Pella Windows & Doors

I wanted Marvin windows and Anderson doors. I had hem before and loved them. I was Set in my ways until a complete comparison amongst the brands was shown to me.
Well, with every change in life one must keep open to new possibilities and based on numerous recommendations, specs, and other details to bore most Pella was installed.
The house is now equipped with a large section of the home with new Pella windows to use and explore their potential and occasional play «How did you do that?»
The reason I wrote this review today is the degree of service. I was blown away when, after windows were installed, a nice younger man, dark hair, named Mike came to our home to fix one tiny screen and ended up doing a complete audit to confirm
Perfection with our install.
Was he trying to add up the line items? No, no bill just some new windows to add after he left as we choose long before his visit.
Did he fix the little nuisances that had it been an El Niño year our horns might have been locked in anything less than a love triangles over whom was responsible amongst many involved.
He was in and out in no time as well as on time. He even buffed up a little oil or runner mark on the trim — I barely noticed it and he couldn’t stand his workmanship left with less than perfect install and appearance.
Finally, after 30 minutes, doors getting a flip, screens reversed, piping saved to prevent water from rushing in and installed, locks fixed and more he left without handing game a bill and said not to worry as I don’t have any tip money as I never expected that kind of work. Whoa!
Anyway, I would recommend that service and install guys be part of the sales tea. A they truly build the hands on relationship that is hard to manage from behind the desk. This guy was sales ready … Someone should invest in him (Mike) and watch what a little roi can really do!

I have not used this vendor as I live elsewhere; my issue is with the product. I have three custom-​size French doors and three different problems. Door No. 1 has warped so much that it would not close or lock. It has been shaved and still I can’t lock or unlock with the key. Door No, 2-​the small knob which you turn to lock the door has come completely off. Door No, 3, the most egregious of all– the bottom part of the door from the window down on the inside has rotted all the way thru. There is too much unprotected wood on these doors. For example, I have followed my hand down the outside of the door, on the protective cladding, and two inches from the bottom there is bare wood, and there is bare wood underneath the doors also. These issues may be a function of the custom builds, in which case, Pella is clearly not instructing or vetting or following up properly.

If you have purchased PELLA windows/​doors since 2007 and live in the east bay? Chances are your service will come out of Berkley. You have just a two year warranty and once that’s up? ANY service call JUST TO COME OUT? Is $ 150! Scheduling with them is something to behold, two weeks out easily. I opted for finding a GOOD AND REPUTABLE Window and Door company locally and spent HALF THE MONEY for a service call. PELLA may have a reasonably good product? But their service has fallen miserably since 2007, at least? Here in the East Bay of Northern California. $ 150 is ridiculous just to drive out to a call!

My review is also not specific to this location. The Pella Windows and Doors shop in San Bruno has closed, so I called the Menlo Park place, who referred me to customer service — hours 9 – 5 M-​F.
We replaced all the doors and windows in our house, 20 in all, including French doors and front door as part of a massive remodel in 2006. We went with Pella because of the double windows with shades inside, and our contractor’s recommendation. The remodel went on much longer than we wanted, so although the the doors and windows were installed in 2006, they weren’t really used and in fact still have the plastic guards on some of the doors.
Within one year of installation, about 50% of the hardware either broke or fell apart; the little pull tabs for the shades just snapped off, and the hand crank openers just come away from the housing they are in. There seems to be no way to permanently attach them. It’s just the design. One of the windows is permanently dirty because there is no way to open the inside pane of the double panes to clean them. Of course they should open. We are not hard on things — this stuff is flimsy and badly designed.
So I called Pella customer service and told them about the faulty equipment, and the woman told me she can get a guy out to take a look and analyze the damage at a cost of $ 75 for ½ hour. The parts are still under warranty, but labor is not covered, so it will cost, I am assuming $ 150 per hour to repair the faulty hardware.
I was already dead tired of Pella and their products, but I thought charging for a walkthrough was really over the top.
I would never touch their products again, and would never recommend them to anyone.

High percentage of defective, faulty items (windows and doors) received from the factory. Numerous return visits by Pella to fix or replace products manufactured with no apparent consideration to Quality Control. They stood by their warranty but that happened much too often. Would not use Pella again due to obvious problems with manufacturing.

I had a horrible experience with their consultant. After taking measurements, he said he’d call me back that day, but he never did. I left voicemails for him for a week, then I called Pella headquarters in Iowa to complain. They said the Berkeley store is a franchise that has nothing to do with them. What a terrible company. After reading the reviews here, I wonder how they stay in business.

My review is not specific to this location but to Pella Windows in general. Their Customer Service is horrible! I received a quote approximately 1 – 2 years ago. The person who provided the quote left and I lost interest in the project. Another salesperson contacted me several months later and I provided my earlier quote to him and advised that we were ready to move forward at that price but that I needed to add a screen door to the project. After telling me that he would give me a quote, he never got back to me. I get emails from Pella all the time but if I respond, I am told either by a live person or by email that I need to go into the store and talk to someone about it or arrange a home consultation. They have all of the info — why do I need to arrange to be home for yet another in home visit by a sales person? For a product that is this expensive (more expensive than the competition) you would think that great hassle-​free customer service would be part of the equation but it is not. Either that or they just do not want the business.

I scheduled an appointment online two weeks in advance. I took off work to be home at the appointment time and waited and waited. After a half hour I called and they said they would call me back immediately to find out where the rep was. They never called back. The rep showed up 45 minutes late and said that he came to my house five minutes early to the appointment, but because I wasn’t home, he cancelled the appointment. Since I had to be back at work, he couldn’t give me an estimate in the time I had left at home and told me to make another appointment on another day. He must have been double booked, because I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t have waited for the actual appointment time (that’s the point of setting an agreed upon time).
If the service is this bad to get an estimate, you can imagine how bad it would be to have them do your windows.

Pre-​sales interactions were impressive. Then the disaster began.
The installers cut into drywall without creating a dust barrier. Asian antiques, carpets, drapes & my collection of hand-​woven textiles (some of them old) all had to have professional treatment. This cost a lot.
Then, the windows didn’t work. One new window & several parts had to be ordered. Some of the parts arrived and were the wrong part. Finally, there were 4 follow-​up visits before the job was done 8 months after the first visit.
We asked for money to cover our cleaning costs but Pella kept putting us off. Eventually they gave us 2/​3rds of what we asked for.
I will never use Pella Windows again & will recommend you stay away from them.

Update. Pella guy did change his position and agreed to sell me 10 new windows at cost. I’m still out $ 2,300 but am hoping to recoup some of this by selling the windows on craigslist.

Overall the experience wasn’t to bad, but they promised me on the phone so many things they couldn’t keep, so, I was very disappointed when I had to change and redesign everything I thought I could get.

I found Pella in my search for double paned wood replacement windows. Because I have an older home, the building code requires an all wood window, which means no exterior cladding; some of my issues wouldn’t apply if I could use a vinyl or aluminum clad window.
The Pella sales representative who came to my house was courteous and brought samples of their product. Their pine windows come with really nice standard hardware (a significant upgrade over the competition) at a competitive price (competitive, but expensive compared to vinyl). But Pella loses two stars because:
1) There are some downsides to the product, and the warranty:
— The double paned sashes only have a life expectancy of 5 – 15 years — even in the Bay Area’s mild climate the pine windows slowly warp and eventually the seal on the double pane glass «pops» and moisture seeps in, requiring replacement (at a cost of about $ 600 once your warranty expires). Ouch!
— The windows arrive completely unpainted (and no, you can’t pay the installers to paint them prior to installation, I asked) and if they aren’t painted within 2 weeks of installation, your WARRANTY IS VOID! In light of how hard it can be to get a painter to come out, and the challenge of painting windows on a multistory building (think «scaffolding») this is a real pain; and not one presented by Pella’s competitors.
— The real kicker though is that if you don’t REPAINT EVERY YEAR YOUR WARRANTY IS VOID! No joke. A year goes by fast, and painting 20 – 40 windows on a typical house is neither fast nor cheap. But if you don’t do it every year, you’re out of luck. When a company works this hard to make sure you violate the terms of your warranty, you know they don’t really stand behind their product.
2) The sales rep didn’t tell me about these (rather significant) downsides; if I hadn’t done my research I would have had an unpleasant surprise on installation day — or a few years later when I tried to use my warranty. When I asked him about it, he hemed and hawed a bit before agreeing that I had my facts straight. So he wasn’t lying, but it was far from full disclosure.
As a result of these concerns, I decided to use Renewal by Andersen, which is a great product (although you should read about my installation trauma at my review of HomeWorks).

Greatly disappointed — that’s the theme of this review.
I am remodeling my 50’s Miami Vice themed bathroom and needed to find a suitable window to replace a slat-​window that no longer opens. I wanted to find a Fiberglass window because of it’s strength, paintability (unlike vinyl) and because of the moisture issues a bathroom presents for windows.
had all of these options and made things look fantastic and customizable. I was really excited when I went down to the showroom on 4^th street to pick out what I need.
Sadly only a receptionist was working the day I went into the showroom. Why aren’t there salespeople working on a Saturday, which you would think would be a busy day? She was very nice but she really didn’t know much about the product. Further she informed me that their fiberglass windows only come in one option, three colors and aren’t paintable. I couldn’t get an accurate price quote either.
It proved to be a waste of time for me. Their product, at least in shop, isn’t as good as advertised, and their service was pleasant but useless. I ended up going to Sinan’s Windows on Telegraph, which rates much higher in my opinion (review to follow this one).