Be careful dealing with Ecoline, they are price driven and will discount their way into your job. The old adage 'you get what you pay for' applies here, so prepare yourself for this to play out in reality. The windows are seemingly of good quality but the test of time will tell the story. I would rate the windows highly but advise you use caution dealing with sales, installation and follow-up. Lower your expectations to match the lower price you will likely receive.
The sales process is high pressure and not well documented. On the spot 'total pricing' (not itemized by window) is offered with a discount as necessary to seal the deal. You are asked to commit immediately or you will lose the discount. As you might expect, many promises, assurances and commitments are made to further assure you of good service yet to come. One assurance is that despite being measured twice, existing blinds may not fit in the new windows. In my case, 3 of 7 fit and the rest will need to be cut to fit. Allow time and expense for this.
Despite making things specific to the job clear with the sales person, this information needs to be reviewed with the installation team as there is a disconnect between sales and the installers. I had expected this as it was written in other reviews.
The schedule was followed as promised and the installation day was adhered to with crew showing up within the time window offered.
Other reviews have pointed out the poor cleanup of the job site and I will concur with that. Understand that there will be a significant mess due to the nature of the work. The mess is given only a cursory pass by the installers before leaving the job. They pick up the big pieces but there will be a good cleanup required after they leave. The drop sheets they use are full of dust and debris from previous jobs and that is transferred into your home at the outset. Do yourself a favour and allow for a cleaning service to come in which includes cleaning the new windows.
The installers work hard and get the job done. It is obviously not easy work and one can understand why they don't have a lot of energy in the tank to thoroughly cleanup the site.
With most firms that already have your money, don't count on much in the way of follow up. It is best to plan on repairing and repainting damage to siding or stucco yourself as Ecoline will find a way to claim that the damage existed before the job. Take your own photos of each window if you want to have any cards to play in the after job service game.
I had intended to use another company to do our project due to their professionalism and thorough proposal. However, in the end, they were a little over $1000 more expensive than the Ecoline price. I went into this expecting certain things to be deficient and I was not wrong.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $7,000.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- Company Response
Hello Joe,
Thank you for taking the time to review our company. We would like to take this opportunity to respond as well as to seek clarification.
We are glad to hear your positive opinion of the product and installation.Please rest assured that we will honour our product and labour warranty should anything go wrong with the windows.
We would like to ask you to clarify a few of our points. We see customer responses as opportunities for improvement, and the more information we have, the better. Please elaborate on promises, assurances and commitments that were made but were not followed through.
Please explain what you mean by there being a disconnect between sales and installers. As it is now, the installer gets all the information included in writing on the contract. If he has any questions, he follows up with the sales rep.
We do take this feedback seriously, and in fact are already working on amending our practices for clean up and damage detection.
We apologize for your less than satisfactory experience working with our company. We would like to reiterate, that despite the shortcomings of this project, we are committed to addressing all your concerns and will be equally committed to addressing them in years to come.
Kindest regards