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Entry Door---My Story----Advice Please

7K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  rossmoor 
#1 · (Edited)
Problem W/entry Door Company...finish Not So Fine

I purchased a prehung dutch door system with side-lites from a well known company in California called F--e F----h.
The door was manufactured at their factory and factory finished(painted). I was told that F--e F-----uses Benjamin Moore paints which has a good reputation in my area. Anyway, I ordered the door system with white interior and exterior paint. I have always like black doors especially when the side lites are white and just the door is black. I mentioned this to the salesman and he said that they could paint the door black. So when I signed the contract, I thought I was getting a dutch door with side-lites--painted white interior.... and..... black door and white side-lites outside. When the door was delivered, the interior was white;but the exterior portion was all black including the side-lites. I was disappointed; but kinda felt responsible because I guess I should have made sure we were on the same page when I ordered the door.; although I said specifically to paint the door black. I did not complain to the company and decided to see if I could live with it because my husband liked an all black door.(To be honest it did bother me everytime I looked at the front door--I decided to see if I could live with it and if not, I would pay to have the side-lites painted white.)
I have never had a factory finished front door. All our doors have been hand painted and I was quite excited to have a professional paint job on the door from a company called F--E F----H!
Well, the interior of the door is really beautiful;however the exterior door paint finish looks awful. The paint has a flat sheen to it;however I researched this and I believe it is BEHR's satin sheen. I can see the wood grain through the paint. AND.....the color is not really black but sort of the darkest looking bluish/green. The formula for this paint for a quart of paint is Black- B-1-22-0, Thalo Green- F-0-40-0, Thalo Blue- E-1-7-0 and White- -KX-0-2-0. I am not a paint formula expert; but maybe the formula might explain why the door looks green. AND.....the paint for the exterior of the door is BEHR which does not match up to the quality of Benjamin Moore. My father was a painting contractor and he always said that you should use good quality paint like Sherwin Williams or Ever-gard and that Benjamin Moore was alright too. I was told the paint would be Benjamin Moore and the interior is;but exterior is BEHR. So the saleman comes out and looks at the door and says yes the finish does not look good and the color looks a very dark green. He says call Customer Service. Two weeks later, a customer service guy comes over and he is very firm in his opinion....the finish is flat,looks like it needs another coat(even though he wouldn't recommend using this paint again)and you can see the seam where the wood meets. At this point,I am thinking I wish I had the exterior painted white just like the interior side of the door. He said he had no authority, but he thought the Fine Finish would take the door back to the factory, cover up the opening and repaint it white. I called Fine Finish after 4 days because I did not hear from them. Kinda got the runaround with "THE UNIT MGR IS NOT IN" AND "HE HASN'T LOOKED AT THE REPORT". I got mad and said I have been waiting for an answer for over 3 weeks and nobody knows anything. So, I said if the unit mgr did not come and look at the door at my house, I would file a small claims case because I was really getting no answer! She called back 5 minutes later and made an appt. for the unit manager to come out. 3 days later, he came and seemed so nice. And agreed it was an awful job, the company no longer uses this paint and the door should have been painted white instead of black because black attracts the sun. He admitted that this wasn't the reason the black paint job was so bad.(My door was installed on 1/10/2008-only 1 1/2 mos ago) So, his solution was to refund the money I paid for the black exterior finish(the white finish came with the cost of the door which by the way cost $4,500 and an additional $2,000 to install.(My door needed a new header and larger opening and F--e F----h only installs replacement doors). Again, his solution is to issue me a check for the extra I paid to have the door painted black and then I could use it to pay the painter I needed to hire to come and paint it at my house. Seemed OK, but then I looked at my contract and I paid $339.00 for the black factory finish on the exterior and now I am not certain if $339.00 will enough to pay a painter to spray the door at my house. Plus this will then leave me with a door that is no longer factory finished. Shouldn't I still expect a warranty?

I know this is unbearably long and I hope this post is not too confusing you;but could you all please give me your objective opinion on all this. I kind of have the feeling I may have come out on the bad end of this deal. Oh and did I mention that I have been a stay at home mom for 18 years and my hard working husband wants nothing to do with this kind of stuff. He trusts me and pretty much hands me the check book and trusts me to manage this kind of stuff.

Please give me your opinion and any suggestions.

Thank you,
Diana
Southern California(Yes I live in the OC-but I still call it Orange County):confused1:
 
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#3 · (Edited)
how did you pay for the door? if you paid by credit card you should give the card company a call and get them involved. if they provided the door painted, they should stand behind it PERIOD. Get them involved sooner rather than later. File a claim now, before it's too late. most credit card companies will not accept a claim after 60 or 90 days

In my mind, giving you a check for $339 for a door THEY provided is a ridiculous solution. They should take care of this, not you.

Be careful here. As Chris said, once you let someone else paint this you may void a warranty. for that matter, once you cash their check they may be able to make the case that you released them from any further responsibility
 
#4 ·
Thank you all.:thumbup: Yipee.....I did pay the deposit with a credit card when I ordered the door in December. I paid the balance with a check. Terri and jj-Thanks so much!!! I did think the door company should take care of the situation too!!! After all, the finish on the front door is just not acceptable to me. I was so excited about the door;but now I feel like it is not the door I thought it would be. This situation was bothering me so much and I really am glad that I posted this message/question to the forum. I live in an area with houses built in 1959-1960 and we added on when we moved in the house in 1998. There is remodeling going on around here everywhere you look. Really!!!! Anyway, most contractor's are really great; but sometimes I feel like I have been had. :( THANKS FOR THE ADVICE AND I WELCOME ALL OPINIONS
 
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