STIELOW SIDING & WINDOWS

In January 2012, I attended a local Home & Garden show in Newton, IA. At this show, I got the business card of Stielow Windows & Siding based out of Colfax. In March, my husband and I decided to have 3 windows in our living room replaced. The year before, we went with Window World and were totally satisfied; however, we wanted to give a local company our business. So, we called both out for quotes and they were almost exact in price, with the exception of the grids in the window. So, we were torn. Do we go with what we know or do we give this local business our money? It took us about a month to come to our decision and we went with Stielow based on a few factors 1) The person that came by our house was also the same person who was doing the measuring and installing. He had a book of photos and references about 3 inches thick and went on about his perfectionism. 2) 2 personal contacts had work done each about 10 years ago and was very pleased with the quality of work and product and one of them even commented on the installer perfectionism which happened to be the same person we were assigned to. 3) We saved about $50 going with them as the prices of their grids were slightly less expensive. We signed our agreement in early April. Our sheet said it would take around 4-6 weeks for the product to arrive. At the end of May, I called to see what our status was and called the office directly as I couldn?t locate the installer?s (Tom) business card. I was informed the windows were in and that Tom will get back to me to schedule a time. I received a phone call (at my work number) later that evening so I didn?t receive the message until the next day. This was on a Thursday. He said he would come out that day, but it was raining, otherwise he could do Monday. This was a bit short notice for me and I suggested the following Monday as I was planning on taking the time off. He suggested having a neighbor or relative let him in the house, however, my husband and I were not comfortable letting a stranger have free reign at our home without anyone present, but we were able to have a relative pop in and out until we got home. When my husband arrived home, he discovered that the grids in our windows were not level. The horizontal line was off 1/8 inch by OUR calculation and my husband inquired if they ran into this issue before and Tom?s response was that most people just cover it with curtains?! Finally he said it is a mfg defect and they will have to call the mfg to come and replace the glass for each window. Unfortunately, my husband gave him the 2nd and final payment and sent him on his way. When I got home, I checked out the work from the outside and discovered that one of the windows was clearly crooked. I called my brother, who is a contractor, to come out and give his opinion on the matter, maybe it was just us and he and his wife both agreed that the window was crooked. My brother also said it shouldn?t be hard to fix. I called the main office back and spoke with the owner, Jill and told her that I was unhappy with the results and that I will not pay for a crooked window. She already spoke with Tom and knew about the mfg defect and said she would have Tom come out tomorrow (6/5/12) to look at it. I told her that we don?t have the time to take off to be there, so she said she would speak with Tom and call me back. Later that night, we received a message from Tom (note, no call from the owner, Jill) an hour later and we were able to connect to figure out how this was going to be resolved. Here is what is concerning the most to me; neither Tom (installer) nor Jill (owner) seemed concerned about correcting the problem. Both of them showed no concern about the situation. When speaking with Tom, he kept giving excuses, such as, ?it?s an old house?, ?it?s not level? (um, what house outside of new construction IS level?), ?the house is settling?, ?I am going to have to tear into the wall to look at this problem?? He kept going on and on about getting a level and looking at our house? I immediately regretted our decision to go with them rather than Window World. (In fact, during our initial sales meeting, Tom referred to Window World as the Wal-Mart of windows! He also said Pella Windows are horrible?! In hindsite, I should have known better). Tom was not offering any resolution, only excuses. This conversation was going nowhere. I asked him if I needed to speak with his boss and that is when he lost his cool and raised his voice at me and said I TOLD YOU I WOULD COME AND TAKE A LOOK. I informed him that he will not raise his tone with me and he told me that I had raised mine at him? I reminded him that I am an unhappy customer who has paid good money for poor service. I said that he can stop by tomorrow and will do so after 4pm when my husband is home unless he plans on reimbursing me for vacation time. I then called the office back to leave a message with the update (since it was after 9pm at this point) and surprisingly Jill answered. I told her that I spoke with Tom (did not provide conversation details) and that we ask for them not to cash the 2nd check until this situation was resolved. She responded with a surprisingly cheerful ?certainly?. The installer (Tom) came to our house sometime around 4pm the next day and my husband had a small level placed on the window in preparation of his visit to prove that it was not level. According to my husband, Tom did apologize and fixed the window and that was all wrapped up before I came home from work. Tom asked if we still wanted to replace the glass (seriously, he had to ask again?) and so I called back and left a message for Jill to re-confirm that we still wanted the glass replaced on all 3 windows and to call me back to let me know what the ETA is for this and how it works. She did call back and said per the manufacturer?s service schedule it would be anywhere between 6-8 weeks and per her experience it?s typically 4-6 weeks. She did ask if she should still hold the 2nd half of our payment and I said most definitely as the job is not finished yet. Not ONCE, was there any concern or question from her about the job that had to be redone. I would expect from this company/owner some concern that it was fixed and apologize herself for the whole matter, but nothing. Now for the mfg fix (Heartland Windows)? I get a call in June that the guy can come by and fix our windows at noon on a Wednesday. Well, that didn?t work for us, I said we could either do early morning or late afternoon per our work schedules. Plus, I work out of town. He said he would get back to me. I gave him 5 business days, no word, so I called the number back on my cell phone which went to the office. The woman who answered informed me that he would get back to me in 2 weeks and that he was on vacation?! Um, that would have been nice of him to tell me that he would get back to me 3 weeks later, which he did. He came out on 7/17 to replace the windows with the crooked grid. He popped in the 1st one and it was WORSE than the original. I pointed that out and he agreed. Ok ? Why in the world was this not checked before he came all the way down to our town (about a 2 hour drive?) ? he only had the allotted windows with him, fortunately, the 2 others were good, but now we are waiting to hear back from him on coming back to fix the remaining replacement window and he said, I will measure it before I come down ? um, duh? You THINK so? Why wasn?t it done in the first place? Update ? it?s now August 20th and we are still waiting for the 3rd window to be replaced. I received a call while on vacation that they wanted to come out and of course we aren?t available. I have called and left messages and still no return call as to when to come and finally get this horrible situation finished. To top it off ? the owner, Jill, called me to see if she could cash the 2nd payment as she knows there is only 1 window left. So, once again, no concern of our satisfaction, just wanted to receive payment and I told her absolutely not as the job is not completed nor are we satisfied and she cheerfully complied. Update - I called again on 8/21 and left a message ? finally on 8/22 got a call and had it scheduled to finally complete on 8/28. Still no word from Stielow about inquiring on our satisfaction. And guess what? Jill cashed our check without any inquiry as to our final satisfaction. This was MORE than a horrible experience. We should have stuck with Window World where it was simple, easy, friendly, no hassle and better quality service and product. The only positive thing that I keep telling myself is that I helped employee fellow Iowans. Bottom line ? did it get fixed? Yes, about 3-4 months after the initial install. Will the remainder of our windows that need to be replaced come from them? EMPHATICALLY NO Do we recommend them? EMPHATICALLY NO

Overall experience was excellent. Not cheap, but competitively priced. Quality work through and through. Great materials, on time, met deadlines, and answered questions. Not a complaint anywhere. Bid met actual cost.

Very professional and experienced. Thorough. Answered all questions. Took time in both estimating and explaining what would be done. Demonstrated product and service. What sold us over competition was his careful attention and finding things that we might not have anticipated, e.g., dry rot.