We live in PA. Last Sept (2004) we purchased replacement windows for our home. Initial contract price $68,000. This price included a 10% discount offered to members of a buyer's club plus an additional 6.5% due to size of order. A week later we chose a dual color option (different trim color inside vs out) for an additional $4160. Over the ensuing three months numerous other changes were made and the total amount for the job changed accordingly. The final price came to around $78,000. Since the discussion in September the additional cost for the dual color option had not figured into any of our discussions.
In mid-Dec, just before the windows were to go into production, the general manager of this national company's local branch came to our home and reviewed many aspects of the order. As he left he told us that the dual color option we had ordered was not in fact available. Then he asked us to sign a confirmation agreeing to pay the contract price of $78,000. We did so not having been mindful of the amount that we had agreed to pay for that option back in Sept.
The job itself was a nightmare as far as quality of workmanship was concerned. Once they got everything more or less right and we were in the process of creating a punch list and going over the paper work - which incidentally was nearly illegible due to its being the third or fourth non-carbon copy - I realized to my horror that we had paid a great deal of money for an ungrade we had not received. Furthermore, we had been "smooth-talked" into signing away that money by the general manager.
When confronted recently he of course drew our attention to the fact that we'd signed that last paper in Dec, which he claimed rendered nul and void any of the previous agreements we had signed. He also said a few other choice things including: 1) we actually should have paid $93,000 for the job, but that as a result of the discounts we were the beneficiaries of $16,000 worth of "free" merchandise. That argument strikes me as ludicrous. We didn't receive anything "free," and I have no doubt that his company turned a profit even with the discounts. Moreover, we chose these windows in part BECAUSE of the marketing promotion his company offered our buyer's club members, and those discounts were part of the original contractual agreement; 2) he turned the argument around and stated that had we told him in Dec that we wanted him him to deduct the $4160 we had been charged for the dual color from the $78,000 he would have walked away from the deal. Why? Because it wouldn't have cost him $4160 to produce the dual color windows!; 3) he asserted that he had come out to our house that day in Dec knowing that he wanted to get no less than $78,000 for the job. At that point he did not think of the job as consisting of multiple pieces adding up to a certain figure (although that's the way it looked to me on our invoices) but as a "total job." The fact that we'd received the agreed-upon discounts made it unreasonable from his point of view for us to feel we should be refunded money for an upgrade we did not receive. He didn't reveal just when his view of our job metamorphosed into a global figure; and 4) he never gives money back no matter what.
Incidentally, the cost of the windows includes capping with aluminum. Everybody agrees with that notion. We decided not to have them cap the windows because we wanted to replace our aluminum siding with stucco. When I brought that savings for his company to his attention he just stated the price includes capping, and there's no discount for not having them capped. Okay, no problem. At least we weren't charged EXTRA for their not capping like we WERE charged extra for their not giving us dual color.
The distillation of my question is this: does there have to be a meeting of minds in order for an agreement like the final one we signed in Dec to be binding? After many changes had been made to the original contract is it okay for him to have us sign away $4160 without making it clear that that's what we were doing, particularly when the costs involved in the dual color option had not been mentioned at all since mid Sept?
Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this epic and double thanks to anyone who responds (even if you end up siding with the general manager).
Sandy D.
In mid-Dec, just before the windows were to go into production, the general manager of this national company's local branch came to our home and reviewed many aspects of the order. As he left he told us that the dual color option we had ordered was not in fact available. Then he asked us to sign a confirmation agreeing to pay the contract price of $78,000. We did so not having been mindful of the amount that we had agreed to pay for that option back in Sept.
The job itself was a nightmare as far as quality of workmanship was concerned. Once they got everything more or less right and we were in the process of creating a punch list and going over the paper work - which incidentally was nearly illegible due to its being the third or fourth non-carbon copy - I realized to my horror that we had paid a great deal of money for an ungrade we had not received. Furthermore, we had been "smooth-talked" into signing away that money by the general manager.
When confronted recently he of course drew our attention to the fact that we'd signed that last paper in Dec, which he claimed rendered nul and void any of the previous agreements we had signed. He also said a few other choice things including: 1) we actually should have paid $93,000 for the job, but that as a result of the discounts we were the beneficiaries of $16,000 worth of "free" merchandise. That argument strikes me as ludicrous. We didn't receive anything "free," and I have no doubt that his company turned a profit even with the discounts. Moreover, we chose these windows in part BECAUSE of the marketing promotion his company offered our buyer's club members, and those discounts were part of the original contractual agreement; 2) he turned the argument around and stated that had we told him in Dec that we wanted him him to deduct the $4160 we had been charged for the dual color from the $78,000 he would have walked away from the deal. Why? Because it wouldn't have cost him $4160 to produce the dual color windows!; 3) he asserted that he had come out to our house that day in Dec knowing that he wanted to get no less than $78,000 for the job. At that point he did not think of the job as consisting of multiple pieces adding up to a certain figure (although that's the way it looked to me on our invoices) but as a "total job." The fact that we'd received the agreed-upon discounts made it unreasonable from his point of view for us to feel we should be refunded money for an upgrade we did not receive. He didn't reveal just when his view of our job metamorphosed into a global figure; and 4) he never gives money back no matter what.
Incidentally, the cost of the windows includes capping with aluminum. Everybody agrees with that notion. We decided not to have them cap the windows because we wanted to replace our aluminum siding with stucco. When I brought that savings for his company to his attention he just stated the price includes capping, and there's no discount for not having them capped. Okay, no problem. At least we weren't charged EXTRA for their not capping like we WERE charged extra for their not giving us dual color.
The distillation of my question is this: does there have to be a meeting of minds in order for an agreement like the final one we signed in Dec to be binding? After many changes had been made to the original contract is it okay for him to have us sign away $4160 without making it clear that that's what we were doing, particularly when the costs involved in the dual color option had not been mentioned at all since mid Sept?
Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this epic and double thanks to anyone who responds (even if you end up siding with the general manager).
Sandy D.