Monday, February 15, 2010

The Folly of Home Depot's Extended Warranty

Sometimes doing the prudent thing bites you in the ass.

Back in September 2007, I bought a new GE water heater from Home Depot—the one with a 12 year warranty—and it started leaking this past Friday. Yep, two-and-a-half years later it broke down. The one I had replaced was 26 years old. Go figure. I had also bought an extended warranty from Home Depot so I thought I was set. I was terribly wrong.

I called Home Depot’s extended warranty service on Friday and again on Saturday. They told me that it would take 24 hours for a local service provider (LSP) to contact me and take care of my problem. After 24 hours passed, I called them again. Still no word when the LSP would contact me. Mind you, I’m cleaning up my basement daily from the leaking water. That’s usually a sign that the water heater is shot. Very rarely can water heaters be fixed.

When I spoke to the warranty service again on Monday, they told me it would be Wednesday at the earliest before I just get the call from the LSP, forget about when they’ll actually show up. Furious, I called customer service to complain. Customer service put me on a 3-way-call with warranty service and it was finally explained that the LSP’s job was only to go to my house to either “fix” the water heater (which, as I noted, never happens when there is a leak) or tell me I need a new one. If I need a new one, it’s up to me to contact GE to get a new one and then I’ll have to pay for installation.

This was ridiculous. I was given the run around for days, only to realize that the extended warranty I had was essentially worthless. While my basement gets ruined from water damage I’m twiddling my thumbs waiting for the LSP to show up and tell me what I already know.

I said the hell with that and called my local plumber who came out immediately and confirmed that the water heater needed to be replaced. He contacted GE and I’ll get a new water heater for the cost of installation. When that happens, however, I have no idea.

It’s absurd that I had to replace a two-year-old water heater after the one it replaced had worked fine for two decades. But what is more absurd is how Home Depot is hoodwinking customers into buying extended warranties on water heaters.

9 comments:

  1. Ass rape depot is more like it

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  2. We recently took back a lawnmower with the extended warranty to be repaired. I called later in the week to check on the status. They had told us at the time that Home Depot would get back to us shortly to determine if it needed replacing/repairing. After over 30 minutes on the phone, they finally figured out that it had not even left the store. I had to go through four people and finally asked for the manager. One of the customer service agents actually hung up on me! I wasn't even that mad yet! Now I am boiling. We will NEVER buy anything of substance from Home Depot. What a joke of a company.

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  3. Quite edifying post enjoyed reading it

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  5. I think you must have a bad experience with extended warranty, extended warranty is very essential these days as it gives you the feeling of being relaxed towards your expensive gadgets repair and maintenance

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