While I’m an avid do-it-yourselfer, I also live in a house that was built in 1984 and has some of the original equipment and I don’t do major HVAC and appliance repairs. So at this juncture I feel a home warranty is a good investment — well at least I did until this last experience.
Past Experience
I had my garbage disposal die, called at 7:00 AM and had a new installed disposal at 11:00 AM by a really nice young man who told me how to take care of it.
My garage door opener stopped and after an early morning call I had it repaired by mid-afternoon and instructed on how to prevent it from happening in the future.
I had the air handler on one of my two HVAC units start leaking freon and had repair folks out that afternoon. What would have been a $2,200 repair without the warranty ended up costing me $1,000. Not as good as I expected, but still a lot better than it would have been without the warranty. It took a week for the repair to be completed.
This Time
On Saturday I walked into my kitchen and it sounded like I had an airplane propeller spinning in there. It was the condenser fan on the refrigerator. I know how to replace a fan like that, but since it was covered by my warranty I thought I would let them do it for the $60 service call.
I called around noon on Saturday and expected a call first thing Monday morning. No call. I tried calling the company who had been assigned to the repair and it went to voice mail and the voice mail was full. Call me fussy, but to me this is a totally unacceptable lack of professionalism. What kind of way is that to run a business???
So I get on the phone to my home warranty company and ask for a new company. No go. The company has until Wednesday to come out for the repair. I was not happy and made that clear to the person I was talking to.
The repair company got around to calling me later that afternoon and I told them I was sure it was the condenser fan and was informed it would take 3-5 days to order the fan. I pretty much nuked at that point. I told them I was trying to get the refrigerator repaired before the fan died and I lost all my food and 3-5 days to order a fan would put me into the following week. Too bad. I gritted my teeth and asked them to order the fan and call me back with an ETA.
Now am I confused here or is there a complete reversal in priority? I could have lived without my disposer, left the car in the drive when the door opener failed, and stayed with family or friends if the broken A/C became intolerable. But my refrigerator is going belly up and I’m about to lose my food and I’m told it will take over a week for the repair?
No call back on Tuesday so I called the warranty company again. All they would offer was to call the repair company and I told them they don’t answer and it goes to a full voice mail. They tried with the exact result I had told them about. They said they would email the repair company and they had 24 hours to respond. More disgusted shouting on my part — sorry, but the prospect of having all my food go bad was really upsetting — and they were absolutely no help. I hung up on them.
I found a company online who could have the fan to me the next day since it was in a warehouse in Fort Worth and I lived in Dallas for a little less than the service call with my warranty company. I ordered the fan and installed it myself.
The Funny Part
I hadn’t heard a peep from the repair company or the warranty company. No follow up on the ETA of the fan as I’d requested. No follow up from the warranty company.
I got a message on Thursday that the repair person would be at my house in 5-10 minutes. I wasn’t home. They hadn’t called so I didn’t have a clue they were planning on coming. I just laughed and deleted the message.
My home warranty company? American Home Shield. My neighbors have First American and I plan on calling them. They couldn’t be any worse.
