Someone Ran Into Our Door: Need Advice

[lv123]

Hi All,

Have a strange situation and I'm just looking for some impartial advice.

A few months ago, we bought something from someone in our neighborhood and they offered to drop the items off at our home. Unfortunately, she forgot to put her car in park and run into our garage door. She did significant damage to the lower 2 panels and put a slight crease in the 3rd panel. It is a basic steel door.

The husband came over to look at it, asked me to get some estimates and I did. I received 4 estimates from local companies. They were all within $100 of each other. Each one recommended replacing the full door, rails and springs. They said they could replace the panels, but it would be within the same price as a full door. They also all said all 4 panels should be replaced to ensure color matching.

I sent the estimates to the husband and he said, "I have a friend, we can do better." - A couple weeks went by and I saw the invoice from the friend with the pricing blacked out. The friend owns or manages a commercial-only door company about 90 minutes away from our home. He was also not willing to do the full replacement, simply the 4 panels. He indicated he would reuse all hinges, rollers, lock, and weatherstripping as there was no damage to any of them (there are many bent rollers and hinges). When I questioned him on that, he said, 'those are $2 parts, we keep them in the truck.'

I spoke with the husband again and tried to explain we were not happy that the amount of work was not the same and we felt there was a conflict of interest here. He said, "He's doing it for $400, you can either take me up on this or I'll give you $400 and you can use whoever you want." We spoke for a few minutes and I ended the call before things escalated.

My wife wants me to just get their insurance information and deal with it that way. I'm trying to give them a break here, but I want to make sure the right thing is done.

Should I just take him up on the deal? Is there any risk to using a mix of old hinges/new hinges? I'm also worried about this guy being 90 minutes away. If something is wrong after the first day, I suspect I won't be able to get him back here to fix it and will be stuck paying for additional repairs.

Would love some 3rd party advice here.

Thanks!

[GarageDoorRepairGuy]

I have replaced and repaired many doors in my time, and I have also done quite a few panel swaps. The biggest issue with panel swapping is the counterbalance system. The springs on your door were engineered by the manufacturer to balance that doors weight. While manufacturer's steel doors are very similar in construction and weight, there are some that are not. Steel doors come in different gauges, mostly 25 or 24 gauge. Depending on the size of your door, this can make a big difference in the actual weight of the door without changing its apparent construction in any way. Also, some manufacturers are not as compatible with others.

Without having seen your installation or knowing what brand and model panel they plan on using, it is impossible for me to say whether their plan is a good one or not. As I have said, I have done a number of these and they turned out fine. However, I did factor in everything mentioned above (and more) to ensure a good fit. Chances are they are good enough to do the same. I think there is a larger issue than this though.

Most commercial door companies are ill equipped to provide the kind of service a residential customer expects. Your bigger issues will arise when you need service or believe there is a warranty problem with the door. Commercial companies usually cater to very large accounts, and you will not be a priority. Most commercial companies will put you off until you call someone else because they are not concerned with losing you as a customer in the first place. Also, for $400, it sounds like he is doing his buddy a favor and therefore won't take treat YOU with the same concern as one of the other companies that you hired. His customer will be his buddy, not you.

www.dgdoors.com