Renewal by Andersen of Austin

I called Anderson and asked them to come out and give me a bid on replacement windows. They said that my husband would need to be there. I told that that that was not going to happen, that it was my money paying for the windows, that it was my sole decision, and that my husband had no part in the decision. They asked who the deed to the house was in -- I told them both names. They insisted they would not do business with me without my husband being involved. They said they would have a supervisor call to talk to me about it. I am still waiting for the call. This experience smacks of discrimination. I bought Pella windows today.

It went very well. They are a little pricey but the quality is superior.

I stopped at the Anderson booth at the State Fair and asked for an estimate. They took my information and a representative called to make an appointment. The Salesperson was polite and professional until he gave me the cost estimate which was more that twice amount of my mortgage. When told that I could not afford that, he felt that I obliviously wasted his time and really didn't care if I used his company or not. Since then, the sales appointment scheduler has been calling periodically. Initially when I told her that I could not afford their product, she stated that they had a more affordable line of windows and that another sales person would have to come to my home to show that line and do another estimate. I asked why wasn't the first sales person able to show me the windows that were more in my price range? Apparently each sales person is only trained to sell one model of windows. I found this business practice to be a complete waste of both my time and the salesperson's. Due to this practice, I decided not to use this company.

Will select another contractor to perform the work.

They did fine. They came on time. Since they had to remove windows, they didn't end up with any glass in the house and they removed the old windows. They finished the windows properly. The windows came in on size so they didn't have to re-order. The guy who installed it measured it properly. Everything just sit well and they're functioning excellently. They are the most expensive ones out there.

Debbie Amsen (Sales Consultant) came to our home to give a sales presentation and after we were convinced that the Renewal by Andersen windows were the best product for our home we ordered them. Subsequently a representative came to our home to take measurements. Approximately 6 weeks later a crew came out to do the installation and we had a very good experience with the installers. They were professional, courteous and efficient while installing 26 windows. Despite a driving rain and cold temperatures on the first day of installation the crew went about their business. The only thing we had to do after the installation was rehang the blinds. We are very happy with the quality of these windows and we feel are well worth their cost.

Our sales representative, Doug M., met us at home exactly at our appointment time (6pm). He had told us prior to the meeting that the appointment should last 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Once he began, it was evident this would last a bit longer, but as my wife and I had lots of questions, we were OK with this. Doug measured each window in several places and took lots of notes on what options we would like for each opening. After all was said and done, he gave us the price quote for windows if purchased today, a savings of several thousand dollars over waiting. I came close to terminating the sale at this point, but the product seemed to be superior to others we looked at. We signed a contract and the appointment ended at 10pm! A few days later, the measurer, Michael T., came to the house to measure the window openings for the final order. He answered questions we didn't think to ask during the sales meeting, and he clarified which windows would have tempered glass and which would not. Although we were told initially that it could take six weeks or more for the windows to be built and shipped to our home, it actually was around 3 1/2 weeks when the windows were ready. RBA called to set the installation appointment, then called the day prior to confirm. The installation crew (Todd K. was crew chief) arrived within 5 minutes of the time the told us they would be on site, and they had all 12 windows installed by the end of the day. Of course, this was a 6 man crew, all wearing RBA uniforms, and all cleaning up as they proceeded from one window to the next. Doug also stopped by on installation day to see how things were going and to find out if we had any concerns. Everyone on the installation crew was clean, professional, and answered our many questions as the install took place. The crew returned the next day to complete the exterior trim, and they were finished by noon. On the day following the installation, we received a vase of flowers as a thank-you gift from RBA. The windows are high quality products, and I have already noticed a huge difference in how quiet the house is and how infrequently the air conditioner cycles on and off. I can highly recommend the product and every person at RBA we dealt with, from sales through installation. My only source of disappointment is the pricing. Having a "Today Only" pricing model does not do this company justice: there should be one bottom-line quote regardless of whether I order the product on day 1 or day 100. As I stated above, I almost terminated the sale just because of this point, and I have to believe RBA has lost business from this sales approach.

It took two months for them to finally meet with me after cancellations and no shows. When I did finally have that opportunity their estimated bill for new windows was written on a piece of paper with no details. At the time they couldn't provide me with a break down. I was also surprised to learn that they charge just as much and even more for a windows with no hardware, will never move, no screen required either. Very disappointing on all respects.

Guess what happened at 8:00 AM on the appointment day that my spouse and I were home for and cleared our schedules to be there the entire time? NO ONE SHOWED UP!! At 8:15 AM I called the confirmation phone call lady and asked if we still had an appointment and where was the representative? Their response was that the representative wasn't coming in that day, can they reschedule? Not just no, but heck no! This happened in March and I'm still pretty upset about it. We have contracted with another window company for the work.

I told them I would have to use someone else.

This is a great product. It will be a selling point if we ever sell our house. Unlike others we did not mind the requirements for the in-home consultation. It is there policy, we knew that going in and our sales representative was great. These are the ONLY two highlights of this process. Our installation was not an enjoyable process. We had 10 windows replaced on our house, in Austin, in July. We had been told the project would take 2 whole days from start to finish. The first morning the crew took 5 old windows out first. They began to hang the new windows. At lunch they had 4 of the 5 hung, not finished but in place. The crew of 4 gentlemen then took a 3 HOUR LUNCH! When they came back one of the gentlemen was no longer with the crew. They proceded to finish hanging the last window, remove 2 more and hang them. The first work day ended with 7 of 10 windows replaced with new windows hung, none completely finished. Day two. 3 crew members arrive, two hours after they said they would arrive. Within two hours the crew lead left the house. The remaining two gentlemen removed the remaining old windows and hung new ones, they then went to lunch. We now had 10 new windows hung, none finished and for the second day in a row the crew disappeared for a 3 HOUR Lunch. When they got back the crew was down to 2 people. They began the finishing process. At the end of the day, 2 windows were installed and finished. I was told then by the crew leader that he a new project to start tomorrow and would not be back the next day but some of his crew would be in. I contacted the central office and by 7:00am the following morning the construction team lead, the crew lead and a new crew were on site to finish the job. I do not know what would have happened if i had not called the central office but the fact alone that i had to was a major shortfall on their part. Upon completion of the job I was not asked to have a final walk through. I had to walk and inspect every window and ask the crew as they were packing up to please come back and fil in holes and gaps in the caulking on both the inside and outside of several windows. This process took an additional three hours. Then after waiting for an hour from 5-6pm to sign the completion documents and be give a demo to see how our lage double hung windows operated I had to ask the crew lead to stop fixing his truck so this could begin. I never did get the demo on the windows. As i said this is a great product, but this was by far the worst experience i have ever had with a remodeling/construction guest service situation in my life.

Good bid process but not a winning bid.

The three windows they installed in under a day. They were very quick, efficient, cleaned up all of their mess.

I had the same experience as the other reviewer who could not get the company to do the in-home estimate without the spouse present. It was an unbelievably frustrating experience. We really wanted to use this company but after about 4 phone calls of being told I had to reschedule if my husband would not be there, I had enough. Their attitude was increasingly arrogant and offensive. I explained that my husband had no interest in the windows and this would be my decision entirely - I was then asked by the company representative if I did not care for my husband's opinion. I explained that my husband worked out of town and was told to make a Sat appt. - because, as everybody knows, someone who is away all week has nothing better to do than to spend one of their two days at home listening to a window replacement sales pitch. I was given the long and tedious spiel each time about how special their windows are, and also how precious their workers' time is - the same response pretty much they gave here on Angie's List to the aforementioned reviewer, only much longer. Since they were clearly not interested in my constraints, I finally gave up and said ok, I tried, but this is obviously not going to work. After frustrating all my efforts to schedule an estimate with them, they then did a follow-up call with me to find out why I had canceled. No, really. When I told him why, the representative from Renewal had this quick come-back: the business they lose because of their "policy" that both spouses be present for their sales pitch is only 4-6% so it doesn't bother them. So after refusing to schedule an appt. without my husband accompanying me, they then called to further insult me as a not particularly valuable customer. I have since gotten multiple bids on our windows from reputable companies all whom comfortably gave their bids to me alone - and in response to Renewal's riposte to the previous reviewer - NONE of these companies had to come out a second time. Renewal needs to consider its "policy" carefully. It creates a "barrier to entry" - first by saddling potential customers with busy lives with an unnecessary inconvenience. But more worrying is their insistence to a woman that her husband be there - it sounds borderline sexist. And to a man - it can be construed as the same thing. Before you go there - equal-opportunity sexism doesn't make it any less sexist. No window is worth such obnoxious customer service.

I received a mailer from Anderson. I responded by email to arrange a meeting to review my job. I was contacted immediately by an individual to set up the meeting. I had stated a time and date on the email response. The sales person asked if my wife would be present. I knew she would not be there so I said no.. I was told that we would have to reschedule the meeting. It was company policy to meet with both spouses. I explained that last thing my wife wanted to do was sit through a presentation on replacement windows. Same response, both had to be there. At this point my male ego kicked and I told her that I would make the decision on on the windows and my wife neither wanted to be there nor was needed. Same response. I told her that we would not be doing business. Later I decided to call the office since since I could not believe they would pass up a job just because the wife could not attend the sales meeting. Same answer from the office guy. He quoted some statistic about the number of return visits they had to make when both parties were not in attendance. They might want to look at the statistics on the number of jobs they loose because of this stupid rule. In hind sight, I should have scheduled the meeting, told my wife she was required to attend, and then sat back and enjoyed the show.

The guys were amazing. It was expensive, but worth it -- bottom line is our house is cooler and quieter. The Quality is excellent -- small problem with a specific screw in the most used windows working loose, but it was easy to fix. There was a problem with paint matching in one area and the crew supervisor worked really hard to get this fixed.

They did a fine job. We were very happy with them. We were happy with the job but the second day they kept coming in and out and it felt like they were feeling a little to at home.

The work is fair. Our neighbors around have had windows put in and it seems they have been given choices of different cost ranges and types. We were not given that choice as we have the top of the line windows which we probably did not need. They were very expensive. They had to come back on one set three times because the windows were not measured right. They did eventually get the work done. They tore up the inside paneling and it was not as good of service as I thought it would be.

It turned out great. They did not do a good job on the drywall initially. They came right out and corrected the work which was great.

The demonstration reminded me of the vacuum cleaner salesperson who's machine looked like magic. Same thing here. He had a pane from one of their windows, and a pane from a Pella window. He had us put our hands under the window with a red heat lamp above it, and the Pella you could feel the heat radiating through the glass, whereas the Anderson pane you couldn't feel anything. Big plus here in Texas. Well the day came and the windows were put in. The guys were fast, and the guys who had to deal with the stone work were amazing. You couldn't tell they had been ever removed and replaced. The only thing I wasn't prepared for was how much these windows reduce your window sills. I loved to sit plants in the windowsill, but these windows occupy so much space, no such go as they reduced our windowsills to just a few inches. Also we noticed that the heat reduction seemed minimal compared to the old windows. For instance, the sun shining through the window and shines on the wood floor, where the sun shines, the floor is warm. Was with the old windows too. We replaced all the east facing windows on the house as they were the largest. Also they claim to have some sort of "self cleaning coating" on them, that seems a bit snake-oilish to me as they need to be cleaned just like the old windows. They are beautiful windows, and seem to be well made and have a good warranty but I don't know if they are that much better than some lower priced windows. These seven windows cost us over 16K. Not sure if I would use them again, after seeing some of the things that were demonstrated not being realistic in our application, I am not sure I would pay the premium for these and would compare other windows.

The time-share sales approach of Renewal is a joke. 1) Requiring both husband and wife to be present at an initial sales call. Worse, 2) the "buy today for x% off" tactic is completely inappropriate for this type of purchase. But you've probably read enough about that already. Competence: The sales guy we dealt with did two things that displayed ignorance or very poor judgment. 1) He suggested making literally every window in the house a non-functional picture window. I won't "argue" about that here but will just say that I think it's ridiculous even in our climate. 2) A recommendation he made to replace a window and its surrounding wood trim by taking the window straight to the stone (hard to describe to you in text, sorry) was not technically infeasible but he completely missed the fact that it would require major structural changes inside the home. Was absolutely absurd and it was because he just didn't know better. Sales approach: This company preys on fear, uncertainty and doubt of prospective buyers, trying to convince you that theirs is the only product "technology" that has any merit. They will "scream" at you that "vinyl will melt". Haha. Oh, I wish everyone knew better. But I guess they fool enough people to make their money. We got a verbal quote but absolutely nothing in writing, neither at time of visit nor by follow up email as requested. That's ridiculous. The verbal quote was about $50K. We had good alternatives ranging from $14K to $25K.

Anderson windows are very high quality. However, Renewal by Anderson is one of the worst companies I have ever encountered. First, their sales person, Aaron, will tell you anything in order to make you hire them. So, we got fooled. Next, the installation crews seem to be hired from the street, we had to watch them all the time and make sure they do not damage anything around the house. We are hiring another contractor to fix some of the work that we paid thousands of dollars to be done. Do not fall for this scam, find somebody else.

I understand the need to make good use of their time for the free estimates and have any important decisionmakers present, but once that question is appropriately addressed they should leave it alone. I felt badgered. I have dealt successfully with this good company in Minneapolis, so I think this is a local issue that management needs to review.

Anderson is a great product. We cannot complain about the product. The sales man who we have been working with is really good. The breakdown is, I do not think the company is very well organized and there is a lot of miscommunication. The job never seems to go quite as smoothly as I would hope. Rendering the finished product is fine. There are only the few little bumps along the way. When there is a problem somebody deals with it, there is never an issue as they fix it. I just think that their sub contractors should be a little more detail oriented. The job turned out to be great. The windows look good, although we had one of the issues while they were setting the windows. It was that they were not being consistent on how much inside or outside they were setting the windows. I realized none of them understood what I am trying to say. Sometimes there were two inches on the inside of the windows and sometimes three and they were not consistent. We made them push them back out as much as they could, as far as they had room for nailing otherwise my window coverings and my blinds won’t even fit inside the hole. It seems like all the windows should have been suspended, we should not have had to point that out to them. They were kind of putting them in, setting them in and not really noticing if the windows were same all the way around. Maybe an average person would not even notice that. But my husband and I are really meticulous and my hundand does all the frame work and trim work around the windows when they are done and he notices all that stuff. He was also noticing whether our window covers would fit back in the hole. It’s just the little things. When I bought it to Anderson’s attention, they were quick to act on it and make it wide. They were not trying to cheat me out of anything or they were trying to make me settle for anything. They wanted to make it right. I don’t have problem with that. I just wish that they did it right the first time. In terms of overall experience, I don’t think it’s fair to give them anything less than “B” because the windows look great and they are great windows. I will only give them an “A” if there were no problems but there were a few. In terms of price, Anderson’s are expensive but I get what I pay for. They are very responsive. Yes, I would use them again because we still have windows left for next year.

I ordered windows right before then end of the year 2010. The sales call wasn't necessarily "high pressure"... but it wasn't as comfortable as it could have been. The salesman had all of the "buy today, get this price", "recommend us" and get that price lines. I had previously priced windows and knew the max I was willing to pay and since he came in under than and I felt that Andersen has a good product, I went with it. Approximately 2 months later the windows arrived. They were more or less to the day when the salesman said they would be here. I got a call and the appointment was set up. Being a large number of windows I expected a multi day appointment, but the person on the phone claimed they would get it done in a single day. (please note... the "days" below were not necessarily consecuitive.. they are showing how may days this actually took) Day one: The day of the install a full crew showed up... all nice guys... but they confirmed my suspicions... one day wasn't even close to enough time to install all of these windows, but they would do their best and get as many installed as possible. They started taking out the old windows and that was where trouble started. I was in the middle of a remodel at the time and had bare concrete for the floor. For some reason they decided to place protective pads on the floor instead of the leather sofa sitting 2 feet from the window. Can you guess what happened next? You guessed it... the window they were removing broke and fell all over the sofa. It did some minor damage, but to Andersen's credit they did have it fixed.. (but that added yet another day to their "one day" install). Later they were installing a large glass window above a glass cooktop (a brand new induction cooktop). I pointed out multiple times that it was glass and told them not to stand on it. They even built a platform so that they could stand above it, but not on it. The window they were installing was giving them some real problems, so I looked up and one of them was standing on the cooktop! (note... this cooktop was brand new... it had been in the counter for less than a week... it is a 5 burner all induction cooktop... look them up, they are not cheap!) I had to get onto the guy... and to top it all off... it was the same guy that had broken the window all over the sofa! They also replaced two doors on my house. These two doors were full glass, outward swing doors. One of them was a single door and the other was a double french door. Like all old houses, my house is not plumb.... this gave them a lot of problems. In the end I ended up with a door that was a compromise between straight and being at the same angle as the wall. This causes the door to swing open on its own if not closed all the way. They also skipped placing any sort of vapor barrier between the concrete pad and then bottom of the doors (in accordance with install instructions and warranty guidelines included with the door.) I asked them if this was standard practice and they said it was... so I fully expect them to honor any warranty issues should they arrise from their improper installation of the doors. It seemed as if this crew didn't really install doors much as they had a hard time installing them, a hard time adjusting them and completely didn't adjust the lock mechanism on the french door correctly. Now to day two.... Next up were two large casement windows in the front room of my house. The original windows being removed were very nicely trimmed out and had very clean lines to them. However they were 30 years old and the seals were broken and the mechanics on one of them no longer worked... so we decided to get them replaced with new casement windows as well. I had expected them to remove the old ones, replace with new ones and trim out like the originals that were there. I got the first two parts right... but when it came time to trim them out they had decided to get real lazy. They decided they were going to trim it out with some pieces of 1x4 to cover the big gaps left by the old window removal. Huh? The salesman said all work would be done professionally and the windows would look as good as what they were removing when finished. At this point I blew a gasket.... I told them if they weren't going to at least do as good of a job as I would myself then to get out of my house and I would finish the inside trim myself. They then decided they could trim it out properly... but it would have to be done another day. Day 3... By this time all of the windows were in... but not all trimmed out, etc... Today they came back to trim out the casements and to finish mortaring the windows back into the brick. No real problems today... but it is day three of a "one" day install. They finished the install of the windows and overall I am pleased with the product and most of the crew that worked on them. Day 4... Yes.. day 3 should have been the last day... but it wasn't. Remember that damaged sofa? Now I had to schedule yet another day at home so that someone can come repair the sofa. Even though the damage was minor, it took over three hours to fix. (and to be honest.. I can still tell it happened but it looks "good enough") BTW.. I fixed the lock mechanism on my french door today as it wasn't done properly by the Andersen folks. Good thing I managed to fish the instructions out of the trash so that I could properly adjust the lock mechanisms after they left. Day 5.... Inspections... Guess they forgot to tell me about that one. So now I have to spend yet another day at home waiting for the City of Austin inspector. The inspector come out to do the inspection. Everything looks good to me... but guess what? Of the sixteen windows they install five are wrong! (yes five). Three of them were supposed to me tempered glass... they weren't. The other two are in bedrooms. One of them fails to meet fire egress rules and the other not only fails to meet egress rules, but should have also been tempered because of proximity to a door. Day 6... After the inspections, Andersen calls me to set up another measurement... So they send out the same guy that came out the first time. Nice guy... looks around and sees immediately that the three windows that weren't tempered were his goof. Then upon remeasuring the other two agrees... yes they will need to be replaced as well. Leaves and tells me that as soon as they get in they'll give me a call. A couple of weeks later I get a call that my windows are ready. Really, could they have come in that fast? Nope... sorry.. just kidding.. The ones that were supposed to be tempered? They were sent not tempered yet again. This time they blamed Andersen themselves. They say it will be another four weeks and they will be here. Five weeks later I finally get the call. My windows are here! They confirm and double check and assure me that everything will get taken care of. We schedule the appointment and everything is set. Day 7...(note.. today is June 16.. these windows were originally ordered the last week of December and originally installed during the last week of February). Well Andersen showed up this morning. Guess what? They don't have all of my windows and claim they don't know anything about the two they are missing... <sigh.. you have got to be kidding me!!!!> I call the local office and discuss.... and guess what? They do indeed have the other windows.. but they are in the warehouse. There is some discussion... but they will get put in today. They get the first three replaced… and then go to pick up the last two. They come back an hour or so later to install. They remove the entire old assemblies and install new ones. One of the new ones is a casement window. They ordered it so tight that it would barely fit into the opening. It also won't open so they proceed to trim off part of my fascia from the house. Did they ask before they started trimming? No…. The other window was supposed to be tempered and a hair bigger than the one being removed because of egress rules. Well at least they got half of it right… the window is now the right size… but not tempered. Really? Really? So this time out of five windows they managed to get 4 right and one wrong. Needless to day I supposed they will have to end up coming out at least two more times… once to replace the sashes in this window and another to finish all of the outside trim as it appears they didn't even bother to schedule a crew to do it today. So I have decided this will be the end of this review. Do I like my windows? Yes… I am pleased with the windows. Would I ever buy Andersen windows again? NO WAY! Would I ever recommend Renewal by Andersen of Austin to anyone? Again.. NO WAY! Too bad too… great product but the total incompetence if this company is ridiculous. In fact.. not only have I not recommended them, I have already managed to sway many friends from buying them. Many of the people I know live in houses similar to mine and similar in age to mine and need windows replaced… Do you think they will use RBA after my experience? I think not.