If I could give them less than 1 star, I would. After my experience years ago at Vegerranian (https://www.yelp.com/biz/vegiterranean-akron?hrid=Gy60gk0LRUzzCwFAYUeR3w), I thought I couldn't find anywhere to offer me a worse customer experience, but Dave at Iron Gate may as well have just said, "hold my beer, I can do worse than that."
TLDR first: Dave, the sales rep, mis-measured my entry way and ordered a standard sized door. When the standard-sized security door came in four weeks later, the installer came to put it on and it didn't fit. He said they would either have to order a custom door, or shave 1/4" off of each side of our door jam. When I confronted Dave about how he mis-measured, he offered some claim that the door had a shim that kept him from being able to measure it right (even though that didn't affect the company who ended up getting it right). I was called a liar to my face and told that I should just take my business elsewhere. So I did.
Now for the long-winded version. The lock on our old security door broke, and nobody makes pieces for that old lock anymore, so we started researching companies to replace it. Neighbors had warned us about Irongate, but the only other company to give us a quote at the time came back with a quote $1000 more than the one we got from Iron Gate, and we just couldn't pass up that price difference. It was going to be the exact same door from the same manufacturer.
So we had Dave come out back in late August or early September and measure the entryway; he seemed nice enough at the time, very personable, like he knew what he was talking about. He said it was a standard sized opening, something that surprised me since our house is 120 years old and pretty much nothing on it is standard sized, But hey, he's supposed to be the professional and I watched him use the tape measure, so he should get this right. Since it was standard sized, it would only take four weeks to get the door in, and there wouldn't be an extra $250 charge for a custom door.
Fast forward to install day (October 3) and I unexpectedly had to travel for work, but my father came up to be there so we wouldn't have to delay any longer. I got a call from my dad telling me the installer says the door was incorrectly measured, and that we have two options. Either they send it back and order a custom door that will take another five
to six weeks to get in and cost an extra $250, or they can cut 1/4" off of each side of the door jam. I went back and forth on the idea for a few minutes before deciding to go with the custom door, although I was told I'd have to call in to officially order it since I'd have to cover the extra $250 charge.
I called to Iron Gate later that day to find out what was going on with the door measurements and find out how they had gotten it wrong in the first place. Dave tried telling me that it was normal and that, "we work on these older homes in the area all of the time, and we just cut a little bit off of the door jam, it's no big deal." Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but if you're going to be doing alterations and cutting my home, I feel like I should have been informed of that. What I had originally been told about the job they would do is they would remove my old door and install a new one. No actual alterations were ever mentioned. So I told them I would have to think about the decision for a few days and get back to them.
About a week later I decided to go into Iron Gate's office myself and talk to them in person. I expressed my frustrations to Dave that it was now going to take another 5-6 weeks before we even had our door, at which point he cut me off and said it would be eight(!) weeks to get the custom door in. I called him out and asked why he had just told me five-six weeks the week before, and he just made a noncommittal comment about Iron Gate being at the mercy of the manufacturer for timelines. This same manufacturer makes the doors for the company who did our install for us, and had a custom door to us in four weeks flat from our original order date, but that's another review in and of itself...
Admittedly, I got a little heated and asked what Dave and Iron Gate was going to do to make this right for us, since it was their original measurements that were messed up in the first place. Dave said, "Nothing. This is the price, take it or leave it." I expressed my frustrations again, and told him I wished I had taken my neighbors' advice when they told me to avoid using Iron Gate because of their bad experiences. He asked why I didn't do that, and I said, "Because you were $1000 cheaper than they were." When I told him I got other quotes after we had hired them, that were similar in price, he called me a liar and said they were the only ones who did this type of work. I canceled my order and demanded all of my money back (which I got).
Argh, character limit reached, but long story short don't ever do business with these people! read more
