Window World

This is quite long, but you need the whole story. We wanted to like Window World, but we didn't. The price was decent, but that's as far as it went. We ordered our windows on August 9th and wrote a deposit check for half the amount, which they promptly cashed the next business day. We were told by our salesman that they were running about 6 to 8 weeks, but it could be 8 to 12 weeks. Seems a bit long, but okay. Then, we waited. We never heard a word. No communication whatsoever. So, at 8 weeks, we called and we were told it would, in fact, be more like 12 weeks. At 12 weeks no word still, so we called and the story changed to, 'No, we told you 12 to 16 weeks' (we were NOT told 12 to 16 weeks). But then, they couldn’t even get them at 16 weeks; it got pushed to 18! And not once during the 18 weeks did anyone from Window World reach out to us. We always had to contact them to try to find out what was going on. Keep in mind they had our deposit from day one.

If we thought we would be waiting 18 weeks for windows, we would never have ordered them. Meanwhile, we have three different neighbors around us having windows replaced. We stopped and asked, 'How long did you have to wait for your windows?'. Two had to wait 4 weeks and one had to wait 5 weeks yet we are waiting 18 weeks. We had to wait longer than the three of them COMBINED. That's beyond ridiculous.

Now it's mid/late-December (that's right, we started in early August), let's get to the installation. Once the windows finally came in, they agreed to come out the very next day. They sent two people to install 14 windows. It took them two days which isn't bad (Dec 18th/19th), but when they finished some of the windows were extremely hard to open and 4 windows failed city inspection for not having enough fasteners. They came back out and adjusted some of the windows and made the correction for the inspection failure on the morning of December 20th (they should have never left with the windows like that in the first place). They didn't pay for the reinspection when they found out about the failure. Instead, they waited until Monday (which is now December 23rd) and the inspectors are already booked for the day. The city is shutting down for Christmas Eve and Christmas day so now we have to wait until the 26th. And, to add insult to injury, Window World tells me, 'Give us a call next year and we will come and finish up putting in the plugs and caps after your final inspection. We are closing today (Dec 23rd) and won't reopen until after the 1st.”

Are you kidding me? After all this? We have been waiting since the first week of August now you're telling me to wait until next year because your windows failed inspection and you decided to wait to pay the fee?

On Jan 2nd, I drove to Window World to pay the remaining balance (I've always felt obligated to pay my bills even if the service is less than stellar). Once again, they cashed my check the very next day at 9am (I get text alerts on my phone when large amounts are withdrawn). Seems strange that a big company like that would need to rush down to the bank for money.

Oh, and by the way, for all you veterans out there. They claim to be veteran-friendly on their webpage and have a huge veteran initiative, but don't expect a military discount.

As for the actual windows, only time will tell. We got their series 4000 double hung insulated windows. They have the Energy Star certification marking on them rated for the southern states. But, until they have been through a few Florida winters and summers, we will reserve judgment. They do have a lifetime warranty (as most companies do) but, if it took 18 weeks to get the windows, how long will it take to get a replacement when/if one breaks?

I would like to post this review as a cautionary tale for others considering this company. I would normally pin what Im going to unpack below on the sales person directly, however, he mentioned in multiple texts with me the directive he was receiving was coming from his management.

So, Im going to pin this on Austins WW location as a whole.

Right at the end of May, we had WW come out to do the window dog and pony show with us (I call it that because we had already gone through a couple other sessions with other vendors). The sales agent was nice, obviously knowledgeable of the industry and other competitors and respected we werent first time window buyers and cut to the chase. He provided us our quote for 44 windows and it was fairly competitive but a little high, in my opinion.

At the end of the session, he mentioned, Our prices are going up on 7/1/24 so you need to make a decision before then on this quote. Immediate red flag.

Window World came to our house seven years ago (we didnt pull the trigger at that time) and the quote was good for a full year. Now, this quote is only good for ~35 days? Others who gave me quotes said it was good for 60+ days. I felt this was an attempt to pressure us to make a decision.

We still had other window vendors coming out and still hadnt engaged with the bank yet because we didnt know how much we were going to need to ask for so this felt like it was accelerating our clock. This created an unnecessary high pressure environment and made me sour on what up to that point I thought was a good experience.

We ultimately decided to move forward with WW and started our journey getting the loan, however as I mentioned, I thought the quote was high compared to others we had received. I asked for some relief and the sales rep knocked about 3% off if you pay 100% up front before installation? What??

Absolutely not. Do the work and confirm the quality THEN you get your full payment. I wouldnt have minded 25% but not 100%. He said he was sure I can get my manager to do just 50%.

Great, maybe next time lead with that.

Beyond that, everything went smoothly until the bank asked for a couple of other verification pieces which pushed our close date out to first week of July. I engaged with the sales person to let them know, we want to move forward, well just need to settle up after 7/1 , unfortunately. Despite multiple texts requesting to keep the original quote, he was having none of it. His management told him that if we go past 6/30, our quote will be increased due to the price changes.

I find that pretty unacceptable.

Moral of the story this company is only interested in profit and not pivoting creatively to help you out in situations you cant control (e.g. bank delays). We ended up going with another local company and happily paid more out of pocket than the quote WW shared with us. Not only did WW they not get our money, the sales person didnt get compensated on a large project and we spent more money with a competitor for what I 100% feel is a better product than what I was shown during our consultation (and from what Im reading online from others experiences).

So, YMMV with WW but I can tell you, I feel like we dodged a bullet here.

To WW management maybe reset your tone and stance on these unique situations. You just lost tens of thousands of dollars of business because you couldnt honor a quote for a few days past 6/30.

We had windows and siding done about 2 years ago. There were a few issues, but they were resolved immediately and with great customer service.

We were so happy with the installation and customer service we reached out to have more work completed last year. Unfortunately, we had some issues. There were 3 live electrical cords left exposed in the front of the house as well as a drainage pipe. The drainage pipe was not communicated to us.

It froze and we had to pay a plumber to repair it. He then informed us what happened. He said that the exterior pipe was exposed because of the removal of the stone from the house. I would have fixed it before freezing if we were told of the situation.

When I addressed this with the local franchise, they came out to look at it after 3 months of calling. We were then told that they could not do anything about the electrical. I stated that I was unsatisfied with the results. The co-owner said that that was ok with him.

My husband called to talk to him, and the CO-owner lied to my husband and said that I was ok with the work that was done. He also told my husband that he was not willing to rectify the situation. We had to pay an electrician to come to fix the issue.

None of this was in the contract or communicated to us at the beginning of the job. If we would have been apprised of the extra work we would have understood, but the information was not communicated and handled unprofessionally.

We had 13 windows installed at our house today and have a problem with just about each one of them. The main window a handle fell off and the other side wont even close, the windows are an hour old.

Their chalking job on the window sill is absolutely terrible and poorly done and needs to be fixed. You can see every nail from the outside that placed during installation. A few of the windows are very shaking making us feel they are unsafe and not good quality. The handle on the window that already broke was not at all what they showed me during our estimate and I would like it changed.

The icing on this terrible experience is that my house was left completely filthy when I have 2 young children, I would think that professionals would cover their work area and clean up after themselves. I am beyond unhappy with the customer service and install.

When calling to say my brand new window wont even close they tell me hopefully someone will answer me by Monday when its Friday. This is completely unacceptable and terrible