How to Cancel a Window Order. Hint: Don’t Delay.

Every once in a while we hear from someone who has placed an order for custom made and windows and now they want to cancel their window order. Can you do that, how do you do it, are there costs to cancel a window order? Let’s find out.

Can you cancel a window order?

The short answer is yes, if you’re fast enough. If you met a smooth talking door to door window salesman yesterday you can still cancel your order. You typically have 3 business days to change your mind about anything sold by a door to door salesman.

The government knows those guys can be tricky so they give you the option to get out of any deal. Beware that in some states Saturday can be a business day so time is of the essence.

To cancel your order send them something in writing, an email to the main company email account works fine. If you don’t have that address you can send one to the salesperson. If he didn’t leave an email address (that was probably on purpose) you can send them a text or call their office to ask for the email address.

Beware, they’re prepared for you to try to cancel your order.

The slickest of companies are very used to people trying to cancel their window order shortly after signing up. They know their salespeople are pushy and often have customers feeling buyers remorse.

They’re prepared for your cancellation call and they’ll have a response ready to go. They’ll connect you with a “manager” who will likely offer you a super special deal to get you to change your mind.

Don’t fall for it. Your intuition was right. If you wanted to cancel a window order there was likely a good reason. Just stick to your guns and don’t deal with them. Just tell them you’re expecting any deposit returned promptly per state law. No matter how offended or helpful or mad or sad or glad they may seem it’s all just an act. Once you stick to your guns they’ll just give you your deposit back and move on to the next person.

They may even try to schedule another appointment to review your project, or see if they can find additional savings or (insert excuse here). Don’t participate in their games. It could be an excuse to get you to wait until after the three business days. If they overcharged you once you should find someone else to work with. There are plenty of fish in the sea.

If you’re contacting them within 3 business days there is nothing they can do. They must cancel your order and return your deposit. Don’t accept anything else.

You won’t be the first person or the last person to cancel an order with them.

What if it has been longer than 3 business days?

Unfortunately you might be out of luck, but there’s still a chance. Before an order has actually gone to manufacturing the sales company can cancel it if they want. They don’t want to cancel it at that point so they’ll try to resist and tell you it’s impossible but it’s not. They’re lying.

You can be sure an order has not gone to manufacturing if they have not yet taken the final measurements. The salesman might have acted like he took measurements but almost all the time that’s just for show. They don’t actually use his measuremetns for anything so that step doesn’t matter.

He does that just to look like he’s being thorough. We have an upcoming post on that so keep an eye out.

If someone has come by after the salesperson to take the final measurements then the order could be in manufacturing and at that point you really can’t cancel it. The windows are all yours.

Now before you window salesmen out there get all excited, it is possible that the salesman did take the final measurements. We had a rep in our of our locations who had prior experience measuring windows so we’d have him measure to skip a step for the customers. That is unusual, but it could happen.

Basically anytime another measuring appointment is scheduled then you know the order is not in manufacturing and could be canceled.

Once years ago when I worked for a window manufacturer I had a really sleezy customer who asked me to fake an order document for him so he could tell his customer that the windows were on order and could not be canceled. He told his customer that the plant started on the order based on the salesperson’s measurements and they only needed the final measurement appointment to work out the final details. That was a lie.

My company lets people cancel an order for any reason anytime before the manufacturing begins because I think it’s good karma. Most window companies don’t feel the same way. This is defininltey a funny business.

Can I return custom made windows or change my mind later?

Unfortunately that gets expensive quickly. We’ll be publishing another post on that very topic later this week so stay tuned. Sometimes people think you can try before you buy and that’s just not how it works.

If you have cancel an order from a pushy company wand want to find a better solution check this section find our company or other recommended companies in your area. You can also find window reviews here and information about the tricky window sales tactics that many companies uses here. We hope you enjoy the site!