Starting a major home improvement project can be scary and costly; especially living on a fixed income.
One FOX SA viewer decided to go out on a limb and invest in replacement windows, only to be disappointed with the outcome.
She called FOX SA’S investigative Problem Solver Darian Trotter to help make things right.
Gwen Roberts is preparing for a milestone birthday. For her, turning 80 drums up fond memories with her husband from events and experiences.
It also makes her mindful of plans that, for whatever reason, were postponed.
Like replacing those drafty windows.
“When my husband was living, where he sat, there was always a draft. And I would roll towels up, you know to keep the draft,” said Gwen Roberts.
Charles Roberts, the love of her life, passed three years ago.
Since then, Gwen’s done her best to continue their lust for living life to the fullest.
“My husband was very frugal and he didn’t want to spend the money,” said Roberts.
But replacing their windows had always been on Gwen’s To-Do list.
In comes a door-to-door salesman, with a high-powered pitch.
“Showed me some slides of windows and everything, and I thought, oh, okay,” said Roberts.
“They gave me a big number of how many customers they had, satisfied customers that they had,” said Roberts. “And I thought I wanted to be one of them.”
The salesman from Power Home Remodeling went over an affordable monthly payment plan, and Gwen said yes.
After all, she checked out the company that’s been in business 33 years. Power is accredited and has an A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau.
Investigative Reporter Darian Trotter asked, “How excited were you? I was very excited,” Gwen replied. “I was very proud. I had made a major decision by myself. So I was very proud.”
So proud she says she bragged to neighbors, family members and friends about checking another item off of her list of home improvement projects.
Which she now says made it even embarrassing when things went south.
Let me explain. The plan was to replace eight windows and the back door.
Crews finished the work in two days.
Trotter asked, “How’d that go? Okay, well, it went well because I didn’t know what I was looking for,” replied Roberts.
She says it wasn’t until a quality control inspector from power came out, to check the work, that she became aware something was wrong.
“He pointed out to me, oh this is loose,” said Roberts. “Oh that’s not right. He said that this is unacceptable.”
Gwen says crews were immediately scheduled to make adjustments.
According to Gwen, the problem areas were, for the most part cosmetic; with the exception of loose trim in some areas of the windows.
The back door needed to be removed and re-installed, because Gwen wasn’t happy with how it was sealed.
Crews completed corrective work , but Gwen says it didn’t pass the company’s second quality control inspection.
“At the top they start off doing really good and look like their arms got tired. They just look like I’m going to squeeze and get this over with.”
She says once things were pointed out to her, it was hard not to notice what she describes as cosmetic imperfections.
She began to side with the inspector and made a comparison, saying her caulking was not as even as what’s shown and the company’s website.
“Totally opposite, totally opposite,” said Roberts.
And that’s what she thought she was getting.
Trotter asked, “What didn’t you like. I didn’t like the installation, the caulking of the project.
Trotter asked, “What did it look like? What was wrong with the caulking? It looked like a 3-year old had done it.”
We reached out to Power about Gwen’s concerns.
In a statement the company says, “Capping on the bottom of the windows is intentionally not secured. While it could be caulked, it’s not ideal because it wouldn’t allow for water to weep out.”
They went on to say, “The caulk could be wavy in spots because it has to follow the lines of the siding.”
Here’s what we saw when we met with Gwen.
Some caulking was thin and straight, while other areas were thick and wavy.
Some areas at the bottom of some of the windows were secured to the frame, but we were able to easily move others with a slight tug.
A quick search of Google reviews reveals power home remodeling has 4.6 out of Five Stars.
Most of the more than 500 reviews are positive.
The ones that aren’t mention pushy salesmen, no shows, and concerns about craftsmanship.
One customer wrote, “Do I have to leave a star?
She went on to say, “The caulking around the windows was bad, it looked like they gobbed it on and wiped it with their thumb.”
“Yeah, exactly,” Roberts said. “It should look professional. It looked like I just hired somebody like a day laborer not trained in any specific thing.”
We asked if Gwen was being too picky.
She doesn’t think so and showed us records of monthly payments she’s making on her $17,000 investment.
And says, she want’s what she’s paying for.
“I’m not being picky,” Roberts said. “I said I just want it done right, you know. I’m not telling you how to do it, you know. I point out I said this is not professional, you know and for $17,000.”
Crews with Power Home Remodeling had attempted to resolve Gwen’s concerns at least three times.
But she wasn’t satisfied with the results.
She reached out to us because she says the two sides had stopped communicating.
At our request, Power agreed to send crews out again to address any remaining concerns.