Just thought I would share my experiences with “Statewide Windows”
(Washington State) since a Google search of newsgroups and the Web
turned up surprisingly little. I would also lie to hear other peoples
opinions on replacement window types and quality.

We got a cold call from a representative a few weeks back, knocking at
the door, and since we did need to replace at least a few windows on the
house, we decided to arrange a time for them to “come by and look at the
windows, and give us a quote.”

After a few reschedules, they came by yesterday. My first clue there was
goingto be a problem was when one of the reps said, “I hope we are going
to by some windows today!” And then, “We prefer either one of 2 answers:
‘Yes we will buy some windows’, or ‘No we are not interested’. I quickly
told him that our answer would probably be “Maybe”. He ignored me.
Anyway, after telling me a bit about their windows, we went around the
inside and outside, he did his measurements and inspections, found many
problems (of course-but they are 30 y.o. aluminum..), and then the fun
began. The woman he was with began into a droning, somewhat
well-rehearsed sales pitch about the great things windows can do to your
property value, and what a great company Statewide is. Sounds simple,
but she used a prepared 3 ring binder, and it took about 45 min to 1 hr.
WASTE of my time. They didn’t want to do it without both my wife and I
there, and wanted to wait or reschedule when my wife needed to go feed
out 3 month old baby. Eventually they just started. And then they went
on and f-ng on. WASTE of my time. She finished, then he went into his
prepared sales pitch about how bad my windows were, and how great the
Statewide brand “Uniframe” windows were. It seemed to go on forever. The
woman eventually left, and he took over, and we finally began to discuss
how much their quote was, About 3 hours after they got there.

This is when it really got interesting. Because, we –were- interested in
their windows (more below). So we had some questions, and then he gave
us the price: $21,700, for 10 windows, including a garden box and a huge
picture window. Well that seemed high, and then the price started
dropping. It took a LONG time, but the price eventually came down to
$14000 even, with various “discounts” and one time special offers. It
really was like buying a used car. I had the feeling if we really pushed
and were super sure, we could have talked him down more.

But we weren’t sure we wanted to all of a sudden drop 14k on new
windows, right there right now. We generally like to mull over a quote
like this, even if we don’t get any other quotes. And we also generally
like to get more than one quote on a project this big. Well, evidently
that is not how Statewide operates. They come by your house and expect
you to sign then and there. The “quote” they give you is only good for
that day. We asked him to give us a quote that we could think about for
even a few days, to decide if we wanted to spend the money, could afford
it, what it would do to our budget, which color we wanted, etc. That
quote was $19600, over 5k more than the “right now” quote. The rep
didn’t want to understand that we wanted to think about it, even for a
day or two, and became annoyed, angry, and belligerent when we said we
wanted to. I was out of the room when he sneered at my wife the “she
didn’t understand and know what she was talking about, since she was out
of the room feeding the baby” during part of the 2 hour sales pitch.
Make a long story short, he left angry, and we woke up relieved.

About the windows
The actually seem like pretty decent quality windows. They are triple
pane filled with krypton, and very solid construction. The glass is very
solid (he slammed it with his steel tape measure to demonstrate), and
the pvc vinyl is filled with insulation on the inside. They claim a R10
(i.e. E=0.1) for the windows, and they are backed by a lifetime stall
warranty, transferable from owner to owner. The main things I didn’t
lie about them were that they are very “chunky” due to there overbuilt
construction, so they really don’t look all that great, although they
are not tooo bad. And they seem to have a significant “TINT” to them. In
other words, when compared to a regular piece of glass, they look very
“smoky” and when you look at the light on the floor, it is substantially
darker. This might be good for a really super sunny climate, but in
Seattle, that much light filtering might be unpleasant, and is probably
unnecessary. It is probably due to the fact that the low E coating is
the tungsten variant (I think) and that can result in more visible
change to the incoming light than the other type of low E coating
(correct me if I am wrong here- I ready that one type looks pretty much
like uncoated glass). And with 3 panes of glass with that coating, it
really cuts down on the light.

I would love to hear others’ input regarding window types, including
Statewide. I think the rep did himself and his company a disservice my
ragging on Milgard so much, since the research I have done indicates
that the company generally stands behind its products and they do have
some quality products. He did a lot of half information about other
windows, only showing and talking about the worst types of vinyl and
then the more expensive vinyl. I know very little about other
manufacturers, and would like to get some input before I make any big
decisions.