I swear the last few days have been a real test of my patience.
Friday I took my car in for repairs. The AC went out the day before we left for vacation, which was annoying. We didn’t have time to get it fixed of course. I’d been stressing over how much it was going to cost to fix it. Turns out my stress was not undue. It’s going to cost $1400 for a new AC compressor. Normally, I’d blow off getting it fixed but since it’s been well over 100 degrees here, I can’t drive around with no AC. Then, naturally, the car needed front and back brakes. Tack on another $400. Plus it needs a new AC cabin filter and all sorts of wonderful belts. I wanted to cry. I will end up spending approximately $2000 on car repairs. Sans the belts.
I think what hacks me off the most about this whole thing is at Christmas I spent $1000 on a new clutch. I paid the car off in May 2011, so I’m not seeing a lot of big relief of NOT having car payments. It also just so happens I’d managed to amass quite a bit in savings. Seems like every time I get a cushion, the effing car breaks and I have to blow the whole wad of cash on it. It’s beyond irritating.
To top it off, I was promised the car would be fixed and ready to go by 5 pm on Friday. Husband and I were headed to get it when I get a call from the dealership to say the brand new compressor they put in…is a bad part. Which means it’s STILL not fixed. I wanted to scream.
As if that wasn’t enough, at the same time, the house AC has decided to leak like a sieve. Since we have this wonderful (sarcasm, cough, sarcasm) home warranty, I put in a claim on July 28. I knew it was a weekend and didn’t expect a call from the technician until Monday or Tuesday. I got nada. Husband called and it turns out the “technician” never received our claim. It also turns out that the home warranty people are full of shit. I’m highly displeased with the way things have gone all week. I called and remained on hold for over twenty minutes. This is totally unacceptable. Do they think I have nothing better to do than SIT on HOLD for THEM? And of course when I finally got someone, I was told that it could be a “maintenance” issue and that it “may not be covered.” That’s all well and good but I still need someone to come look at it!
By Friday, still no call from the bloody AC technician. Husband called warranty people again (again, waiting on hold for over twenty minutes because they were “experiencing a high call volumen” at 7 pm on a FRIDAY….riiiight) and the comment was that the technician “tried” to call. I call bullshit on that because NO ONE effing called and I sat by the phone all day Friday because I didn’t have a car and couldn’t go anywhere. The customer service rep promised – PROMISED – that someone would be by the house between 10 am and 2 pm on Saturday.
Did they show up? HELL NO. No call. Nothing. As you can imagine, I am frothing at the mouth by now, I’m so mad. This is like a double whammy for me – the car is busted and the effing warranty folks are practically treating us like second-rate citizens.
Look, I don’t ask for a lot. I paid my $565 for this worthless home warranty and when I file a claim I expect results of some sort. Don’t just ignore me and shirk your appointment. Show up or call for god’s sake!
I was still fuming about it Sunday so I wrote a very long detailed and angry letter to the home warranty via their wonderful survey. Guess what? They got HIGHLY DISSATISFIED on all accounts. I have (and husband has when he moved in) paid for this home warranty since I bought the house in 2006 – that’s about $3000 I’ve spent on something that has turned out to be useless. And now do I not only have a continuing leaking AC unit, but it has caused water damage on the ceiling over the tub in the second bathroom (the unit is in the ceiling over the master shower – yeah, great engineering there). I asked, point-blank, how the warranty company intended to resolve the issue. Now I get to sit and wait while the AC continues to leak and we continue to have water damage.
Now that I have that off my chest, I’m gonna go have a cookie, ‘kay?
Wow, I say have 3 cookies!