Q – I am looking for new windows for my home.  I looked up Company A and Company B but both have bad reviews on the internet.  So did Company C.

Do you know of a good company with good reviews?

Virginia in Marietta

A – Yes Virginia, I do.  And among those good window companies are the Company A and Company C that you read bad things about.

I have no solid proof to back this up, just my experience dealing with service companies over the past 30 years, but you can’t always go by what someone has scrawled out in an on-line review, probably in a fit of anger on a web-site.

There are a lot of haters out there.

I like to categorize on-line reviews of companies into four groups.

Group A are the people who are happy with their service.  Usually these are satisfied customers although sometimes it could be bogus reviews put up by the company itself to either try to off-set a bad review or just puff up their standing.

Group B consists of the folks who have a legitimate beef with the company, have calmly communicated the problem with the company, and through dialogue and action have not been satisfied by that company’s actions or it has taken an undue amount of time to reach an acceptable conclusion.

These reviews are honest and often times include names and accounts of the dealing with the companies.

I think that this is a small percentage of the reviewers out there.

Group C belongs to the people who have had a bad experience, or who have not received exactly what they thought they should have and instead of going to the company to try to work it out went directly to the on-line review and started venting.

These are the folks who maybe didn’t understand exactly what was going to happen, the exact price of the service, payment method, or the time frame involved.  It may also include people with buyer’s remorse, or people who think they can get some money returned or an extra service in return for their blessing or pulling the review.

Red flags go up for me in this group because you never hear the other side of the story, or if you do it is so far flung that you can’t imagine any company ever offering it.

Group D belongs to the competition.  Competitors will often leave reviews that are bogus in an attempt to darken the eye of a better company.

Remember this – everybody, every company, and every person everywhere has messed up.  Probably more than once.

You have to take that into account when you read a review.  The thing that sets a good company apart from a bad one is what they did, the lengths they went, to fix the error.

I know of a siding company who stripped all the siding off of a house to repair a small nick in a plumbing pipe that could have easily been fixed by just taking down 1 small area.  They put the family up in a hotel while they re-sided the house just because they wanted it to all look the same.

Small problem.  Big fix.  Good company.  BTW – that company is one of the companies you listed above.

So what to do?

Gather your information.  Talk to the companies.  Have them give you referrals and contact them.  Ask questions.  Talk to people who are in a position to know (ahem).  Read the reviews, but remember this – Joe Anyone can go on-line and write a bad review, you don’t even have to be man (or woman) enough to use your real name.  Most don’t.  But a company can’t go on-line and report a bad customer.  Against the law.

Check to see if the company answered the review.  Many do.  Ask the company about that situation and see what their side of it is.

Understand what you are getting, what it costs, when you have to pay.

Talk to others in the neighborhood.  Many things in a neighborhood will break down at about the same time (plumbing, roofing, siding, windows etc…).  Find out who your neighbors used.

Do your due diligence and you will be rewarded with quality service.

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