My husband and I hired Energy Exteriors NW for a Milgard sliding door installation, and months…read morelater we're still dealing with the fallout, both from the door itself and from how the company has handled it.
The install, twice: The first crew (7/30) installed the door with the frame out of square and the handle missing a part entirely, so it couldn't latch, rattled constantly, and had an inconsistent gap against the frame. They also cut out the old door and frame without putting down any protective sheeting, so concrete board dust (a fiber-cement material containing silica, an OSHA-regulated health hazard) covered the interior of our home, especially our kitchen. When the Project Manager inspected the door the next day, he confirmed the frame was installed incorrectly and promised to reinstall it properly.
The second crew came back to redo the frame and reinstall the door (8/03), and while removing and replacing the trim and frame, they damaged our exterior siding. Erin offered to send her own crew to fix it, but after what happened during that reinstall (below), we didn't want any more of her installers in our home, so we're handling that repair ourselves.
The incident: During a follow-up visit (8/04) to address ongoing problems, I pointed out that the door still wasn't right. One of the installers snapped at me in our kitchen: he shook the door hard, smirked, and yelled "YOU DON'T LIKE THIS?!" at me repeatedly, then suggested he could just remove the security lock if the rattle bothered us. My husband told both installers to leave.
Ownership's response: We called immediately. Owner Erin didn't call back until later that day and showed no real concern. She followed up with a lengthy, polished email questioning our account of the incident, since our home security camera only captured the outside of the house, as if that meant what happened inside couldn't be trusted. It's a telling response from someone whose installer had just screamed at a customer.
Where things stand now: Milgard has since come out to inspect the door as a warranty matter, and confirmed that the rattle and stiff latch are common on a large, custom 7.5-foot slider like ours (something we were never told when we ordered it), and that there's nothing more to be done about either one. The scratch on the interior glass, which appeared during the first install, will finally be repaired next week, months after the original install.
One more thing worth knowing: their contract includes a non-disparagement clause instructing customers not to post negative comments online. That kind of clause is illegal and unenforceable under the federal Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016. Its presence alone tells you how this company intends to handle complaints. (Not a lawyer, but this is well-established consumer protection law.)
If you look through Erin's responses to other critical reviews here, you'll see a pattern: she replies to nearly every negative review personally, and instead of taking accountability, she consistently questions or minimizes the customer's experience. That's exactly what she did with us.
We wanted a door that worked like a brand-new door should, an intact house, and honest communication. What we got was a door we still have to fight with every time we use it, a house we're repairing ourselves, and a company that was never straight with us. Do your research before hiring this company, and think twice before signing a contract with a non-disparagement clause in it. You can save yourself a lot of time, headaches, and potential damage by hiring a company with careful and professional installation crews, and managers who aren't (seemingly) motivated by a compulsion to always be right, even when they are demonstrably in the wrong and making mistakes left and right.
