HARRY'S GLASS SHOP

The repair made the window better than the original but nowhere near the quality of window provided by Renewals by Andersen. They were punctual. The gentleman had all the correct tools.

I had initially contacted a nearby competitor of Harry's who was referred by another trusted contractor. Unfortunately, after two calls, and two promises to follow-up with a service date, I was going nowhere with them. I called Harry's Glass Shop as a back-up and they responded immediately. They gave me an estimate over the phone and Ruben, the repairman, arrived exactly when he said he would. The job was completed in about 30 minutes, and Ruben was careful and thorough in cleaning up. We've got a young son, who's just discovering the joys of sports like golf and baseball, so it's likely we'll experience a few more broken windows over the years. We'll call Harry's when we do.

A window that was divided vertically into 3 panels (2 narrow, one wide in the center) was broken. In this case, it was the narrow panel on one side plus the wooden divider which was damaged. This vendor had previously replaced the large middle pane with tempered glass, and had done a very nice job. Based on that experience, I would have given A-ratings across the board. My original referral was via Yelp, where he had excellent reviews. The second time I called, they (the same installer) came right out and measured for replacement glass and told me the glass would be ready in 2 days. 3 days later, I got a call late in the day that they would be ordering the glass the next day. Meanwhile, the front of my house was both insecure and leaking warm air during winter. I got a little upset about the unanticipated delay, so they came out and finally boarded up the window for me while I waited (for free) - just as well, as it took another week for them to come by to install the replacement glass. Based on the quoted price to repair the damaged vertical divider between panes, the installer suggested that I should just replace the broken pane with one solid pane all the way across. This seemed like a good idea, since it kept the price much lower and would remove the weakness of the wooden divider. When he arrived to install the replacement glass, I left the installer unattended while he worked and when I came to inspect it, it turned out that he had replaced 2 of the 3 panes, but left the small pane on the un-damaged side intact, so now I had a ridiculously lopsided window, with one wide pane and one 3" skinny pane on one side. I suggested that this was unacceptable and kind of a shocking miscommunication, since no one in their right mind would volunteer to have such a ridiculous installation in the main front-facing window of their home. It took another week (possibly more, I cannot remember) but about 2 weeks ago, they finally came by and installed a single pane of tempered glass all the way across, at no additional charge to me. I was happy enough - mistakes and miscommunications can happen, after all, and while the process was long, I felt that it had been resolved to my satisfaction and in a responsive manner. However, today, the glass that was eventually installed more or less spontaneously exploded when I brushed it with my elbow while opening the curtains. The glass exploded outward from the window pane as though it were under pressure from the inside. I called Harry's glass and was informed that, other than a 10% discount on materials, I would have to pay full price to replace the glass that they had installed only 2 weeks before. If I had to guess, I would bet that they attempted to cut a larger piece of already tempered glass that they already had available rather than cutting and subsequently tempering a new piece - since they were paying for it out of pocket. Or maybe they installed a piece that was slightly too large, resulting in the stress which caused it to explode outward from my window pane, The end result was a weakened and defective piece of glass which destroyed itself after only 2 weeks. In either case, I don't feel that the cost of the replacement is in any way my responsibility, but this shop refuses to stand behind the work that they did or the poor quality of the materials that were used. I was told that 'tempered glass can just spontaneously shatter in a very small percentage of cases.' I remarked that, if it was such a small percentage, a shop which stands behind their service would eat the cost of fixing the problem in the tiny number of cases where such spontaneous destruction actually occurs. The fact that the tempered glass in vehicle windows is considered a safety feature rather than a risk sort-of puts the lie to the claim that tempered class isn't actually much stronger than un-tempered glass and that any such spontaneous destruction is clearly a result of defective materials and not just some statistically improbable occurrence. With a more or less full-price quote for replacment glass, it was an easy decision to make to come back to Angie's list to find a well-reviewed provider who offers a 10% materials discount to angie's list customers. I certainly will not be giving my custom to Harry's Glass in future.