I knew when I was awakened by my husband this morning as he tried to leave on his appointed rounds and was thwarted it wasn’t going to bode well for the rest of the day.
My husband went to leave through the garage, opening the automatic doors…….or so he 
thought as he does everyday. As the motor started its usual hum, the door itself starting making all kinds of crackling and strange scraping sounds. Uh oh! Not a good sign, not a nice way to start a bright early Sunday morning. As he ran in the house and out the front doors to check out the buckled door from another vantage point, I was more than a little nonplussed as I saw my plans of a nice quite Sunday morning reading……alone and quiet shot to hell.
Needless to say, though I tried to reign in my thoughts………wouldn’t want to put them out into the universe, but “Let the shenanigan begin was I all I could think ! It only went downhill from there. We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to decide who to call for help….weird feeling being trapped in the house with no vehicle, and settled on the home warranty company. It seemed as if the matter was handled, no problem……no muss no fuss.. But wait, not so fast….as soon as we hung up the phone with Cal, the seemingly nice man, he called us back. Ring……hello, you have an outstanding fee from the last debacle with us……Oh Gawd, sometimes I love the home warranty company and sometimes they are the bane of my existence. We explained the check is in the mail…..honestly, Cal says “Okay I’ll make a note of that and acts as if the matter is in the works, still going to go forward. As we sat here, for about 2 hours not hearing a peep, my spider senses start to tingle and I say to my husband, “Ya know, time is wasting, I think you should call the home warranty, see if they are on the matter and where the garage repair company is? I’d love to call them myself to make sure they are going to come out soon…….I don’t want to wait for the Home warranty to call them, then for them to get to us……..let’s cut to the chase.
Well, thank God I did. Cal did not process the claim, it’s still on hold as far as they are concerned. Why, when we explained to this man that we were trapped in our house did he not ask for immediate payment, which we would have been more than happy to do…..instead we were sitting here in our happy ignorance thinking the matter was going along proper channels and being handled! Proper channels, I’ll give ya’ proper channels! They just want their money….we’ve been good customers, paid our bills on time this was an abberation for they had said at the time there was no charge to me when a company was doing a re-call within the 30 day grace period, but when said company could find nothing wrong, the cost defers to me? How ridiculous, but I didn’t even know this until a woman called me a few days later to explain, saying since they came out and found nothing wrong I would be charged the $55.00 and she unceremoniously hung up on me! First of all that’s crazy, but if that is their policy, I’ll do what is policy, but if they needed the payment immediately, again why not ask for it over the phone like they do every other time they do a service? Instead we received a bill which we promptly paid……..I guess the timing sucked!
But perhaps their phone people need to be brought up to speed on manners and clear stating of procedure handling. If we had not called back to check on the progress of the claim, we’d still be sitting here in ignorant bliss thinking the problem was being handled as they sat on it for days waiting to receive a $55 check, I mean come on really?
My husband who is usually a very patient man, denied any further of their help on the phone payment saying he would find a reputable company to help him himself and immediately started searching the yellow pages! As if the girl on the phone cared. I on the other hand was so incensed I decided to call back and ask for management to discuss their negligent handling of this matter. Sometimes, my voice must be heard, if only to feel better but also in hope that perhaps I’m really doing a service to the next customer not to be treated this poorly and negligently.
I thought perhaps my husband was cutting off his nose to spite his face, as he never gets angry and reacts so vehemently to tell them “thanks for nothing”. As he is usually right, he is probably right in this situation, too. The Home warranty was only going to cover and/or help us if it was a mechanical issue and we’re not even sure if that is the problem. so screw them and their shoddy service. The company my husband called will be here within 2 hours, will get our cars out and go to the warehouse to get new doors all in one day. God knows what other bullshit the home warranty people would have done…we would have had to pay the $55 no matter if it was the door that is obviously damaged at this time or mechanical and after their shoddy treatment and no understanding of said problem, the garage guy would probably have come ill prepared to do anything further once the warranty company steps back if it’s not considered “their” type of problem. Then where would we stand, $55 in the hole, hours wasted and stuck with a company the warranty company picked.
Anyway, my husband is now outside sawing and thumping to get his male aggression out! All in a day’s shenanigan!!!!! How about you, how’s your Sunday going?
Do you have a home warranty………and do you have complaints or accolades for them?
© Evelyn Garone 11.18.12
The Oracle Of Ahwatukee . . . 