Assessment of recent experience with Maxidor

<p>This is a review of my experience with Maxidior since 17 July 2017 which will hopefully be helpful to others. I am not critical of the quality of Maxidor products, but specific elements the service experience were of concern. </p> <p>I am a 71 year old pensioner. After a recent attempted intrusion I decided to replace my existing ageing 2.4mx2.1m Maxidor at my aluminum sliding door with a new one as one of my projects to enhance safety at my property.<br />Day-to-day experience<br />On Thursday, 13 July 2017 I visited the Maxidor showroom at 44 Ontdekkers Road, Princess, Roodepoort for a quote. I was attended to by Mr Dawie Fourie.<br />The same afternoon Dawie Fourie visited my house, confirmed the measurements, gave me a quote, which I accepted. Mr Fourie insisted in an 80% deposit and payment of the remaining 20% before installation, which I reluctantly accepted at the insistence of the wife. I transferred the 80% deposit via EFT to the bank account provided by Mr Fourie on the same afternoon.<br />I still regard the 80% deposit as excessive. 50% is a more realistic absolute maximum deposit level.<br />The delivery and installation period was given by Mr Fourie as 8 to 10 working days – the tenth working day being Thursday, 27 July 2017. Mr Fourie also indicated that Maxidor now uses chemical fixing in lieu of the traditional rawplugs.<br />Not hearing anything further from Mr Fourie about the installation arrangements by working day 9, I sent a SMS to his mobile phone at 08:05 on 26 July 2017, reminding him of the indicated supply date the next day and requesting specific installation arrangements. Mr Fourie did not respond to this SMS.<br />On working day 10, Thursday, 27 July 2017 I visited the Maxidor showroom to try and get clarity on the planned supply and installation date. Mr Fourie was not available, but his assistant phoned him and reported that Mr Fourie said that the manufacturing of the door was complete and that they were just checking the physical door dimensions against the measurements. The door should be available for installation by Friday, 28 July 1017.<br />Nothing happened on working day 11 on Friday, 29 July 2017.<br />At 12:00 on Monday, 31 July 2017 (working day 12) I contacted Mr Fourie on his mobile phone enquiring progress. He said that he had another call waiting and that he would call me back. He did not call me back. I again contacted Mr Fourie at 13:32 and he indicated that there had been a mix up at the factory, but that the door would definitely be available on Wednesday, 2 August 2017 (working day 14).<br />Wednesday, 2 August 2017 (working day 14) and still no Maxidor installation.<br />At 08:05 0n 2 August 2017 I sent a message via the chat facility on the Maxidor Webside expressing concern about the status of my order and the total absence of communication by Dawie Fourie. The operator undertook to escalate my concern to the National Service Manager.<br />At 08:26 on Thursday, 3 August 2017 (working day 15) Mr Martin Landsman, National Service Manager of Maxidor phoned me and I reiterated my concerns about the status of my order. He undertook to contact the factory about it. At 08:40 Mr Landsman phoned back that manufacturing was virtually complete and should be available for installation on Friday, 4 August 2017 (working day 15). A Maxidor rep would contact me do confirm arrangements.<br />At 12:20 on Thursday, 3 August 2017, Marius from Maxidor HQ phoned. Door was out of the factory and would be installed at 13:00 on Friday, 4 August 2017.<br />At 12:39 n Friday 4 August 2017(working day 15), the two man installation team arrived and very efficiently installed the new Maxidor within a period of 45 minutes. After the installation team left, I completed the final payment via EFT. Well done installation team. No chemical fixing though. Just normal rawplugs drilled into the walls and floor.<br />Service assessment<br />Mr Dawie Fourie from the Princess, Roodepoort branch was very quick and efficient with responding to my request for a quotation.<br />However, after acceptance of the quotation and paying the 80% deposit, there was a complete absence of any customer communication from Mr Fourie about progress with execution of the order. In fact, up to today, I have not had a single call from Mr Fourie. I had to initiate all contact.<br /> Unfortunately, Mr Fourie neither returned any calls nor did he supply clear or consistent information when I requested progress.<br />I must commend Mr Martin Landsman, Maxidor National Service Manager and the other staff at Maxidor HQ who attended to my query within minutes and expedited my delayed order within less than an hour. Excellent service from Maxidor HQ.<br />Congratulations also to the Maxidor installation team who arrived on time and finished the installation job within 45 minutes.<br />Technical assessment:<br />The new Maxidor is clearly less sturdy than the previously installed Maxidor, in the following ways:<br />• The thickness of the vertical square upright bars is 13mm compared the 15mm on the oprevious Maxidor (Believe me, it makes a significant difference)<br />• The total number of vertical bars across the 2.1m width of the opening is 16 on the new door compared to 22 on the old door. The size of the gap between bars on the new door is 135mm compared to 100mm on the old Maxidor.<br />I must however add that the wider gap between bars is less visually obtrusive than the door with the narrower gap.</p> <p>Conclusion<br />In retrospect, I believe I may have done better in terms of installation time, price and quality if I had bought the off-the-shelf Expanda equivalent available at Builder’s warehouse and did the installation myself with the assistance of one helper. Installation would have been completed within a maximum of 2 days, compared to the 15 working days of Maxidor. But not everyone is a DIYer.<br />But I have made the decision and must live with it.</p>