I gotta tell you, im kind of on the side of the window contractor. You ordered windows which you only put a deposit on and you want him to deliver the windows and not get them installed because you dont have the money?

i would never deliver the windows at that point until you were ready to have them installed and then pay in full.

Also, i wouldnt want them laying around my warehouse either and run the risk of them getting damaged. This sounds more like a nightmare for the window contractor and not the customer. Perhaps he is holding the sdl money so he doesnt lose out on all the windows?

I paid the full amount. He has the full amount for the Windows with SDLs.

He was aware he was supposed to hold them. We even asked him if he wanted to hold on releasing the order to production until it was a little closer to needing them. That's when he said he could hold them in his warehouse.

I'm sorry, when I said behind, I meant on building (I edited the original post for clarity), the rain has slowed everything down. This is a new construction, I forget I'm not in the Building a home forum.

In my experience building a few houses, I would not consider that a nightmare.Hope everything else goes smoother.

Agree with Todd. Your situation is far from a nightmare. The bottom line, you have your windows.

I know in the grand scheme of things, it's not major so nightmare is overstating. I guess it seems to us a lot worse since it was the first major decision we made on the house (other than the plan itself). I guess I think about it from the perspective of just taking $1200 and burning it. In terms of total cost of a house, it's not a lot of money but that would buy a lot of lumber or interior doors or whatever else the next need would be.

Are any of these numbers stated on your contract or invoice? Sound like there's is a little confusion.

The invoice/signed purchase agreement/whatever it would be called just shows us paying the full $14K (and some change) for the price of the windows with SDLs. SDLs are specifically mentioned on the invoice. From talking to him this morning, what he's saying is that you have to take away the cost of the SDL but you have to add back in the cost of the interior grid. I can understand that thinking, but it was never mentioned to us that way. It was just originally said that the SDLs were an additional $10 per square. Based on his numbers on what we would be getting back, it's basically $1.44 per square. For that amount, I would have rather just had the SDLs.

Hey Brooks! Congratulations on building your house! That's a dream not all people can realize. I sure understand when remodeling or building a home, money can get tight and everything ends up costing more than you originally thought it would. And things can get frustrating!

My personal opinion, and it's just an opinion, is that both you and your window contractor made mistakes, none of them with any malice a forethought. Generally speaking, the window dealer sounds disorganized. This is true of a lot of small businesses. The guy may be very good at his or her particular craft, but less so at the business size of things. Since you gave him the option of holding the order until you were ready, and he said it wouldn't be any problem for him to store them, then he should have found a way to do that. Also, he should have done a much better job of explaining the pricing with the various features. You should have been quoted a total price for the windows with the SDLs and the total price without. Then you could have seen the actual difference in pricing. You also should have gotten an itemized work order for the original order and then another one after you made changes.

On your end, you didn't do your due diligence. I haven't even started my remodel yet, and I have spent hundreds of hours researching. I bought an old manufactured home and am renovating it top to bottom. I can honestly say there are only a handful of people who know more about mobile homes and renovating them than I. You should have known the consequences of removing the SDLs. You should have asked your dealer a hundred questions, and you should have asked for total quotes for both options. And even though it was the contractor's goof for not having the room to store them, it was not his job to supply manpower to re-arrange stuff in your barn.

My point is that contractors are people, and from time to time, they will make unintentional errors. It is YOUR job to know as much as possible about what's happening and to ask questions.

It sounds to me like the dealer is a decent fellow and isn't ripping you off. It was a case of poor communication on both your parts. Again, this is just my personal opinion.

Have a great day! :-)

Might I respectfully recommend editing your title from "My Sunrise Nightmare" to "My contractor name Nightmare"? Sunrise had absolutely nothing to do with the issues involved, and shouldn't have their name tarnished over this. If someone reads the title and not the post, they would assume that you're a customer who's unhappy with the product.

It's pretty clear to me : $1.44 per square is his cost; $10.00 per square is what he bills for grilles. He can't refund you that amount. The refund/a la carte prices should have been completely spelled out in the contract.

Plainer: if he only refunds you $1.44 per square he gets to keep more of what you already gave him.

OTOH, he did warehouse them for you at his risk and expense for a couple of months.

Casey

I agree with everyone that says it's a communication problem. He was very good about communication until we paid him. Then he became almost nonexistent. I thought my wife did a very good job of trying to communicate with him. She called, emailed and texted with very little, if any, response from him. She even emailed him hand drawn pictures of how she wanted the grills and included what (math included) we believed we were getting back from nixing the SDLs. He never mentioned anything about it.

He didn't warehouse them for us even though he said he would when we placed the order. I don't have any negative feelings about Sunrise and I don't really dislike the dealer, it just seems like he likes to work in gray areas. I don't know if it's because he doesn't like working with numbers or it helps him make a little more margin, but that seems like it could backfire quite easily if that were the case.

In hindsight we should have insisted on everything in writing, I know. If we went by what we have in writing, I would have SDLs. At this point, I'm trying to just put it behind. As far as changing the subject line, I don't see anywhere to change it or even delete the thread.