How to handle furnace repair/replacement, 2 different companies involved

Finance
#1

I will keep this short and to the facts:

  • October 2018 - I purchased a house that came with a warranty. The furnace and AC were ~25 years old. Warranty includes up to $2k towards furnace repair/replacement.
  • Late December 2018 - furnace stops working, call the warranty company. Warranty company sends out repair company A who the next day ends up replacing the blower motor. Warranty company paid ~$400, I paid $75 deductible
  • Late January 2019 - furnace starts randomly shutting off. I call repair company A directly. They send out a different tech, tech determines that the secondary heat exchanger is toast, totaling out the furnace. The tech says I will get 50% credit towards the previous repair if I purchase a furnace through them. They give an estimate of just over $3k for replacement. The estimate doesn’t provide the credit for the previous repair, and the person preparing the estimate is refusing the credit. The tech gives me a bill for $75 (my deductible).
  • early February 2019 - I find repair company B who will replace the furnace at a slightly lower cost than repair company A. I call the warranty company and have my ~$1600 credit applied towards repair company B.

At this point I have exhausted my warranty for the furnace work. I am worried that repair company A will try to send a bill to the warranty company for the second service call, which I will get stuck with. In my opinion, the first tech should have noticed the heat exchanger being bad, and the blower motor replacement should not have happened in the first place. How would you handle the situation?

#2

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#3

You should explain to them why you don’t plan on paying any more than $75. Don’t tell them you had work done with another company. Just explain that you think the $550 you and your warranty company has paid them for 1 month of a working furnace is fair. If you’re not a jerk about it to them, they might take your explanation and just write off the remaining ~$50.

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#4

Of course, what Meed suggests is premised on you simply stopping worrying and wait for there to be an issue before you tell anyone anything. We don’t know your warranty details, but that $75 generally isn’t a “deductible”, it’s a trade service fee - or in other words, the fee for the service call. If you didn’t have any additional repair work done, there’s nothing for them to bill you for.

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#5

This exactly. I was about to ask you what you think you will owe beyond $75 and why, but I skipped it and went with the above advice assuming your worry was legit. It may not be legit at all.

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