The circuit board was replaced, the insanely dirty evaporator coils were cleaned and the fan motor was just replaced. The furnace works! While I have my regrets about not renewing the home warranty, in some ways it is perhaps better to have control over the situation. Sort of in the same way that having a landlord to fix (and pay) for repairs is cheaper than owning a home, but not if your landlord doesn't return your calls or get anything fixed in a timely manner.
Between dealing with the dental insurance company and the cell phone provider and all the other entities that we're fighting, I don't know that I would have the heart to hound the warranty company and their service provider of choice into doing the job right. We had originally used the HVAC service that the warranty had sent out a while back while we were still covered. The technician was decent, but the managers never wanted to call us back -- I don't think they're quite used to clients as concerned with a job done well as we are. The evaporator coils were cleaned for free, which was 3+ hours of labor. They never did call us back with a quote to replace the motor.
We finally found a HVAC service company that has been simply delightful to work with (is that weird that I find such pleasure in locating a good company? Technically my husband found them, but man what a difference). I was discussing home warranties with the technician, and he mentioned that while his neighbor has gotten a whole bunch of services for free under a home warranty, the quality of the service is so shoddy that it doesn't really make any sense.
Despite the really big expense, I'm happy to have heat in the whole house again. And so very thankful that our parents were able to help us out, keeping a possible budget buster from seriously adding to our credit card debt. We have friends from many walks of life -- some paid their own way through college (some never went to college) and some that still rely on their parents well into their 30s. We've been trying to remain truly independent for the past five years that we have lived together, but we're by no means perfect. That's what this blog is about, figuring out how to be happy and successful and live within our means. I think part of that is swallowing your pride and accepting help when it's offered and can truly make a difference. Thanks to their help, we can get back on track with building an emergency fund and saving for semi-annual and annual bills so that the next time that something like this happens, we can stand on our own two (four?) feet.
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