Daily Home Renovation Tips

Here is a full picture.

Yes, it is a manufacturing defect which, to use Dave’s terms, is a ‘fibre tear’. The glass insert includes vertical lines which are made to look like metal but seem to me to really be a type of plastic.

Unfortunately, this ‘fibre tear’ is just beneath eye level when the person is outside. And, once I mentioned it to Dave, he had to admit that while he did not notice it previously, every time he returns to our house for more work on the door his eye’s go right to it. This fibre tear is inside the glass. It is, in our opinion, a manufacturer’s defect which was not found by the quality assurance processes of either the manufacture or the big box building supply retailer from whom we order the door now more than 5 months ago.

Dave writes up the defect on a form and we sign. He then sends the form to the big box building supply company.

A few days later we receive a phone call from the Service Manager at the building supply retailer stating that he would like to come out and inspect this defect. When he arrives he agrees that something needs to be done, likely a full replacement of the window. However, this would likely need to be confirmed by a physical inspection from a representative of the door manufacturer themselves. He continues that the next call we will receive on this will either be from the building supply retailer or the door manufacture to schedule the on site inspection.

Additionally, the Service Manager also notices some additional items that need to be fixed from the installation including those now ugly white painted black exterior plugs, some missed caulking and that something does indeed need to be done with the fascia that keeps buckling on top of the door frame.

A few days later we receive the phone call. It’s from the Paul who works at the door installation company. He is  calling to schedule an appointment for both Dave to return as well as, this time, the building supply retailer’s service manager to, hopefully, once and for all finish the installation. The next available date? March 12th. This will make it now 6 full months since we first went to the building supply retailer to order the door only to be told we had to first have the measurement taken which cost us 2 weeks of time.

However, when I asked Paul what exactly they were going to do on March 12th he did not mention anything about glass insert in the door with the fibre tear. In fact, he had no record of anything to do with the manufacturing defect of the window insert. Hmmm. This does not sound promising.

Oh, and you will love this. On Friday March 7th I receive a phone call and the person at the other end of the phone asked if this was the installation company. I thought I recognized the voice. Well, it happened to be the now 3rd building supply retailer customer service representative, Dennis.

He didn’t mean to call me. He was given my number by mistake by the building supply retailer’s store where we first made our order for the door. He was trying to call the door installation firm. I gave him their number (having used it myself several times which we mentioned in prior articles in this series).

Dennis took over from Crystal about late January. Both he and Crystal are very nice over the phone and say they agree that this should not have happened, but so far they really haven’t gotten anything done except to delay the deferred payment which we discussed in a previous article. So far, we still owe the same amount for the door.

Dennis mentioned on the same phone call that someone with a job title that included the work ‘executive’ was now involved. To what extent and what that would mean for us I have no idea.

In our next article I’ll review my efforts to paint the inside of the door from the grey primer paint to the same colour as the other doors in our house. To continue, simply select this link to Part 14.