A&R B from Waterdown

The original windows in our Branthaven home were Pollard and had held up very well for close to 30 years. Parts were still available but some of the wood frames were beginning to rot in places and required a significant paint job. (We had done one 6 or so years ago and that had worked.) We shopped around extensively and checked the various reviews. Pollard was no the cheapest but far from the most expensive. We wanted to deal with a local manufacturer and came to a deal we considered reasonable. Darren, with who we dealt with for the most part was pleasant, helpful and knowledgeable. (Window specs can be confusing!) During the course of our due diligence we found that we could replace some of the smaller sets of of windows with larger spans of glass. For example in my office we replaced a span of 5 windows with two smaller and one larger window. The result was nothing short of spectacular. The work was scheduled for 5 days and was done very well indeed. The installer, Bogdan, and his assistant were first class and everything was left clean and tidy on a daily basis. We noticed a couple of scratches on the patio doors. This was blamed on a change of glass supplier, and replacements were made. A promised door lock was missing and installed subsequently. There were a couple of other minor adjustments that took a long time to get done, but since we had a holdback we were not sweating it. A number of houses on our street are at the stage of replacing windows and we have had no hesitation in recommending Pollard. (Incidentally Pollard has one of the best guarantees that we found. Overall, the aesthetics of the new windows are very pleasing, the external sound has been cut down substantially and we love the ease with which the windows open. One oddity. The kitchen window is awning style. the crank on it does not lay flat and I find that annoying. Since Pollard does read these comments (Hi Dave Carter - Display Centre Manager) if they ever do get around to having that option do get in touch with us as we'd like not to have the handle sticking out awkwardly! If anyone would like to speak to us about our experience we can be contacted via Pollard I'm sure. A&RB - Waterdown ON.

Do not use this company. We contracted in June 2006 with Afusion to complete a kitchen renovation by September this year. Dealing with the company and Ron O. in particular, has been hugely problematic. The work was delayed and is still not fully completed. Ron O. has outright lied to us on many occasions and it became clear to us that financial mismanagement on the part of Afusion led to many of our problems. For example we were obliged to pay for the cabinets direct as the funds we had paid for the project had not been held in escrow and the cabinet makers would not release the product because of outstanding debts owing by Afusion. We have also been made aware that some, if not all, of the subtrades - many of whom did fine work - have not been fully compensated by Afusion for work done on our project. Lack of promised oversight by the company led to our having to, in effect, become project managers for many day to day decisions. We were obliged to take legal advice to protect our position, and have recently been told by Ron O. that we should deal direct with the subtrades to put the finishing touches to our project. For these reasons we cannot recommend Afusion or Ron O. to anyone and in fact would actively counsel them to avoid this company. A&R B Waterdown, Ont