It is hard to describe the sinking feeling I have in the pit of my stomach. Impending doom, maybe? The problem began 5 years ago when we purchased our new air conditioner which now, no longer works. This is Florida pre-summer; doom would be a good feeling to describe what we are going through here.

We purchased a la-de-da unit complete with new air handler and topped it off with all new duct work and a few new vents thrown in for good measure and a smidge of all new attic insulation. Roughly all of this work set us back $5,500. And all the paperwork we have from the a/c company states we have a 10 year warranty on our compressor, 5 years on parts and 1 year on labor.

One tiny little problem has emerged: the company that we purchased the unit from, who also installed the unit is now long out of business and apparently, they took our warranty with them.

We found out they are out of business because last summer the capacitor went out and we had to have it replaced. After we found out the fly-by-night company flew the coup, we went to the Carrier website and found a company who would do the warranty work we needed done.

Fast forward to the end of last week when the compressor began tripping a breaker and we would get warm air blowing from the vents. When it is 90 degrees outside the last thing you want is warm air coming from your vents. Tobey calls the company that fixed the capacitor and they came out and do an assessment. The compressor is gone. We need to replace the compressor to the tune of $2,100 or we can get a new system for the special price of $5,000.

My first thought was. “Yeah, right, we have a warranty on that compressor, fix it and we’ll pay the labor.”

But not so fast my friends, not so fast.

Tobey called Carrier about the 10 year warranty. Carrier didn’t have us in their system. Not by name, address or phone number. I thought this was a little strange since I have the paperwork from last year’s warranty repair work. Tobey finds out that Carrier doesn’t have a 10 warranty on our model, only a 5 year warranty and since it has been 5 years and 1 month, our warranty is void. Our 10 year warranty was hand-written on our paperwork and come to find out from someone in the know: companies often hand-write additions on the contracts and have no intention of backing them up.

Now I called Carrier back (because Tobey is way to nice) and explained to them about the 10 year warranty we have and again they show no record. I again explained about the warranty work done last year and how can we have warranty work done without a paper trail? I ended up speaking with a supervisor who is going to contact the current a/c company to see if between the two of them they can do something for us since the unit is 1 month out of warranty. We should hear back from them by this Friday. Did I mention the 90 degree weather? And we have to wait a week for a response from Carrier? Doom I tell ya. Doom.

I haven’t even mentioned that we just received our electric bill to the tune of $600 and we were told that the compressor was pulling more amps than it should have been, which probably explains the super-high electric bill. To me, that means this has been going on for at least a month and if we would have know then what we know now, we would have called to have the unit serviced last month instead of this month when it is out of warranty.

When I started this post earlier today I forgot to mention that one of the most wonderful women I work with, her husband is in the a/c business. He came over today and found that the only problem with our a/c is a broken wire which caused the breaker to short out. How much will it cost to fix: $100. $100!!!!!!

Now why couldn't this other company tell us this? Because they are dishonest, greedy buggers, that is why. We will never use them again. Also, be wary of a/c companies when they recharge your freon. Apparently if they overcharge your system that taxes the compressor and makes it go kerput faster. And yes, surprise, surprise, our system was overcharged last summer.

Needless to say Tobey and I are ecstatic that the a/c is working and we are no longer sitting in a sweltering house. Life is good...for now.