Door goes up, Door goes down (The Garage Door Company)

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	The Garage Door Company
Date:	30/01/09 (208 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Friendly, efficient service, competitive prices

Disadvantages: Left a bit of a mess, used un-treated wood

When I moved into my current house, one of the benefits was that, in a street where parking is tight, the house had a garage. The downside was that the garage door was broken, so it was initially unusable.

Once my finances had started to recover slightly from the expense of moving, I decided to get it replaced. I rang a number of companies to get them to come out and give a quote and, in each area, The Garage Door Company came out ahead of the game.

The excellent service I received started right away. Each of the companies I contacted had a website with either an online form or an email address to request an appointment. I emailed on a Sunday afternoon and at just after 9:30am on the Monday morning, The Garage Door Company rang to arrange an appointment. Of the other two, one responded by email saying I'd have to ring them make an appointment (despite the fact they had my number and could have called me) and one failed to respond at all and I had to phone them up to get an answer.

When it came to making appointments, again, it was a mixed bag. One couldn't come out for over 3 weeks, whilst the other one (the one who couldn't be bothered responding to the email) grumbled and groused that I didn't have any measurements and told me to ring him back when I had some quotes and he'd see if he could beat them. Initial impressions of this last company in particular were not favourable when compared to the friendly, efficient service from the Garage Door Company who arranged an appointment for the same week.

In terms of quotes, theirs came out on top - not just in terms of price (although they were the cheapest), but in terms of attitude. The salesman was extremely friendly, helpful and thorough. He carefully examined the existing door and told us that there was nothing particularly wrong with it; it had just been fitted badly and could be repaired. He gave two quotes - one for a brand new garage door and one to repair the existing one and left it up to us which we preferred. Even when quoting for a completely new door, he just quoted (as requested) for a basic door and didn't try and push us into buying any expensive extras, such as remote controls etc. We were impressed by both their efficiency and their honesty - rather than simply trying to sell us a new (more expensive) set-up, they told us the existing door was sound and had at least 10 years left in it, if re-fitted.

Again, the other companies failed to live up to this: one told us the existing door couldn't be repaired, the other (the grumpy one) just wasn't interested in repairing it. As both of their quotes for new doors was above that of The Garage Door Company (and way above the repair price quote), we decided to go ahead and employ them.

We phoned up and placed the order, paying a deposit by phone. We were told it would take 4-6 weeks for the new parts to be ready and they would phone me to arrange an appointment when they were done. At this point, the cynical part of me kicked in and I thought I'd spend months waiting for them, trying to find out what had happened to my order. True to their word though, about a month later, they rang back to confirm everything was ready and to arrange an appointment - they even offered one the very next day, although as I was unable to take that, something was arranged for a couple of weeks later.

Again, my cynical nature kicked in. I took the afternoon off work, fully expecting them not to turn up and me to spend the whole time on the phone trying to find out where they were. Or, if they did turn up, they would take one look and say something along the lines of "what was the salesman thinking of? There's no way this can be repaired. We'll have to come back and fit a totally new door" Once again, I was dead wrong on all counts. Around 1.30pm, there was a knock on the door and a very friendly bloke introduced himself. When I showed him the garage, he carefully checked the door over and, to my great relief, said "yes, that's do-able."

I just left the two of them to it and they got on with the job with a minimum amount of fuss. The only thing they needed from me was the location of a plug socket for their tools. Around three hours later, after much banging, crashing, sawing, drilling and shouting, they were. They worked solidly all that time and didn't stop for a tea break every 30 minutes, unlike some workmen!

When they were done, they tidied up after themselves. They even took away any old equipment which was no longer needed at no extra charge - the other companies wanted £20 extra to do this. They then took me through how the new door worked (although this wasn't terribly complicated!) and explained how to look after it. They repeated the opinion of the salesman that it was a good, solid door and should last at least another 10 years. The whole attitude was friendly, thorough, but efficient. Once I'd done the difficult part (paying), they were off, and I had a working garage door!

There were only two very small issues we had. First of all, to make the door fit properly, they had to insert a new timber frame around the outside. One of the pieces of advice they gave was that this would need painting to weather-proof it. Given that they did such a thorough job in all other respects, it was difficult to understand why they didn't just bring pre-treated wood. I'd have been happy to pay a little bit extra for this as it would have been less hassle for me.

The only other, very minor niggle was that although they cleared up after themselves, they did miss quite a few bits and pieces of rubbish lying around when they had finished. In fairness, I do think this was pure oversight though, as they cleared up most of the mess and left the garage pretty much as they had found it.

Given that we plucked them at random out of the yellow pages (always a risky business!) we were very happy with them. From start to finish, they provided a very professional service and were far more friendly, open and efficient in their attitude than all of the other companies we spoke to.

Basic Information
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The Garage Door Company
http://www.thegaragedoorcompany.ltd.uk/
Tel: 0800 317 617
Showrooms in Southampton, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham and Leicester.

© Copyright SWSt 2009

Summary: Well worth considering if you're in the market for a new garage door.