Cruise or Compressor?

A couple of nights before my birthday, my mom asked what I wanted to do: go out, stay in? Stay in.

My father asked what I wanted and that I could have anything I wanted as long as it was eggplant parmesan.

Okay. Eggplant parm it is. My mom does make a killer eggplant parm.

The night of my birthday, the oven was in full episode with stuffed shells and eggplant parm cooking and baking and filling my house with Italian goodness.

It was such a fun night with my friends and my family. Except for one small detail.

A smidge, really.

I kept wondering why it was so darn hot in my house. I keep the air around 70, and sometimes lower when I know the oven will be on and lots of people will be in the house. I dismissed my thought, thinking it was just the combination of oven and people.

A few days later, I found out I was wrong.

It kept getting hotter and hotter until the thermostat was reading 75.

I knew there was a problem.

I made a claim with my home warranty, and promptly received a text of who was to come and save me from my self made oven house.

Except he never came. Nothing saved.

The thermostat had climbed to 78 and the air guy was nowhere to be found.

So I called the home warranty again, and the lady I spoke to was very helpful and very nice, but at that point, my fate was in the hands of the air guy. And Air Guy was nowhere to be found.

Great.

Randomly, I decided to check the status of my repair. And randomly enough, my repair had been reassigned to someone else. So I called the next person. No answer. No answer after several phone calls. Nada. Nothing.

Even more great.

If that’s even a phrase.

I called the home warranty back again, this time from my parents’ house as my thermostat had crept up to 83 degrees inside of my house and my patience had burned. The guy I spoke to was super helpful and he reassigned it yet again to a third guy. Third Guy picked up on the first ring and showed up at my house a half hour later to assess the situation.

Two hours later, he told me he was condemning my entire system and recommending total replacement but that the home warranty would want a second opinion.

Second Opinion came one afternoon while I was reading a book, happy in my own self made sanctuary.

He was at my house, wondering where I was.

Well.

I promptly got to my house.

Second Opinion did a very thorough evaluation that consisted of lifting up the lid, looking down, looking at me, looking back down,and declaring, “This thing is shot.”

A part of dug its heels in wanting to say, well tell me something I don’t know. But, I could feel my mother’s glare on my shoulders and back of the head, so instead I just said thank you.

After two weeks of no air, the home warranty didn’t replace the entire system but rather the compressor, which is fine by me. Now I have heating and air and I’m a happy girl.

A three thousand dollar repair cost me $200 and a service fee.

Home warranties do help and they are worth while to have on tap. But, be advised that not all home warranties are the same.

I have a friend whose home warranty wouldn’t cover a specific part on her water heater even though her water heater was covered under the home warranty. I have yet another friend whose home warranty has yet to do their job on any of her claims.

So do your research, but I can tell you that my experience with American Home Shield has been great. Everyone I dealt with was courteous and helpful. I did have to wait on hold forty nine minutes on one call and thirty seven on another but it’s just par for the course. My father used American Home Shield for all of his rental properties until he sold them. They always came through for each claim.

There are different levels of coverage, so you can cover a couple of appliances, or you can cover them all, depending on the age. I opted for total coverage because of the age of my home. It does cost each month but I am telling you: you will thank yourself for it once you get into a mess that costs a small fortune.

My repair could fund a cruise. Easily.

Think about it. Cruise or compressor?

The answer is pretty clear to me.

 

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