Fred Hagemeister

This is a video shot today when installation stopped after two windows.  It highlights the following:

• Fiberglass is not being installed into the head expander (see earlier post today and more on that below).
• Sealant is not being applied to before window installation (see earlier post today).
• Removing the caulking shows that the stools (if not the head and side jambs) are not getting wiped before installing the caulk (see earlier post that suggested this was happening).
• Air leakage for the last 1-1/2 months due to lack of sealing or any other air infiltration measures.

[Full resolution video]

So Lowe’s left a message at home that windows would be delivered Tuesday morning between 9:30 and 10:30am.  There was no return number or instructions.  Nonetheless, I stayed Tuesday morning for the deilvery.  The windows arrived at 11:15am (only 45 minutes late compared to the other deliveries which were worse).  Twelve arrived, and Wednesday should have begun installation.

On Wednesday morning, Chris from Adams Home Exteriors stopped by around 8:30am saying that they didn’t hear the windows were delivered until late night so there would not be any windows people available to begin installation until Thursday – although there is a chance the installers would be able to stop by late Wednesday to begin.  Of course this is a completely bogus excuse because Shawn had stated they would be installing Wednesday, and he gave no qualifications (such as needing to know if the windows arrived), or asked me to let him know.  In fact, if anyone from Adams had any doubt on Tuesday when they were supposedly scheduled workers, they could have called, emailed, or texted me, the customer.

Nonetheless, Thursday morning came, and the snowfall Wednesday night slowed down but did not stop installation.  Paul and Jason from Adams Home Exteriors arrived to begin installation.  However, they asked where all the windows were because there were only 12.  So here is my email to Shawn Adams, Stacey Skelton, Ruchelle Green, Xavier Skinn, and Rose Harris:

I am not sure at this point who would be responsible for addressing window ordering issues so I am sending this to all of you, but I will follow up with Stacey or Ruchelle if I hear nothing by Friday.

Paul and Jason from Adams Home Exteriors came today to replace the wood grain windows and install the remaining windows, and they were wondering where the rest of the windows were, i.e., twelve arrived Tuesday.  However, here is the list of windows that are not installed or need replacing:

• One on the 2nd floor (west gable closet) – this window was the one that arrived with a cracked exterior frame
• The 7 wood grain windows on the 1st floor (northern wall and west gable bathroom) – these were the wood grain windows with scuffs and gauges
• The laundry room window (westernmost window on the south wall) – I don’t know what the problem with this one was
• The main 4 windows on the front of the house (south side) – these arrived with wood grain when they should have been white
• Five windows in the basement front wall (2 in the family room and 3 in the garage) – one window was never measured/included/ordered and according to Paul, the other four from the first batch did not fit

Therefore, by my count (above), there are 18 windows needing installation.  That means 6 windows were not re-ordered or have not arrived yet.

According to Paul, Shawn had said that someone from Lowes was supposed to meet him twice during the initial installation to go over the problems, and no one from Lowes ever showed up.

Since Lowes and Adams should be coordinating, his email should just be serving to help make sure communications are happening and that this will be followed up.  As people should know, this project was to be completed in November, and if more windows need to be re-re-reordered, we are looking at more significant delays.

Thank you.

Fred Hagemeister

Therefore, even if the windows get installed, there seem to be another 6 that are missing or need re-re-ordering.

After that, things did not go better.  Installation began, and I noticed they were not applying sealant to the window frames.  I then noticed that they didn’t seem to be putting in fiberglass in the header expansion like the Reliabilt instructions say (see the manufacturer instructions below from http://reliabilt.atriumwindows.com/wpfb-file/replacement-window-how-to-measure-and-install-pdf/ .

So I sent the following to Adams and Lowe’s:

The windows are being installed (I assume the 2nd floor ones were done the same way) without steps 2 and 3 in the Reliabit instructions and without the fiberglass in the 1″ – 1-1/2″ header space in step 4. I expect the windows to be installed according to Reliabilt specifications, and I assume Lowe’s does as well.

Shawn responded that he will be talking with Lowe’s.

Regarding the windows ordering issues, Xavier responded that she will check up on it.

Shawn Adams emailed me today:

We will be out to install the windows Weds. I will set up for the siding stuff next week as well depending on the light boxes and j block getting to the supplier. The roof will also get repaired next week after we are done putting ladders against it so we do not have to send roofers out twice. Have a great new year see you wed.

That’s great, this project may finally get back on track.

So Lowe’s Home Improvement obviously has struggles trying to deal with how to help customers through a home improvement project.  As I documented previously, we were not told who to contact for installation problems.  The order agreement says it should be the salesperson (Stacey Skelton).  She did not typically engage for most of the problems.  When pressed in December that there needs to be a meeting with her, she said there is an unknown “overseer of all the home installation projects.”  I asked for a meeting of the three of us and gave her my available times for the next week.  Her only response was to text me a misspelled name and phone number in Indianapolis (turns out to be Xavier).  When calling that office, the person said that if it had anything to do with ordering parts, it goes back to the salesperson.  Overall, the salesperson and project coordinator have not followed up with me in reasonable amounts of time for any issues raised (I define reasonable as being a few business days to a week).  On top of this, I was told that the salesperson was out on medical leave and to contact another person at the store; however, that person never followed up with me or the installers.  And Xavier, the project coordinator from Lowe’s in Indianapolis, was out for a death in the family, but evidently, the [national] central office doesn’t have anyone to provide supervision and backup for any of their project coordinators.

The 19 windows that were not installed in November were due to arrive on December 20th.  On the 26th, Xavier called me asking me how to project completed.  I responded that it has not completed so she said she would follow up with Stacey, and I responded that I needed to as well.

This brings me to what happened today.  While trying to take stock of all the issues and most importantly, put a stop on the gutter installation since the roof damage would require a new roof sooner than expected, I tried talking with Xavier since Stacey and Ruchelle (a coworker or assistant for Stacey) at the local store were available to discuss the process.  She said I would need to check on the status with Ruchelle.  However, instead of being able to deal with the immediate need of the gutters part of the project, Xavier began complaining, saying, “you were first trying to slow down the project and then you’re trying to speed it up.”  Although I would reject that statement, I did not respond and let her go on.  She then said, “What’s my problem?”  When I responded that I couldn’t believe what she said to me, I mistakenly asked to record the rest of the call (instead of simply recording it since both Virginia and Indiana are one-party consent states).  She then told me to have a nice day but in a belligerent way and hung up on me.

I called the store to talk to Ruchelle but could not get a hold of her.  A store manager< Rose Harris, then gave me her Lowe’s email address and that for Ruchelle so I could email the questions.  Ruchelle responded that the windows should be delivered Tuesday (january 2) and installed on Wednesday.