The garage door is good but the customer service was poor.
Referred to Express Garage Doors (expressdoors.co.uk) by a friend, and after reading positive reviews that mentioned good communication by Chris, I contacted the company. After missing one appointment, Chris visited my house to offer options. I chose a sectional garage door and was initially told that the turn around during early summer could be as little as two weeks.
Three weeks after taking my order, I was surprised and somewhat disappointed that I’d not been contacted as promised, about a delivery and installation date. I had to chase Chris for an update. Six weeks after placing the order, the garage door was installed after a short notice change by the company to the installation date.
The installation day didn’t start well as the team were late and had gone to the wrong address. When they did arrive at my house, the driver of the pickup truck drove and parked on my lawn despite there being an ample size drive outside my house. I asked him to park on the drive and suggested reversing the vehicle around in so as to avoid driving and then walking on the lawn. The lead installer said that wasn’t necessary and that he wouldn’t walk on the lawn.
After making them tea, I left them to it and came back periodically to see if they needed anything. Every time I went in the garage, the installers were there and they ended up walking on the grass. The lead installer cheerfully and repeatedly at length would happily talk about anything that mattered to him and his assistant appeared to be surgically attached to his ‘phone and stayed in the pickup when it was raining although he did get lost for thirty minutes going to the local shop which was a five minute walk away. At one point, the assistant pulled his sleeves over his hands to protect them when carrying something heavy. I thought that it must be his first few days or weeks on the job and went to get him a pair of gloves. Turns out he had been working for the company for three years. Make of that what you will.
By 2pm, the installers had finished and I got a rudimentary demonstration of the door and talked through a couple of maintenance points. They took the old door and all the packing materials from the new door with them. However, despite them being told they were free to use the vacuum and any brushes etc, below all the sites where they had drilled into the wall, piles of brickwork dust were all too evident. Annoyingly, they hadn’t bothered to move some electrical equipment directly under one of the drilled holes covered which ended up being covered with dust. And whilst again not something that I can’t change, I thought that fitting a gnarly, old, used and dirty three-pin plug on the end of the motor of a garage door that cost four figures was particularly petty, intentionally cheap and frankly rather insulting.
Prior to and during the ordering phase, Chris was pleasant, contactable and responsive. However, after the order was placed, I got the distinct impression that my importance as a customer had waned considerably. When I paid the balance, I expected Chris to enquire if I was happy with the door and installation or had any questions. Instead, he took the payment and then said; “Any problems, just give us a call”. And that was that. I was left with the very obvious impression that as a customer, I no longer was of any value, either personally or financially to him.
I didn’t intend to write this review but the number of entirely avoidable and completely unnecessary examples of poor customer service and/or complete lack of thought about the impact of their actions of the installers made me draft it. What made me post it was Chris’s attitude and behaviours.