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 Warning to readers of Don's Rantings: Do not read past this point if you are sensitive to criticism of
others. This will be an on going list of the worst jobs that I get and have to make them right for my customers. This page is for me to vent my frustrations about some garage door repairs and installations done
by other companies. That includes everyone from a one man operation to some of the biggest companies ( Some with the biggest
ads online, in print, or even on TV ) You would be surprised to know some of the names that are out everyday doing some of
the garage door repairs and new installations which are: inexperienced, incomplete, unsafe, untrained, unchecked, and sometimes
just the worst one you could have had doing work in your home. Unfortunately you are at their mercy if it is the first time
they are working at your house. Of course I can't mention any of the names, big or small, but I
can describe the type of work people are paying good money for to possibly get the worst of the worst.
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RANT # 1 - Today I had to repair a garage door cable and pulley on a very old garage door. There was a
recently installed garage door opener on the door that was installed professionally from one of those heavily advertised companies.
The arm that pulls the door was connected to a broken block of wood which was falling off. The wires were hanging across the
ceiling not stapled down. The worst thing was that the photo cells ( safety beams ) were over a foot higher than they were
supposed to be. Five to six inches off the floor is the correct location where a small child ( or even a small pet ) would
be protected from the garage door. If the installer even read the instructions once this is something that would be easy to
remember for the next job. Where are they finding people that don't know this. This has been the rule for installing the
photo cells since they were included with garage door openers in 1993.
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RANT # 2 - I was called to see what was wrong with a double size garage door equipped with an electric
door opener. That job was only a couple of years old but was totally inoperable. The opener was disconnected by the customer
so the door could be opened manually. The door was so hard to lift manually that one person could barely open it without help.
When I opened the door it dragged and made noise and finally when it was almost all the way open it buckled on the top and
hung down. The door looked as if it could break in half and fall out of the tracks. The door was never correctly supported
and braced on top for a door opener to be hooked to it. There were several cracks visible right through to the outside of
the door panels. All of that combined with the rest of a really horrible installation had just about ruined all of the products.
The door was a special order size but was ordered wrong because it was six inches too tall for the garage door opening. What
a waste of this customers money. They said that the door never worked correctly but they didn't know why. They weren't
able to replace the entire door and opener again because of the cost. I told them that I could add some braces to the door
and get it to work better and then hook it back up to the opener and see if it would work again. The cracks on the outside
would still be visible but they didn't care about that. If this double size door would go up and down again then they
could use their garage again. After a few hours and allot of fasteners and braces I had the door working fine. My favorite
thing to hear is when a customer that has had a hard time with their garage door says, " It never worked that good ".
If this job had been sized, ordered, and installed correctly this family could have had as much as ten or twenty years use
before the first service call was necessary. They trusted a big name to take care of a big job and it should have been a better
job than the mess that I had to straighten out. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rant #3- I arrived at a nice house for a service call to see what was wrong with three garage doors. The house was only four years old so the doors were also four years old. These doors were high end beautiful custom wooden carriage house doors. The customer told me that the doors were getting worse all the time and now wouldn't stay closed when operated with the garage door openers. One door was crooked and not sitting on the floor straight letting in the cold air and whatever else could fit through. This was a very big example of when an expensive great looking product could eventually self destruct just from using it. The installation was probably rushed to get done and the lack of experience or caring about the job was leading to some big problems. Several hours were needed to replace the parts that were wearing out from the unnecessary friction and to make adjustments and properly lubricate the doors and openers. After the doors were reset and repaired they worked quiet and smooth. This job will now last longer and work better because of taking the time to look at every moving part and set the doors straight.
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• To be continued :
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