Andersen Windows customer service

Customer service

I started this blog to try to help people who are having problems getting their issues resolved with Andersen Windows or any company that's giving you no customer service. For customer service help skip the story and go to customer service help at the bottom.

My story:

I bought the 400 series casement windows for my new home. 32 windows at a cost of close to $50,000. Some of them are single most are doubles. They have the vinyl wrapped jambs. I bought these so I would never have to paint them. For those who don't know which part of the window is the jamb, it's the part on the inside of the window where the interior trim butts up to.


Now for the problem:

I've had these windows for 3 years now. On 17 of them, the vinyl is bubbling up and separating from the wood it's glued to. After trying for 7 months to get the distributor I bought them from to look at it, which they never did, I finally got the sales rep. for my area to look at the problem. Luckily, I still had his number from when I first met him. He agreed that it was a manufacturing problem. He took some pictures and suggested I call customer service. I called customer service at Andersen windows. I set up a claim number with them so they can track every time I call (if you have a product issue make sure this is done) and I was given their standard line that "we've never heard of that happening before" and "someone will contact you within 5 business days" to set up a time to come look at them. I told them that someone did. They said they needed to have a window technician to look at it to see what could be done to fix the problem. Two weeks go by and no call. Tried it again......two weeks, no call. Tried again and they said that they would call the company that they had informed of my problem to see what happened. After being put on hold for 15 minutes, the service rep. informed me that the company was not willing to drive that far out of their way to look at my issue. Granted it is an hour drive for them, but unfortunately they are the closest one in my area. I have now been told that someone will contact me within 3 business days to come over to look. We will see if that happens. Apparently Andersen contracts with other companies if you have a warranty issue.

The fix:

Now, I've built a couple of houses for myself. I didn't subcontract with a a bunch of people to build them, I have personally built these houses. So I think that I have an idea of what I'm doing.
These window jambs were factory applied. The only way to fix them is to remove the window, take it completely apart, install new jambs, then reinstall the window. Or take out the window and put in a whole new unit. Can you imagine the mess I'll have if this is to be done? On the outside the channel for the vinyl siding is over the nailing flange of the window. This means that the siding will have to be removed around each window to get them out.

On the inside, the windows are trimmed, so all of that will have to be removed. Good luck getting that off in one piece without it breaking or damaging the walls.

In the warranty, I have three options to remedy this problem.

1) They will send me what is needed to fix.
This is usually for something simple like a hardware problem.

2) They will send out a technician with the materials needed to fix.
As I stated above, no way this can be done without removing the window.

3) They will refund my original purchase price.
Of course this is what I'm going for.

The warranty also states that they will not be responsible for anything but the replacement of the defective product. So that means I'm responsible for the siding, trim, repainting, etc. or so I thought.
At the bottom of almost any warranty it states that "this warranty gives you specific rights, and you may also have additional rights which vary from state to state"
I called my attorney to find out if I have any additional "rights" in my state.
Lucky for me, in my state, they are responsible for whatever needs to be done to make my house they way it is after the warranty work is done. Commonly known as to "made whole".

But really now, does anyone think that I want my house ripped apart.
Even if they touch up the paint on the walls around the window trim, which they probably will have to do, will it ever match....no.
This is why I want my money back.
I'll keep everybody posted on how I make out.
I'll be using this technique posted below to get to the person I need to talk to. When we're taking about thousands of dollars, regular customer service isn't going to work.

Customer service help:

Now we all know that customer service stinks these days.
If your lucky to get someone who can understand your problem, usually you can't understand them because they're in some third world country.
No matter where they are located, they don't have any authority to do anything but listen to you and say "I sorry you feel that way" or "I'm sorry to here that your having this problem".
The only way to get any action is to "work your way up the ladder".
So how do you do that when your calling some 800 number customer service line? You don"t.
Now, it's not easy to do but with a little time and ingenuity you can find the right people to talk to in any company. You just have to know where to look and when to look.

In my case I'm having problems with a window company. Although this is a multi million dollar company, they are privately owned. With publicly owned companies, it's fairly easy to find out whose at the top. It's a lot harder with most private companies. Even if you find CEO's and COO's and supervisor's names, good luck calling the company and asking for them. At the very most you get their secretary, at the very least they hang up on you.


So how do you find the people the people at the top?

In my case I did what everybody does. Google the company and hope you get lucky.
Most of the time this works to find the people you're looking for. It does take a lot of time, but again just having some one's name will get you nowhere.
After you get the name, don't stop there.
There are many websites in the "deep web" that will get you a lot further than a google search of a name. Even in the regular web if you find an article about company "x" that did something, like planted trees in the community or donated to some cause, read the article. A lot of times they'll drop the names of people within that company that were connected to the event.
In my case it took me about a week to get the names I was looking for. It would take just as long to explain how I did. If anyone needs help in this area, I'm glad to help. Leave a comment, email or whatever and I'll do my best to help you.

Now what to do with the names?

Again, you can't just call and ask for them. It's all about when you call and what number you call. All companies have that stupid 800 number. You don't call that one, they're always open. Find the number for the corporate office. This is easily found on the web for most companies. Call this number on the weekend, when you know they're closed. This is the when to look of the equation. Most companies have automated messaging systems. In my case the company was stupid enough to tell me if I wanted to leave a message for somebody at the company, to dial the FOUR digit extension now. So right from the get go I knew I needed a 4 digit extension. With some trial n error I got one that worked. Obviously I didn't know whose voicemail I was getting, but all you need is one that works. Now, wouldn't it be great if I heard "you've reached Joe Blow I'm not in the office leave a message." It would be if Joe was the CEO. But that's a one in a million shot. So what to do now? I left a message that just said "1 2 3" so the voicemail system knew I left something. It then asked me if I was satisfied with my message I could hang up or press 1 for more options. DON'T HANG UP PRESS THE MORE OPTIONS NUMBER.
Luckily on this system, and most do, I was given the opportunity to dial another extension, and if I didn't know the persons extension I could press another number to go to the company directory. Now with small companies it's very easy. The system will list each name then their extension and you're good to go. But my company had hundreds of people you could connect with. If a company is that big, you will be able to dial that persons name in the phone and get their extension that way. Ok now the when to call. If you call during business hours, even if you have the extension you might get through. Most of the time it goes to their secretary. If you call after business hours, your going to go straight to the person you're looking for. In my experience, secretaries are 9 to 5ers. When they leave, they forward incoming calls right to the person you're trying to reach. Since that person is not expecting a call from the average person, they'll answer. Since their number is not public info, they're expecting it to be a family member or a fellow employee or one of their corporate buddies. You could try to talk to this person now, but I found it easier to wait until the office is empty. This way you can leave a message explaining your problem and you won't get hung up on. Make sure you leave your message early in the morning (6 am) or at night (8 pm). Don't do it at say 2am or they might think you were drunk or something.

What I have explained above has worked for me in the past with other companies with customer no service.
For my current window problem, with a lot of effort, I now have the names of the people I need to talk to. From customer service supervisors to customer service managers all the way up the line to the head of the company. I even got lucky and have some of their cellphone numbers including the Chief Operating Officer.

For anyone with an Andersen Window problem, the customer service contacts that I have are not just for the window division. These are customer service people at the corporate level. These people are in charge of customer service across all their divisions.

If I can help anyone, be it an Andersen customer or any company that your'e having a problem with, please leave a comment, email, etc. I will do the best I can to help you.

It's about time someone did something to start getting service back into customer service.