I took ownership of my house on April 1st. To start, I was having problems trying to cool my house down during the hot and humid South Carolina summer. It took over 1-1/2 hours to cool my house 1 degree Fahrenheit (after 5 P.M., no less)—and this after a brand new A/C unit in January! I called the company that installed the A/C unit to check and it was performing up to specs. They later took a look at the duct system and said that it needed replacing. A second estimate confirmed this.
I called American Home Sheild (AHS) to get an estimate. Their first company came out and said that the duct system required no maintenance other than to replace the insulation—$45 spent. I called AHS again for a second opinion. This second opinion agreed with the first—another $45.
Now the score was 2 to 2. Who do I believe?! I called 2 more companies (if you're keeping track, that's a total of 6 estimates). The final 2 agreed that the system needed replacement. After one week of installation with 2 in-the-window A/C units, I was out $3442.00. The kicker... The system, once the insulation was removed, was filled with holes!
And guess what?! With the work completed on September 17 (3 months after the problem was noticed), my electricity bill during the month of September was $110.14; the month of October dropped to $60.22—a change of 45%!!!
Despite a fax (and accompanied by a copied certified letter) and 2 phone calls with their consumer service department, AHS refuses to cover any part of the cost. Though I realize the insulation wouldn't be covered anyway, it only cost $330... A mere 10% of the total cost.
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