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| one guard home warranty Service One home warranty Simple Claim Denied on Pool Filter and Equipment Phoenix, Arizona |
| 27th of Jan, 2013 by User827135 |
| It’s hard to be objective when a claim that should have been covered was denied and no effort was put in on their part to get a 2nd opinion. To be fair, I’ve had this company on one home for 7 years, they covered 1 out of 3 claims, and I saw their point on the 2 they denied. On my new home (20 yrs old), I’ve had 3 claims, 2 were covered, and 1 denied. It is this 3rd denial that caused my opinion of the company to change. It was a simple claim, I purchased the new home plan which covers pre-existing conditions, and added coverage for the pool equipment. A home inspection showed no issues with the pool equipment, and the pool was sparkling clear. I had the previous owner show me how to backwash the DE filter, and did significant online reading about the maintenance of said filter. This pool was also on a maintenance contract with a local maintenance company with the previous owners, that I continued. I had backwashed the filter “extra” times, trying to get a feel to the normal pressures etc which never exceeded about 20 lbs. Max pressure on this filter is stated in the manual as 50 lbs. One Saturday Morning I backwashed the filter again, and prepared to add DE back to the skimmer. As soon as I turned on the pump, the clamp failed and the filter split at the joint (water everywhere). It needed a new clamp, about a $250 part, and perhaps other minor parts inside since the filter was 7 years old I think. It took them 13 days to finally let me know that it wasn’t covered due to “lack of maintenance”. This conclusion based on a 1-man pool companies opinion, this guy could be older than 25. I asked repeatedly for a 2nd opinion, supervisor, etc, but that fell on deaf ears. During that call I was repeatedly reminded that if I didn’t have it repaired myself in a “workman like manner”, none of the pool equipment would be covered. I feel like the co pay of $55 will get you a simple repair from their contracted folks, but as soon as they have to start paying above and beyond that co pay, they error on the side of not paying. My other 2 claims they did cover were very simple, washing machine that didn’t drain (drain clog), and blower fan on air handler (maybe $150). I will BBB report them, and small claims eventually, but I bought the warrantee for peace of mind in my new home purchase. Definitely more stress than I wanted. The company I hired to fix the pool filter to a “workman like manner” recommended replacing the aged filter, and pump (reasons too lengthy), and some valves that were broken and/or leaking. All these things are supposedly covered by the warrantee. I’m sure they cover some claims, they have to, but they sure denied this potentially expensive one, and that is the one I needed covered. For example, my dishwasher handle wasn’t opening the dishwasher. After fiddling with it for awhile, I got the door opened, and took the panel off to see if it was something I could fix. Sure enough, a few web searches found the part I needed and a local place sold it for $30. Repair took all of 15 minutes, and didn’t have to pay the $55 co pay. Just an example of something they probably would have covered, but I fixed it the same day, and cheaper. I know for a fact that they are using a one man shop for their pool work. I don’t know for a fact, but suspect this person is somehow related to the owners. If so, very much a conflict of interest. Now the A/C company they sent was more than a one-man shop, but have no idea how many employees or if there is a conflict there, they did do the repair, but not before warning us that it may not be covered. Good luck, I hope everyone figures out the magic formula that allows a home owner to actually be secure in knowing that their claims will be covered, and in a timely fashion. By the way for those of you with a legitimate claim, I suspect that small claims will find in our favor, and once you have a case number, please post those here and on the BBB website. Currently the BBB site says all claims have been “resolved”. I don’t know what that means, but if you post a case# that you won, we’ll know how it was resolved and may be able to look up the case data online. Thanks for sharing! |
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