Went in to the local lumberyard (NOT HD) to finally place my order for windows and patio doors for the new house. I had planned from Day One to use Anderson 400 Series windows in Terratone, and had cut all my rough openings in the structural insulated panels to fit stock Anderson sizes.
So I go up to the counter with my list, the guys know me pretty well and say hi. I produce the list and say, let’s write this up. I have a longstanding account with the company and know that they will meet or beat anybody else’s price.
Tim, the head sales guy, looks at my list, looks at me and says, “Jon you’re s*&% out of luck”. It seems that Anderson has been catering heavily to their biggest retailers (can anybody say big orange retailer?) and is insisting that all of their sales outlets carry the entire line and STOCK the 200 series windows. Well, this yard doesn’t sell the 200 series anyway because HD does, doesn’t have room to stock, and isn’t about to be pushed around. So they told the Anderson rep to go screw himself, threw out all the Anderson catalogs, and started pushing Marvin Integrity heavily. They won’t, probably can’t, special order – I think they shot themselves in the foot here, but apparently the wound is healing just fine.
The good part of all this is (well there’s a few good parts): the wife likes the pebble gray a LOT better than the Terratone (and you can paint it), the Marvin seems to have a much higher satisfaction rating than the Andersons, they just started offering hardware in satin nickel (which is what turned us off the Integrity in the first place), and they appear to be cheaper – in this case, a good thing. So he’s writing up the list with Marvin equivalents, if the RO is a bit small, he’s giving me the next size up and I can always enlarge the openings in a SIP. Nice.
The plans, they change; and sometimes for the better.
Replies
Marvin has always been a much better window than Anderson. Anderson is much better at marketing. They have branded themselves well.
Personally, I hate everything about anderson, their colors, their flimsy clad frames, their cheap fins, their overpriced jamb extensions, their fat doorwall frames. But..they are good at marketing!
blue
Might only be a personal experience....and I haven`t dealt with them in a little while....but getting all of the windows when promised, or even the right ones, may be something to plan for with Marvin.
Just a heads up.
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements