Kat's Arbitrary Thought Processes

Ok, so this start way back in April.  You see, we had several hot days and needed to turn on the AC.  But it wasn’t cooling the house.  This is an issue for us because thePinkDiva is temperature sensitive.  If it gets below 68 or above 73 in our house, she melts down.  So, like every year, we called the Warranty Company, AHS.  They assigned us a company to come out and fix it.  I’m withholding the company name – for now – because we may need to take action against them later, so we’ll call this company “Dewy”.

April 8, Dewy sent a technician out who determined that our AC was low on Freon, and recharged the AC.  I paid him the 60$ fee that AHS requires, and he left.  All seemed to work well for a while.  The temperatures dropped and we had to turn the heat on for a few days.  Then it got hot again, and we turned the AC back on.

It didn’t work.  So on April 26, I called AHS again.  They put in the order for Dewy to come back out and fix the problem this time.  Dewy called and scheduled an appt for Wednesday the 27th.  Ok. Wednesday rolled around, and Dewy was a no-show.  Called to find out what happened, and was told the tech couldn’t make it, could we reschedule for Friday the 30?  Ok. Rescheduled.  Friday morning, I got a call from Dewy.  4 of their technicians called out sick, and they would have to reschedule again. They would send a man out on Monday morning, May 3rd.

May 3rd – The technician surprised me by actually showing up.  He went into the attic to look at the unit, and came back down a few hours later telling me that there were multiple leaks in the “Evap Coil” and it would need to be replaced.  He also informed me that AHS had approved the fix, but there would be a $225 charge for things that AHS did not cover, like modifying the duct work and recapturing the Freon.  I asked him how long it would take to get the part, and he told me that he had no idea, that AHS was supposed to send them the part.  We discussed my daughter’s temperature sensitivity, and how much we needed this done ASAP, especially since we’d already had one weekend with temperatures over 90, and were expected to have another hot week.  The technician told me that I would have to call AHS to get things moving faster, but in the meanwhile, he’d dump more Freon into the machine to help it limp along until they could come back to replace the part.  I didn’t pay a dime, because this was all still covered by my initial payment due to the fact that they hadn’t really fixed the AC the first time.

I called AHS as soon as the technician left my house.  I was informed that actually, AHS had authorized the replacement of the entire “Air Flow Unit” and that Dewy was responsible for supplying their own parts, thank you very much.  So I called Dewy ASAP, and told them what their technician had said, how it conflicted with with what AHS said, and how I needed this done ASAP due to my temperature-sensitive daughter.  I was assured they would look into it and call me back.

They never did.

I called again on May 4th, to find out what Dewy had discovered and to make sure they were ordering the right item.  I was told they would look into it and call me back.  Again, they never did.

On April 6th, the AC died again.  With a hot weekend coming up, I called Dewy AGAIN, and for a third time was told they would look into it and call me back.  So this time I called AHS.  While I was on hold, the AHS rep called Dewy.  She came back on the line with me and informed me that Dewy told her they had the right part and would be calling me later that day to schedule the appointment.  I was also informed that AHS had not been notified of uncovered costs, that Dewy would need to do so.  Dewy did indeed call later that afternoon and schedule to come back out on May 11 to replace the air flow unit.

May 11 – A two man crew arrived at my house.  One gentleman was so severely overweight he could not fit into the attic.  He alternated between waddling around the outside unit, the thermostat, and balancing on top of the ladder with his head and arms in the attic because his lower body would not fit through the opening.  I am not lying, and I have a picture of this to prove it.  They were here for the better part of all day, which I expected.  When they left, they forgot to give me a copy of the receipt, and I forgot to ask as the kids were going bonkers.  I realize this was a BIG mistake on my part.  But I clearly remember the receipt saying that they had only replaced the “Evap Coil”.  They also collected my check for 225$.

May 14 – The AC stopped cooling the house again Friday afternoon.  Friday night, I stepped in a wet spot on my carpet just outside my bedroom door.  Odd.  But we thought maybe it was from a wet towel my 5 yr old had dropped when he got out of his shower and went to bed.

May 15 – Saturday morning, the wet spot was now much wetter.  We couldn’t understand where it was coming from, there are no pipes down there, it’s a slab foundation.  We decided that DH would pull out the shop vac and clean it up while the kids and I were at a friend’s party.

Just before we were to leave, GeekBoy goes running through the front hall area, and slipped.  At this point, I was a bit exasperated and was all, “why can you not even walk across the hall?”  But when he protested that he really had slipped, I found a small amount of yellow liquid on the floor.  My honest first thought, “Dammit! who pee’d on mah floor!?!”  But as a bent over to investigate the mess, I felt a drop of something hit me in the back of the head.  That when I noticed the yellow’ish water dripping out of the cieling fan.  Then I saw the two big water stains on the ceiling right next to the fan, and following the wall back to right in front of my bedroom door – directly over the now splashy wet spot on the carpet.

We flew into action.  DH ran out to get the ladder, I turned of the AC, called AHS (thank you Daddy for insisting we get that coverage!), and grabbed my camera and started taking pictures of the damage.  AHS called Dewy and told them to get their rear ends back out here ASAP.  DH found the leak under the unit upstairs and we shoved a towel under it to try to stem the damage.  Then I took the kids to our friend’s house where we hung out till 730pm, because she has AC.

DH said that when the Tech from Dewy got here, got a look at the damage and what was done upstairs…  he just had no words.  He told DH that he was extremely sorry, and that they have a construction crew they work with who would most likely be called out to do the repairs to the house.  We now need new insulation in the attic, a new ceiling in the hallway, a new ceiling fan as the water was running down through the light socket and into the fan, and we are working to salvage the carpet – otherwise they will be replacing that too, but at the very least, it’s going to need a good cleaning.

Also, the tech informed us that they very obviously did NOT replace the “air flow unit” only the “evap coil”.  The water damage was caused by the unit because when the technicians changed out the coil, they not only did not re-install the emergency drain pan, but also ran the new drain line across the attic floor, then up and over some existing pipes.  So the unit was flooding because water doesn’t run uphill, and since there was no emergency drain pan, it was leaking all over the attic, and running under the insulation and out through the hole for the ceiling fan light fixture.

The On-Call Tech did not have the necessary parts to fix this major FUBAR.  He told us to leave the unit off for the weekend and that Dewy would call us Monday morning to set up a time when they would come back on Monday or Tuesday to temporarily fix it so we can run it.  He said that after that, they would need to straighten out the mess with AHS about replacing the whole “air flow unit” and most likely would need to come back again later to do that.

So this morning, I tried calling Dewy since it was 930am and no one from their office has called me yet.  The line was busy.  So I called AHS, and lodged a formal complaint with AHS against Dewy.  The AHS rep called Dewy and was told, “They were working on it.  They needed to order the part.”  The AHS rep decided that considering the massive scope of the FUBAR they had pulled, that was not a “valid answer” and that she would refer my case to a Customer Relations agent, who would call me, to help me get this mess straightened out.

I also called Dewy again at 1126a today.  I was told by their office that they had ordered a new air handling unit for me.  When I asked about what they were going to do about all the damage their technicians had caused, I was given a number and told to call the owner of the company.  I called him at 1130am, and left a message.  We’ll see how this goes.

To say I’m pissed off about this whole thing is an understatement.