Salmon Arm Window & Door Ltd.

Ordered rake head window to replace a leaking pre-existing sealed unit in home. S.A.W & D person was very cordial and helpful over the phone when ordering. I provided dimensions and requested window to be crated for transport so I could transport over 50 km logging road. Couldn't inspect when I picked it up. When I opened crating to install window, I noticed the window had a label which indicated that one side was supposed to face outward, but that side was contrary to the information I provided. When I contacted manager, I was told to disregard the label because it was simply meant to indicate the optimum orientation for heat reflection, but it didn't actually matter that much! So then tried to install window and it wouldn't fit in opening despite me giving the exact measurements of the originally sized window. I then measured the new window and found out that one of the sealed panes was fully 1/4 " larger than its mate and therefore wouldn't fit in opening. I had to spend 30 minutes grinding window down all along the 40" length with a belt sander. What an absolute hassle! I would have been stymied if I hadn't had a belt sander and 7 spare belts available. While I was working on it, I then noticed that the sealing spacer between the panes was all crooked at the apex of one of the three corners. I went ahead and installed window and put on trim and luckily the crooked spacer was mostly covered up by the window trim. I thought I'd call the manager just to let him know that the quality assurance for the window could use significant improvement. I was simply told that there was nothing that he could do and that there is always a bit of "squirm" as the windows cure, and therefore a 1/8" margin is needed to allow expansion/contraction and the crooked spacer is unavoidable. Unfortunately I didn't take photos of all the various anomalies that I encountered. From my experience photos probably wouldn't have made a difference anyways. What did I learn? Inspect product before driving away with it, and maybe deal with a business with better quality assurance practices.
14 years ago (15-10-2012)