Bobbinix
Newtown,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, November 18, 2008
Before spending your hard-earned funds on a detestable piece of equipment such as anything made by Whirlpool (and now Maytag, too, apparently) as well as Amana, I suggest buying an independent brand - one that is not affiliated with the "major" names. Someone on another thread listed those others as 1). Miele; and 2) Bosch. He stated that appliances made under these names are much more expensive than the standard brand-named appliances but that their general standard of performance justifies the higher pricetag. Once you've acquired a defective product or lemon there's not much out there in the way of inexpensive remediation. Technically, the warranty should still apply to your appliance, however, it is no secret that companies pre-date warranties (from the date shipped, for example, as opposed to the date received) for the purpose of saving themselves money. And what else is new? In light of the present economy I doubt you will have any success in trying to convince the seller to alter his skewed record keeping. I suppose your only recourse now is to either ask around or put an ad on Craig's list or even in the newspaper in the hopes of acquiring a free-lance handyman who might be able to fix the thing for you. If you are very short on money - aren't most of us these days? -- are there (legitimate, of course!) services you or your household might be able to offer/trade in lieu of currency? Just a thought. In closing, you should not be forced to "run in circles," as you said, at the behest of these appliance manufacturers. In our current economic bust, save your energy and realize you've lost the battle. Finally, you could take your grievance to Small Claims court. But who would you sue? The dealership? Maytag? Whirlpool? Nordine? Equiguard? Or would you go after all of the above? And could you handle - or would you want to - the additional expense? Good luck.
Shootist
Baton Rouge,#3Consumer Suggestion
Thu, October 23, 2008
I'm an HVAC contractor in another state and felt you deserved an explaination as to how these A/C warranties work. To start with, Maytag appliance has nothing to do with Maytag A/C equipment other than selling Nordyne license to use the Maytag name (and likeness of that lonely repairman) to sell A/C equipment. (I'd never personally buy Maytag appliances but that's another story.) Nordyne sells A/C equipment using about every appliance brand name you've ever heard of like Frigidaire, Tappan, Philco, Gibson, Miller, Intertherm, Grandaire, etc. In the case of Maytag, Nordyne basically takes their normal "frigidaire" design, stamps the cabinet out of stainless steel instead of painted steel and sells the unit for a much higher price with that 10 year labor added. The internals are identical. You are paying a premium price for the shiny cabinet and Maytag name. Because the Maytag units are not a good value compared to their cheaper "cousins", contractors are not knocking down the door to become Maytag dealers. Nordyne planned to use the Maytag name as a flagship line of high-end A/C equipment. It seems they dropped the ball not handling their own warranty service. My take on your situation is that your problems most likely started with rough handling of your equipment before and probably during your installation. I've installed over a hundred Nordyne systems in the past and only had 2 system leaks in about 8-10 years of service. The fact that both of your coils are leaking I'd have to blame on hidded damage to the coils. If the coils are bent there will be stress on the copper/aluminum causing freon leaks. Again, Nordyne's responsability for those repairs ends with providing replacement parts. I can assure you that Nordyne doesn't ship out damaged units. I've toured their A/C factory in Booneville, MO. and was impressed with their quality control and attention to detail. I wasn't aware that Maytag's 10 year labor coverage was through Equigard. I had always assumed that Nordyne carried that 10 year labor themselves. I've sold equiguard's extended warranties in the past to customers that insisted or to match a competitor. I otherwise don't push extended warranties as I don't believe in them as a whole. I can't vouch for equiguard's payment and reimbursement policies as I've yet to have to file a claim. I can tell you that I don't think equiguard is the problem with the contractor you were talking about. To start with you paid $810 to leak test your system ($635 +$175 for that service agreement). You weren't just screwed, you were viciously raped. We're talking borderline criminal. You should be filing a "ripoff report" on that contractor. For a couple of hundred bucks you could have gone to a place like Johnstone Supply, purchased your own commercial electronic freon "sniffer" and tracked down the leak yourself. I'm not surprised that Equiguard would only pay $35 for that leak check. The Equiguard folks are not idiots. 15 minutes with an electronic freon "sniffer" is not worth hundreds of dollars. Equiguard insures HVAC equiment nationwide. They are the largest equipment insurer that I know of and their policies are factory supported and recommended. The extended warranties I sell on my RUUD equipment are underwritten by Equiguard. They know what's involved in a given procedure and publish a price list for contractors and dealers as to how much they will pay for any A/C repair job. Based on seeing this price list I've found Equiguard to always pay at least the going rate for these services. If that contractor was having problems with equiguard paying them it was only because they were trying to overcharge for their work. They wanted you to pay in advance as they knew Equiguard wasn't going to let them get away with overcharging like that. Equiguard reimbursed you about 30 minutes at $70 an hour. Equiguard was fair. You were taken to the cleaners but not by Equiguard. Sadly there's an unfortunate industry trend toward overcharging for repairs as some contractors are taking advantage of the fact that most consumers wouldn't know a fair repair bill if it hit them on the head. I could easily add $100 to every repair bill from now on and my customers probably wouldn't bat an eye. The problem is that I have integrity. You won't find my customers griping about anything I'm involved with. As for Maytag's position? I have to agree with them. I think your original contractor botched the install or dropped or otherwise abused the equipment. If he had been anything other than a buffoon or crook he wouldn't have had to declaire BK and reopen under a different name. You can charge an honest and fair rate in this industry and still make a very comfortable living if you do good work. Even though the evaporator leak was likely caused by rough handling by the installer I see Nordyne still replaced it under warranty. My advice to you is find out who the wholesale distributor for Maytag is in your region. They my be better suited to help you find an honest and reasonably priced contractor to assist you in the future. Nordyne is slow updating their website with dealer lists and I don't think they keep up with what contractors in a given region are installing their equipment. If all else fails find out who's selling Frigidaire or Tappan. The guts are the same. That distributor also provides those warranty parts to your contractor when needed. Lesson to learn? I would hope that consumers would take the time to shop pricing on A/C repairs that seem excessively priced. For comparison, the most I would consider charging one of my customers for a leak test would be $75-100. That would include the service call. You know what else? I sleep really good at night and my customers go out of their way to send me referrals.