Like some of the posters out there, I recently bought a house. I also
received a home warranty on the house from First American, which is
not quite 7 years old. In our most recent warm spell, I found that the
A/C system was out. It had worked earlier and passed inspection back
in November.
I contacted the folks at First American and they sent someone out the
next day. The first thing the guy does is look to see if the coils are
dirty. I repeated that the unit did not cool at all, but he persisted.
He took the system apart and finally convinced himself it was clean.
(I now hear that if they were in any way dirty, I would be liable for
improper maintenance!)
Only then did he go outside to discover no freon in the system. He
added some freon, then found a leak in the coils. He calls First
American, they decide a second opinion is needed. Another day passes,
more time away from work, and the second company confirms the finding.
The first company gives me a list of "owners reponsibilities" which
outline a payment of $275 to them, on top of the $55 call out fee.
This is to cover a "permit, freon recovery and hauling fees," all of
which are not covered by the warranty. First American tells me I must
use them for the service.
The City of Houston only requires a $60 permit. I didn't have any
freon in the system, so I refused to pay, and I refused to pay for the
hauling. They would not do the work, so no repair by the warranty
company.
Later I agreed to do a "cash out" option with First American, so I
hired a reputable company (not House Pro, shady dealer who they sent
out) and paid $650 for the repair. First American called a week later,
and told me they would cash out for $106 dollars! Since I've already
paid $55, my total benefit for a $650 repair was $51!!!
I plan to file suit under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practice Act. I'll
update this forum on how that goes. My thinking is that they should
pay at least 80% of my cost (assuming they might have a lot of
negotiating power), but not $106. So they need to come up with $520
minus the $60 permit if they want to avoid a lawsuit.
Bottom line, they underpay shady dealers who cannot make a profit
without adding bogus charges to the homeowner. In this case, they
wanted more than me to pay more than 50%, when their contract requires
only the $55 copay and the non-covered permit. No reputable dealer
would be able to do the repair for the amount the Warranty company
wants to pay.
I'm interested in anyone else's similar experiences.

If you let it run out of freon, it was your fault.
Pat

On 11 Mar 2004 19:57:06 GMT, (Patscga) wrote:

If you let it run out of freon, it was your fault.
Pat


Disagree. It could have been leaking for months but undetected
because of no use due to winter time.