There are a lot of really big companies out there that lend their names to smaller companies to make franchise stores. For the national company and the franchisee, this is a business deal to help get the bigger company into a new market and the smaller company gets to leverage the reputation of the big brand.
You see it all the time in daily life, typically fast places… and we all know how badly that can go. You go to one location and you get a pretty decent sandwich, but the next franchise over makes you want to get your stomach pumped.
Here’s the question: Do you want the window installation equivalent of needing to get your stomach pumped? The answer should be no. But getting your new windows from a bad franchise store can leave you needing to rip out and replace the windows you’ve paid to replace once already.
Let’s go over a few of the reasons why franchises aren’t always the best place to get your replacement windows, how to spot a franchisee, and where to go to get reliable window installation.
Top 5 Problems That Make Franchise Window Stores a Terrible Place to Get Windows
So, what are the biggest potential problems that you might encounter with ordering new windows from a national franchise store rather than a local installer with a proven reputation?
Here are a few common pitfalls that franchise businesses seem to struggle with all too often:
1: Subcontracted Window Installation Labor
When you hear the name of a national brand attached to a business selling window installation services in your area, you generally assume that you’re getting high-quality windows with the install being handled by a dedicated team of professionals.
However, many franchises have a dark secret: They don’t hire in-house installation technicians. Instead, they save on overhead by farming out the actual installation to subcontractors who work on a 1099 rather than a W-2.
Why is a window installation company using subcontractors a problem?
First and foremost, it leads to inconsistent quality. Subcontractors don’t always have the right qualifications and experience. In many cases, they might not even be properly licensed to do specialty work like window installation. This leads to uneven quality of work and even incomplete work.
How can work go unfinished? Subcontractors are at a high risk of simply closing down without warning. As stated by GEP: “Rising input costs and high interest rates have squeezed subcontractor margins. And, with growing uncertainty in the business environment, there is a high risk of subcontractor insolvency.”
If the margins are too tight and the subcontractor goes into the red, they’ll simply file bankruptcy and be back in business with a new company name in short order (and no obligation to complete the work)!
Even when the work gets done, dealing with subcontractors can be a headache because of a general lack of accountability. When there’s a problem, the subcontractor points blame at the window company, and the window company blames the subcontractor, and the buck doesn’t stop anywhere. This makes getting disputes resolved like pulling teeth. Without novocaine.
2: You Might Not Be Getting the Full Range of Window Options You’d Expect
National brands often build their reputations on a premium line of windows that garners recognition for quality and consistency. Shame that franchisees don’t always get access to those windows.
Many franchise stores only get a specific line of windows rather than the full range of windows available from the parent company. Often they’re a discount, cheaper version of the windows the larger manufacturer is famed for. That isn’t to say that these windows are necessarily bad. There are lots of affordable alternatives to more expensive windows that will work just fine…
But if you go to buy a Rolex watch and see “Nolex” on the back of it, you’re going to feel cheated, even if you got a better price than you’d expected for a watch that works okay.
3: Warranty Repair/Replacement Headaches
Even the best window manufacturers and installers can make a mistake. Maybe there’s a tiny chip in the glass that went unnoticed during the factory QC inspection. Maybe a piece of insulated taping had bad adhesive and peeled early. Maybe a measurement was just ¼” off and the window doesn’t fit quite right.
These edge cases are why the best window installation companies and manufacturers offer warranty services on their window products. The stronger the warranty, the better. It shows confidence in the consistency and quality of the product.
However, window sellers who borrow the names of big brands to sell their products don’t always have the best warranties. In fact, they’re often downright terrible.
First, there’s the accountability issue, where the seller holds the subcontractors responsible for making fixes, but then the subcontractors don’t want to come out to do warranty work (since it doesn’t get them paid).
Then, there’s navigating the often-confusing legalese double-speak in some national brands’ warranties, where they say they’ll cover something in plain English in one section of the document, but then some subsection a few pages later contradicts that with a lot of exceptions that make it virtually impossible to claim a warranty repair/replacement.
In a lot of cases, even when something is covered under warranty and you aren’t exempted because it’s the third of June and Mercury isn’t in retrograde or some equally ridiculous terms apply, you may end up having to pay for additional labor to fix something that shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place! Lots of warranties like to pull the “This warranty covers the cost of parts, not service” trick.
These headaches make working with some national brands a nightmare. One you shouldn’t ever have to face!
4: Bait-and-Switch Pricing
The quote comes in from that company with the big brand name attached. It looks good. It sounds competitive to the point where it’s almost too good to be true… The final tag says quite clearly what your bottom line cost will be, but there’s something odd.
You notice that the quote isn’t properly itemized. There’s a final price line, but it isn’t attributed to any of the windows you ordered, the labor for installation, the tool costs for nails, screws, tape, insulation, caulk, etc. Nothing in the ‘Your Price’ line is linked to a specific expense with any detail.
Almost like the window seller doesn’t want you knowing what you’re actually paying for.
A quote like this isn’t a proper quote… but it’s something we see from customers all the time when they use our “Compare Your Quote” service.
The problem? The cost cited is often unrealistically low for the service offered. To the point where any installer would be losing money if they tried to keep to that cost or they’d be cutting so many corners they’re selling circles instead of windows.
This is because, in many cases, you’ll find ‘unexpected’ expenses being tacked on to your actual final bill and the installer wants to be able to hide the reasons for the cost overruns from you. If you don’t see the planned cost of nails, fins, and labor beforehand, they can adjust it almost any way they’d like after the face and chalk it up to unforeseen circumstances.
On the other extreme are the prices that are way too high for the service offered. Where the installer could easily do half again as many windows and still make a tidy profit for themselves. That’s why you should always shop around and compare quotes from reliable installers.
5: Your Satisfaction Is NOT a Priority for Them
Businesses that rely on the brand recognition of larger companies don’t necessarily care about making sure their customers are satisfied with their work. It doesn’t matter how many botched jobs are under their belt so long as they can lean on the reputation of the company whose name they’re borrowing.
As long as they’re associated with the big-name brand, they can rely on a steady stream of customers who haven’t done a lot of research into the window and door installation industry. So, they don’t have to care about quality or consistency.
Their objective is to make as many sales as possible as quickly as possible. To be fair, that’s true of any business that sells products and services to customers. However, since their success can be divorced from their effectiveness at window installation work, franchise stores are more likely to cut corners and not worry about how it impacts your experience with the windows they sell.
Local installers who aren’t part of a bigger company only have their own name to rely on. This is why a trusted local installer who isn’t a franchisee will go the extra mile to ensure that they build a positive reputation with the local community.
At Karoly, our results speak for themselves. And we generate top-tier results for our customers every day because that’s how we scale and grow—by building a positive reputation for reliable service.
How to Tell a Franchise Store Apart from Its Parent Company
The biggest telltale sign that a business is just a franchise of a larger company is that they’ll have the national brand’s name in their business name like it’s some kind of add-on. This could take the form of something like “[Noun/Verb] by [Brand Name]” as a business name.
The ‘by’ bit of the name is how some franchisors create a degree of separation between themselves and the franchisee. That way, when things go wrong, the larger business can go: “It’s not us, it’s a different business that licenses our name. We aren’t liable for anything that they do.”
In other words, it’s another way to dodge accountability.
Another way to tell if a business is a franchise rather than the actual company they’re borrowing the name from is also one of the major problems listed earlier: limited window selection. When a national brand has half a dozen or more product lines, but the store you go to only offers one product line (and it’s one not even listed on the main company’s website), then odds are high that you’re dealing with a franchise.
Skip the Franchise Stores & Get Window Installation You Can Trust!
Why get substandard service and installation from a franchise store that licenses a single window line when you can get better service, better quality, and better selection from a business that works with multiple window manufacturers and uses 100% in-house labor for every window installation.
Reach out to Karoly Windows & Doors for a quote on impact window installation and install service that you can rely on!
