4 years ago
WORST EXPERIENCE IN BUYING EXTERIOR DOORS. EVER.
WORST EXPERIENCE IN BUYING EXTERIOR DOORS. EVER.
An overall aggravating, time consuming, error-riddled, excruciatingly terrible experience with Cape Cod Lumber. We went in three times looking for four exterior doors. The first time we were just looking; the second time we decided on the Therma-Tru doors and sat with a salesman to write up an estimate; the third time we sat down with a different salesperson (Trevor) and ordered the doors. We had planned to paint the doors ourselves but Trevor was adamant that doing so was not a good idea - no way if we painted them would they look as nice as they would if they were painted at the factory, plus the warranty would be ten years instead of one or two (I cannot remember which one). So at a cost of approximately $380 per door we agreed to have them painted at the factory. We ordered two doors that had black exteriors and white interiors and two doors that were white on both sides. In a little over a month they delivered doors painted yellow instead of white. I called to complain and Trevor agreed to look into it. I told him that I did not want this problem to fall by the wayside - I wanted it fixed quickly since there was a contractor involved and there was the factor of getting things moving along so he could install the doors. So a few days go by and I don't hear from Trevor, then another day and another one. After a week I start calling him and (surprise!) he's never at his desk to take my call. So I leave him vmails. A lot of them. I never hear back from him. So after the ninth or tenth day I call him and he's not there so I ask for his manager. Jay gets on the line and is helpful - says he will find out what happened. So the doors get picked up and repainted and we get them back within a month (remember, this was a simple door replacement project and it's already been over two months). The contractor gets to our house in a week and promptly informs me that the swings on two of the doors are incorrect. Unbelievable! So I call Jay and explain the situation and he says that this is our fault because this is what we ordered. Our contractor got on the phone with him and pointed out that the swings were correct on the first estimate we did (during our second visit) but got changed when the final estimate was written up by Trevor. So Jay contacts Therma-Tru for us and tells us that they have agreed to sell us two doors at a reduced cost. But why would we do that? None of these problems were our fault - they were entirely Cape Cod Lumber's fault! So their solution was to have us pay more money to get what we had ordered, then have to deal with two brand new doors that we were not going to use ( the two that had the incorrect swings).
I do want to mention that during all the back and forth phone calls between Jay and I, he said that Trevor had indeed called me several times to talk about the issue with the paint. The problem was that the number he was calling was not mine and indeed, when I called it, I discovered it was a disconnected number! I have no idea where he got the number and it turns out that he didn't have the common sense to either look for the correct number or contact me via email (that info was on the invoice as well).
So because of Cape Cod Lumber's incompetence, we had to paint the doors ourselves and yes, the ones we painted do not look as nice as the ones that were painted at the factory. So at least they got that part right!
Oh, and after we got the front door installed we realized that it did not have a peephole, which we definitely ordered.
Just a horrible experience at Cape Cod Lumber. The WORST experience I have ever had from a vendor after three kitchen makeovers, four bathrooms, two decks, new windows, etc. in several houses over the years. Without a doubt, something that could have been prevented if Cape Cod Lumber made any effort to ensure things were done correctly during the sale process.
capecodlumber.com
