I'm going to be pricing replacement windows and wonder whether anyone has had any experience with buying windows with installation (or any other installation service for that matter) from Lowes and how it went.
I've seen lots of comments about HD purchases and installations of a variety of things and there seems to be a fair amount of dissatisfaction with the HD experience. But I haven't really seen any comments one way or the other about Lowes.
I wonder how much oversight these companies have over the companies they contract with to do the work and to what extent they get involved in customer service issues should it become necessary.
First off unless things have changed the Pella windows from Lowes are strictly vinyl and not really made by "Pella". Pella bought a company a few years ago so they could have a cheaper window at lowes. So compare products with
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and what is available at your local Pella store if you have one. I prefer their aluminun clad windows and other neat options available on their real windows like inside shades and invisible screens.
As far as Lowes installations, I bought a refrigerator from them. This just got delivered (not installed) and they had the wrong color and they had removed the door to bring it into the house and when my wife said it was the wrong color the guy stopped installing the door, unknown to me, and just hung it on the refrigerator. I called up Lowes about the color problem. They asked me the model number inside the door. I touched the door and it fell off the refrigator and I caught it midair on my ankle and was brusied badly for months. No permanent injury though. But that is not all. THen the guy drops the door on my hard wood floor when installing it after I had just saved the door from hitting the floor. Their insurance company covered $250 for replacing a couple of planks of Bruce prefinished flooring.
We also bought an expensive Fisher Penkal dishwasher with drawers. Turns out it is relatively difficult to install. Their installer had to come at least 5 times to modify the installation but after 6 months it is still not quite right. I was a nice guy and tipped him $20 to $50 every extra trip because I felt sorry for his plight but he has never made the final trip for one last easy installation issue despite calls by me and Lowes. We are about to install new Corian counter tops and will have the issue resolved at that time.
WE DID NOT GIVE LOWES AN OPPORTUNITY TO BID ON THE CORIAN. If you were wondering.
By the way if you ever get the fancy dishwasher, the drain hoses have to be kinkfree and run along the floor so they support no weight until they get to the drain. Then they go up above the drain, down around the bracket it comes with and down to the drain. Any variation and they will kink in a few months and the dishwasher will give an error code. Tell that to Lowes when you see them.
We had Lowes do our carpet and were quite satisfied with the carpet and the installation. NOW the 12 months same as cash deal took an extra 6 months to straighten out after we paid it off in the 11th month and they tried to stick us with some bogus bullshit charge. It was finally removed and all is well. But we won't use that option again.
Not true at all. Lowes has wood *and* vinyl windows from Pella. Check their weekly ad on their web site right now - you'll see one in there on the window page (top right of the page).
They don't sell these on the web site but at the Lowes by me, they have them on display. It's the 850 series - I think that's the lowest line of wood from Pella, but it's still wood. And it's "real" Pella.
Just FYI, it is the law in some places to remove the door of a refrigerator for transport. He probably assumed he was going to have to take it back, so why install the door only to have to remove it later?
I'm just checking out this thread because I'm also considering hitting up Lowes for a quote on some Pella windows, but figured I may as well at least correct the vinyl vs. wood thing. Lowes does carry wood Pella.
Why wouldn't you just go directly to Pella? I went to pella.com, set up an appointment, and a very nice sales person came to my house, with sample windows, and gave me a thourough set of bids including each of the options they offer.
If you are doing it for financing through Lowe's that's one thing. I would let Lowe's offer you whatever "other" brand they carry, and maybe leave the Pella windows to Pella.
If you really want Pella, I'd 2nd going to Pella. We did the same thing, and at the time, at least, they had no payments/interest for a year + 25% off on every order for life if you bought more than $10k (which includes the installation).
She was a Pella Sales Rep, worked for Pella, card was a Pella card. I don't have it with me to give her exact title, but she worked for a Pella Window and Door Store.
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She seemed very knowledgeable, and was not pushy at all...very low pressure. I honestly felt like she was more concerned with me getting what I wanted rather than selling me the most expensive line of windows Pella offered. FWIW, I really liked their fiberglass windows over vinyl options I've seen, but I really don't know diddly about windows, so that shouldn't be worht much.
J
The Pella guy who came to my house did not do that. He gave me the price of one option (maybe there is only one option for my situation, I'm not sure), and it was pretty darn expensive. A lot more expensive than the prices Lowes lists for Pella wood windows.
I would still try Lowes (and still plan to myself) just to see how they compare. I wouldn't automatically assume Pella offers the lowest price on their own windows. Manufacturers rarely offer the lowest price on their products when selling direct - in any industry. You can almost always do better if you go through a retailer. I don't know if that's true in windows or not, but I don't know why it wouldn't be.
The one reason I'd go through Pella over Lowes would be the installation. I'd probably trust Pella to supervise better, since they're going to be the ones dealing with the warranty issues if anything bad happens. So it may be worth a bit of a premium to go with Pella direct, but it's still probably worth finding out what (if any) that premium is.
Never heard of that, and find it quite hard to believe, since most new refrigerators are delivered in the box, at least as far as the driveway. Suspect you may be conflating that with the law that most places have that dead refrigerators left outside must have the door removed or chained, to keep little kids from playing rocket ship and suffocating. Not near the problem it used to be since nobody uses mechanical latches on household fridges any more.
The Pella windows at Lowes are very cheap. The warranty is short term and tells the quality story pretty well.
Do yourself a favor before you buy. If there is a Champion Window store in your area, let them come out and do their dog and pony show. Right now it may seem to you like a waste of time, but you will know every little thing to look for before you make a purchase. And don't let their "suggested retail" price scare you off. You will find out just what a high quality window like Pella would cost (about the same as Champion's suggested retail) and be able to buy them from Champion for about half to 2/3's that price
The warranty appears to be the same as it is on all the wood windows Pella sells... 10/20/5-10.
Seems like there are a lot of anti-Lowes people here but so far it doesn't seem like anyone has so much as taken the time to look at their web site and see what they actually offer. So, here you go:
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On the left is the wood line, on the right is the vinyl. Click through the "windows" link and you can then click again between wood or vinyl (left side/right side, same as before).
Lowes offers an "850", "450" and "250" series in wood. These don't correspond to anything on Pella's own web site BUT, surprise surprise, Pella does offer three lines of their own called "Architect", "Designer" and Pro-line".
Lowes offers one line of replacement wood window from Pella ("Renovation"), which is listed as a Consumer Digest "best buy". And again, Pella also offers one model of replacement window, with a different name ("Precision Fit"), but it's also listed as a "best buy" with the same logo. Do you really think Lowes' own window was
*separately* named a "best buy" from CD?
It seems to me that Lowes probably offers the exact same windows Pella does themselves, under a different name. (The fact that the Pella frame on Lowes' web site is actually hosted by Pella and uses the same pictures may or may not also mean anything.) This is not unlike what Lowes does with a lot of their products, which just have different model numbers than other retailers so they can claim an "exclusive".
The "Precision Fit" line was what I was shown by the Pella guy at my house; I wonder what the "Renovation" replacements - which I have little doubt are the exact same window - would cost from Lowes. I'm heading up there to buy a window a/c from them tonight; maybe I'll find out.
Does Champion do wood? I looked up their web site and they advertise only vinyl.
For myself, after having a guy come out and show me some Quantum2 windows and getting a price quote pretty far below Pella's, I'm about
50/50 now on wood vs. vinyl for my second floor (I'll still definitely do wood for the public areas on the first floor). I'm trying to convince myself I can live with vinyl if it means I can afford getting the whole second floor done. But the original poster here seemed to specifically be looking for wood, if I remember right.
I'm not anti-Lowes. I am anti some of their products, and I'm definitely anti-salespeople who don't know how to find their way out of the door, let alone where anything might actually be. They hire too many young kids, at least where I am. YMMV
Actually I haven't seen ANY line yet. Just trying to research and get some background before I go venturing out among the sharks.
My original intent was to find out whether Lowes would be a reliable source to consider buying from knowing that in many case the box stores' pricing is more competitive. But lower prices won't trump lousy service. If service is lousy, I'd spend a bit more and go straight to Pella if there were a Pella store in this area.
But I'm not locked into Pella either. As someone just beginning to look, Pella just happened to be one of the names I recognized and thought worth considering. Now I'm finding other alternatives to look at as well.
I have vinyl clad windows from andersen and some pella aluminum clad windows. Althought very popular, I am not impressed by the Andersen vinyl clad. On the south side of my house the vinyl has clearly stiffened and changed color. Also we had an accident requiring replacement of some vinyl on a window and it was almost impossible. Pella are easier to repair.
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