SHELTER SUPERSTORE CORP

We had sash and crank-out windows from this company for our new house, and neither have ever been satisfactory. The crank-out windows had fitting problems immediately after installation, and still have them. Shelter sent a repairman to fix them within a year of installation, but they continue to have problems, and have to be banged in with a rubber mallet to be closed and locked. The sash windows are very leaky. The first winter after installation, 1999, it snowed into the dining room! There was literally a pile of snow on the inside windowsill. We had to seal the windows with MorTite to keep the snow out. The next year Shelter sent a repairman out to look at the windows. He fussed a little, but didn't really fix the problem. His workmanship was shoddy, he jammed a toothpick into a screw hole on a sash, cracking the wood even further. (I later fixed this properly, filling the hole with epoxy, clamping the crack closed, and re-drilling it for the lock mechanism screw.) The windows still leaked badly. We gave up on the windows keeping the wind out, and added storm windows. Then the breakage started. Every spring another 3 or 4 "clutches" would break inside the window slider so that the sash windows were heavy to lift and wouldn't stay open. Shelter sent me a package of these "clutches", small plastic parts probably worth a quarter apiece wholesale, and told me to install them myself, about an hour's work per item. Then the vapor seals started to fail. At this point we have 4 windows with moisture between the panes. Shelter refused to replace these, even though we complained within the warranty period. And just yesterday a completely different part broke inside one of the sash windows. Again, Shelter agreed to send parts, but is not interested in doing the repairs or paying for them, leaving me, the customer, to spend hours fixing their completely unsatisfactory product. And this has been going on for 10 years! I tell everyone I know who's building a house to avoid Shelter windows, and I give them all of our exasperating history to back up my advice. I think Shelter's overall response to our problems is completely unprofessional and grossly unfair. Alpine Lumber no longer carries Shelter windows, and I completely understand why.