Quote:
Originally Posted by EdFNJ
When we first moved in we experienced EXACTLY THAT. We bought an AHS warranty just until we let things "wring out" for a couple months since it was a 9yr old pre-owned home. Had a A/C issue in Sept 2017 and had to wait 3 days for repairman because he had to come from 200 miles away as he was the only company that would deal with AHS. He replaced the compressor FAN (which I told him was NOT the problem) and it failed again. I called them back and they sent the same guy out 3 days later (who on a "recall" does NOT get paid) and he wasn't happy. He replaced the drain FLOAT (which I told him again was NOT the problem). A/C failed again, he refused to come back so I cancelled the policy and spent $12 on a capacitor and a relay and fixed it myself.
Moral of the story ... always keep a capacitor and relay "in stock" for a quick DIY repair or hire a local guy who will charge an understandable arm and a leg to do it for you on the same day if you're not comfortable doing it yourself.  |
Wow. It's a shame you all have had such bad experiences. We have a policy on our house in Maryland with our local utility (well actually a spin-off from the utility) but the same company that sells us the policy has their own technicians and dispatches them. I guess that is the main difference. And they always give priority service to those with the service contracts which is the ONLY reason I use them. We generally get a tech out by the next day. We have an extra policy on our generator which didn't kick in one night during a tropical storm so we had no AC in August (luckily it was about 10:00pm so wasn't scorching yet) We called their emergency number and got a call back from a tech 10 minutes later who was on call and working at another call and said he would be there in 2 hours. An hour later the power came back on and I called him and said I would I schedule a daytime appointment to have it looked at since the storm had passed as well.
Financially, most people will do better to self-insure in the long run. That's how the companies make money; they charge on average more than it takes to fix the appliances and they make money over their entire customer base. We had a chronic problem with our 18-19 year old A/C unit and had guys out there a few times either same day or next day until we replaced it. They also replaced our glass stove top free when we accidentally damaged it and the damage wasn't even covered by the policy. We have probably come close to breaking even financially but the priority service would keep us paying for the policy even if we virtually never used it. I NEED my A/C!
It sounds like I'll be disappointed when I get down there....sigh