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Century Shower Doors

Turns out there is more than one company calling itself Century Shower Door. We have been advised that the complaints on this page are not directed at Century Shower Door Co., Inc. For more information, see the letter from Century's attorneys.

Chris of Los Angeles, CA October 25, 2008

I purchased 2 shower doors from Century Shower Door, one for a newly remodelled bathroom and the other to replace an old door in the master bath, for a total of approximately 4,000. At the time I met with the salesman, Rupert, I expressed concerns about the replacement door in the master bathroom covering the screw holes left by the removal of the old door. Rupert assured me that he would measure so that the new door would fit over the old screw holes, and that I might have some small holes at the top (the new door was shorter than the old door) which could be covered up with colored grout.

The door in the newly remodelled bathroom was installed without incident (although the door hits the towel bar on the wall, so I am going to need to move the towel bar, patch and repaint the wall in that room). After the installers finished in the master bath, they called me to look at it and I was shocked to see that there were 10 large (1/2 inch or bigger in diameter) holes in the tile, inside the new shower door, which the installers had stuffed with white silicone!!! No attempt had been made to cut the new door so it would cover the old holes and not only were the holes unsightly, but because they were inside, water would get into them, causing mildew, and eventually penetrate into the porous tile itself, which would then crack and crumble.

Not only that, but the installers never called me upstairs to point out the fact that there would be several holes (I was home during the entire installation). In addition, the installers had left all the silicone and residue from the old shower door in place - despite their having said that their first step was to be removal of the old door and a thorough clean up of the old silicone. So I had paid several thousand dollars to improve the look of the bathroom and had ended up with a significantly worse looking bathroom.

I told the installers that I wanted to speak with either my salesman or the owner before I signed off on the job or paid the balance due (and let me emphasize that I at no time refused to pay - only said I wanted to speak with someone first). The installers called the office and told me that Rupert would call me right back. While I was waiting to hear from Rupert (5 minutes later), the installers took the door part of the shower off of the hinges, went down to their truck (without a word to me as to what they were doing), drove away and refused to return that day (this was on a Friday afternoon), leaving us without a shower in the master bath over the weekend. The installers had also cracked one of the quarter-round tiles in the trim around the tub.

I did speak with the owner, Adam Slutske, who agreed to send new installers back on Monday morning, but said I'd have to pay the balance in cash or cashier's check because he was worried I would stop payment on the check! I explained that I was a lawyer and wouldn't risk my license on a bad check charge, and he finally relented. A new set of installers came Monday with the door, and were flabbergasted at the shoddy work the first crew had performed, and were amazed that they hadn't shown the holes to me prior to installing the door so that something could be done about it before hand (e.g., re-cutting the door to cover the holes or replacing the damaged tiles), because during the installation, the crew had drilled additional holes which would be left exposed if the door was removed and re-cut.

The second crew also had to spend additional time cleaning up silicone from the old door, which the first installers had simply ignored in their cleanup. Rupert showed up later in the day and suggested I replace the white silicone with colored grout in the holes as a solution to the problem (as if all that silicone could ever really be removed from the holes in order to grout them!!!). I wrote to Adam and he finally agreed to send a crew to remove the door, so that I could replace the tiles with holes, and then the next day they would reinstall the door, but he intially was going to charge me to do it. The tile has now been replaced (because I had no spare tiles matching the quarter-rounds, it was necessary for me to incur additional cost to purchase quarter-rounds in a contrasting color), and the new door is in place, but it cost me an extra 700.00 to replace the tile.

In addition to that, Rupert, who did all the measurments, failed to take into account the geometry of the door part of the shower: The towel rack, located on the outside of the door, hits the wall, preventing the door from being opened more than 1/2 way. When the final installation took place, the only thing that could be done was to move the handle from inside the door to the outside and the towel rack from the outside to the inside (think about that for just a moment....). This was because holes had been drilled in the door for the racks, and to remove the towel rack entirely would have left (yet another) uncovered hole. It was also not possible to put a towel rack on the outside of the fixed panel, as the glass had already been tempered and could no longer be drilled, so I am left with a totally useless and somewhat odd looking towel rack inside my shower. (This is the same problem I have with the door in the remodelled bathroom, which hits the towel rack affixed to the wall - at least in that case, I can remove the towel rack -- again, at a cost to me of patching and repainting the wall)

Throughout this, Adam and Rupert acted as thought I was the only customer to have ever had this issue and that spending thousands of dollars on a shower door only to have an unsightly and unsound result was something at which no reasonable person would have been upset. However, when the final installation crew came to re-install the door after the tile had been repaired, they said that my situation is quite common and that the sales staff never really lets the customer know the likelihood of having to replace tile.

Had I known the holes would be visible and inside the shower where any solution involving grout or sealant would leave open the risk of having further water damage to the tile (and possibly the walls and floor) and that it would cost me nearly an additional 33% to remedy this situation, I would NEVER have bought the replacement door. They need to be honest with the customer so the customer can factor in the cost of replacing the tile in deciding whether to purchase. Apparently, although Century is, I'm told, a family-run business, Adam seems to be the son of the original owner, and seems to be quite young, with no real concern for building and maintaining his family's business reputation. Century had come very highly recommended - obviously by customers from the past, not the present.

I ended up having to pay an additional 700 on top of the cost of the shower, to replace damaged tiles, was without a shower in our master bath for several days (first over the weekend after the installers took the door and left, and then during the process of removing the door and repairing the tile).

In addition, I have a useless towel rack inside my shower, about which there is nothing to be done, short of having the entire door replaced (and replacing the fixed panel so that a towel rack could be installed there). Finally, I have to incur additional expense in removing the towel rack from the new bathroom and repairing and replacing the wall - again because Rupert seems not to have taken Geometry in school.

Roxanne of Las Vegas, Nv 89122, NV January 1, 2008

Skip, a salesman came to our house at our request so we could order new shower doors. After the order was decided and while he was writing out the contract he mentioned that Century Shower Door would take out the old doors but that if they do it they would charge over 100 for it. He said it is a 10 minute job and that when he found out when the new doors would be installed, he personally would come out the day before and remove the old doors himself at no charge. He said he put customer to remove old doors on the paperwork so the company wouldn't question the work.

The day before Thanksgiving we got a call that the doors would be installed the next Tuesday. We immediately called Skip to relay the message, got his voice mail and left a message. No return call. Called again on Saturday with the same results. On Sunday and Monday my husband and I removed the old doors and grouting. On Tuesday the new doors were installed on schedule. The towel bar on one of the doors has screws that match the almond frame. The other door has two towel bars and they have stainless steel screws. I wrote to the company and voiced my concerns. Mainly, I was concerned that the installers and the salesman had an agreement to remove the old doors off contract and split the additional money collected. Since we did the work ourselves, it didn't apply to us, but it might for other consumers and I basically wanted him to be aware. I also asked for almond head screws to replace the ones that were stainless steel. Mr. James Wood called and basically said he was unconcerned about the salesman's misrepresentations, and that they do not have almond head screws. He suggested we buy some paint and paint them (this even though the rest of the installation including the towel bar on the other shower door were installed with almond screws to match the installation.)

We are dealing more with frustration than any thing else. We will buy almond appliance paint and paint the screws. We do feel like this was less than acceptable response for a business and are very disappointed.

Joseph of Northridge, CA December 7, 2007

I had a shower door (460.10)installed by Century Shower on 08/29/06. I noticed , a few days after the installation, that the glazing plastic around the glass was unevenly installed. I thought it was a minor issue so I did not want to bother the company with what I thought was a minor and cosmetic issue.

On 11 19/07 I noticed that this was a big issue and the glass was about to fall out of the metal frame. I immediately placed a call to the company to have it fixed. A sales man visited my house and insisted that I pay 275.00 to have the unit repaired, since the warranty had expired only 2 months prior.

The sale rep. also pointed out that the shower door was wrongly installed by century shower door installer and that had contributed to the weakness/defect of the product. The sale rep. pointed out that company's decal which is always inside the frame was outside the frame which shows that it was improperly installed.

I placed a call to Adam Slotky to discuss the situation. Slotsky made me a deal,that he will charge me 100 to fix the defective door. In the future when I purchase new doors for the other showers, he will deduct the 100 from the sale of the new doors. I agreed and made a 50.00 deposit. The balance was payable upon the repair of the defective door.

On 12/3/07 I received a call at 4:56 PM, from the company to schedule the repair. A few minutes later I received a second call from Jim stating that they would only repair the defective unit for the 100 only if I purchase the 2 new doors that I was going to purchase in the future; which I have refused to do. There is no where in the contract that I signed for the repair and for the future purchase, that states that the 100 charge was only if I purchased the new doors now.

The glass is about to fall off its frame. Therefore I have abandoned the use of that shower/bathroom until it is repaired, to protect my children(6 and 8 years). I tried to talk to Adam Slotsky to explain the situation to him but he has refused to take my calls. Now I have decided to use another shower door company to remove and replace the whole unit with a new shower door. I will also purchase two more doors from the new company, for the two extra bathrooms in the house. I think Century Shower Door Inc is waiting for something catatrosphic to happen to my family, then Adam Slotsky and his company will spring into action- it would too late then. Remember product liability does not stop when the warranty expires !! I have talked to customer service personnel/phone operator at Century Shower Door to try to get this resolved. These people were so disrespectful and unhelpful. Century Shower Door promised to refund my 50 deposit, since 12/3/07 but that has not gone through. I have the company called several times to get my money and they refuse to do anything further to refund my money. I have called my Bank to inquire about the refund but the bank states there is no indication of any refund processed by the company. I want everyone who is dealing with this company to be aware of their practices. Century Shower Door does not care about their customers. They are only interested in the money. There are several good shower door companies out there, more professional and caring. If I new their history I would not have purchased the first 4 shower doors for my previous home and would never have recommended them to my friends and family.

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