SEE-THRU WINDOWS AND DOORS, LLC High Pressure Sales and Invalid Business Licenses Numbers Capitol Heights Maryland

We had See-Thru Windows, LLC come to our property to get an estimate for 19 windows, 4 exteriors doors, siding and gutters. After being under high sales pressure (1 with a new saleman and 4 times with a man named Jay Klinghagen) we finally caved and signed and contract with them in early February 2007.

The total job would cost us $ 29K+. They said that it would take 6 weeks to totally complete the job. We ask them to NOT use harsh or hazardous chemicals in our home. They agreed. We asked the President/CEO/Owner- Charlie Brown not to use harsh or hazardous chemicals in our home and he agreed.

On the third day of contract, we decided to do some research into their Virginia State License and found that they had bogus licenses. We tried to locate their insurance company and they purposely hid everything from us. We tried to get references and they relunctantly gave 2 and we asked for more and they got beligerant and threatened us.

When we called them to ask why their license was incorrect, Steve the right hand man threatened us with a lawsuit if we did not go ahead with the contract. Steve said, "We are all lawyered up and we will eat you for lunch."

Hummm....

We did not need to be sued over this, so we continued. They came out to our home 5 times to measure everything over and over. We think that they gave us other people's canceled, excess or wrong orders.

See-Thru attempted to install a garden center window that was not ours. They broke a basement walkout railing that goes around the top of the wall by standing on it even after we asked them not to. Steve ripped out the old garden center window and then tried to install a window that was 6" all the way around too small. He had to re-install the old one. He did not re-seal that window.

They broke plaster in every room, but especially in the living room and dinning room. They left the windows half installed and said that they were done. We ordered two fully obscured bathroom windows and got one that was obscured and one that had the top window clear and the bottom obscured. That was not what we ordered. They were supposed to change that out. Huh?

Instead of taking the time to open the exterior doors correctly, they decided to remove the door knobs by taking a very large hammer and striking them off. We had just purchased new double locks (knob and dead bolts)for two of those doors. They took the messed up door locks and threw them into our flower bed. What? They thought that we would not see them? How rude. We asked for a replacement for our just purchased locks and they laughed at us. The locks were only 1 - 2 weeks old.

They were on our property for two days. (July 12- 13, 2007) After they left the first day we had to move into a hotel because of the hazardous chemicals they used in our home. Toluene and other harsh chemicals in the caulk. The OSI caulk manufacterer stated that See- thru knew better than to install an exterior caulk in an occupied dwelling. It clearly states on the tubes, not to install in doors. Two reasons: 1. Flash point 2. Hazardous chemcials can kill those who inhale it.

Hummm.... See-Thru failed to inform us of those risks. They simply took it for granted because they have done it to so many other families and they did not have problems with it.

We were told by See-Thru to air out our property for 2 weeks. To leave the windows and doors fully open and leave the property vacant. Huh?? We left the windows open in their open locked position, but not the doors. That is plain stupid.

We were not going to leave our doors open like that. We did this for 3 weeks. By the way, we were still living in the hotel. My son and wife were at the house gathering and paying bills and that night my son almost died due to the levels of chemcials he enhaled. We did not draw a conclusion at that time. He had extreme diareah and vomitting and was very dehydrated due to not being able to keep anything down or in his little body. He was 26 months old at that time.

He was in the emergency room twice due to the chemicals that See-Thru claims is 100% safe and that a child could ingest it and it would not harm them. Huh???

We called in a company to test our air quality and he and his lab had to cut the sample air container in half twice in order for their computers to fully read the levels of toluene and other hazardous chemcials. The final report showed extremely high levels of toxic toluene. This test was done in the second week of August 2007.

By the way, the contract was to be totally completed in 6 weeks. Well, after a brief (1 -2 weeks) delay by us, they did not finish (if you call what they did finnished) the window part of it until July 12, 2007. (That is 5 months, but who's counting) The contract was signed in February 2007. That is a lot of time to just sit by and not have anything done. We had to pay half up front before they would even start. They got 1/2 of the contract money.

After seeking help from everywhere and being turned down by everyone, legally. We had to drop the issue and also bar See-Thru from entering our property. Charlie brown threatened to come back on to our property to remove his claimed property. Even after we had already paid in full for those ill-fitting and un-ordered products.

We made a decision to stay in the hotel for almost 1 year due to my wife and my son getting headaches and sick due to the high levels of Toluene in the home.

We had to do a little of remediation by ourselves in order to move back in. Ozone. That does not fully work.

We contacted the BBB about this problem in great length and in the end we found out that the BBB is only working for the companies and not the consumers. In our opinion, the BBB is a joke or rip off for the consumer.

We tried to contact many different governmental agencies for hazardous chemical exposure they turned us down due to, "This problem has to be a nation wide epidemic before they could step in." What?

Basically we were left with a bill of $ 67,600.00 and that does not enclude the medicals instead of just $ 29K for a project that we were highly pressured into by a company that almost killed my son twice and the job was never completed. We totally believe that this company is fraudulent and buyer beware. Don't let them on your property even for a free estimate.

We are now having to sell our property due to the financial stress that See-Thru put us through.

This is a summary of what happened.

S
Vienna, Virginia
U.S.A.