CALL

856-383-5700

FOR YOUR FREE ESTIMATE

l	Free Shop at Home Service

l	No Subcontractors

l	Factory Authorized Dealers

“How To Buy Replacement Windows for Dummies”

Chapter 7: The General Contractor and the Cardiologist (continued)

But wait a minute. Why not go to your family doctor. You have a higher deductible for emergency room treatment. No, you go to the hospital because you know the hospital will have specialists to treat you, specialists that only deal with heart problems. When you arrive at the hospital you are treated right away and after a series of tests they find out you just have a bad case of indigestion. (Probably, you figure, from the stress of knowing you have to buy new windows).

Your spouse arrives at the hospital and takes you home. Just as you pull up to the house another miracle happens, the heater repairman shows up. He fixes your heater in less than a hour, you only need a small part and the whole bill is less than one-hundred dollars. (There goes your last excuse for not buying those new windows.)

The next morning you wake up determined to start your window buying process. You notice a large ad in your morning paper for a general contractor. This guy must be good you think, he does kitchens, additions, bathrooms, siding, fencing, painting and windows. So you jot down his number and continue reading the paper. In the classified section you see ad ad for a handyman. “We charge by the hour” the ad reads. So you jot down his number also. They both come out to give you an estimate. They both tell you they have windows that will qualify for the federal rebate and the handyman states that he will beat the general contractor’s quote by two-hundred dollars no matter what it is. Now that is what you have been waiting for so you give the handyman the job.

Now think about it. When you thought you were having a heart attack you did not want to go to your family doctor, the guy who treats many things but specializes in none, but now when you decide to buy windows you call the general contractor who is like the family doctor and a handyman who is like your neighbor’s best friend who was a medic in the army.

Neither the general contractor nor the handyman specializes in window and door replacement. Neither even showed you the window you are getting. Neither are factory authorized dealers, and neither could probably tell you the difference between a spiral balance and a constant force balance, argon gas and unleaded gas and Low-E glass and tinted glass. The general contractor might do a few window jobs a year, which he probably uses sub-contractors for, and the handyman might have installed a few windows a couple of years ago.

So I guess you now get the point. When buying new windows hire an expert, like Freedom Windows and Doors. We install thousands of windows each year, not a couple of jobs here and there. Oh, and I almost forgot, WE NEVER USE SUBCONTRACTORS!

Page Two

Replacement Windows and Exterior Doors

30 Windsor Mews Cherry Hill, New Jersey 08002 New Jersey License 13VH04712200

Replacement Windows and Exterior Doors

Chapter 8: The Truth About Factory Direct Pricing

I see this one advertised all the time. I also give estimates to people who hold up another company’s brochure and tell me that this competitor provides factory direct pricing. Well here is the real scoop.

First, a true window dealer, like yours truly, is authorized by the manufacturer to sell their windows. A true window dealer has probably gone through training with the manufacturer to some extent to provide the dealer with sound knowledge about the product, how to install it and how to fix it if something happens. When you purchase your new windows from a true window dealer, he or she (I want to be politically correct here) places the order directly with the manufacturer. Therefore, there is no middleman marking up the product before it gets to the true window dealer. A true window dealer sells a lot of windows to maintain his dealer status with the manufacturer.

Second, the wannabe window dealer is not directly authorized by the manufacturer to sell their windows. Usually this is because they do not sell enough windows to qualify to be a dealer. Heck, they may be going to a building supply distributor or even worse to one of the national home supply stores to purchase your new windows. The wannabe window dealer may even present a window to you with a great looking wrapper or name on it, but remember if you polish a junk car to make it look pretty it is still a junk car. (Something like putting a silk shirt on a pig).

So the next time you get a window replacement estimate, I suggest you take the window brochure, call the manufacturer and check to see if they sell directly to this window dealer. Ask me, I will even provide you with the number to my manufacturer representative.