I'm Lindsay Ferrier, a Nashville writer with a passion for family travel, exploring Tennessee, and raising kids without losing my mind in the process. This is where I share my discoveries, along with occasional deep thoughts, pop culture tangents and a sprinkling of snark. Want to get in touch? Use the CONTACT form at the top of the page.
No Air
May 15, 2013
Okay, Internet friends. It is time for you to weigh in on a dilemma.
Two years ago, we replaced our downstairs HVAC unit. Last year, Dennis signed us up for a preventative maintenance plan. A technician would come out twice over the next year, clean out both our units (the upstairs unit was replaced a year ago), and hopefully make everything last a little longer.
Recently, the company changed ownership, but we were assured that the new owners would honor our warranty and maintenance plan. Bored yet? Sorry. To get to the point, on Friday they sent out one of their technicians for the second of our two maintenance visits.
When he arrived, Dennis had not yet left for work, so he showed the guy where the units were located. I was immediately put off by the fact that the technician walked past me in the kitchen twice and didn’t look at me or acknowledge me in any way. Who does that?!
Dennis had to leave while the guy was still here, which was unfortunate– We’ve both noticed a surprising number of service technicians and repairmen who’ve tried to jack up the prices and services supposedly “needed” when I’m the only one here, assuming that I’m a gullible stay-at-home-mom who will sign a check for anything. The fact that this guy had already decided I wasn’t even worth acknowledging was definitely not a good sign. I made up my mind at that point not to buy anything– Our air conditioners and heaters had been working great, and I wasn’t going to fix anything that wasn’t broken.
Sure enough, within a few minutes of Dennis leaving, the guy was back inside, telling me that a part needed to be replaced, for $250. “It’s not broken yet, but it will go out eventually,” he said. “You don’t want to be stuck waiting for us with a broken air conditioner when it’s 95 degrees outside.”
“I think we’re going to wait on that,” I told him.
“Do you need to talk to your husband about it?” he asked. “I’ll wait.”
“No,” I said. “I think we’re going to wait until the part actually needs to be replaced.”
He pursed his lips. “Well, okay,” he said. “I’ll just go outside and finish cleaning up and be on my way.”
From that point onward, he was even more brusque than he had been before. I worried as I heard him clanging around outside that he would do something to make the part break faster and make me “sorry” I hadn’t taken his advice. I also suspected that the “preventative maintenance” visits were just a way for the company to find something– anything– wrong, and make more money. Either way, I suspected, we were screwed.
We didn’t need to use our heater or air conditioner for a few days after that, but on Sunday night, the temperatures dipped and we turned on the downstairs heater.
Guess what?
It doesn’t work.
Dennis called the company and very politely told them what had happened, and asked that they make it right. They said they could send the same guy back over on Monday, but obviously we wanted a different technician. They said another technician wouldn’t be available until today, but so far we’ve heard nothing. And now, the temperature is reaching 85 degrees each day and we have no downstairs A/C.
So what do we do? What would you do? We’d like to call another company to come out and fix it, but all of our warranties are with the original one. We’ve talked about having someone else come out and document whether our system was tampered with by the last guy. Would you do that, or would you wait to see if this new company makes it right?
Either way?
UGGGGGHHHHH.
Image via Sylvar/Flickr
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Can you get in touch with the actual unit manufacturer? You could give them the whole back story and see what they say. My mom has been fighting a dishwasher battle and going this route actually made a difference. Yeah, UGGGGHHH is right.
That’s a really good idea. We shouldn’t be tied to a company after it’s changed hands for our warranty.
Call Jeremy Finley! OK – just kidding.
It looks like you are spending $$ regardless of what avenue that you take. I thought that maybe the guy (just) had social/manner/femaile-hater issues, but…..I would guess that he wanted to mkae sure that what he said was accurate. I’d love for there to be a test done to see if there was tampering…then you could sue them, even if it was only for tip-top service.
Here is what I find amusing: As i understand it, both of you are on your local news stations. Considering the ability to “out” bad service, ANY/EVERY -ONE should be giving you their best.
I’m sorry, doodle. I’m anxious to see how this situ turns out.
Most service people come here thinking I’m a stay-at-home mom and that I don’t know anything. It’s demeaning and infuriating– most SAHMs I know have college degrees and know when they’re being taken for a ride.
Getting in touch with the manufacturer sounds like a plan. They need to know what the after purchase warranty service is actually like – they will want to make this good as soon as possilble.
I’ve maintenance contract on my furnace and a/c- one annual service visit each. The tech has been the same for both visits so far, and hasn’t been pushy on sales, in spite of the fact it’s obvious I’m single. I know the Lord is watching over me in this area!
You’re lucky! I’m never getting a service plan again. I think “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is going to be my new mantra! 😉
Dennis needs to do a story on this!
Yes, a story about our own air conditioning woes would go over REALLY WELL. ;D
If it were me, I would call and speak to the service manager (or if a small company, the new owner) – NOT some person who just answers the phone or schedules appointments. I would explain the entire situation (maybe dropping that you are both journalists, and you are quite able to work with technicians and make your own financial decisions) and ask HIM what to do to make this right. I would stress how long you’ve been a customer and how you intend to stay one going forward, if this is handled correctly. Then I would see what he said.
If you are unsatisfied with his approach, I would cancel the contract and call another company and get a maint contract with them. I would bite the bullet on the cost of the repair (with ANOTHER company), and go forward with them.
Then I would go onto Yelp or whatever review sites are used in your area, and post a very blunt assessment of the situation.
But hopefully it will not come to that.
AND before I picked another company, I would research and read reviews about their service division so you are more likely to be happy with who you pick.
Sorry so long, but that is what i would do.
This is really good advice. Dennis always makes the calls in this household, because I can’t keep a “poker voice” on the phone- You can totally tell if I’m upset or irritated, and people react accordingly.
Most units have great warranties – 3 – 5 years. My family is in the HVAC wholesale business so if you message me, I can offer some advice, depending on the unit.
Thanks, Shannon! I’ll message you if we have future problems. Our HVAC unit has a 10 year warranty, which is one of the reasons we bought it- so we want to make sure we use it if necessary.
Amy Kovach and Rae Ann both have good advice.I realize it’s hard with jobs and kids, but I try to make sure at least one adult follows any service tech around – not that they can’t try to “unfix” something or worse, but it lessens the chances, in my opinion. Folks (okay, mostly men) who try to pull one over on women make my blood boil.
That’s smart, Laura!
I hear you. I went with a new hvac maintenance company several years ago and finally noticed a disturbing trend. They would come check the heater in fall and the a/c in spring and say everything was ok (although always trying to sell me a new thermostat, an attic-door cover, whatever, that I declined). Then, less than a week later, something would break and an expensive repair would be required. In every case, the system had been working fine until then. After the third or fourth round of this, I declined to renew my contract with them even though they kept calling me forever about it. I say unless they will come fix it ASAP for free, call someone else!
This is exactly what I’m afraid of! I’m totally with you on this one.
I have never heard of a HVAC maintenance company. Maybe because I’m in East Tennessee or maybe I have just been lucky (went to school with/lived down the road from a family that owns a heat/air company). The whole idea sounds suspicious to me.
Okay, I have no constructive advice for the immediate situation, but I do have some great advice for nipping this in the bud for future occurences. I think you should file a complaint with your state attorney general. It is free to do and gets results. Initially, you just file a complaint online and the AG’s office sends the company paperwork that lets them know you filed and for them to tell their side of the story. At that point, the company sees that you aren’t messing around, and they would rather deal with you reasonably rather than involve the AG and waste company time. It’s not a lawsuit or anything like that, it’s simply filing a complaint that the company isn’t able to ignore. I used this process when an appliance company was messing me around on an over-the-range microwave oven. All of the sudden, the company that couldn’t do anything to help me came up with a few different solutions.
Love it– Thank you!
I smell an exposé.