V & W Patio Door and Window Co., Inc.

A couple of years ago I was researching the cost of replacing a wooden window in my home with a Marvin double-​pane double-​hung window. I stopped by V & W and spoke with one of the brothers who was very nice, gave me tons of information and seemed very helpful.
I returned after shopping around a bit and asked if they could come out, take measurements, and give me a bid. I was told to schedule something with the other brother who does that. He was rather rude and said that he didn’t want to come out, because he does that and then people don’t purchase after all. Finally, his brother convinced him to set up an appointment with me.
He did arrive at the appointed time and made the measurements, told me about extra work that would need to be done to fit the windows into the space that my previous window took up. This included (which I hadn’t thought about) replacement of the window next to the one that had failed, because the wooden frame holding the two would need to be removed to allow installation. It would have been thousands of dollars I couldn’t afford.
He gave me a verbal bid, probably because it was a lot of work to put an actual bid together for someone you’ve just given this bad news to. That turned out to be OK in the end. I was grateful to learn that the effort would not just be replacing my wooden windows with a Marvin, but rather a significant carpentry job to boot.
While I was grateful for the information he provided, which actually helped me reassess what I could afford to pay, I would probably not have hired him, because of the very unhelpful attitude he showed me initially. It just seemed like I would be asking for trouble.
I notice that this company has worked out well for a number of people reviewing. I can only guess that the brother doing the installation is has been having some sort of emotional health issues and should consider different employment or retire.

Guy on the phone was rude and seemed annoyed I dared ask questions about different window design (after 1 minute on the phone, not like I had been pestering him for hours).
If they don’t want the money, why give it to them?

This company is not trustworthy and fails continuously. Note that their estimates do not give any details and when I requested them, Jerry’s response was that they are afraid customers will seek out competitor quotes if provided. Without those details, one does not have written clarity on what they are contracting. This is a strategic move on their part.
I ordered one custom Marvin window for a total cost of $ 5,800, including installation. When the custom window was installed it had a much smaller frame than the previous which then made the exterior trim move in by a couple inches. See photos. John Victor, who I had been in contact with at least three times in person and who told me face to face that he was responsible for the measurements and that I would not have to hire a contractor to fix or paint stucco after the installation because the new window and trim would match perfectly, did not keep his word. Upon installation, it clearly needed both (see photos) and John absolutely refused to fix the problem and was very sarcastic about my situation over the phone. He repeated that on the contract it states they do not paint. In return, I asked him to write all the things against my case that he was telling me in an email and that upset him further. He did not send me that email. Things only got worse. The window was suppose to have retractable screens but the manufacture decided to send them after the installation so the company sent someone over to install them and we both had a hard time figuring the installation out. No problem. The following week Jerry and I agreed to a 9am appointment for today to attempt the screen installation again. I waited until 10:30am and called them to tell them I couldn’t wait any longer. I considered it a courtesy call on my end. Jerry apologized and promptly asked for payment for the window as 50% is still outstanding knowing full well it wasn’t fully installed and that I had just had someone over for two hours who was unable to install the final parts. Can’t believe it. I asked for my window to be fully installed before final payment really not understanding how they can expect customers to be treated this way. There are two payments, the initial 50% down at signing and the remainder after installation. See photo of payment schedule on contract. Now they are inventing a partial final payment when they can’t get things right.
Update on March 7^th: Screens were installed three days ago on a Friday. Today is Monday and I called to give Jerry my credit card information over the phone. I wanted to make full payment less the $ 65 cost to have the blinds the installers made unbalanced, balanced again. The mounting bracket they broke was free to replace but I did have to go to San Francisco to drop off the blinds and drive there again to pick them up as I’m a Berkeley resident. He has not once apologized for the inconvenience and wanted me to pay for things I had never agreed to pay for. I mean, this company is truly incredible because they are not honest. The independent installers had come to paint at no charge because they wanted to maintain a good relationship with V&W and today Jerry asked for payment of the paint for hundreds of dollars! It is unreal how they treat their customers because we had already gone through that over and over again. I am not responsible for their mis-​measurements or fixing the paint or stucco.
Please, think twice before choosing this company but if you are going to contract with them, have someone onsite and do your best to have details outlined in your estimate. They did not fail me once but routinely.

We have had V & W Patio Door replace windows and a sliding door over a period of 16+ years. They have done good work and stood by their products throughout.
Recently Jerry helped connect me with a manufacturer about some problems we were having with a patio door. With his guidance the warranty will cover the replacement 100%.
We recommend V & W enthusiastically.

We had V & W replace three major sets of Marvin aluminum clad/​wood Windows. They were fantastic! They (Chip) came out promptly to measure & give us an estimate. (We also got estimates from others.). We were initially sold on them because of: a recommendation; their prompt estimate; their being willing to hire reliable contractor & stucco companies (couldn’t find any known good reliable ones willing to get the job done on TIME); and their saying they could get the job done before the rainy season. We were happy the ENTIRE job because they got everything to work like clockwork and look perfect! If we had any questions, they were quickly reviewed & answered to our satisfaction. We are very happy & feel confident they will come through IF (probably not) we have anything down the road. Thank you, Chip & family business!

Jerry and V&W were VERY helpful. I had a window that need to be replaced to meet code for inspection in Berkeley. Ordering the new window would take 3 weeks and we did not have time to wait. Jerry helped problem solve the situation, checked the «bone yard» of restocked windows and ultimately determined that we could simply order upgraded glass to meet code. V&W provided documentation about the upgraded glass for the inspector and we had the window back within 2 or 3 days. I am thankful for the extra time Jerry spent finding a workable solution.

I came to get a estimate on windows and a patio door the guy said they would need to come to my house and take measurement, but the guy who does estimate is out of town. So he said he will take my name and phone number to schedule a appointment. …guess what no one ever called I guess they didn’t want my business. If I’m spending thousands of dollars I expect at least a phone call

This company did great job on replacement windows and a large french door. Helped us out later when we needed replacement parts and repairs do to damage from a break-​in. We highly recommend this company.

I am shocked at some of these reviews as all of my dealings through the years with this company have been top notch. NEVER had any issues. NONE. Great folks with quality goods and they deliver. Keep it up Jerry and Anthy, you rock!

My house was broken into and I ended up having an unfortunate run in with the three men loading my safe and computers into their car. Those men ended up having a very bad day and probably a night in the hospital as well. I was left with a fat lip, a bloody and scraped up arm and leg and a broken window. I first tried to get a whole new sash at Lowes but they were so unhelpful that the woman actually started yelling at me. They told me to go home and measure the frame and call back and then I did and they said they couldn’t take my credit card over the phone and that I’d have to drive all the way back to Hayward. Basically they were dicks so no particular reason.
So I decided to try a local shop and went to V&W Window. They were super nice, knowledgeable and replaced the window in the frame in no time flat. Not only did they do what they said in less time than they said, they treated me like a human being which is something that seems to be lost these days. Then to top it off, they charged me HALF PRICE because of the ordeal I went through with the break-​in.
If you think customer service is a lost art, buy your windows here! I’m putting roof windows in my attic/​loft space now and I didn’t even think of going to Lowes or Home Depot. My girlfriend and I went straight back to V&W and I recommend you do the same!

Excellent customer service. Quality products. Professional installation. Good pricing. I would definitely recommend.

Since I went to their showroom in Berkeley, I have been impressed with my entire experience. I recently purchased Marvin sliding french doors for my newly done deck. The doors were the icing on project and they look amazing!
Chip was my sales rep and was truly a delight to work with. He guided me throughout the process and made professional recommendations which were accurate. My experience has been great and I plan to use them if/​when I need new doors or windows! What a pleasure!

This is a no star review and it is only for a phone conversation for trying to get an window repair estimate/​job. Jerry, I believe is one of the brothers who handles scheduling their jobs, was very absent minded and could not recall a previous conversation from a day ago about a job I had called and asked him to do. I had to repeat myself multiple times during the phone conversation regarding information I had given him right before he asked me again. When ending my conversation I had to remind him to ask me for my phone number so he could call me back. When he finally called me back, he told me he could not do the job due some bogus explanation. I am just thankful that he canceled with me because I don’t think I could work with someone who is so absent minded and rude! The communication with this company was a total waste of my VERY precious time! I do NOT recommend working with this company. Instead use…
C & R Glass Company :)

STUNNINGLY POOR SERVICE. FAILED TO PAY A SUBCONTRACTOR. BEWARE!
I cannot begin to describe the depth of my dissatisfaction with this firm, its owner and its employees. Suffice to say that it took me 2 ½ years (at at a top-​dollar price) to get my front door door installed. The door itself looks good, but the level of service and support from beginning to end was staggeringly bad. When the job is done, V&W will not stand behind their work, expecting you to handle problems without their help. After they finished their installation, while hunting down a solution to one such problem, I learned that they had installed the door in a manner and location that voided the manufacturer’s warranty. And I later learned that they stiff their subcontractors!
V&W presents itself as a general contractor but doesn’t act as one, expecting you to handle all subcontracting, such as carpenters, locksmiths, painters, etc. When I insisted that they do this as they said they would do, they became impossible to reach. With a large deposit, I wasn’t able to back out. Recently, the lockset they installed developed problems, compromising my security. V&W wouldn’t help. I called the locksmith they had hired, requesting a warranty call. They refused to come out because, the owner informed me, V&W hadn’t paid their invoice. He opined that he would not do business with V&W again, and suggested that he might seek legal recourse to collect what was owed to him. I’ve since heard that the locksmith did indeed take V&W to court, where they made some rather astonishing arguments before finally settling. I’m not surprised. I’m just sorry I wasn’t called to testify against this company.
V&W is charming and superficially professional until you sign your contract and put down your deposit, after which everything changes. The company charges top dollar but delivers worse service than a fast food restaurant. If you object, Anthy, the owner, will try to browbeat you into submission or refer you to her employee Chip, who evidently thinks his customers are idiots.
I will not use them again and cannot recommend them for any purpose other than costly, masochistic pleasure, if that happens to be your thing. It’s not mine.
Caveat emptor. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
P. S. The owner is my neighbor. We see each other all the time. If she treats her neighbors this way, imagine how she’ll treat YOU!
P. P. S. Be wary of good reviews of this company. They may not be real. If you look at the bottom under «reviews that are not currently recommended’ you’ll see, all the way at the end, that a review by Anthy herself was «removed for violating our Content Guidelines or Terms of Services.» I read it before it Unilocal caught it. Anthy wrote it under the pseudonym Anthy D (her husband is Mr. D) using a Berkeley address for cover. It was, of course, glowing.

We couldn’t be more impressed by the work V & W did on our house and their customer service. From the beginning of the project, to the end, we were floored by how they came on time, called back right away, and delivered on what they said they would: high quality, beautifully installed windows. Our house has improved significantly thanks to them and they will be my window and door company of choice for the rest of my life as a homeowner!

Great value, fair price, professional execution. Chip provided a great customer experience with his calm demeanor and knowledgable approach to ensuring out needs and expectations were met. I highly recommend v&w.
I would point out that the negative reviews seem an awful lot like ax grinding from people inexperienced with the professional contractor bid proceeds, or perhaps overwhelmed by the cost of quality materials and workmanship. My experience was so counter to what AF states, I would take him and a few of the above with a strong grain of salt, and encourage people to take their vendetta elsewhere.

Back in Aug. 2007 we had most of the windows in our home replaced. V&W did a good job taking the order and scheduling the work, but after they left there were, and still are, issues.
The Milgard Tuscany line they installed would not latch properly. After multiple adjustments by V&W (Making the windows increasingly more difficult to operate) Milgard came and made a change to the window latches, correcting a design flaw with some sort of shim. They now latch correctly, but are still very difficult to operate. After multiple attempts to get the installation corrected so that they would operate normally we finally gave up on getting either V&W or Milgard to correct the problem, and have lived with it since then.
Now one of the windows has failed. V&W has not returned my calls, and Milgard is rude on the phone. After being hangup on by Milgard and calling back, a brusk scheduler set an appointment for the failed window to be repaired under warranty, and I have asked them to correct the poor operation of the other windows while they are here.
I struggled with whether to give 2 or 3 stars as V&W were fine until after the installation, but decided on 2 as it is living with an inferior product they really pushed us towards that has the ongoing effect on our lives. I am disappointed by the the lack of either V&W or Milgard to really stand behind their work and products as they advertise they do. Everyone else I know who replaced their windows do not have these problems.
I suppose with something like windows, one has little practical recourse once you’ve paid for the job. No leverage seems to equal no help.

I went to V & W to support a local business. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend them.
My first purchase from them was a set of French doors, which are beautiful and were installed without incident. The problem started a few months later. I could no longer shut the door. After hearing from Jerry that it is very common for doors
to settle, I was glad to pay another $ 150 on my $ 6000 French doors to have them fixed. The service guy came out and discovered that a screw had snapped on a hinge, an item which was replaceable without cost as it was faulty. That is when the ordeal started. I will spare you all the details about unreturned calls, being completely forgotten by Jerry between each conversation, and walking around the perimeter of my house every time I wanted to go in the backyard. The problem was resolved 3 months later when I called the manufacturer and they, with apologies, sent a repairman with the part within a day.
Before I got into that mess, I ordered an inside door from them. I again swallowed my concerns about the relatively high cost because I didn’t want to go to a big box retailer. The door came a few weeks later than estimated, after some unreturned phone calls (the door had been sitting ready for a bit as it turns out). After the door was hung, the installer asked me to call V & W and ask them to pay him as he wasn’t getting his money on time.
When I noticed that the $ 900 door was bowed, I didn’t even bother calling them. I just had it repaired as best as possible.
I am so disappointed that these experiences turned out so poorly. I’m not sure if V & W cares that much, though. These same type of complaints have been circulating for years, yet they don’t seem to act on any of the feedback.

Hopefully, this review will spare even one consumer from the unnecessary stress, headache, frustration and wasted time that I, my family and our contractor endured in our experience with V & W.
BACKGROUND: We needed good quality windows and doors for our family home. Being firm, strong supporters of small businesses, we decided to work with Anthy Victor (owner) and Chip (sales person) of V & W, a family owned and operated company.
After meeting Anthy, owner of V & W, I was confident that this business experience would be driven with nothing less than the highest level of integrity, ethics and honesty, in best business practices, as the core basis of an exemplary degree of customer service and overall operating principles by V & W. Never did it cross my mind that this ordeal would prove otherwise in the extreme opposite of anything good.
FACTS:
— The owner, Anthy, assigned our project to her sales person, Chip;
— After many repeated, unnecessary visits to our property and much wasted time over a period of 2 months, Chip neglected to provide any verbal or written bid;
— Only after much delay, I was prompted to follow up with Chip on getting a bid, as it was 1. out of industry practice for this process to take up so much time with no bid provided by V & W; and 2. Chip had now set us back by 1 month’s time in delaying the project from moving along schedule;
— Upon following up with Chip and Anthy, I was then sent an email by Chip advising that the PARTIAL COST for only the windows (not including the doors) was a highly inflated, astronomical 6-​figure estimate, with no line items for breakdown of costs to substantiate their erroneous 6-​figure number. Adding more insult to injury, Chip said he needed 75% of his estimate at time of placing order; and
— After receiving this shocking email from Chip, I decided to call other independent window/​door companies for more bids which all turned out to be significantly lower by more than 75% of V & W’s estimate; and only took less than 2 days to receive these bids from other companies. These drastically lower bids provided by V & W’s competitors only confirmed my suspicion of what appeared to be as though V & W incorporated an absurdly insurmountable and exorbitant mark-​up to their estimate.
CONCLUSION & FINDINGS:
— End result — Blessing in disguise! Everything happens for a reason.
Not only did we make the right decision in declining to move forward in any further dealings with V&W, but we were fortunate to quickly find a company with integrity to whom we gave our business. Money well spent and not wasted!
— CONSUMERS BEWARE of companies like V & W who appear to underestimate the common sense of customers. Use your resources (internet) in order to best determine if you are being taken advantage of by «wolves in sheep’s clothing». Do your homework in ALWAYS, ALWAYS GETTING MULTIPLE BIDS, no matter what! It’s important to do your research and stay educated as a smart consumer; and for your own peace of mind to know you are spending your money wisely and not just throwing your money away into a company’s bank account based on their (V&W’s) outrageously unjustifiable bid, while jeopardizing your own financial well being. Multiple bids will help you realize the value and actual worth of the project; and put into perspective which companies are providing their customers with estimates and services that are legitimate, reasonable and ethical in best business practices.

After a few months of saving my partner and I were finally ready to buy our new front door! We have a craftsman bungalow built in the 1920’s we love our home but the original door was a little battered and we were ready to upgrade.
When possible we try to support our local businesses so we decided to go will V&W based on location, there business is a few blocks away from our residence.
Out the gate the experience was pleasant. The sales person was helpful and they had a good selection of doors under different price ranges that were within our budget. After a half hour of consultation we made our door selection and walked out with a scheduled appointment.
A couple of weeks later the installation crew arrived to install our new door, we were so excited. The installation was bundled with the purchase of the door, not cheep with everything included it came out to about $ 2,400.
We asked the installation technician if he could install the door without a boot, he said he could and proceeded with the installation.
The installation was complete in a couple of days.
At fist glance the door looked perfect, but through use an issue became apparent. The threshold was installed too high and people, including myself where tripping over it. I called V&W and they sent someone over to correct the issue. The threshold was lowered and a boot was installed.
All was good for a couple of months until the day came where we where unable to close our door. Being a Berkeley resident for 10 years plus I was not too concerned, this is fairly common in the area with settling and weather changes. The quick fix is to either higher the boot our lower the threshold. With a screwdriver I went to adjust but ran into the second issue; there was no margin to lower the threshold or heighten the boot — to wiggle room! So I was stuck with a door that did not close.
I called V&W again and explained the dilemma. This time Jerry was not so sympathetic. He said that I would have to live with the door not closing for a couple of weeks, and as a courtesy he would send someone over in 2 weeks time. He was a little reluctant to even give me an appointment date, to use his words «I don’t want to be put on the spot». So what do I do about not being able to close my door? Sorry, that is the best I can do.
We where able to force our doors closed through much effort and proceeded to use the backyard door to get in and out of the house.
2 and a half weeks later we got a repair appointment — the worker came over and re-​hinged the door, his solution was to tilt the door in a way the door would shut but this resulted in a hideous gap that runs diagonally across the top of the door, at the most extreme point the door actually is lower than the seal and I can see right through to outside — he also put globs of some white sealant (not cleanly — just poured on) on the outer edges of the door trim, our $ 2,400 door didn’t look so good anymore :(
While the installer was still at my house I pointed out both of my concerns, he told us to take it up with Jerry and left.
I called Jerry and explained the issues, at this point he said that there was no longer anything he could do — he blamed everything on the house settling, I ask him what he does with his own door to address house settling, he responded by saying that he just adjust his boot to compensate — I told him that they did not give me the same liberty. He did not respond and the conversation ended.
Strictly through our frustration with Jerry and his reluctance to deal with the issues we decided to learn to live with the imperfections.
A week later we could not lock the door, the deadbolt hole was installed too high!!!
We called Jerry again, and again we were told that we were on our own, both me and my partner had separate conversions with him and at some point in both conversions he raised his voice at us. He said that he had already spent too much time with us — us being his paying customers and they could not do anything for us. I ask him if there was anyone else I could talk to, he said he was part owner along with his brother John — I said let me talk with John, John was worse than Jerry — rude and unhelpful. At some point John said «How would you feel if I came over to your house» I said please do, he said «No, I’ve already wasted too much time on you» — call ended…
I managed to expand the deadbolt hole myself, looks ugly but goes nicely with the hideous gap and the globs of white sealant.
This pretty much sums up my experience with V&W.