Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Hopefully Bad Things Happen In Threes...

...and not one bit more than that. About a week ago or so, my futon in the basement had part of it just fall off. I need a new one or a sofa but am not too sure a sofa can fit through either door that leads to the basement. Either way, I figure at least $400 on that.

Then the big TV in the living room went on the fritz. It looked as if it would cost well over 1.5K for a new comparable one. Luckily in that regard, the wife said she wants a smaller one. I fuond what seems to be a decent one going for about $500 but still - that is a big hit especially when combined with the need for a new futon or sofa.

Then today, the water heater went out. Luckily, or so I thought, it was still under extended warranty. When the repairman was done, he said that will be $432.33 and said it was not under warranty. He said that was because the only thing covered by the warranty is the tank and not other parts like the pilot assembly, the one that needed replacement. I disagreed but he stood by that saying no one warrants any parts other than the tank.

I asked for him to have his manager or the business owner call me because I had my warranty plus the receipt to extend it sitting right in front of me and they seemingly indicated otherwise. The owner calls the repairman and the repairman tells me the owner refused to speak to me and that I owe them $432.33. I almost went through the ceiling.

I asked him to again call the guy and have him speak to me. He calls him again and tells him I am demanding to speak to him, which I did not do because I asked him t please call again. Regardless, it had the right effect and the guy gets on the phone with me. He tries to tell me no one offers warranties on anything but the tank "anymore". I told him I have the original warranty for 6 years tank and 6 years parts and that I also have the receipt showing his company extended my warranty to 10 years for the "water heater"; that was about 9 1/2 years ago. I pointed out it does not say there is a warranty extension for the tank alone, it says for the "water heater"! He said he cannot pull up the paperwork because a fire destroyed all their paperwork sometime in the past. He also said he would have to see both the original warranty and the receipt and then he had the repairman take a picture of each. he said he would be reimbursed by the company that manufactured he water heater. The repair guy left without asking for payment.

When I asked him, before he left, how much the part had been, he said over a couple of hundred. Thus that would make the labor about the same. I figure I am going to get stuck paying for labor but I had better not get stuck paying for the part! If I do get screwed, and they insist I pay for the part too, then it is off to file a claim at small claims court where the filing fee is about $25.00. In other words, if they decide not to honor their 10 year warranty extension, for which they charged me and received payment from me about 9.5 years ago, F-them. I will be a pain in their asses just on principle if it comes to that.

Of course, I may be happily surprised and they may call me tomorrow to tell me that they are covering at least the cost of the part. That would be nice but with all the argument I got from them already, telling me it's not covered, I am kind of doubtful about that. Time will tell though.

Oh yeah, lest I forget, that put a dent in my plans to get everything ready for an early departure on my hunting trip tomorrow. Now, I figure I'll be lucky if I leave home by noon.

Please - stop at three - I don't need anything else going wrong especially at these prices!

All the best,
Glenn B

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