Play it Safe With Home Warranty Companies

Author: Ron S. Carter
Source: ezinearticles.com

Many people have a general home warranty attached to a home upon purchase. These warranties are offered by companies that specialize in warranties for household appliances. Homeowners can have their refrigerator, range and even air conditioning system covered through one of these warranties. It’s easy to run into problems with these warranties though.

Many times, maintenance must be performed regularly on these appliances to keep them in working order. Central air and heat systems for instance must be serviced once a year to maintain the validity of the warranty. If a homeowner skips or forgets the maintenance, and encounters a problem with the unit, the warranty will not cover it.

Be sure to ask for reputable contractors to be dispatched to your home. Many times contractors don’t want to deal with these calls because they don’t make enough money. When their business is slow, they depend on warranty companies, but when they’re busy, they want to work for the people who pay the most money.

For instance, a lady in San Antonio, TX called her home warranty company because she had a leak in her shower drain. She could tell what it was, she said, because the only time it leaked was when the tub was draining or when the shower was on. In other words, it only leaked when the drain was open. She paid a $65 dollar service charge (similar to a deductible) for a plumber to come out and tell her it was her water pipe and that she needed thousands of dollars worth of work done. She argued and called the warranty provider to let them know what she thought. It took her a matter of weeks to get a competent plumber on site to identify the problem, which was just as she believed. Since the shower drain was upstairs, the plumber had to cut the ceiling out just below the drain in order to fix the drain pipe. When he was finished, he left the mess he made with the explanation that he “doesn’t do drywall”. It was another week and another service charge before she had her ceiling fixed too.

Since many parts of your home may be covered by such warranties, be sure to read the fine print in order to keep your warranty valid. It’s an awful feeling to find that you’ve paid for a service that does you no good whatsoever. So be sure to request a reputable contractor that has very few complaints logged in the warranty provider’s system. That being said, your home warranty is a contract like any other. You must live up to your end of the agreement for the warranty providers to live up to theirs.

Ron is the Marketing Representative for All Seasons Air Conditioning based in San Antonio, TX. Ron has been in the HVAC industry for over 7 years. Although he hasn’t spent a lot of time in the industry, he has worked as a Regional Sales Manager for a prominent manufacturer of air conditioning units as well as the business manager for another local HVAC contractor.

Ron is working to grow All Seasons Air Conditioning and Heating with his brother Nick Carter. They would like to show people that air conditioning service doesn’t have to break the bank, and that anything can be repaired, but sometimes it’s cheaper in the long run to have something replaced.