All Year Cooling

Now, my Trane supposedly has a 10 year warranty on parts, but every time I call All Year, they say I don't have a warranty and/or that it is expired. I reference my contract, and again, send them a photo, in which they say that even though the contract says I have a 10 year warranty, I failed to register my unit with Trane, and so, I have no warranty. My unit was registered immediately after it was installed. I contacted Trane, who verified that my info is in their system. Now, my contract says I have a 2 year parts and labor, 10 year compressor (with manufacturer Trane), and a 10 year on parts only from All Year. They say that the 10 year parts is no longer applicable. What they base this on, I have no idea. I can only believe that they are hoping I won't push the issue, and simply agree, and pay them full price to fix my AC.

Anyway, first, I was told that I only had 5 years, and not ten, on the parts. So I had to send them a copy of my contract, yet again. After that, I was told the warranty was no good as I failed to register the unit. I then told them that it was registered, only to get a reply calling me a liar, where they said my unit was not registered. I asked if they were being reimbursed by Trane for parts other than the compressor, and I was told no, that they were responsible for the 10 year parts warranty, and are not be reimbursed by Trane, to which I asked, why does the unit have to be registered if Trane is not paying for the parts and this portion of the warranty is from All Year only? This question went ignored, and they simply repeated the statement that I have no warranty, which I can only assume they are basing this on the fact they simply don't want to cover their end of the bargain.

I argued that ONE... I registered the unit, and TWO, even if I did not, the contract says NOTHING about registration being a requirement in order for the warranty apply. I was told that my contract supposedly CLEARLY stated on the back side of the contract that registration MUST be done in order for the warranty to apply.

Upon looking and reading the back of my contract it says NOTHING about registration at all. Not a single word. The warranty is clearly stated, with no asterisks or any language stating registration as a requirement. And again, why does registration with Trane a requirement for a warranty that is solely between me and All Year? Trane has NOTHING to do with this part of the warranty. They are not involved in paying for any portion of the parts, nor are they even required to be there. When I went over this contract with the salesman from All Year, he specifically stated that this 10 year parts only warranty was from All Year, and not from Trane, and how All Year stands behind its warranties, and are there for you when you need them and so on.

Anyway, they finally come out, and say I need a fan motor as mine is bad. Now, I am NOT an AC contractor, but I am a retired state licensed building contractor, who knows his way around electricity and even used to work for an AC company many many years ago. I know how to diagnose an AC unit as well as diagnosing electrical issues. Furthermore, I am well schooled in how motors work, and when I tested the motor it showed as good. The bearings were fine, the motor was not locked up, and the continuity was fine, and when I put electric directly to the motor, it spun, no problems.

So, the problem was not the fan motor, but instead, no electric being sent to it. When I traced the problem, I came to the conclusion that the problem was the circuit board. Now, normally, I would fix this myself, but I still have a warranty in effect and would rather use that, than go thru all the issues of fixing my AC myself. So I call All Year to have them fix my AC under my warranty. I had no idea what I was about to encounter.

When the tech first came out, and without pulling out any gauges or electrical meters, or doing anything other than taking the panel off and spinning the fan cage, he says my entire AC is old and not worth fixing, and wants to give me a quote for a complete new system. Wait...What? I advised him that my unit is supposedly a top of the line Trane, that I paid a lot of money for, and that it is only about 8 years old, and is still under warranty. He sheepishly asked if it was his company that installed it new, and I replied yes. Oops, was the look on his face. He then asked, knowing the answer, if I wanted to fix this issue and use the warranty instead of getting a quote for a new system. I told him, “Yes please”.

So, when he looks at it, he says I need a fan motor. Again, the tech did NOT break out any gauges or a meter, or do anything else... he simply opened the cover, saw the fan not working, spun it by hand, and said I needed a new fan motor. I questioned him, and told him my findings, but he insisted it was the fan. So, I figured I would simply listen to the "professional". Besides, I have a warranty for all parts, so of course, it will be cheaper to have them fix it... right? NOT!

The next day, another tech comes out, installed a new fan motor, and charged me $350 for labor only. WHAT? The tech was there less than an hour, borrowed my tools, borrowed my step ladder, and I removed the fan housing for him, as he seemed to have no idea how to do it properly. I watched him for a few moments, removing brackets that were not required for a fan housing removal, until I then grabbed my nut driver and asked him if I could show him a more efficient way to get to the fan motor. I removed the unit myself in less than 5 minutes.

The tech seemed impressed, and after I set the fan housing on the floor, I let him take it from there. The reason I was able to do this, was that when the unit quit working, I diagnosed the unit myself, and removed the fan housing and motor myself in order to test it. I even removed the squirrel cage from the motor, as I figured I would clean it properly before putting everything back together. This had the effect of when the tech removed the fan, everything just slid apart easily, and nothing was "stuck" or difficult to remove, and was quite easy in removing the squirrel cage from the motor, which I know can be an issue on fans with some time on them. So, when the tech repeated what I did the day before, it was not difficult or time consuming for him.

Anyway, when he was done, of course, surprise, just as I predicted, the AC still did not work. I again offered up the circuit board as the reason I had come to, and the tech finally agreed with me, and said that he did not have the part, and that someone from All Year would contact me the next business day, to schedule someone to come back out to fix my unit properly. When he packed up my original fan motor, I asked him to please leave it, as I wanted to keep my old parts. I was told that he HAD to take it and he refused to allow me to keep it. I wanted that motor, as I knew it was still a good motor, but he refused.

Anyway, the next business day, no one from All Year called as promised. I called All Year three times that day, and left messages on a voice mail, and talked to someone as well, and was told someone would call me back by end of day. No one called back. I called the next business day, and again had to leave messages. Finally, at the end of that day, someone from All Year finally called me back. And would you believe it, the whole "THERE IS NO WARRANTY" became an issue all over again. I thought this was all but settled, but nope. I went thru an entire repeat of the previous arguments of my warranty was only for 5 years, I didn't register my unit, my contract says I have to register, and so on.

After some time of back and forth, and once that is supposedly resolved again, I am told that they will replace my circuit board. For the labor only price of $300. WTH? Now, I looked up the cost of a new circuit board (Part # C800796P01) and was quoted prices from $49 to $69 for a BRAND NEW one. Used ones go for about $20 - $30. And that price is for an end consumer... not an AC company in the business, who should be able to buy it for even less than I can. And as for swapping it out, it took me less than 10 minutes to remove it and put it back, as it is held on my simple plastic clips and a harness plug. It literally just pulls off and presses back on. So easy a caveman could swap one out in minutes.

I would have thought that the labor charge I already paid in the amount of $350, would have applied to this, and just by the sheer embarrassment of getting it wrong the first try, taking four days to come back out, not calling me when promised, or promptly returning my multiple phone messages, All Year would have replaced the circuit board at no extra cost to me.

After all, I was charged $350 for labor only for changing out a part I did not need, and did not fix my unit. I suffered 4 additional days because All Year failed to listen to the customer or diagnose my issue properly the first time. I do not believe it is fair at all to change out part after part, without first knowing what is actually needed to fix my AC unit, and continue to charge me over and over again, hoping to eventually get it right. Heck, I could do that myself and save a fortune.

I called All Year because one, I have a warranty, and two, they are supposed to be professionals and know what they are doing. Seems to me, the warranty means nothing to them, and they have no idea what they are doing. Any idiot can continue changing out parts until they get it right. I called All Year because I didn't want just some idiot. I wanted my unit fixed properly, and fixed right the first time. That is not what I got.

So, if we review here, All Year Cooling & Heating, now wants to charge me a total of $750 for LABOR ONLY, for repairs to a unit that is still under warranty. They want to charge me this much money for an hours worth of work, just to change my circuit board, and for the labor to replace my fan motor, a part that did not need to be replaced. I can only guess that their warranty is a complete sham, as since they could not convince me that it was NOT in effect, or find some stupid loophole to get out of honoring this warranty, they instead, jack up the price of their labor, and roll the cost of the parts into their super high labor charge, in order to not really cost them anything.

I contacted several other AC companies, and asked for a quote to replace my circuit board, and gave them the part number of the board. Almost all of them stated that my cost would be the cost of the service charge plus parts. I got quotes over the phone of $89 plus the cost of the part, $150 for parts and labor, and $39 plus the part, which included a complete inspection and cleaning as well, since they were running a special. Mind you, these are AC. These are companies that did not make a fortune on me with installing an entire new AC system with only a few years earlier. These were all companies that I have NO WARRANTY with, and just cold called. The company that I supposedly have a warranty with, is by leaps and bounds, the most expensive. All Year thinks $750 for labor only for swapping out two parts that take less than a single hour total, is completely fair. Am I wrong in thinking I am being taken advantage of here?

And, for the record, as I stated above, my unit, my 8 year old, top of the line, most expensive Trane unit that I bought from All Year, brand new. This AC system has been plagued by problems since the day it was installed by All Year. It broke down multiple times. When my compressor blew up, I found out, after contacting Trane, and bringing in another AC company, that the reason my unit was blowing capacitors every 2-3 months, and required a hard start, and eventually blowing up the compressor in its 4th year, was due to improper installation. What happened was whoever installed the unit, allowed metal filings to get into the copper line, and clog the filter/dryer, which caused the compressor to have to work REALLY hard every time it started up, thus requiring a hard start just to get going. After only 4 years, the compressor couldn't handle it anymore and it blew up.

And why was this not caught by All Year? When they installed the unit brand new, and I paid them in full, and they left, later that same day, the unit quit working. It blew the capacitor on its very first day of use. A brand new, one-day old unit, installed by All Year... broke. It took them 3 days to get it running again. Then, when they installed the hard start, it finally worked. However, every 2-3 months for the first 2 years of my parts and labor warranty, I would have to call All Year out to fix the unit. And every single time, I would ask why this was happening. I was told they had no idea and to not worry about it, as the warranty covered it, so why should I care.

I replied by stating that this may be okay for now, but what about when the warranty was up? I was given no answer. And when my 2 year warranty was up, I bought capacitors and hard starts by the case, and every 2-3 months, I would replace them when my unit quit working. This ticked me off, but what could I do? All Year didn't seem to care, and I wasn't about to call another AC repairman to fix a unit that was still brand new and under warranty. I simply lived with it. This problem persisted until the day the compressor blew up. Completely destroyed itself after only 4 years. I knew this was not right, but what could I do. And when it was replaced, (NOT BY ALL YEAR as they wanted over $1,800 to fix it - labor only), is when it was found out that the installation by All Year was improper.

It was discovered that when All Year installed the unit new, and cut the old lines from the old compressor, metal filings were left in the copper line. This caused the filter/dryer to clog, which put a huge strain on the compressor every single time it started up. So much so, that hard starts were required in order to just get the unit running. And when the compressor was replaced, this issue was discovered, the line was unclogged, the inline filter/dryer was replaced, and I never had to use a hard start ever again, and the unit never blew another capacitor. For the first time, no thanks to All Year, by AC was running properly and not killing itself every time the compressor kicked on.

Why was this not fixed by All Year? Why, after coming out for the umpteenth time under the first 2 year warranty period, and my questioning over and over again, what was wrong, did ALL YEAR not try to determine the actual issue and fix it? The answer is easy. It was too costly and/or the techs had no care to even bother trying. It was easier and cheaper to simply replace the capacitors and get thru the 2 year warranty and be done with me. After that, it was on my dime, so who cared. And of course, every time I would call in, All Year would send a different tech, so no one ever really bothered to see the pattern here, or get interested in helping fix this once and for all.

So, here I am. All Year has not called me back. They refuse to acknowledge my 10 year parts warranty at every turn, appear to be charging me incredibly high labor fees to offset the cost of the parts warranty, so that my warranty is really no warranty at all. Am I being taken advantage of here? Is this really seem fair? Is this what is to be expected from an honest AC company? Does it appear to anyone but me that my warranty seems to be no warranty at all? Any and all help is greatly appreciated. As it is now, I no longer feel I can trust All Year Cooling and Heating. They seem more interested in money money and more money than they do in upholding their warranty or actually taking care of their customer. What do you guys think?