4/5 stars in the end, but 1/5 stars with regard to recommending the business.
tl;dr - Sales rep was great, GreenON brought in too much sales volume, Clera's supply chain and manufacturing let us down, and the local contracted installers made up for it.
EDIT: Had to remove other company names to get homestars to authorize the review, which I think is silly, seeing as the comparison is relevant.
This is a story of 6 windows. We got hooked by the appeal of 500$/opening for GreenON. In the beginning (April 2018), things were great. The sales rep was responsive, the product looked amazing, and things were peachy. We picked out some great features, measured and sized everything, and we were told (verbally) the windows would be in by mid to end of July. No worries. (Mistake #1: Get everything in writing. Avoid phonecalls.)
As the summer went on, I asked for a few updates, and the sales rep had a lot of trouble getting information from their manufacturing facility in Toronto. I eventually started calling Toronto myself (which irritated the management staff that worked in Toronto, they are very hard to get a hold of, and I had to use some workarounds to get through their phone system and receptionists), but was eventually able to find out that my windows would be finished manufacturing and delivered to my house by end of July. (Still ahead of the new extended GreenON deadlines, but still getting late...). I got this in writing by email. I learned, I think.
Fast forward a few weeks to the first week of august, no windows, and no update. I again contacted Toronto (and my local sales rep) to eventually find out that one window had broken and it would push back the delivery date. (Why they can't deliver 5 of 6 windows, I'm not sure...) Again, a new deadline was given in writing, but the end of august came around, and no windows by August 24th. (IMPORTANT! Your contract says they will deliver windows by 120 days and have them installed by 150 days, if you do not correct this in writing, it doesn't matter what they tell you-- again, I learned this the hard way.) August 31st came by and still no windows (and as of August 24th, no contact with local sales rep, who was in the hospital, but nobody at Clera knew this. I flew out of the country at this point for a few weeks, during which time the windows arrived in Ottawa, and the sales rep attempted to contact me multiple times to arrange installation, or so I would find out when I landed back in Canada.
Upon return to Canada, the missing pieces of the puzzle were put together by my sales rep and I during a long conversation at Pierre Elliot Trudeau as I was waiting for my connecting flight to Ottawa. I wasn't ready to pull the trigger on install at this point due to jet lag and the overall chaos of the whole process, so I asked for a day to talk it over with my wife. We decided the next day to have the installation continue ASAP (and the sales rep was able to get us a very quick date for install).
Then came the tornado, which took away our power, then came the first day of the window install, where Jay and Hafgani busted their butts to do a phenomenal job of installing the windows in our place.
The windows (especially the Bay window which replaced an old Bow window), completely transformed our place. The bathroom window now opens, the basement and bedroom sliders (now replaced with casement) don't jam anymore and we can move air around the house easily with no risk of bugs getting in.
Are we glad we went through this? Absolutely. I look forward to getting the 3000$ back from GreenON.
I gather my story is not unique in the province with the GreenON rush...
I think (and hope) that most large companies have learned lessons about efficiency and (especially) about communications through this whole process.
Underpromise and overdeliver. What happened to us was the opposite.
As for the quality of the windows, without dissecting them, I can't see any visible difference in form or function between these and the windows we had installed by (another company who just expanded significantly and may be experiencing growing pains) the year before. (I would have to get out a thermal camera and sawsall to get down to the nitty gritty of how much "better" Clera / FM industries is than other manufacturers. The mechanisms are similar and operate just as smoothly on Year 1). We may see the difference over time, and with any warranty service needed, as Clera appears to stand behind their product moreso than (the other company).
Jay and Hafgani (independent contractors that were hired by Clera) were 100% better than the team from (other company) that butchered the install of our other living room windows.
So would I recommend Clera after my experience? Likely No, but I wouldn't recommend (other large company) either. I am still searching for the ideal window installer.
(I was hoping to use a small local builder that does european style windows for this install, but wasn't able to sign up with them before the GreenON cutoff. Maybe next house, or maybe if I do some doors. I've got no windows left to replace for now!)
Important point: My sales rep did a phenomenal job once we had the conversation in the airport, and also, he was great to deal with on the sales side (the bay window was EXACTLY what we had in mind). As far as I see it, manufacturing and delivery let him down, and he did everything in his power to fix the situation. I don't hold that against him, but I can't recommend the company if I can't recommend every link of the chain.
