I did 12 windows/2 sliding doors & HVAC & had meh experience.
Communication:
Biggest issue is lack of communication/training. Signed contract late July 2015 & I was told whole project would take approx 2-3 weeks to complete. Everything started great w/someone coming in the next day on a Saturday to measure windows & the HVAC people do planning system. "Project manager" was supposed to contact me early the following week to give me dates. A week after I was supposed to be contacted, I finally got in contact w/ project manager & I was told the windows had been ordered & that the windows would come in Mid-August & it would take a few days for HVAC & windows to be done at the same time. From here on out, I started having issues. Mid-August I followed up w/ project manager to see how things were coming along was told they were able to start on a Monday. We spoke on the phone & come Monday, nobody showed up. I finally called after nobody showed up from the 8-9am appointment & was told that the manufacturer was behind on the windows. 2 weeks later, the project finally started. This was 7 weeks after contract was signed. Next 2 weeks, HVAC was worked on, & numerous times along the way someone was scheduled to show up at a certain time, usually 8-9am, but someone always kept showing up late, usually 11, 12 & our project manager never gave us a courtesy call on lateness. Don't expect to have someone there every day once started, they will work 1-2 days & then a 1-2 off. If you are going to be late or going to cancel, no problem, but be courteous & consider your clients time. Communicate Schedules!! We had to contact them everyday to ask if they were going the next day. We had to move our schedules a lot to accommodate their time, as a client, we expect our time to be considered.
Contract vs Delivery:
Make sure everything is agreed on is on paper, w/as much details as possible, even if you think it's insignificant. System was to be 4 ton w/4 zone wifi. Someone later came in & I was told the system was too big & there were too many zones for my house, I understood this & had no problem w/making it 2 zones & reducing to 3 tons. Issue I had was that I was verbally told I would get top of line 26 seer Lennox system w/Wifi, but come install time, system was a 16 seer system. After back & forth, issue was resolved w/a change in price. Written contract had no model number or seer offered. It just had HVAC system. Contract promised termite inspection before anything started & was to have fumigation included if needed. Inspection never happened. I didn't press much since I didn't think I needed one, but don't offer something you aren't going to deliver. Dog door was also to be done on a sliding door & wasn't done. Also resolved by doing dog door on wall.
Price, quality & Hero:
Before doing any projects, do your homework & check prices. Get at least 3 quotes for anything you are planning to do. This is a big expense & you shouldn't settle. The plus side w/SMS was that they matched HVAC competitors quotes. Prices on windows also wasn't bad compared to other quote. They came in lower than 2 other quotes for same type of windows (Anlin). All in all, quality wasn't bad. Hvac cleaned up nicely & so far AC running great. Windows look nice too & we do notice temperature difference. I had a change in project manager due to poor communication w/first one & the second person was better. He listened to my issues & was patient enough to have one issue after the other resolved. Every company has issues, its how you resolve them that shows a companies integrity.
Hero Program, extremely important. Only reason I decided to do this project in the 1st place, & biggest reason many homeowners are doing this project, is because of Hero. But BEWARE, there are HIDDEN FEES! Can't fully blame them for this part, but they need to understand how the program works & make sure they provide proper info. I didn't catch a few things until it was too late; it was my fault for not reading contract & researching. I was told Hero program finances the entire program 100% & you can re-pay back in 5, 10 or 20 years. This is true. Yearly interest is anywhere from 5-7% depending on years. The issue was that I was told there would be NO interest for the first few months until you give the 1st payment in November of the following year. This is A LIE. They charge interest before 1st payment. https://www.heroprogram.com/Documents/CAHERO_SampleHEROFinancingDocs.pdf
No application fee, this is true. What they don't tell you is that they charge a one time financing fee. This is anywhere between 5-7% of the total financed. Also charge yearly $35 admin fee & they charge CP fee & record fee. A loan I was supposed to receive for $20k, I would have ended up paying $30k total in 5 years. Over $1K+ just in program financing fee & $2k+ just in pre-financing fee. They will say, don't worry, you can tax deduct the entire thing, THIS IS ALSO A LIE. You can only deduct interest. read more