Old Republic Home Warranty They take the money - but give only lip service San Ramon California

I purchased my condo in August of 2003 and the seller had bought Old Republic Home Warranty. My air-conditioning / heating unit was not working properly. After moving in, and during one of the hottest August's I can remember, I turned my air conditioning unit on so we could get the remodeling started.

The actual hours it worked was 36. Then nothing. The fan still blew air around, but not cold or even cool air came out of the unit. Since we were remodeling the interior and were using multiple fans and left the windows open for about 5 weeks, I didn't call the company right away.

Then In November it started getting cold and I turned the heater on. The heater just blew hot air constantly and was not regulated by a thermostat. By mid December I received my heating bill which was unbelievable. Then the tempurature dropped quite a bit so I called Old Republic.

They sent out a technician who said the unit was basically fried. Literally fried. Wires were burnt inside the unit and he could not fix it. He did try to get a temporary fix in place so we could run the heater a bit. He was going to tell Old Republic that I needed a new unit because this one was not repairable. In the meantime I bought portable heaters for the sleeping areas.

Again in August 2004 I called and spoke to them about the air conditioning. They sent someone out and that person said the unit was shot. The fried wires were somehow mysteriously cut sometime around this time in late summer 2004.

I need a new unit and they do not want to get me one. In the meantime - I was quite sick from end of December 2003 to about mid July 2004. After using all my sick time and vacation pay, I was forced to go out for days at a time with out pay. Unfortunatly, I could not go on full disability and take time to get better, so I am out lots of money and cannot, by any means, pay for a new air/heating unit!

Damage Resulting = I have had to rely on space heaters for heating and fans for cooling my condo for the past 22 months. The customer service people at Old Republic are completely clueless. COMPLETELY RUDE. AND COMPLETELY UNHELPFUL.

I cannot get anywhere calling there offices. I have even emailed them and they did call but that was before the service technician came out the second time. I am very tired of calling and being put on hold for up to 40 minutes. They don't want to settle this claim and I am extremely upset with them. They do not have Customer Service - they have anti-customer service. And they do not call back when they should.

Why is it always up to the consumer to call them back every time?? because they have no pride in their company. But they sure like getting those checks from us. I owe for the second service tachnician and I am not paying it until someone resolves this issue!!

They even lost a call's records from when I called then 12-19-03 about the ants, earwigs, silverfish, and termites. When I asked them about that call and why it was never acted on, they told me they had no record of the call, and they do not have any coverage for termites, and I must have found a resolution to the ants, earwigs, and silverfish by now.

I guess I now know why these cases end up in civil court. It is a shame that this company is soooo greedy. The called once wanting a $45.00 payment for the second technician's visit. When I asked why the air-conditioning still wans't working - she hung up on me. Real professional. here it is almost June 2005, and I still have no air-conditioning....and using space heaters.

Teresa
Lakeside, California
U.S.A.