Home Decor Window & Door Centre Inc.

We bought our front and side door from Home Décor at the end of 2012. Overall the quality of the door is good, the installers did a good job and the salesman (Joe Gerring) is probably one of the most skilled and pleasant to deal with that we have ever encountered. We have to state that all the workers that we came in contact with were very polite, worked with much attention and cleaned the area at the end of their work. We did not place a review on Homestars until now because we were not entirely satisfied for the reasons we mention below; the reasons we are doing it now is that we have heard from 3 separate individuals that the salesman is though giving us as positive references and we do not think this is 100% correct.
We had a few issues with our doors. First – we had asked that the glass part should be laminated glass, for security reasons, and this is how it had been written on the contract. When the door arrived we noticed that on the glass itself it is stamped “tempered” though. At that time the salesman reassured us that he will bring written proof that it is laminated. Despite repeated requests in this direction this did not happen and the last thing we were told by Joe is that the owner (Tony) refuses to provide written information that the glass is laminated, saying that “if anything happens they are insured”.
Secondly, which is minor compared with the first, on the contract it was mentioned that the 2 new doors and the garage door would have the same key – which ended up by not happening on the installation day. Several weeks later they sent somebody to fix this, but despite the gentleman’s effort, they did not work, so we gave up.
Thirdly, we bought a very small window (1ft x 1ft) for our cold storage room, the manufacturer did not include the correct sliding mechanism railing, it took several successive visits to fix this problem.
And lastly we did not like how the payment issue was handled: we were told by Joe that upon receiving the door, when the truck is outside, he will ask for our credit card number as an insurance. I have told him clearly that we will not pay the full amount in advance, that we would like first to see the job done properly and pay the outstanding amount once the job is finished (we paid a deposit of about 33% when the order was placed). When the installation was finished I have given them a cheque, only to receive that back in a few days, when I was told that the full amount has been charged to my credit card (for which not only I did not give permission, but specifically requested not to).
Despite all of the above we have heard on 3 separate instances that the salesperson is boasting to other potential customers about the sale to us (to one of our neighbours, one of my wife’s work colleagues and to a complete stranger, to whom the salesperson gave our home phone number without even bothering to ask us if we agree to speak with that person!). We found this very irritating, especially given the fact that he knows we are NOT satisfied. Also if we are provided as references perhaps one should ask us first if we agree – the contract does not mention our permission to broadcast that we have new doors at our house.