Penguin Windows

Sorry for the negative review, but I got ripped off by Penguin because I am stupid! Paid $1000 per window for these poor quality windows. A year later, no energy savings over the double paned vinyls I had, I was just as cold all winter, two windows have already jammed and they give you the run around when you call to have them honor their lifetime guarantee. Seriously thinking of calling the BBB or AG office. There ought to be a law as to what these sales sharks are allowed to charge. These window are worth about $100 apiece not $1000. more

I use to have Milgard vinyls for a while and after a few years, I felt drafts and my house was getting colder and colder every month with my furnace on max! it turns out that window expansion and contraction broke the seals around the edges. Anyways... I had a Penguin appointment last night. They did not come off like rude salesmen at all, more like a window consultant. Everything he said did point towards penguin, but he had evidence from cross sections of other windows, glass differences, etc. bottom line, it has an insulating factor of 10, my drywall is 12 so this is pretty good. Any other window on the market is r-4.2, and I've done my research! The PVC is the same vinyl as any other windows except that they extracted the petroleum and mixed acryllics and hardeners into it. The same material they use in the windows is boeing 747 fuselages, thats nothing to laugh about. The insulation in their frames is the same in your refrigerator. This window is no joke. They guaranteed me 40% minimum energy savings or pay the difference, and in the course of 10 years i'm set to save over 20k. I called my real estate agent today, he checked with his office and did comfirm that with any new gas filled window the price of the home will increase 118% on average, depending on the consumer reports expected lifespan on the window. So for a Milgard builder's grade window 8-10 year shelf life, 110% will remain until that shelf life expires. The penguin window will retain the 118% for 50+ years. With all the evidence I've gathered and reserach I've done, I am completely convinced I have just purchased the best product on the market today. I also know why Penguin gets alot of flak. Penguin, has a product that costs about 5-6 times more to make. The only way people will buy is if there are sales people doing door to door appointments. This makes lots of sense. Would the majority of people going to Lowe's pick up a 2,000 window, or would you go with the 150 window? At a hardware store, no financing and no custom sizes. more

My experience with the saleman was pretty much what most of the others here have said. Took WAY too long, was WAY to pushy, and the price was OUTRAGEOUS. Fortunately, I did some comparison shopping. For those of you who don't think all of these bad BBB reviews aren't that important, first COMPARE them with other local window installers of similar size. I did and I found most of them had ZERO complaints - EVER! One of them had one resolved complaint. The others had none. These were large companies I was looking at too. So I don't understand why people are so willing to go with a company who has several complaints. For my money, I am going with one of the companies who have ZERO complaints. But that's just me...... more

Overall - the window is OK --- First the positive. It looks really - really beautiful. The installer did a professional job. On schedule and on time. It was the bathroom window. The bathroom was the coldest room in the house. I could feel the breeze - it was the only window I have with single pane. Now it's the warmest room. And now the negative. The sales pitch went on way too long. 4 hours. I admit, I wanted him to go away. He was really pushy. At first I thought the price was reasonable, but after doing more research, I think the price was too much..... There's about 4 competitors around 1/2 the price as Penguin. I decided not to have them do the rest of the house. I really like quality, but I can't afford much. Mark D more

I am in the market for new windows and looking for the best deal. Good price, good quality. Some of these negative reviews are out of line and misleading. Under your advise, I logged into BBB and found 3 locations in WA. #1 Lakewood, WA had 8 complaints in the last 36 months, all resolved. 4 complaints filed/resolved in the last year. #2 Mukilteo, WA had 39 complaints in the last 36 months, all resolved. 10 complaints filed/resolved in the last year. #3 Vanc, WA had 7 complaints in the last 36 months, all resolved. Only 1 of those complaints were filed/resolved in the last year, 6 were from 2-3 yrs ago. Now, I'll be the first to tell you I don't care for salesmen. I think a product, if its good quality at a fair price, will sell itself. Be fair, salesmen are salesmen. Some are rude, some are not. What were you expecting, windows for free?? Looks to me like the people who wrote negative reviews may have been from the same area of WA, perhaps had the same rude & pushy salesman?!? Just a thought. I live near the Vanc WA area so I am looking forward to working with the Penguin Windows from this location. The odds look pretty good and in my favor for quality & satisfaction. more

I just had an appointment last night with Penguin Windows. It seems like a very good window. My husband and I went to a home show and signed up. We also wanted to see what other companies had to offer. We have seen better prices but nothing comparable in quality. Oh , decisions this is crazy .. we finally decided to look online and research Penguin since they had the best quality Window. After looking at several sites we decided to look at BBB. Penguin Windows has only 39 complaints which a lot of has been resolved. They also have a B+ rating with BBB. according to BBB large companies that operate in multiple states and also have lerge volume of business it's not unlikely to have some complaints. One thing I do agree on is the time they spent was more than what I expected but I really wanted good windows, nothing cheap, long story short We did decide to purchase last night. And I think we decided to keep our order the windows are just the best thing out there from everything we have looked at. I guess if the Sales people arent doing they're job then we wouldn't have the Windows we want. more

Good: Seems to be a high quality product. Bad: Pushy sales tactics. I asked how long the pretension would be and was told 30-60 minutes. 4 hours later I finally had the guy leave. We originally signed up (we were exhausted and didn't have our normal good judgment) and then decided to cancel. The sales guy and his supervisor came out to try to change our mind and got pouty that we didn't. Unprofessional and deceptive.. Improvements: If the presentation will take 4 hours, say it up front!. Other: If you already know you want these windows, keep hesitating and they will keep lowering their prices. They knocked off another 2000 when we said we had changed our mind. It was still over twice what we wanted to pay for the product.. more

Yah...I got suckered in like most of the other people who have left reviews here. Why don't we check online reviews for companies before we get suckered into these things???? Dang, I wish I would have read this site first. I would have saved myself 4 hours of frustration. Total waste of my time. Ditto pretty much what everyone else said about the salesmen being rude, pushy, purposely taking WAY WAY WAY longer than they said they would, pressuring you into buying a window that is easily 5x what the price should be. A ridiculous waste of my time. I'm surprised there are any positive reviews, honestly. I can't think of one positive thing to say except that he showed up on time. RUN! more

I've had Penguin Windows on my house for over a year. I love them as much now as I did the day they were put in. Despite noticeably lower electric bills, they really keep the street noise out on the street and out of my house. Great company to work with-- I received nothing but great customer service from our saleman Glenn to our installation team. As for these other whiny reviewers: A salesman is a salesman. They're trying to sell you a product. If you're not interested, get over it and move on with your lives, instead of slamming the company on the internet. Jeez... more

I'm still floored and angry! My husband had to escort them out of our home after 3.5 hours. (supposed to be a 60 minute presentation) The sales rep kept talking, after a few choice words from my husband he left our home pouting like a child. I would NEVER use this company...EVER! I wish I would have read these reviews before letting them in our home. more

I recently had a rep at my house. He was very deatailed on helping me with my window needs. I had several companys out and decided to go with penguin due to the quality and expertise they have. I have had several bad experiences with other home improvement companys so no subs was a must for me. The sales rep did promise a lot my thought was well if they deliver half as much as he says I would be pleased. I got the window put in the other day and so fare every thing was delivered as promised witch was great. I have owned my home for over 15 years now had had several projects done. Penguin has by far ben the best and smoothest experience I have ever dealt with. thank you penguin. I look forward to refering you every one I know. more

First I am from a contracting family I know about windows and Penguin has what nobody else has in their product. I know what is out there in other windows Penguin's are at the top and they deliver what they say the will. I let them in my home, was nice and NEGOTIATED a good price, that was about two and half times the competitors, BUT the windows are 10x's what the competitors offer in all aspects. Those that got the lower priced ones from some warehouse store or double glassed vinyls are only trying to justify their decision to by the cheap stuff; and do you think there was no mark-up on those cheaper ones? You get what you pay for no matter the price. Back to the sales, they were run of the mill salesmen, I think they all take the same class. No we couldn't afford the whole thing at once but were doing it in stages and NEGOTIATING at every stage. I see the majority of the negative comments are people complaining about the sales pitch,GROW UP what do think a salesman is there for? Of course they start high and go lower. GEE what would happen if they started low and tried to go up. Don't invite sales people to your home and expect them not to try and sell something or more than you need to you at a profit for themselves, GEE how do they make their money!? Again negotiating, yes its a pain & of course they are going to put the pressure on. GROW UP, funny after you keep refusing the price drops, WOW magic. If you don't see the con in a free anything from a for profit company than you can only blame yourself. Of course they are going to try and SELL you more than you need; again SALESMEN. Again the majority of the complaints are about the salespitch, don't ask salesmen to your home and expect not to get the pitch. Unless they physically assaulted you or verbally threatened you then they were just doing their job. I pray that none of the complainers have children because they are going to walk all over'em. Kids apply 100x's the pressure and have way more tactics than these salesmen. more

Sucked... 4 hrs. I won't get back. Asked to leave that we had our day planned, Brian would not leave!!! I grabbed his books and material and led him out the door! Very rude. more

OK - when you do a search for "PENGUIN WINDOWS SCAM" you get 60,000+ results. Every single one of these 5 star ratings are from people who work there. I had a friend who worked for them and he was treated like S**t if he did not DAILY get enough appointments or sales. The are pushy low morale sales people. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME. The company has had to change names once allready and probably will again. ALL THE 5 STARS ARE FAKES!!! This company is constantly hiring because people wuit after working there for two weeks...Penguins can't fly, which is ironic, because this is a FLY BY NIGHT company. more

After reading the mostly negative reviews, I felt better prepared to handle this visit. I took the good advice in not letting them in my home which helped to keep them ONTIME (90 min): it is cold outside. :) I have a ranch style rambler: two sliders, 9 windows, and my quote is $32,574.63. AND of course if i sign today i can get major discounts: cost after discounts? $27,541.00. Also must give 25% Deposit. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not paying 30K for windows, but thats just me. Energy Cost savings? It's important to me but it starts out with realistic pricing. These 11-15% discounts exist because of overpricing to begin with, and believe me they are still making considerable profit, otherwise they would not be in business. Wolf in sheeps skin, comes to mind. Thanks for all the advice, it prepared me and it was fun to talk with the salesmen on the back deck, in the weather, with hot chocolate. :) a single woman can't be too careful! more

Good: Very detailed quote - we knew exactly what we would get and that made it easy to do additional research before signing the deal.. Bad: Well who WANTS to pay over 20K for windows? But that's what the BEST costs. Our neighbor only paid 12K, but there is NO difference in their gas/electric bill - ours has dropped significantly.. Improvements: None I can think of.. more

Deceptive high-pressure tactics. Overpriced. Don't let them in your house. more

Okay, okay: Us, too. sigh. We just survived the 4 hour presentation, the whole scha-bang. We not only had the "call to the supervisor" (which was totally a joke--they agreed to take another $1000 off the price, if we signed up today), but they also "made a mistake and quoted us on the wrong size window," which also miraculously saved us $1000. Our house is small--10 windows, so it was $19K for everything, but $15K if we signed up today. The salesmen were polite and presented well. But, that's what they are: SALESMEN. The misleading part of this whole situation is that when you agree to do a free, NO OBLIGATION energy analysis, you're agreeing to let 2 salesmen into your home, from this deceitful company, once known as Statewide Windows. GOOD NEWS: In doing a little research, and after getting burned by this experience, I want to put the word out that you can contact your utility company (Electric, etc), and ask for the Energy Trust Program(s)in your state. These are very VERY helpful folks, NOT salespeople. In Oregon, the website is: http://www.energytrust.org, and the phone number is 866-368-7878. Each state is responsible for their energy program(s)---in Oregon, they have consolidated the programs into what's called the Energy Trust or Oregon. Anyhow, it's a non-profit organization with trained professions who will educate you about the benefits of double vs. triple pane (turn-around costs, etc), and do a free home energy analysis (which includes educating you about the overall importance of insulation, not just paying out your nose for windows). WITHOUT selling you anything, WITHOUT barricading you in your own home for hours, etc. You may have to schedule out several weeks, but it's WORTH IT!!!! :) more

After having gone through the whole gamet with them, I would never let their salespeople or staff onto my property ever again. I actually have a claim with the BBB against these folks. You can read my complaint there. HORRIBLE experience. more

Reading the reviews on this site helped convince me that this company offers the best product. One and two star ratings are from people who did not purchase and prefer a trip to Hawaii to warm/cool energy efficient homes. We saw the windows at a home show where several other vendors offered models and information. We choose Penguin. The home scheduling was simple and sensitive to our schedule Ally arrived on time and was conversational throughout the 2 hour visit. I asked more questions than anyone could cover in one hour. We gave her our budget limits and time limits. She made us an offer that we find reasonable, and a value as an investment in our home. Yes it is more than 12 window from the building supply discount source and the six days of self installation labor. But the quality is far superior and the lifetime (of the home)guarantee is priceless. I'll post again after the installation. more