Blog on garage doors Skokie / Chicago, IL

Garage Door Corporation is glad to announce that our main office landline phones can accept text messages (either SMS or MMS) as of 03/20/2017. Although we have had SMS text messaging only on one of our alternate lines for several years it required the use of a different phone number. That service provider would only accept SMS but not MMS (ie no pictures). We regularly get calls from customers who would like to send a picture of the part they need or door condition etc. Previously we would have to have them sent as email.

Garage Door Corporation has learned that Amarr Garage Doors (an Entrematic company) is asking dealers to inspect hardware boxes for defective and cracked residential end hinges for the SafeGuard sytem #102122 and 102123. This includes all pinch resistant residential models including the Stratford, Heritage, Classica etc. The details came in a Quality Memo #03-16 dated 08/16/2016 as shown below:

Immediate Action Required - Cracked Residential End Hinge

Quality Memo 03-16
August 16, 2016

Garage Door Corporation has been advised that Amarr (an Entrematic company) is changing the retainer which holds the glass on its full view doors from aluminum to pvc. This includes models Vista (VI1000), Amarr 3502, and Amarr 3552. The change will affect only the following standard colors: Clear Anodize, Dark Bronze Anodize, Black Anodize, and White (powder coated). This change is consistent with other manufacturers (ie Clopay, Ideal, Overhead, CHI).

Garage Door Corporation has been advised that the Liftmater (by Chamberlain) model 377LM wireless keyless entry has been discontinued as of 06/01/2016. This information came in a product bulletin # P2016-10 dated 06/13/2016. The 377LM keyless works on rolling code Chamberlain manufactured (includes Chamberlain, LiftMaster, and Craftsman) garge door and gate openers with a purple smart button   Details from the bulletin are:

Garage Door Corporation has received price increase notices from Clopay. Clopay has announced a significant price increase of 5.0% on all garage door products effective 08/15/2016. Clopay's last increase was 3.0% effective 02/02/2015. Unlike Amarr, Clopay will honor existing pricing for orders in their system by the date of the increase 08/15/2016. Source is the dealer letter dated 06/23/2016 by Pat Lohse who is VP of Marketing and Mike Taylor who is VP of Sales and Customer Service.

Garage Door Corporation has received price increase notices from several of its suppliers. Amarr an Entrematic company has announced a significant price increase effective 08/01/2016. Amarr's price Increase is 5.0% on all residential and commercial sectional garage doors and parts.This means any special order placed after the first week of July 2016 or stock garage door order not picked up by 07/31/2016 will be subject to the higher 

Our Blog on garage doors and openers blog.gdcorp.com has been migrated to our primary website www.gdcorp.com/blog as of 2/15/2016. We have found that although having the blog on our dedicated server (Wordpress) was good for the past it was time to integrate it with our expanding primary website. This will allow users to search all content including literature, FAQ's, owners manuals, service bulletins, AND blog entries from one place.

Garage Door Corporation has now had several Liftmaster model 8550w Myq belt drive with battery backup and wi-fi which are not recognized by the Liftmaster MyQ servers. The problem is that when a customer tries to setup MyQ for smart phone access (Android, IPhone, browser) one of the first steps after creating the online account is to enter your MyQ serial number. The Liftmaster server reports that it does not recognize the serial number entered. After checking with Liftmaster support in Tucson, AZ it was determined that this is a known problem which they are trying to resolve.

Garage Door Corporation has received information from Amarr (Entrematic) that they have reduced the in plant production time for their garage doors per the Dealer memo below. This shows a continued effort to improve the service provided by Amarr. The previous report of plant shutdowns for maintenance still applies. After the maintenance window is complete we expect garage door orders which are not stocked in the Chicago distribution center should arrive in less time.

Garage Door Corporation has received information from Amarr (Entrematic) that there will be scheduled plant production line shutdowns occurring January and February 2016 per the Dealer memo below. This may impact some of our customers by up to 2-3 weeks for orders which miss the cut-off date and are not stocked in the regional distribution center. The majority of our customers purchase doors from the EPS2 line and many are not special orders. Any customers affected by this maintenance will be advised by us directly.

In observance of the Labor Day holiday we are providing emergency garage door service and spring replacement in the N/NW Chicago and suburban Illinois only from 5pm CDT Saturday 09/05/2015 until Tuesday 09/082015 at 7am CDT.

In observance of the Independence Day holiday we are providing emergency garage door service and spring replacement in the N/NW Chicago and suburban Illinois only from 2pm CDT Friday 07/03/2015 until Monday 07/06/2015 at 7am CDT. You may still visit our website at www.gdcorp.com for faq’s, literature, instructions or to schedule service We suggest calling or send your service email request now if you would like service on Monday. Calls are routed with a preference to the date and time of the original request.

Garage Door Corporation has received numerous customer calls regarding the MyQ false push notifications 4/28/15. Liftmaster reported on 4/28/15 via email that they were aware of the problem and subsequently issued the comment below to explain the problem:  

Don't be surprised if you visit liftmaster.com which redirects to https://www.liftmaster.com and you do not get a SSL padlock in your browser. We noticed recently that Chrome and Firefox have now implemented the long stated policy of not accepting as secure any website using SHA-1 if the SSL certificate expires after 2015. Liftmaster is using SSA-1 which is being deprecated and their SSL certificate expires in 2017. This certificate was issued 07/2014 after it was well documented that SHA-256 needed to be used!

In observance of the New Years holiday we are providing emergency garage door service and spring replacement in the N/NW Chicago and suburban Illinois only from 4pm CST Wednesday 12/31/2014 only until Friday 01/02/2012 at 7am CST. You may still visit our website at www.gdcorp.com for faq’s, literature, instructions or to schedule service We suggest calling or send your service email request now if you would like service on Friday. or Saturday.

In observance of the Christmas holiday we are providing emergency garage door service in the N/NW Chicago and suburbs only from 2pm CST Wednesday 12/24/2014 only until Friday 12/26/2014 at 7am CST. You may still visit our website at www.gdcorp.com for faq’s, instructions or to schedule service We suggest calling or send your service email request now if you would like service on Wednesday. Calls are routed with a preference to the date and time of the original request.

Garage Door Corporation, an Amarr authorized garage door dealer,  has just received a memo from Amarr that due to production issues the Olympus 500 and Designers Choice 500 garage doors have ceased production until 07/21/2014. Any customers ordering these doors will not be able to do this until after production resumes. Amarr also announced that the Classica 3000 series garage door will continue to have an extended lead time of 12 days in plant plus delivery - this is longer than usual 6 day but still not bad for this specialty product.

Garage Door Corporation receives calls on a regular basis from customers seeking a new remote for their Intercontinental Dynamics ESP Micom remote control transmitter (usually model T-9) and occasionally a M-9 receiver. The manufacturer has been out of business for over 20 years. There has been one after market clone transmitter but we have found it to be highly unreliable and poor quality. The universal remote controls (ie Clicker Corporation or Liftmaster 385LM) will NOT work with an ESP Micom receiver.

Garage Door Corporation has been advised that some LiftMaster garage door openers (models 1355, 3255, 3270, and 3265-267) manufactured between January and March, 2014 may be generating a higher amount of sound than normal from the powerhead. LiftMaster testing has shown that only a small percentage of these garage door openers vibrate more than LiftMaster finds acceptable. To correct this issue, LiftMaster has designed and tested a Chassis Bracket which an installer can attach to a unit that they determine is experiencing above normal sound levels.

Garage Door Corporation has learned that nearly 18,000 Genie garage door openers have been recalled. This is the first recall for a garage door opener in many years. None of the affected units have been sold by Garage Door Corporation. According to http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2014/Genie-Recalls-Garage-Door-Openers/

The latest SSL vunerability known as Heartbleed affects secure services provided by nearly 2/3 of all servers worldwide.