We met Paul at the Home Show as we were immediately attracted to the door on display. Needing to replace a set of 40 year old double doors, this one was unique as a side light also opened so we still had space for larger items. Having ordered doors before I knew their pricing was higher than what I've spent in the past, confirmed by their quote for window replacements being 60% higher than reputable competitors, but the door was unique and it's the one we wanted. This spring I did 9 major projects on the house totalling well in excess of $100k. Albern was the first contractor I signed a deal with and they were the last to get the job completed. I left messages, had verbal commitments of a call back that wouldn't happen and experienced a tremendous amount of frustration just trying to get a straight answer on when the door would be installed. Three months after signing the contract they showed up with a door that was 4 inches too narrow. I wasn't given a heads up that someone was ever coming to measure and apparently for the first time in history the person who did the measurements, supposedly having worked there for 30+ years, made a mistake. I urgently needed the door installed so the installer did a great job of building the frame out, as a temporary measure. But you could tell from how well it was finished that they had no desire to give me the full size door I had ordered as they had to order this as a custom size, due to the mis-measurement and didn't want to incur more costs. I was shocked the next day to see they had charged my credit card for the balance less $500, without getting my approval to charge that much or that it was to go on that card. The following week Paul calls to convince me to keep the smaller door and of course they'd discount it. Guess how much of a discount? The $500 of course! That wasn't even in the ballpark of what would have been acceptable for giving up 4 inches of the doorway. For what was supposed to be another two weeks to get the correct sidelights took another two months. Given how many contractors I've worked with this year I would naturally have expected to have some sort of challenge along the way with some of them. All of my vendors were awesome to work with, keeping to their quoted timeframes and delivering a quality product the first time, except one - Albern Windows & Doors. We love the door and have had lots of compliments which is why I'm giving them 1 star. There are many other choices for windows and doors, I will not be using them in the future nor would I recommend them.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $8,500.00