Avoid Renewal by Andersen

Renewal by Andersen just wasted 90 minutes of my life. On the bright side, they were finally honest about the fact that the only way they can sell their windows is like a bad timeshare. Informed customers of theirs are unhappy customers, according to the rep I just spoke to.

Renewal by Andersen will only provide pricing if both homeowners sit through the sales pitch, even though we don’t need the sales pitch. It’s infantilizing. We already have some Andersen Woodwright 400-series windows, and we like them. We don’t care if the outside cladding is vinyl like those or the Renewal’s fibrex composite. We’ve looked at glass samples, and wood samples, and we have both types of screen, and we know what windows we want. But we’re not allowed to buy them, because we’re not allowed to know how much they cost.

I’ve seen this sort of high-pressure sales tactic for overpriced timeshares, bad insurance products, and DirectBuy (an incredible scam). And now Renewal by Andersen’s windows. It makes me wonder: What’s so wrong with their windows? Or is it just their pricing that’s bad? Because there’s no way they insist on this if there’s nothing wrong.

Renewal by Andersen has cancelled the appointment they had made for Wednesday morning to measure our windows and give us pricing. So I won’t lose that time as well dealing with Renewal by Andersen.

I’m surprised that this issue didn’t turn up when I searched gardenweb, my usual go-to source for helpful opinions about house products. And the admission that informed customers are unhappy with Renewal by Andersen windows was really startling. If you’re considering replacement insert windows from Renewal by Andersen, I’d reconsider. Take a look at Pella (but not their special low-end Lowes line), Marvin, or Harvey.