Kingston Remodeling

OK, so first off - to the folks who complain about HCR requiring both spouses to be there for the sales pitch - we contacted four companies to do our windows, and they ALL required both spouses to be there.

Reason is that it's a pretty significant financial decision, and it's not one you want to make without your spouse there. Every company we contacted, including Window Nation, Andersen, etc. asked that both spouses be there. That way they don't commit and then cancel at the last minute because "my husband doesn't want these windows."

Second - yes, it's a high pressure sales pitch, but that said, our account consultant Chris Dobbin, agreed to come back and give us some time to make a decision, which we did that day after talking to another company that quoted us a "deal" that was almost $10,000 more than what Chris Dobbin offered us and for lower efficiency-rated windows.

Third - there were some scheduling SNAFUs, yes, because of bad weather and some other issues. But once the guys got there, they worked all day - didn't even take a lunch break - finished our windows perfectly and cleaned up and vacuumed after themselves. Anytime I had a problem, I would call Chris Dobbin, and he would engage immediately and resolve the issue. Anytime I had a question, he would immediately respond. That kind of responsiveness is rare in sales people. Normally, they sell you the product, and you never hear from them again.

And finally - despite the scheduling problems, these windows are AMAZING!!! They are super insulated, and they keep out noise, which is critical for someone like me who works night shift. They look great, and our 1974 home has been transformed.

My experience with HomeFix has been so bad and so unprofessional it's almost comical at this point. I really dislike writing scathing reviews - it just doesn't feel good to put that kind of negative energy out there - but I hope by briefly sharing my experience it will encourage others to seek out a more reliable company who does work with pride and integrity, as opposed to HomeFix, who has shown that they do shabby work with virtually no customer service to fall back on. A quick rundown of my experience:

- HomeFix did not fulfill their contractual duty to remove all materials from work site and instead left hundreds upon hundreds of pieces of roofing paper, nails, and shingles on the property. It took three phone calls, a letter and contacting my credit card company to withhold payment before HomeFix returned to clean up the mess.

- The flashing on my roof looked like it was done by a kid. It was sloppy and looked like it was done in a rush. Once again, it took three phone calls, a letter and contacting my credit card company to withhold payment before HomeFix returned to fix it.

- 7 months after installation, the shingles are lumpy and the ridgeline looks sloppy. I have contacted HomeFix more times than I can count by phone and email over the past month and they have yet to come out and fix the shabby work they've done, despite their supposed 25-year warranty.

The photo shows the lumpy roof and the sloppy ridgeline.

If their sales force is indicative of their overall service, RUN AWAY from them if they ever solicit your business. I offer my opinion of our recent experience. My wife and I had the displeasure of meeting and getting insulted by one of their regional sales manager. He made the comment that he is not like a used car salesman. He is right, car salesman do not insult their customers.
The young man arrived and went through his well-practiced sales pitch where he mentioned that the company is doing well as they have opened a third branch in Newport News; longevity of company (since 1990); great reviews on Angie's list and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

After my experience with the regional sales manager, I can only wonder how and why?
Prices seem to be a bit on the high side, but discounts after discounts were added to entice an agreement - when I deferred making a decision, the hard sell started. First why not take advantage of a great opportunity? This is only a one time deal that will not be offered again? Twelve months with no interest...still no agreement. Then the insult began - I was asked why not? Does it not make sense? He commented and asked, "I don't know why you don't take advantage of a great deal." When I concluded by repeatedly stating, no thank you, the regional sales manager added further insult, by making the ridiculous offer of $300...of course I declined. If I said yes, I wonder if he would have actually honored it? Probably not.

So, I noted that of 65 sales personnel that are employed by the company, we were "honored" and insulted by a regional sales manager. Why do I mention that the young man was a regional sales manager? Well, if he is a regional sale manager, does it mean that he excel in the practice of pressuring customers to purchase their products and service? If his demeanor and sales tactics epitomizes the company, I highly recommend that you RUN AWAY when you see a door advertisement/door hanger or solicitors from HCR.

Our experience with HCR was a thorough waste of time and has tainted our opinion of young men and women soliciting for home improvement services.

So, we will not utilize their many available services because of the actions of the regional sales manager who acted as a spoiled kid who was told, "no." I do not know if the product and service that they provide is as advertised because I will not contract with them. As a customer, I have the ultimate power and I declined.

The sales man Chris Dobbin, HCR scheduling staff and installation crew were very professional. Chris Dobbin espcially did a wonderful job of catering to my homes specific needs and following up during every portion of the process.

My installation had two issues, which were rectified immediately.

1) the day of installation there was a mix up between the scheduling staff and installation crew. This mix up resulted in the crew not showing up within the selected time frame and my counter tops were not installed that day. Fortunately they moved fast and was able to get me rescheduled for the next day.

2) once installed the island counter top was 2 inches shorter than expected. I reported this to Chris Dobbin and he is working to get this situation resolved.
Other than that the counters are beautiful and I look forward to spending more time in my kitchen

I found their business card today so I thought I would post a review.

Do NOT hire these guys to install your Windows & here's why:
1. They installed the windows from the inside and nicked every window sill.
2. They ordered 2 windows the wrong sized and had to come back several times.
3. They put metal frames around the windows.
4. 2 years later we hired a contractor who showed us how none of the windows were secured to the house and they stated the windows were to SMALL (because they measured from the inside and not the outside) hence the metal frames
5. This botch job cost me an additional $1,500 to fix.
6. Never again. :(

We hired Homefix Custom Remodeling to instal a new roof for us. Our Friday date was rained out so they came out on the Sunday which we were very grateful for. They did a superb job, our roof looks terrific. They started at 6:30 in the morning and were finished by 11:30 including clean up. We are very satisfied, very happy with this company. Would recommend them to anyone.

I was looking to get quotes for a new roof from a few companies, and run into this business through HomeAdvisor. Within a few minutes of submitting a quote request through HomeAdvisor, I got literally bombarded with 2 voicemails from 2 different numbers (a cellphone and a landline), 1 long text message on my phone, and 1 email. At that point I already regretted contacting them. The lady who called claimed to be the special assistant to the CEO, and, considering the whole situation, I believe that was just a strategy to let me feel treated with extreme consideration. Getting a call from somebody to the CEO sounds cool, doesn't it?

Then the lady passed my information to someone in charge of scheduling, who called me about 15-20 mins later (making this the 3rd call). At this point I found out the guy wanted to "sit down" with me to go over the details. I have heard this story before, and experienced first-hand that these are the type of companies that send out salesperson instead of true estimators and keep you hostage in your own house until you sign a contract or kick them out (I once had to tell a guy who showed up for a free estimate: "this is the door, now you have to leave or I will call 911"). I told the person on the phone that the house was rented out, so we could not just sit at the table and discussed, so he proposed to meet me at my primary residence!

Not but not least, their email states "Our replacement roof estimate takes about 60-90 minutes, depending on how many questions you have." and "We require all homeowners and decision-makers be present at that time.... If you have a spouse, we require your spouse to be present." Really? Never heard something like this. Certainly this is not a reputable company.

This whole experience made me wonder what these people are actually up to.
It also started with the knock on our door in the middle of dinner time. Two nice young people introduced themselves, and said "We're doing some work on the Taylor's house (and points to one of our neighbors). There's going to be a truck here tomorrow and we didn't want you to be alarmed." So I thought, uhm, who are the Taylors? But all right, nice of the young man to let me know. As it turns out, there is no family in our cul-de-sac whose name is Taylor, nor did any of our neighbors have any work done the next day. But I found that out later.

The conversation then turned into a high pressure sales pitch for attic insulation. Although I don't like solicitors, I listened to them because I understand people have to make a living. We made an appointment. One thing that annoyed me was that they required all homeowners to be present at the appointment. It's rude to come to my house and "require" something from me, and this particular requirement is a dealbreaker for us.

The best part happened the next day. We had a neighborhood holiday party. A few of my neighbors asked what we were having done on our house. Hmmm, nothing that I'm aware of? Well, the "nice" young people used our name to get their foot in the door with our neighbors. We became the Taylors. Even though we had an appointment for an estimate at that point, in no way, shape or form does that constitute "having work done on our house".

As far as the responses to Yelp reviews go, check out Homefix Corporation on Yelp. Google it and see which website it takes you to. By the way, yes I dealt with people from HCR. I had their flyer and their phone number, which worked when I canceled the appointment. I believe this is an unethical and deceptive business practice. Yes, I made an error in judgment by giving my name and phone number to them. But under no circumstances would I let a company that endorses a business practice like this do any work on our house.

I just had my home's windows replaced by the folks at HCR. At twenty-five years of age, the originals were far past their reasonable lifespan and it was definitely time to do something about them. Conveniently (or perhaps presciently), an HCR door-to-door sales group was in my neighborhood a few weeks ago and knocked on my door. I typically try to politely thank solicitors and send them on their way, but the young man who was there from HCR didn't come across as the usual "pushy because I'm overworked, underpaid, and under quota" type. I decided to go ahead and schedule a home demonstration; if nothing else, I would have materials to use for my research.

Let me take a moment to comment that every single interaction I've had with HCR's employees has been pleasant. Everyone has been professional, polite, solicitous, and eager to help. Although I've seen comments online to the contrary, my experience has been uniformly excellent and commendable.

The gentleman who arrived to demonstrate the product line (and hopefully make a sale) was punctual, and like the rest of his colleagues polite, pleasant, and professional. He explained up front that he was new to the company and I was his first appointment; I appreciated his candor. The demonstration did end up taking quite a bit longer than originally planned, but at no point did I feel pressured to choose HCR or inclined to ask him to cut the demo short. I found it quite interesting and educational, in fact, and I appreciated that I was given a lot of information on the entire range of products (HCR sells Slocomb windows) instead of pushing me toward the most expensive option. As it happened, I did eventually choose the high-end line, but it was based on the strength of their offering and my home's needs for better temperature control because of its location on the peak of a ridge.

I am one of the many in this area of the country forced to live under the thumb of a Homeowners Association, so I was required to beg for their approval to replace the cheap, leaky, and ugly original windows that were installed in all of the homes in the development. HCR's representatives were cheerful and patient during the supplication phase of my purchase and offered to supply anything the HOA demanded to help smooth over the process. Thankfully, the HOA agreed that I would not be committing the unforgivable sin of making my house stand out from the crowd, and HCR sent a gentleman to come take final exacting measurements of each window space before sending the order in to Slocomb. Each window was custom-built for the space in which it would be installed, to ensure that as tight a fit and perfect a seal as possible could be made.

A few days ago, I received the call that my new windows were ready. To my surprise, the installers could come almost immediately! They arrived punctually and set about the process of replacing the old with the new straightaway. The HCR installation team--four people in my case--were HCR employees, rather than subcontractors, and exemplary in their professional demeanor, speed, and efficiency. Each room where a replacement took place was left as clean, if not cleaner, than its original state. The area outside my home was left equally spotless; one might never have known that there had been a team of busy men working on the place.

The final part of the process, after all the new windows were in, was to educate me on how to use the new equipment. Unlike the low-grade original windows in the home, the new Slocomb windows integrate superior security features and both sashes are fully accessible inside for cleaning and maintenance. After all was said and done, the team loaded everything up and went on their way.

As you might imagine from the length of this review, I am extremely pleased by the product and my experience. I think it's rare these days to find a business that operates as respectfully and pleasantly as HCR has with me, and I will definitely recommend them to all of my friends and acquaintances.

They did a wonderful job in a timely manner. They covered my bushes, and porch furniture to keep them from being damaged.
Clean-up was great too!
I was VERY satisfied!