Sliding Door Company - Reviews Summed Up

This review seems to be another summary of the types of complaints we've been seeing in previous reviews.  

Happy New Year Sliding Door Company!

• Chris G.
• Oakland, CA

1/3/2018

We originally ordered our doors for our second bedroom in September and were told the doors would be ready for installation within 8 weeks.  Based on this timeline we were thinking our doors would be installed by Thanksgiving.  

After 8 weeks passed with no response I called them to ask about the status and found out it would take another 1-2 weeks before the doors were ready.  

Rather than scheduling the installation date at that time they waited until the doors were in their warehouse and at that point the installation crew only had one available appointment within the next 4 weeks.  

I ended up taking time off of work to be home for the only available installation appointment and wasted my time as it turned out the doors were not measured correctly in the first place.  We then waited an additional 4 weeks for the doors to be modified and during the modification they broke the glass.  Now it's January and we are still without doors for another 8-10 weeks while they re-order the doors.  

At this point the whole process will take over 6 months and we were required to pay in full prior to the original installation appointment so we have no other option but to wait it out.

Criminal Felony Charges?

Looks like we're back down to one star... 

But hey, if you're going to accuse somebody of a felony, at least give them a star, right?  As reviews go, this one has to be one of the worst we've seen.  Hopefully, Alex C will pop in to straighten things out for this customer.

Yelp Review: (Was on this link, now in the "Not Recommended" section at the bottom). Click on Samuel B's name below to see other places he filed the same review.

Samuel B.

Pasadena, CA

12/29/2017

Criminal felony charges have been lodged against The Sliding Door Company (particularly Doron Polus, who represents himself as the CEO and president) for illegal activities via the police to be prosecuted against them with the district attorney, which was accepted with clear evidence. Other divisions of governmental and legal authorities are being called to action as well.

The members of The Sliding Door Company I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with have committed multiple counts of illegal fraud. I have documented proof of all this. They were reported to multiple authorities. They broke notarized contracts, caused massive damages, made several false statements, and illegally, fraudulently stole from me. I have documented proof of all this already lodged with authorities. The authorities have advised me to take action against Doron Polus, who represents himself as the President and CEO, who, among others, made false statements, verifiable with written proof. Please, feel free to message me and I will be happy to provide plentiful proof of their illegal activities. Please, be careful of this company, because if they fail they could attempt to defraud you, too.

They are ACTIVELY continuing to break the law and have been notified of it several times. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!

Again, readers of this blog are not going to be surprised by any of this.  I will, indeed try to contact Samuel B. and provide any assistance and background I can for his case.  

Meanwhile, "FRAUD" is another term to search for on our Complaints page.  We have shown how contract fraud is apparently a regular occurrence.  And this particular customer seems to be alleging that multiple people are involved... so that might suggest a felony conspiracy.  It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Meanwhile, I'm guessing The Sliding Door Company will continue doing business as usual.


UPDATE 1:

I'm not sure if this is an actual update, but I have located where the Alex C persona has answered this complaint - prior to the December 29th complaint.

Let's see what The Sliding Door Company had to say to this reviewer:

Comment from Alex C. of The Sliding Door 

Business Customer Service

12/13/2017  The Sliding Door Company takes pride in every project we work on. Our knowledgeable team works with each client individually to ensure meticulous attention to detail.

We are very sorry to hear about Mr. B          s review.  

Over the past 12 years, and through our very own 27 showrooms nationwide, we have grown to be the leader in interior glass door solutions.
We fabricate room dividers, closet doors and glass partitions in our own factory where safety and quality are always built into every door.

Hopefully Mr.            will be part of our many happy clients.

The Sliding Door company

Yes, I have had to redact the name of the customer.  Seriously TSDC?  The person who complained NEVER identified themselves by their last name.  This is apparently something The Sliding Door Company reproduced from their sales order.  How is it appropriate for a company to divulge PERSONAL INFORMATION about one of their customers On-Line?  He didn't put his name on-line - but The Sliding Door Company DID!  Was this payback for mentioning their CEO, Doron Polus, by name in his review?

I suspect by putting this user's name on-line without his permission, they have caused even more troubles for themselves if this user takes them to court.

UPDATE 2:

This post seems to be related to the one above:

Amy N.

Glendale, CA

  12/19/2017
At the request of authorities, someone came to me for professional review of a Sliding Door Company interaction. Working with the victim, there were massive amounts of heavily documented evidence showing the Sliding Door Company committed numerous contract law violations, false statements, theft, and fraud. The amounts seem as though they could be criminal in nature. It's clear to me the Sliding Door Company is committing illegal acts and hurting innocent people. Please, stay safe and protect yourself and your loved ones from this company.

UPDATE 3:

Most of the reviews seem to have been deleted now... but...
Back on Samuel B's Yelp profile, this appeared on Jan 3rd, 2018. 

The Sliding Door

Door Sales/Installation

2614 E Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91107

1/3/2018

This is my firsthand experience for this specific location.
AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!
This company stole from me.
Criminal felony charges have been lodged against The Sliding Door Company (particularly Doron Polus, who represents himself as the CEO and president) for illegal activities via the police to be prosecuted against them with the district attorney, which was accepted with clear evidence. Other divisions of governmental (including the FTC) and legal authorities are being called to action as well.
The members of The Sliding Door Company I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with have committed multiple counts of illegal fraud. I have documented proof of all this. They were reported to multiple authorities. They broke notarized contracts, caused massive damages, made several false statements, and illegally, fraudulently stole from me. I have documented proof of all this already lodged with authorities. The authorities have advised me to take action against Doron Polus, who represents himself as the President and CEO, who, among others, made false statements, verifiable with written proof. Please, feel free to message me and I will be happy to provide plentiful proof of their illegal activities. Please, be careful of this company, because if they fail they could attempt to defraud you, too.
They are ACTIVELY continuing to break the law and have been notified of it several times. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS! 

Yelp Review - Sliding Door Company Complaint

Yelp Review - San Francisco

Two Stars this time... Is this Proof The Sliding Door Company is improving?

Philip B.

San Francisco, United States

26/11/2017

2 Stars for the final doors that look good 

Congratulations TSDC!!!

Lack of three stars due to price, service and unacceptable lead time and delivery
My experience with The Sliding Door Company is similar to others here:

I have gone to a lot of effort to detail the experiences of others on our Complaints page (Pinned at the top right corner of this blog).  I will be referring to this page throughout today's blog.

- Final sliding door room divider looks good, but also came with $8,000 price tag
- A lot of hidden and creeping costs throughout project. Forget about your initial quote and their online 'design tool' is a joke and not useful / representative of the real solution/limitations/options 

Our Complaints page is filled with complaints about "creeping costs" and charges - sometimes made to credit cards without permission.  When you look at the Complaints page, search for the words "CHARGE" or "CREDIT CARD" and you will see many complaints about charging and overcharging by The Sliding Door Company.  

- Lead time is unacceptable: Total time from first contact to delivery was 7 months!!

Again, no surprise here.  Search the complaints page for the words "MONTHS" and "WEEKS".  Again, we see many people have experienced unexpected long wait times for this product.  Some have waited months only to find the product has arrived in the wrong size or color.

- Employees are friendly, but level of service is low. Our point of contact was Diane Gong
- As a customer you need to be on top of everything yourself. I had to design the door myself in CAD software to make sure they got it right. Several rounds of drawings i received from Sliding Door co were wrong or missing details... 

Wait... we've heard of this very recently, here where a reviewer said:

 "the plans that were drawn up were not representative of the measurements that were taken (cost me another $1,000 to have my architect fix them" 

...or had the wrong measurements. Be prepared to review everything in extreme detail yourself!

 Again, looking at the Complaints page and querying for the word "MEASURE" will yield many, many results of people who received bad measurements.  Doing a search on this entire blog (see the "search" box") will find several blogs discussing the measurement problem.  I even blogged about the reason for the consistent mis-measurement problem here.

- Expect a LOT of unreturned phone calls, emailing back and forth and even had to wait outside their showroom for 30mins for an employee who was "late for work" for our appointment to sign the final documents

The Complaints page is filled with people trying to get customer service through emails and phone calls with the majority of the complaints being that NO emails or phone calls were returned.  On the Complaints page press CTRL-F to find the words "PHONE CALLS" or "EMAIL" or even "CUSTOMER SERVICE" and you will see many instances of what this reviewer is describing.

- They will keep you waiting for all sorts of things: Put down deposit to receive final drawings which takes forever, wait several months for your door to be ready but then expect to wait an additional month for an installer to be ready to install the door. 

"INSTALLER" is the query word for this problem, and when one sees the related complaints, it's easy to understand what the problem is.  The "installers" are often side contractors with their own schedules and priorities.  

- In my case the installer cancelled on me 3 times, couldn't figure out how to get up the stairs with the door and sliding door co had "forgotten" to ship all the needed components such as handles (!) so we had to wait an additional 3 weeks to have the door completed.

Query for "MISSING" and "FORGOT" 

I feel Sliding Door Co has a pretty good product at a fair price, but they'ved dropped the ball on the customer experience side of things.

Ya think?

At this blog, we are doing the best we can to help The Sliding Door Company become ethical, maintain their clients, and grow their business without generating new complaints.  Yet, despite our best efforts, The Sliding Door Company continues to force us to reveal that customer satisfaction will NEVER be their top priority (or anywhere close).  

The Sliding Door Company and Negative Reviews

Negative Reviews?

Click on the link above to watch an amazing video about a couple who is seeking justice after being charged $350 when they filed a negative review.

Here are more reports on this story:

Fortune 

Daily Mail 2 videos

MoneyWatch  

From the Fortune article:

A customer who stayed at an Indiana hotel has said she was charged $350 and threatened with legal action after leaving a negative review about her experience.
Call 6–the investigative arm of ABC affiliate The Indy Channel in Indiana–reports that when Katrina Arthur and her husband stayed at the Abbey Inn & Suites in Brown County in March 2016, the hotel had a policy in place that allowed them to charge customers $350 for negative reviews, according to the lawsuit.

The Indiana Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit on December 15 of this year against Abbey Management, which owned and operated the Abbey Inn when the guests visited, alleging the hotel violated Indiana’s Deceptive Consumer Sales Act by enforcing a customer review policy that is “unfair, abusive, and deceptive.”

After the review was published, Arthur said the hotel charged her $350 and she received a letter from the hotel’s attorney threatening legal action.
“That scared me to death,” said Arthur to Call 6. She then deleted the review.
After Arthur received similar complaints about the Abbey Inn, she filed a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General in an attempt to get her $350 back.
“I feel like they were punishing me for being truthful and I don’t think that’s fair,” said Arthur to Call 6. “I was very angry they had done that.”
“The ability for a consumer to say what they want about a business via an online review is largely protected at both the state and federal level,” he said. 

And that, dear readers is why we compile so many complaints against The Sliding Door Company.  People who think they are alone in their criticism of bad customer service, rude salespeople, faulty product installations and faulty products can now see these things are systemic in a company that works in an unethical manner.

That's why we will continue to compile The Sliding Door Company's Negative Reviews in one place and point out similarities in complaints.  Consumers are entitled to know.

Sliding Door Company Reviews | Sliding Door Company Complaint...

Does The Sliding Door Company have a place for "complaints"? 

Yes, they actually named a landing page:  

Sliding Door Company Reviews | Sliding Door Company Complaint...

Surprise... The "complaints" are
actually glowing reviews

Why would The Sliding Door Company name a page like this?  There don't seem to be any complaints there...  The actual web address is the link below:

http://www.slidingdoorco.com/reviews/

This more accurately describes what's on the page - glowing reviews for their products and services.  

So why misdirect people searching for "complaints" about them?  

Well, the reason is obvious - no business wants potential customers seeing complaints from existing and past customers.  While some businesses actually address the complaints of their customers, we've seen that The Sliding Door Company prefers to ignore these complaints or when they address them, try to make it sound as if the complainer is nothing more than... well... a complainer.  Better to herd potential customers away from places like Yelp, or The Sliding Door Complaint Blog and onto their own controlled page of reviews.

And let's be honest... People looking for complaints about The Sliding Door Company now have a great place to look for them.  The Sliding Door Complaint Blog has listed many, many complaints from customers and former customers of The Sliding Door Company.  

We have done something amazing here that Yelp reviewers cannot do.

We have connected the dots for consumers.  

Where an individual consumer might see a "bad measurement" we see a systemic problem of measurement "issues" relating to misinterpretation of measurements by the factory in China.

When an individual consumer says their "wheels keep breaking" - we identify multiple consumers with similar problems to show that the problem is with the wheels and not with the consumer.

When The Sliding Door Company gives a consumer "glass cleaner" to solve their seal failure issues, we point out that The Sliding Door Company knows this doesn't work and that consumers have had to have their doors replaced over this issue.  In other words, we point out the fraud that is their business model - certainly on this issue at least.


When a consumer complained that people's heels are being trapped in TSDC's door tracks, they resolve the issue for that consumer ONLY.  However, the problem is in their product and is MUCH bigger than this.


And for commercial customers, we have pointed out multiple problems with and even intentional violations of ADA laws.


TSDC really, really doesn't want people 
visiting the this blog.  So, by putting out a page with a title suggesting a consumer might find "complaints" they are betting that users looking for complaints about their products and services will instead find their glowing reviews page.
It's part of the mis-information they have become famous for (thanks in part to this blog)... and something they cannot discontinue  at this point.  

In today's world, credibility is everything... and when a company loses credibility with its own customers, getting it back requires honesty.  The Sliding Door Company is attempting to restore their reputation with  dishonest, misleading information.

People looking for the TRUTH about The Sliding Door Company will find this blog - hopefully, before they purchase anything, but in some cases they will find it after they have been misled and mistreated by The Sliding Door Company.

UPDATE: We've shamed them into changing the name of their landing spot... 

Lip Service on Yelp

Lip Service!

I have been telling people they can get results by using Yelp to petition the Sliding Door Company for the service they have already paid for.  

Apparently, now even that doesn't work.  After publishing a negative Yelp review, Michael D received a response from The Sliding Door Company.

Here's the original complaint.

Michael D.

San Francisco, CA

11/17/2017  Previous review

To say I am dissatisfied with my experience is an understatement.   

The short version of a very long story is that this company is extremely consistent in overpromising and missing each and every deliverable along the way:  the plans that were drawn up were not representative of the measurements that were taken (cost me another $1,000 to have my architect fix them), calls were never returned after they charged my credit card (I had to literally call every hour for 3 days until someone picked up), and they missed their promised delivery date by 7 weeks.  
If I was getting doors from China for the "deal of a lifetime", I could live with the above, but not for a $20,000 price tag.  Do yourself a favor and stay away from this place.

Here's the response from The Sliding Door Company's "Alex C" (who we know from past responses is Sheryl Hai Ami, the wife of the CEO).

Comment from Alex C. of The Sliding Door Company Business Customer Service
11/22/2017  

"Hi Michael,  Thank you for voicing your concerns about the experience you had with our company. We take this kind of feedback very seriously. I have shared this with our Executive Management team so that we can learn from it.

Our team is currently looking into this situation and we will contact you soon. We deeply apologize for the stress this situation has caused.

Sincerely,
TSDC Team"  

 And here's what happened.

12/8/2017   Updated review

Update: I read the response and as expected, no one bothered to contact me to resolve the issue. Order is still a mess.

Yes, at least, by now, Michael has the right expectations about The Sliding Door Company.  When The Sliding Door Company responds to a Yelp review with promises of "service" customers who have dealt with them don't even expect to receive the service.  What they have come to expect from the Sliding Door Company is "LIP SERVICE" and nothing more.

Good Job TSDC Team!  You got a 1-star review for the job and another 1-star review for the Lip Service.  That must help your overall rating on Yelp, right?  

Is Doron Polus secretly Harvey Weinstein?

Me Too

Time magazine just named the "Me Too" movement as "Person of the Year".  The systemic and hidden abuse of men, women and children was known throughout Hollywood and within the world of politics.  Powerful people are being exposed on a daily basis for their abuses by these brave whistle blowers.

It started with the exposure of Harvey Weinstein - someone who, through his wealth and power, had tremendous influence over the people around him.  He used that influence to pressure people into doing things they didn't want to do - often sexual things but also illegal things - like getting people to help him cover up his crimes. 

For Harvey Weinstein - Hollywood mogul and accused sexual predator, it was more about humiliating people through exerting his power than it was about sex.  He literally enjoyed humiliating people.  And it's this sick type of thinking that makes The Sliding Door Company's CEO, Doron Polus remind me of him.

But wait, there's a creepy story about Mr. Polus going around too... let's cover that first...

Kimberly Antillon, my former friend and The Sliding Door Company's human resources manager, related the following story to me:

The Sliding Door Company hires employees regularly (there's a huge turn-over as you might expect).  During the training period, Kimberly was distributing shirts with The Sliding Door Company logo printed on them to some female employees who were gathered in the room where they kept the shirts.  TSDC's CEO, Doron Polus stopped by and asked them to "try them on" (This reminds me of when Trump visited the dressing rooms of the Miss Teen USA contestants).  Kimberly says she had to stop the young women who began undressing in front of their new boss.  

It is precisely this type of influence and control CEO's eventually realize they have over employees - and when they do, they invariably exploit that control.  Sometimes, they break the law when they do this - and as in my case, can get  employees and others to support their criminal actions.

How is Doron Polus like Harvey Weinstein?

It is evident to many people that the Harvey Weinstein was obsessed by his own power.  He used his influence and money to get people to cover up his crimes.  

Doron Polus is the same in this regard.  And as with Weinstein, suddenly Polus' victims started speaking up.  Not only his employees, but his own customers were victims as well.  Doron Polus is leaving a trail of victims as he claims to run a good company.  Doron Polus has made silly decisions which may hurt a LOT of people in general, but especially children and veterans.  He denies his products have problems with ADA... so disabled persons will just have to suffer through, I guess.  

The question is, why not simply comply with ADA laws and avoid lawsuits?  The only answer I can come up with is arrogance.  I would have said "ignorance" but I've already told Mr. Polus about his ADA violations, so he obviously doesn't care about accommodating the disabled.  In this regard, he's probably worse than Harvey Weinstein.  Apparently, Mr. Polus, like Mr. Weinstein, can afford to be sued by his victims... so why change?

I'm certain I'm not his last victim, but I may be his loudest.  And in light of Time Magazine's cover dedicated to whistle blowers, it's time to acknowledge that #MeToo also stands against the abuse and bullying subordinates receive at the hands of powerful and corrupt CEO's like Doron Polus.