Does Pella offer good customer service?

Pella was especially well known for its wood windows long before it expanded into other home-related products. Over the years, we've bought a lot from them. Our last purchase was an entry door and a matching storm window. The later had a cool design we liked, including a “Rolscreen” retractable, concealed screen.

The system is ingenious: you pull it down for ventilation and just lift it up, and it glides out of sight. The problem with that Rolscreen is that the rather heavy movable glass panel is only supported by a single plastic lock button. After a while and repeated opening and closing of the storm door - in our case just four years after it was installed – the lower sash frame holding the heavy piece of glass became disjointed and the glass began gaping at the top.

From a pure engineering standpoint, that design flaw seems unpreventable, and my sense is that there are a large number of such doors that are now defective. First, and without looking at my brochure, I called Pella for a replacement sash and was told that it would cost me $65. I decided to wait, and called a week later and was then told that a replacement set would be shipped at no cost to me.

Upon receiving it, I proceeded to read carefully the rather complicated instructions related to the removal of the defective parts and the installation of the new ones. I set out to work. The instructions, albeit profuse and complex, were not as clear and complete as they should have been, the photos were particularly tiny and certain details were hardly discernible.

I first replaced the whole assembly and then discovered that I placed the sash and the screen inside the wrong track. I dismounted the whole work and after countless attempts, was never able to replace the glass sash inside the most remote, least accessible set of tracks. I called Pella and a technician told me that if I had been able to take the piece of glass off, I should be able to replace it. I told him that it wasn't as simple of that (just like putting toothpaste back into its tube.)

He suggested that I should get a neighbor to help. By that time my wife had been helping me for 30 minute doing the very best she could and I couldn't see what a “neighbor” would have done that we weren't able to accomplish! At that point, I hung up and as I was looking at the back of the brochure, I read a statement indicating that the door carried a 20 year warranty!

 I then called Lowe, the home improvement retailer that had sold me the door and they were quite helpful in arranging for a contractor to come and help me resolve that rather unpleasant project. We'll see what happen, so please, stay tuned.

In the meantime, I would like to say that I am incredibly disappointed by Pella's attitude towards their clients in sending them loose parts that require a high level of training and expertise to replace correctly, and hoping that anyone can turn that installation into a fun and easy do-it-yourself project.