Divine Comfort Products called us in May and said it was time for our annual heating and cooling system inspection. Since our system had been installed in spring this didn't seem unreasonable, so we made an appointment. The technician came down from our attic and showed us a piece of wire with gnawing damage and said rats had damaged the cables in the system and we needed that repaired and installation of an expensive UV light to deter the rats.
Last Tuesday, February 14, a technician came for our "annual" checkup and climbed down from the attic to show me horrifying pictures on his cell phone of rat droppings on the floor and dust and dirt caking our filters. He said something to do with the condenser was failing and could cause a need for an expensive condenser replacement, and the UV light had burned out and required a $300 replacement bulb. He estimated that the repairs would cost about $1000 but that if we bought a $2000 insurance policy, we would be covered for these repairs and anything that happened for the next 5 years, including a condenser replacement. We gave him checks for the insurance policy and made an appointment for 2 days later.By this time we were beginning to wonder but not enough to insult a hard-working technician by doubting his truthfulness.
After he left, we got worried enough to climb up into the attic to check it out. The pictures clearly were not of our attic, there were no recent rat droppings, and the system looked clean. We called the contractor who had done the remodel during which the system had been installed and he came straight over to check for us. We were in the attic with him when he confirmed there were no rat droppings, opened the system to show us a perfectly clean interior and pulled out our main filter to show that it was perfectly clean and white. He also plugged in the UV light which had been unplugged and the cord left lying on top of the heater, and the light came back on.
We are senior citizens but not suffering from dementia! We accepted their first call at face value because we had never seen the company name of the people our contractor had called to install the new system, and it never occurred to us that anyone would cold-call someone and announce that it was time for their inspection if they had no prior relationship with the customer. We accepted the rat damage story because this seemed something that could happen randomly no matter how new the system. We briefly accepted this latest story because we have dealt with many honorable service people and don't expect to be blatantly lied to, but with a little time to think, we finally began to doubt. Our contractor confirmed that the entire report was fraudulent, "baloney" in his words. Divine Comfort Products is still stone-walling on returning our money!
0 comments