Home warranty is one way homeowners protect some of their appliances inside their home. A home warranty may be great for smaller appliances but may leave you high and dry when it comes to fixing a broken heating and air system.
If you take the time to read the fine print you will find there may be quite a few exclusions on why service cant be performed. This means you may think you are going to get service and then nothing happens even if a technician shows up to your home.
Typically a homeowner calls to have a home warranty come out to fix a broken system. The technician arrives and asks for documentation to prove the system has been maintained. Most homeowners do not know that maintenance is required to keep most home warranties valid. If the homeowner has proof then the technician from the home warranty company can start to do the work.
If the homeowner does not have proof that the system has been serviced the technician says “I will come back after your system has been maintained”. The service of the broken system is then put on hold until a proper maintenance can happen. This is usually after someone has waited for a few days in order to get the service in the first place. What makes the situation more complex is most heating and air companies do not perform maintenance service when it is hot outside or freezing in the winter.
… and the problems don’t stop
The dirty little secret of the industry is most home warranties have a threshold of cost for what the service tech can perform on the system. A generic answer may be $180 for the entire service call. As a reminder the home warranty company only has to get the system up and running this does not always mean that a part that is considered bad will be replaced. In order to keep under the threshold the minimum amount of work to be performed is done.
Occasionally there are stories about how some technicians install used parts inside of systems to beat the repair threshold.
Most homeowners complain about how home warranty has done nothing for their broken heating and cooling issues and lead to nothing but frustration and aggravation. A home warranty policy for a year can be upwards of $500. Most of the time you will not be able to “get something for nothing” rarely it does happen though.
Maintenance is the better way
Love and Care Heating and Air does not recommend the use of a home warranty. What you can do instead is invest the money you would have spent paying a home warranty company and have a system tune up and inspection performed.
A proper maintenance of your heating and cooling system should take 60-90 minutes. This services allows your technician to disassemble you furnace or air conditioner and let you know exactly what is going on inside your system.
The great news for you is 90% of issues can be caught before they happen. Your technician can walk you through what it will take to keep your system up and running without issues. Best of all your system will be ready for whatever season you are in.
We would love to help you take care of your heating and cooling system. All you have to do is Call 916-714-1143 and le one of our friendly staff members know you are looking for your system to be serviced and they can help set you up with a convenient appointment that works for your schedule.
If you are in a situation where you air conditioner or furnace has broken down from the common Sacramento weather we are more than willing to see what we can do about repairing your system.
