome community. We even asked around to all of our neighbors. No one even so much as heard of the name before let alone seen any work performed locally by your company. My husband (somewhat pressured) agreed to have an estimate performed, thinking this would be like any other estimate from a contractor we had done in the past – an hour or so NO OBLIGATION visit. Upon setting up the estimate, there was some kind of a phone call from your solicitors in our neighborhood to the ‘home office’ to confirm an appointment for an estimate, putting my husband on the phone with them, etc etc. My husband inquired to your solicitors how long the estimate would take and both of these kids said “oh about an hour or so.” That was lie number two … I am sure anyone that is affiliated with your company can agree that your average estimate is somewhere between 3 and 4 hours long. But they would never admit to that because who in their right mind would dedicate 4 hours of their precious Saturday weekend time to sitting through a 4 hour window demonstration. So I guess that is why they lie to you right upfront on how long the estimate will actually take.

Brian Patterson, the sales rep, showed up only one hour late for our Saturday estimate. Nice guy, pleasant, respectful, friendly. He brought in his box of tricks (literally) with heat lamps and glass and 2 x 4’s with nails in them and window frames and his 8 x 10 binder filled with all sorts of facts and figures about your company and how you are on TV, etc etc. We politely sat through the entire 3 hour demonstration listening to how bad your competition sucks (Anderson, Pella, etc) and how they don’t offer what you do …. Listening to how environmentally friendly your company is by recycling all materials, creating “green collar” jobs, only having one sales visit to your home ever (thereby reducing your carbon footprint), every employee has a GPS so they have guidance direct to the clients homes (again reducing the carbon footprint by not wasting gas), etc etc blah blah blah. Mr. Patterson measured all our windows and utilized the old sales line of “let me crunch some numbers” in order to provide us an estimate. Strange, that he was able to provide in less than 3 minutes what the estimate would have been from his competition ($24, 000) yet it took him over 20 minutes to figure out what the estimate would have been from his own company, Power Windows. Finally he arrived at a figure of close to $20, 000 which in two seconds was dropped to $16, 000 which in another 30 seconds was dropped to $15, 000 IF WE SIGN THE DEAL RIGHT NOW ….. We were told that we had no time to take a day or two to weigh our options, think about it and discuss it amongst ourselves, as if he left our home that day, the price he gave of $15, 000 would no longer be honored and would revert back to $20, 000 as initially quoted. We were also told he could not give us that $20, 000 estimate (or any estimate) in writing, that Power Windows doesn’t provide written estimates that they leave with the clients.

I am in business as is my husband, so at this point bells and whistles are screaming in my head that something is shady about this deal. It was almost like a street hustle, but in a more professional format, lol. My husband and I hesitantly agreed to sign the contract (and subsequent financing paperwork) based on the price we were given only because we were really impressed with your product. Additionally, I was comforted by the fact that we were able to complete a rescission waiver indicating that we had the right to cancel our contract within 3 business days, no harm done, no questions asked, no legal repercussions. After another hour of completing finance applications, etc and basically wasting our entire Saturday afternoon on this I decided to do some additional research on your company as some things just were sitting right with me and I had a gut feeling this wasn’t a good idea to have let Power Windows into my home.

Sure enough, over 20 complaints on the Better Business Bureau and an additional 7 PAGES OF COMPLAINTS on a forum amongst various other complaints found on different forums and message boards on the web. I read every single one with great interest and each and every complaint reconfirmed all of my suspicions. The unwarranted solicitations descending upon people’s property and neighborhoods like termites … and in some cases, homeowners threatening to call the cops just to get your door to door solicitors OFF their property. The barrage of telemarketing calls people then receive not only from Power Windows but from all the other telemarketing companies that you will now sell all of our personal details to. The bag of tricks presented with every estimate, along with the 3 or 4 hour presentation, which I guess in some cases is a “wear them down until they sign something’ tactic (we used to do that in companies I worked at in the past so I know the trick well). The salesman’s placement of little white stickers on every window that will be replaced which I suppose is some kind of a ‘seal the deal’ tactic like “oh well now there are stickers on our windows so we have to let them do the job” .. (straight edge razor, one swipe and gone, so that really means nothing). The lengthy finance application which you assured that only “ less than 4% of people get turned down”.

The best one though (which by reading all of the complaints against your company which was like reading the ‘coming attractions’ of how our own story with you would play out) is that when you call to cancel, they insist on sending some really annoying sales guy to your house (that they call the “courier” lol) to try again for a second sales pitch. Lol. But they claim that company policy indicates that they NEED TO SEND SOMEONE TO YOUR HOUSE TO COLLECT BOTH YOUR SIGNATURES WHILE YOU ARE BOTH THERE TO CONFIRM CANCELLATION OF CONTRACT. What a bunch of bullshit. We called. We cancelled. Period the end. There should be no further visits. End of story. I personally broker million dollar deals all over the world on a daily basis. Never meet one company in person and I don’t have to. There is this thing that has been around for a while now … called EMAIL and the INTERNET … so if you need confirmation or conversely a cancellation, you can do it in writing via email. And if you need a hard copy signature, you can follow up via the good old POST OFFICE or the courier service of your choice (Fed Ex, UPS, etc .. you have a wide selection). Because after all … doesn’t Power Windows want to REDUCE THEIR CARBON FOOT PRINT?? AND GO GREEN?? Your policies are very contradictory … you force people to sign on the dotted line the day of estimate because you want to reduce your carbon footprint and absolutely cannot come back to our house twice to sign any agreement, but you are however, willing to send someone out to confirm we want to cancel our contract? C’mon, really? Wouldn’t that be INCREASING your carbon footprint?

I mean I can go on and on and on. And this is just the estimate and sales pitch. I could only imagine the absolute horror and disaster of letting your company actual do an installation. I cringe at the very thought of it. I have read all the horror stories about the non English speaking workers, the damaged windows delivered to job sites, the wrong windows delivered to job sites, the invoices coming to people in the mail for jobs that weren’t completed to their satisfaction (although your sales rep sales you don’t get billed one penny until the job is completed to your liking) .. another lie / contradiction.

But back to MY story ….

Additionally, it was confirmed on the telephone with you on March 28 that all financing paperwork we completed would be destroyed and there would be no need to run our credit. And what do you know … 4 days later, long after our contract was cancelled, Power Windows runs my credit with Trans Union. You guys really are a bunch of hustlers huh? I intend on fighting this with every resource I have available, and my attorney if need be. I want the credit inquiry removed from my report and I will see to it that it is done if I have to call your finance department and headquarters every single day until the credit inquiry is retracted.

We cancelled our contract with you on March 28 2011 @ 9:41 am by phone. I called from my office (thank GOD) where all conversations are recorded (just due to the nature of my work). There is no need to send anyone to my home to reconfirm what has already been confirmed two times now- March 28 and again on March 31 per our second conversation. You can accept this email as our written confirmation that xxxx and xxxxx HAVE CANCELLED THEIR CONTRACT DATED MARCH 26 ON MARCH 28 BY PHONE WITH TERESA TURNER. No need to send me a Wells Fargo credit card for the credit inquiry you ran on me that I requested to be destroyed. No need to send another salesman to our home, no need to barrage us with telemarketing calls. And, should any further inquiries or damages be done to my personal credit, I hereby hold Power Windows completely responsible and I will seek legal restitutions as needed. I do intended on telling all my friends, family, coworkers and neighbors about my own personal experience with Power Windows and Siding so in the event your door to door solicitors are in THEIR neighborhoods one day in the future, they all know to proceed with caution.

A copy of this email exchange will also be sent to your office by Certified Mail in order to confirm receipt as I can see a company with business practices such as yours trying to deny receipt of this email.

In October 2009 we were paid a sales call from Power Windows regarding our interest in replacing our slider window on our living room floor. The window was right next to the desk where we do a majority of our work at home. The window was drafty, leaking air throughout the winter, and generally cold.

The sales representative explained to us that their window would eliminate that problem. He showed us a light and heat demonstration, extolling the quality of their window, and how it would take away the draft and stop the cold. We told him we would not move our desk, but needed the window to not leak air through. He said it would solve the problem and we would not feel air leaking through.

We were willing to part with nearly $1600 for one window, based on the above.

In November 2009 the new window was installed.

We were quite unhappy with the result. Same drafty feeling, same air coming through. This is not just some colder temperature by the glass, which is to be expected. Rather this is a stream of air that comes in through the frame, in various places around the window. This is not coming from the wall; this is from the window.
We contacted customer service numerous times. Four service visits later the problem remains. They put extra caulk, extra materials by the weep holes, extra insulation on the bottom of the frame by the sliders – to no avail.

The only reason we had this expensive window installed was to stop the cold air from coming in, to stop the draft we felt when working at the desk near the window. Their window has failed to live up to the promise that was given to us. We feal cheated. Just like last winter with our previous window, we still have a draft cushion on the windowsill and wear a scarf when sitting at the desk. There is no way we would have spent any money on that window if we would have known this would be the result.
We continued trying to resolve this with Power Windows. After two registered letters, eight phone calls and months of waiting, they finally returned our call today. They said “The window was installed properly. But there is always a certain amount of air that will leak through. It is to be expected.”

We believe that it is possible that there will always be some air circulating, etc. BUT -

THIS IS NOT WHAT WE WERE TOLD WHEN THE WINDOW WAS SOLD TO US. This was not disclosed to us. Had we known that we would NOT have signed the contract and bought the window.

We requested our old window and our money back from Power Windows. They flatly refused. They suggested we hang a curtain or move the desk instead! This is not just ridiculous but insulting.

We strongly believe the money should be refunded to us because we were told that the new window will stop the draft. It didn't.