While I'm not sure of its genesis, there's a somewhat new gimmick when it comes to service calls for warranty work. As you are making arrangements to schedule the time the technician will come, you are told that you will need to provide the operator with your credit card number, and authorize a charge to your account for $99.50. "That's in case the problem isn't covered by the warranty, " she explains.
So what is the inference? They charge $99.50 to determine whether or not your problem is covered by the warranty, and they are afraid that if it isn't, you'll stiff them and not pay the charge for the diagnostics? The solution, therefore is to get payment in advance?
This tact sounds so much like the American Home Shield approach that caused me to discontinue that service. I had found that more often than not, the tech would start off by telling me that he doubted the trouble would be covered by AHS. That was as he began walking from the front door to, say, the dishwasher. He hadn't even begun to check the appliance, and he was already preparing me for the bad news.
And almost always he found some way to fulfill his prophecy, weasel out of repairing it under the home warranty. Almost 100% of the calls I made for service to AHS ended up costing me the AHS call fee, and the problem would turn out to not be covered, and the guy who came out was not allowed to repair anything that wasn't covered, so to get it repaired would cost yet another service fee.
We bought some rather expensive home equipment a couple of years ago. It appeared it wasn't working properly, so I called to ask for warranty service. The warranty was supposed to be for five years. I was told that I would have to authorize a $99.50 charge on my Visa card before they would send the serviceman. "We won't process the charge unless we find the problem isn't fully covered by the warranty," the lady said.
I replied back, "Well, don't send anyone. I'm going to call another company, pay them for the service call, and find out exactly what's wrong and know in advance whether or not it will be covered by the manufacturers warranty. If it is, I'll call you back. If it's not, I'll have the guy who's here fix it.
She acted puzzled. I explained that I wanted an unbiased opinion as to the cause of the problem. There was no way I could be assured I would get that from her company since they were so anxious to make arrangements for payment before I had seen the whites of the serviceman's eyes.
It seems to me that many companies are becoming more and more disconnected from their customers, and that those disconnects are self-imposed. I wonder what we might be doing in the real estate brokerage business that might be leaving a similar distaste in the public'smouths?
BILL CHERRY, REALTORS
DALLAS - PARK CITIES
Our 45th Year
214 503-8563
That is surely the industry policy now.
I recently had a service call for my refrigerator which was not cooling properly. My frig is 4 years old so I knew it was out of warranty.
I paid for the service call by phone. The "mother board" was gone so the repair was $490. I suppose a lot of folks would have decided against it. However, to replace my frig would cost about $2,000. So, I had it fixed.
It's a judgment call. I understand why they are doing it though.
What did you mean by the last sentence? " I wonder what we might be doing in the real estate brokerage business that might be leaving a similar distaste in the publics' mouths?"
Hi Bill... I have heard more and more similar stories to yours. It really does not seem right to me.
Joetta, I often wonder if real estate people do things that are distasteful to the public?
For an example, all of those Open House directional signs that end up in front of neighbors' homes, up and down the public rights of way, etc., on Saturdays and Sundays. I wonder how many people who find them in front of their homes say nothing, but hate the agent for having put it there?
Steve, I think the inference is that they are afraid if they come to the customer's house and give him bad news, he won't pay them. So my question would be, how often would this happen? Let's guess...maybe one in 20? So the company annoys 19 honorable customers to keep from losing a hundred bucks? That's pretty dumb.
Lenn, you were definitely between a rock and a hard place. At least you knew your refrigerator was no longer in warranty, which leads me to this suggestion. The Sears warranty service will cover any brand of major appliance, and apparently any age under 10. When you call them, they come, and there is no service charge at all. We've used them for 5 years. The annual cost isn't much.
Bill...IMO they know exactly what they are doing....one more way to increase their bottom line!
I'll think about that idea more, Bill. But I don't post a sign in someone's yard unless I ask first. I do put them on the sidewalk if I have to, and wonder if that will 'bug' anyone.
Lenn,
Why don't you have a home warranty? I do have to disagree with Mr. Cherry though. I have AHS on my home and could not be more happy. They replaced my 3800.00 pool heater for the small cost of $60. My clients have utilized their warranties over and over and have great experiences.
Karen,
You don't identify yourself to show whether or not you have a personal bias about home warranty companies, more especially American Home Shield. Perhaps you're an employee or AHS, or maybe you're one of those who is paid by AHS to track down bad reports on the Internet, and write a rebuttal.
It doesn't really matter. AHS has an enormous class action suit against it at this time, and it is because the plaintiffs feel their service is arbitrary and capricious. I'm one of those who feels this way, although I don't know that I'm a party to the suit.
I believe until warranty companies are licensed and regulated by the states where they sell their services, the public -- their customers -- will more than likely often find the service they get is not what they understood they are paying for.
When cancellations of coverage are as large as they are, AHS and others constantly devoting a major portion of their marketing to replacing lapsed business, it's reasonable to assume their service is not as dependable as you feel it is.