This is my first Yelp review ever. 1 star out 5. In school that's an F. Why? Let me count the ways...
1. Very bad communication between the people who provide estimates and the people who do the work of installation. (This is on Oahu in Hawaii.) Both crews that came to our house agreed with this assessment (they complained about bad communication too). When they arrived, neither crew knew what was supposed to be done in our kitchen (especially regarding the framing and installation of two windows). The communication between people at DH is breathtakingly bad, and this creates serious problems for customers.
2. After the slick sales pitch (one of the smoothest I have ever experienced), there was bad communication between the company and us, the customers. Unreturned calls, unfulfilled promises, etc. When you sign a contract and then the service suddenly gets worse, what should you conclude?
3. We signed a contract for tempered glass for two patio windows, but tempered glass was not delivered. There was no explanation or apology. Now we must wait 8-10 weeks more for delivery of that. So it goes.
4. When untempered glass was installed in the patio windows, the crew did not check to see what would happen when the patio door closes. Answer: it would shatter the new glass just installed. Only because I closed the door very carefully did the glass not shatter. I pointed this out to the crew just as they were leaving the premises. The solution: put a towel down on the floor to cushion the door before it hits the window. This installation was careless. It is a basic safety issue. Does DH care about safety?
5. One crew member had a bad attitude. He left in a huff the second morning when I told him that #4 (above) amounts to negligence (which is defined as "the failure to exercise reasonable care"). There was no apology, no remorse, no "yes, we were lucky." Just anger that I pointed this out.
6. The first crew on site refused to fix the door-would-shatter-the-glass problem. "That's your job" they said. Wow. Unbelievable. Only after I called a DH general manager did a partial fix get done (it took perhaps 10 minutes). Then the first crew left at 9:30 AM despite fine weather until 4:00 PM. Too angry to continue working. So we waited three more days to get the last two windows installed by a different crew. Eventually, the second crew inspected the first crew's fix and said it is inadequate. According to the second crew, if the patio door is shut hard, the (untempered) glass could still shatter. We are left to fix this ourselves. As of this writing, a hard wind or a strong door slam could shatter the glass. I am sensing a pattern here: is DH cavalier about fundamental safety issues?
7. The first crew purchased fir wood to use in a cedar kitchen. Huh? The second crew said "of course you don't want that." Thankfully, the second crew used cedar to frame the kitchen windows.
8. We were told we would be charged $50/hour for the framing work the DH crew performed -- that is, were were told the rate is $50/hour for the whole 2-person crew to prepare kitchen windows for installation. But we were charged double that, so that this labor fee turned out to be $700 instead of $350 (on top of the original $8000 bill for 6 windows). There were no apologies for what feels like a bait-and-switch, and there were no explanations either. There was just an insistence that we pay double what we were told. Come on DH, can't you do better than this?
9. The best thing about this experience was the second crew: John and Wes. They worked hard, did what we asked (except for the pay part described in #8, above), and (so far it seems) their work looks solid. They were nice guys too. Time will tell more about the windows and the framing. I hope they last like they are supposed to.
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