For 47 years Central Screen Co. In Glendale has been a reliable part of our life. Their work was…read morealways efficiently done and their service pleasant and courteous. Enter 2025, post Covid "plandemic", when so much seems to have gone awry, or simply become non-existent. We recently needed to have some screen door material and glascene covers replaced (there are three buildings on our property). In order to do that, the screen doors (two of them, one of which protected a porch) had to be removed and the door closer systems saved. In one case, the screen door closer apparatus was stored above the water heater located inside a porch. When it came time to return the now fixed screen doors, the owner's son and a worker, Carlos, came to do the job. Carlos was not happy with the door mechanism above the porch door, probably because it looked a bit worn, so he said to me: "I don't like this. I'll get you something better!" I assumed Carlos knew what he was talking about, even though that mechanism had always performed well, without any hiccups, so I let it slide.
While writing the check to pay for the installations, my husband and I chatted with the owner's son, and expressed our appreciation for the many years of good service his father's company had given us!! Sadly, I failed to inspect the door to the porch!!
When I did so later in the day, I found that the new door mechanism that had replaced mine only closed the door part way, and the door had to be pushed in each time to close fully! Not a satisfactorily job!!! I contacted the owner. The son returned, attempted to readjust the door so that it wouldn't stick/rub at the bottom, and that was it! After he left, I realized that the main problem was the "new" door closer that Carlos had installed: it simply failed to close the door fully, and always left an inch open, for every insect or denizen to conveniently "walk in". I called the company again, and this time the owner himself returned. At this point, I told the owner that the original door closer that was there had been removed and replaced with an inferior one that did not do the job! The owner then said his son had "assured him that this was the original mechanism" that had been there, and that only a peg had been changed to install it!!
GAS LIGHTING at its best!!! The "elderly" owners of the property had no idea what they were talking about!! I proceeded to describe in detail the previous door closer we had, its antique gold colour, the fact that I had smeared a bit of beige paint on it while refreshing the walls of my porch. This new mechanism, however, was a solid gray colour, nothing like what we had before.
The owner then assured me that there was only one company left in Glendale that now manufactured those door closers, and they were all that gray colour!! I assured him that the mechanism to this screen door was the same as the one installed on all the other doors on our property. The owner then asked for permission to look at the other door closers, and sure enough, the door closer to the screen door of the main house on the property, situated further back, was indeed antique gold and not gray at all!!!
He then told us that he would go back to the office and look for our original door closer that was taken away. We have not heard from the owner since.
Eventually we will contact another screen door company to see if a better door closer may be available and installed, one that would actually CLOSE THE DOOR!!??
The main issue in this review is not that the installer deliberately did wrong, such as stealing an article from a home owner and replacing it with a detective article. I do believe that Carlos thought he would give us something better, but he failed in that, when he must have realized the door was not closing on its own, he said nothing about it and left the problem unsolved!!
Merchants should not assume that all customers can be so easily "gaslit"!! My husband and I hold six university degrees between us, including a Ph. D. and a life time achievement award from the Pentagon. Of course, university degrees are only worth as much as the integrity and decency of those individuals who hold them, and no more! But to take advantage of people who are advanced in age and assume that they are "morons" is rather low!!! Wouldn't you agree?
