BEWARE! CONSUMER CONSTRUCTION, INC. IS BACK! DON'T BUY REPLACEMENT WINDOWS FROM THIS FIRM!

 This is to inform home owners interested in purchasing replacement
home
windows about one couple's experience with a Northern Virginia firm,
CONSUMER CONSTRUCTION, INC.

In June 1999, Consumer Construction, Inc., Woodbridge, VA 22191,
703-491-0745, http://www.consumerconstruction.com , furnished and
installed 13 ea. replacement vinyl windows, Carefree brand, with Low E
glass and argon gas. Cost: $4,200.

Initially my wife and I were generally pleased with the product,
however one double-hung unit toally filmed over within three years on
the inner (sealed) surfaces.  Those surfaces cannot be cleaned.

We left several phone messages with Consumer Construction, Inc.
(hereinafter called the "company') but received no response.  In June
2004, we sent the company an e-mail message via its e-mail response
line. A male from the company phoned and agreed to inspect the window,
but never showed up.

We subsequently contacted the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Greater
Washington, D.C. (202-393-8000, www.mybbb.org), which made contact
with
the company.  A company representative came to our house in May 2005,
and found that nine (9) windows had some degree of filming due he said
to "inner moisture."

The company agreed to contact the manufacturer to obtain an on-site
inspection, but a few weeks later, it was determined by the company
that the manufacturer of Carefree brand windows had gone bankrupt and
out of business. The company subsequently told us that it, therefore,
would not replace at no cost any of the filmed windows, since the
manufacturer was no longer in business. "I am at a dead end," we were
told by the company manager, Mr. Mitchell.

We went back to the BBB with this information; the BBB agreed to try
to
arrange for arbitration of our case, but were met with silence on the
matter. The case remains in an unresolved category.

To summarize my wife's and my position, we believe that, at a minimum,
Consumer Construction, Inc. should be willing to replace at no cost
the
two windows that are completely filmed over, especially since the
company's own inspector remarked, "You don't need blinds for these
[filmed windows]."

Consumer Construction's position is unacceptable to us, as customers,
and we believe it fails to meet standards of responsible business
practice as well.  Consumer Construction SOLD us windows that failed;
THEY bear primary responsibility for resolving this case to our
satisfaction.  The company's position is like a food market telling a
customer to go to the farmer who raised the steer from which a spoiled
cut of meat was originally obtained!

A case such as ours does not belong in Small Claims court, and area
lawyers want $1,500 to $3,00 retainers to take these type cases in a
civil court.


P.S.   --  After keeping a low profile, Consumer Construction is back
in the Woodbridge, Va. area.  Still installing windows.

 
It's nice to hear what you "believe" the company should do,
but what are they legally obligated to do?

They presumably gave you some sort of warranty. Does the
warranty say that _they_ warrant that the windows will be free
of defects for some period of time, or that the _manufacturer_
warrants the windows against defects?

The windows are clearly defective, but if the warranty you
were given at the time you purchased them was from the
manufacturer rather than the installer, then the installer is
under no legal obligation to do anything for you if the
manufacturer has gone out of business.

If they wanted to be nice, I suppose they could offer to
install replacement windows from some other manufacturer
without charging for labor, but without seeing the warranty
they gave you, there's no way for us to know whether they're
under any obligation to do so.


There is an implied warranty when you buy food from a market
that the food will be fit for consumption.

There may also be such an implied warranty when you purchase
replacement windows, but it is commonplace for such implied
warranties to be overridden by explicit manufacturer
warranties.

In short, although it depends on exactly what warranties you
were given when you bought the windows, your analogy is
probably inaccurate and irrelevant.


Because you'd lose?


Because they know they'd lose?


What evidence do you have that this company was "keeping a
low profile"?

It sounds like you didn't get very good service from the
company that installed your windows. They should have
returned your phone calls. They should have come out to
inspect the windows when they said they would. Maybe they
even should have offered to replace the defective windows
without charging you for the labor. But it doesn't sound to
me like they did anything _legally_ wrong.

I'm sorry your windows filmed up -- we've had a couple of ours
do the same, and it's no fun -- but that's life when you buy
cheap windows.

If you're handy, you can probably buy replacement panes for
the filmed windows and install them yourself. See
http://www.replacement-windows.com/window-board/read.php?board=1&idF81  for
some leads on where you might be able to get
them.

Alternatively, you can probably find a company in your area to
install new panes of glass in the sashes.  If not, you can
probably find somebody that sells new sashes compatible with
the mechanisms in the Carefree windows.

Any of these options will probably be cheaper than having new
windows installed again.

 The customer reported that the BBB couldn't convince Consumer
Construction to even agree to arbitration.  Yet the company pocketed
every cent of the customer's money.

Seems like there ought to be some recourse for the buyer, but there
isn't, it seems.

Still, shame on Consumer Construction, Inc.  And they're still out
there, available to grab someone else's money and run away!