You found us at eleven at night after searching for a Caradco replacement sash, or a Norco sash, or a Pozzi sash that nobody makes anymore.
You put in an order with a company in Indiana you have never heard of.
Now you are wondering what shows up, and when, and whether you just made a mistake.
Fair question. Here is the honest answer.
Nobody else makes these parts, so nobody else can tell you how they ship
Every legacy brand stopped making their own replacement sashes. Caradco, Norco, Pozzi, and about fifty others. The windows are still in millions of houses. The parts are not.
Fenster Components has been building wood window replacement sashes in Noblesville, Indiana since 2000. We are the only aftermarket wood sash manufacturer left in the United States.
That is the whole business. Windows is all we do.
Which means the delivery question is not a detail we outsource. It is part of the product.
Your sash never touches a freight terminal
Most people assume the answer is common carrier. A pallet, a terminal, a liftgate, a phone tree, and a driver who has never seen a wood sash before.
That is not how this works.
Our employee is driving our van to your driveway and handing them to you.
That sentence stops customers cold. It is the single most common reaction our driver gets. The person who knocks on your door works at the shop. He wears the shirt. He has had your sashes in his possession since they left the building.
If something is wrong, he knows. He was there.
Why a van and not a truck
We sell retail, direct to the homeowner. That means driveways, not loading docks.
Ryan drove the route himself in the early years. Older neighborhoods in New England and the Northeast do not accommodate a semi. Narrow streets. Row houses. Cars parked on both sides.
So we run a Mercedes Sprinter, the largest van you can buy before you cross into semi territory. It crossed 100,000 miles in under a year.
Every sash is individually shrink wrapped with cardboard on the corners, walked from the van into your garage by hand.
The install question gets answered in your driveway
Here is the part nobody expects.
The delivery is also the last chance to ask questions, and our driver treats it that way. Do you know how to do the install? Do you want me to walk you through it? We have videos if you would rather watch first.
Ask him. He is not in a hurry to leave.
That matters because most homeowners ordering a legacy sash have never done this before. They have watched six YouTube videos and finished none of them. The van showing up with a person attached is where the confidence actually arrives.
The whole house quote is not your only option
Our driver hears the same story on the road constantly.
A window company came out. Measured everything. Quoted a five figure number to tear out and replace every window in the house.
Then the homeowner found us and learned the frames are fine. The jambs are fine. The part that failed is the sash.
We are not in the same arena as those companies. They are cutting your windows out. We are repairing them.
Just replace the part that’s broken.
What to expect on the timeline
Order to delivery generally runs eight to ten weeks. That is manufacturing time, not shipping delay. Your sashes are being built.
You get a courtesy call roughly thirty minutes before arrival. Not a four hour window. An actual call from an actual person.
Then a van backs into your driveway.
Two mistakes homeowners make before ordering
Measuring the window instead of the sash. The frame in your wall is staying. We need the moving part. Measure twice, then send it to us and we will check your numbers.
Letting a contractor epoxy the rot first. Epoxy buys you time. It does not fix wood rot, and it usually makes the sash replacement harder later. We have seen that repair come through our shop a hundred times.
The reason we do it this way
Ryan says it plainly. We are the ones with something to lose.
His sons work here. His friends’ sons work here. Those are families attached to whether your delivery goes well.
Some days the dogs are here too.
Your home is worth saving. If you are staring at a failing Caradco, Norco, or Pozzi sash and wondering whether it can be fixed instead of ripped out, send us your measurements at fensterusa.com. We will make the sash. You install it.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Jason: In previous professional careers that I’ve had, I was always in a sales capacity. I used to tell my friends and my coworkers that my best customers were the ones that were as educated as possible, as educated as I could help them be in something that they didn’t know about.
So I always took great pleasure in trying to, before I would say sign this contract or whatever it was, I wanted them to really understand what they were buying, why they were buying it, why they felt good about it. Never a high five, slam dunk, I just hit my bonus club. Really wanting the people to feel good about what they’d trusted us with, and what they’d trusted me with as their sales representative.
So it’s always a pleasure when I go on a delivery and meet somebody and they’re excited. They’re excited to try. And like you said, oftentimes people don’t know Fenster. They don’t know Fenster from Noblesville, Indiana. They probably couldn’t find Indiana on a map, some of these people that live far away, that have never left up in New England. Some have never left the city of New York. They just don’t know, and I understand it’s a familiarity thing. They’re cautious.
They want to make sure they’re making a decision and not getting scammed. So if they step over the edge a little bit and they buy one sash from us, fantastic. I love those. It’s a great opportunity for me as a representative of you to really take the extra time with those guys and gals, to really make their experience good and to be very respectful of them.
Appreciate their neighborhood. Appreciate their trust in us. Walk through it. Hey, do you have any questions? And to probe a little bit. Is this just one window that your kid broke with his golf club, or is this something that you’re considering as a trial to maybe do more?
They’ll open up and say, yeah, we’ve had some guys out here. I love hearing those, when they say they’ve had a window company or another competitor out. We’re not in the same arena, because they’re cutting them out and we’re repairing them. So hearing those, it’s like, oh my gosh, it was going to be tens of thousands of dollars to replace all these windows. And I said, well, I’m glad you found us, because this is going to be a great alternative for you.
Walking them through the process. Do you have any questions about installation? Do you know how to do it? We’ve got videos. If you want me to walk you through it, I’d be happy to walk you through it. Pet their dog. Say their neighborhood is nice. It’s fantastic to leave those interactions being very confident that our product is going to be a great fit for them, and to know that I’m going to be back in eight or ten weeks.
Ryan: Something I’ll jump in here and share with our viewers. So many of our five star reviews are on you. When I get that kind of feedback, it’s comforting to me that I’ve got good representation for the company out there, and that you’re doing your job well.
From the stories that I get, even from the front end. Are you going to ship it common carrier? How are they packaged? And I’m like, no. Our employee is driving our van to your driveway and handing them to you. And they’re like, what?
That’s just unheard of. I don’t want to jump topics, and we’re going to talk about this later in the conversation, but that’s one of those little details. We’re just a different kind of company. I didn’t mean to interrupt you. I just wanted to say what great feedback I get from customers after meeting you, and how you’re representing us. So thank you.
Jason: Thank you for the appreciation. It’s fun to do it. It’s fun to be nice. It’s fun to knock people’s socks off. Like you said, people are gobsmacked. Wait a second, you drove all the way here from Indiana? Yeah. When did you leave? This morning? Yeah, eight hours ago. And you work for the company? Yes sir. Yes ma’am.
Here’s my hat to show. Here’s my shirt to show. This is what we do. And they’re like, how can you do that? Well, because we tried other ways, and nobody cares for windows like we will. These have been in my possession. They’ve been on my van since they left the shop. So if there’s any problems, I know.
Ryan: And I’m so appreciative that you enjoy your job, because I go on work trips, I’m gone overnight, and I’m like, I can’t wait to get back. You’re a true road warrior out there for us. I think last year was 125 nights you were out.
Jason: 125, yeah.
Ryan: 125 nights out. And we got you a nice new truck last fall. Where are you at on that?
Jason: We got the Mercedes Sprinter van. I think it’s the longest one that is available. We got the biggest van we could buy on the market before going to a semi. We got it last August, and as of today we are crossing 100,000 miles. So since August of last year I’ve rolled 100,000 miles on Fenster’s behalf.
Ryan: And we still owe years worth of payments on it. Great.
Jason: Yeah, that’s all right. Second set of tires. Second set of windshield wipers. No new brakes, because I’m going straight and fast most of the time.
Ryan: And I share this bit with some folks too. You’ve got to realize we’re selling retail, direct to the consumer. You’re in and out of neighborhoods. Back in the day when I was the delivery driver, I’ve been up in older neighborhoods in New England, in the Northeast, that you’re not getting a semi through. We have to deliver in a vehicle that’s going in and out of residential neighborhoods. Backing into people’s driveways. It’s not a semi coming to you.
Jason: At least once a week when I make my courtesy call, my thirty minutes out call, people say, oh, how big is your truck? I said, well, no, just a van. Very maneuverable. They’re like, oh, I thought these were going to be on a semi or something. I said, no. All individually shrink wrapped, with cardboard on the corners. I’ll just walk them from my van into your garage.
Ryan: Well, I’ll let you get back to stories from the road.
Jason: Stories from the road, yeah. You mentioned South Boston. I remember one, it was probably last fall. I’d never personally been into South Boston before, either on my own accord or for work. So I went into South Boston. It was so cool. Tiny little streets and row houses. And this awesome couple, and I was there pretty late, probably after seven o’clock, so it was dark.
I had to double park out in front of their flat and they both came out. She comes out with a little thing. She’s like, here’s some dinner for you. We had meatloaf. I’m like, oh my gosh, you guys are fantastic. So there’s a meatloaf and I think a banana, I don’t know, whatever it was. Fantastic.
Ryan: Warren, our friend in Connecticut. I think Ben delivered to him a year or two ago. And he asked about the family all the time. Our growing family. With Ben’s story, I think Ben got there pretty late in the evening, and Warren was the nicest man in the world. He says, have you eaten any dinner? And Ben says, no, not yet. And he says, well, come on in. So he brought him to his table, cooked him up some salmon. Full spread.
Jason: So Warren was the kind of guy that just loved interacting with you, with the company, with the employees. When I delivered to him the first time this year, it was lunchtime, and I didn’t have much time to waste.
Ryan: You always seem like you’re running behind schedule when you get out on the East Coast.
Jason: A little bit. So Warren invites me in, and I kind of declined it at first. I was like, no, I can’t. And I just saw his face get sad. And I was like, you know what, this is really going to mean a lot if I let him make me lunch. He didn’t even join me. He didn’t even make food for himself. He just sat across the table while I ate. We had a conversation. I learned about his family and his kids. One was out in Texas, another one was graduating this year. He and his wife were both in finance. So yeah, it was just. And that’s kind of going off on the sidetrack of how nice people are.
Ryan: Well, it’s a different level of connection that we have with our customers. You don’t have all of that corporate feel. We’re people working with people. I doubt Warren has invited the Amazon guy in for lunch.
Jason: Probably not.
Ryan: Probably not. And it’s rewarding for me that a lot of our customers have that kind of trust in us. They’ve made that decision to trust a small company. It’s always kind of been one of my things. We’re the ones with something to lose. This is not just my business. My sons work for the company. We’re supporting families with this business. So we have everything to gain or lose by not taking care of our customers. When I get that kind of feedback, it just makes me want to keep doing good and doing better.
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