A while back there was a thread asking about window installation
experiences from Lowes. I was in the middle of researching this myself
and said I'd report back once my install was done. So for the original
poster of that thread and anyone else who cares, here's my experience.

We first visited Lowes in June. Had the guy come out and measure,
which cost $35 - this is refundable if you actually buy the windows.
The installer was nice, but was tough to get to come out in a timely
manner - I think we waited about a week before he called (Lowes policy
is 48 hours) and then it was about another week before he came out.

Went back to Lowes afterwards (July now) and picked our windows out.
We'd started out wanting something like 13 windows done but scaled it
back to 7 for cost reasons. Will do more at a later date. The
measurements the installer takes are good for I think a year, so you
can just order the windows any time without having another measurement
done. Anyway, we ordered 6 Pella wood windows and 1 ThermaStar vinyl
window for the bathroom. All were custom orders. The vinyl window was
only something like $126. The wood windows (with no options) came to
about $470 each - much less than Pella themselves had quoted me. It's
a big difference in price between wood and vinyl (at least within
Pella), but more on that later. Our windows were slated for delivery
on August 7th, only about 10 days or so later. One nice thing is they
can tell you immediately exactly how long it's going to take.

So August 7th came and went and we heard nothing from Lowes or the
installer. I called the store eventually around the 15th and got a
snippy-sounding woman on the phone who said the windows had "just
arrived" and that I had to give the installer 48 hours to call. I said
"the windows were supposed to be there on the 7th, you're saying they
just got there?" And she just repeated the same thing. So I waited.
Another week went by. I called again. Confirmed this time that the
windows *had* been there since the 7th, so now it's been 2 weeks and no
call, despite their 48 hour policy. They said they'd fax the installer
again, tell him I'd been waiting. Finally, I get a call, but he's got
no appointments until after Labor Day. Whatever, by this time I'm just
happy to pin somebody down to a date. So we set it for today.

I actually wasn't here for the install - my wife had the day off, so
she dealt with it. She said it went pretty well, though; no surprises.
They even took out a stuck air conditioner that we couldn't budge,
without complaint. When I came home, I inspected their work - I'm not
an expert, but it looks decent enough to me considering the condition
of our trim (it's pretty out of square in places). They obviously
shimmed in some spots, and sawed some stuff out in others. The
caulking looks pretty tight. On the exterior, I didn't actually walk
out onto my roof but it looks ok from below... though a couple of the
trim pieces are slightly bent, probably just a minor cosmetic thing. I
was happy to see that they did not remove my original red exterior
trim, just installed a piece of white trim above it to fill in the
space. On the side of the house (the bathroom window), they even fixed
a really horrendously inept trim job on the previous window install,
which had left a big gap in my siding and an exposed hole for rain or
whatever to get into the side of my house. Well, they're not siding
guys so it still looks a little empty, but they did plug up that hole
and at least trimmed everything so it looks nice and uniform. They
even bent part of my siding back to the house that had come detached in
the install of the old window.

Two things I'm a little annoyed about, which we'll be talking to Lowes
about tomorrow: they left all my old windows in a big pile outside (the
web site specifically says "haul-away of old windows" is included in
the install), and they did not give me any sort of certificate of
completion, even though my wife supposedly signed one. I don't know if
they just forgot to give her a copy or what. But we have no written
record right now that they were even here. Hopefully Lowes will remedy
both of these issues, but I feel like I've been fighting them every
step of the way on this to get them to do their job properly. The
install itself seems to have gone well; everything else has been like
pulling teeth. Just constant visits and phone calls for no other
reason than to ask them to do things that they're supposed to do
anyway.

Now, as for the windows themselves, all I can say is I am *so* glad we
didn't get vinyl everywhere. The price of wood is well worth it. The
vinyl window in the bathroom is fine for what it is, but it looks like
a cheap piece of plastic. I mean, even from far away. I'm ok with it
because the previous window was vinyl too and it is a bathroom, I'd be
afraid to have wood there... but partly because it's brand new and
totally clean white vinyl, it just looks like something you'd get as a
prize in a Cracker Jack box. I just can't imagine having windows like
this in our bedrooms. The wood windows aren't what I'd call beautiful
yet (they're unfinished), but they will be. They already look and feel
really solid. (Well, except for our crooked trim surrounding them.)
And if I want to, it will be easy to match the look of our old historic
windows in the rest of the house... though I'm actually leaning towards
staining these rather than painting. Not sure yet.

Anyway, would I recommend Lowes for window installation? If you want
Pella wood, then yeah. I don't know of a cheaper dealer (Pella
themselves wanted literally like double the price) and the install
itself seems solid. (Famous last words - the first rain will be the
real test, I guess.) But if you don't care about Pella or wood, it's
probably not worth it. I do think their prices are good on vinyl too,
but you can probably do just as well elsewhere and not have such a
hassle getting Lowes employees to do their jobs. On the other hand,
this is not a "horror story" and I am not dismissing Lowes out of hand,
as some others here seem to whenever the subject comes up. My
experience has been annoying in some ways, but the end result seems
good and in a year, that's all we'll still care about.