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| - Fidelity Home warranty assigned this contractor when I had a problem with an AC unit. The company was slow to respond to the work order - I ended up calling them directly and received an appointment a few days later. The office manager, Deborah, was very terse.
The technician, Dustin, was friendly and appeared knowledgeable. He diagnosed the problem as a failed condensing fan motor and said that he needed to order a part.
Several days went by and it was difficult to get and update from the company, with neither the technician or Deborah in the office returning calls. Finally I turned to Fidelity and asked them to push the contractor for action, which resulted in a second appointment.
During the second appointment, Dustin replaced the part but was unable to fire up the unit because there was no power to it. He promised to call Fidelity and transfer the work order to an electrician for further evaluation; this was on a Friday afternoon.
By Monday afternoon I had not heard anything and after unanswered calls, I again contacted Fidelity and they explained that 4 A/C had not requested the transfer to an electrician. They called 4 A/C on my behalf and Deborah told them she hadn't seen the report yet, that Dustin was in the field, and that she would need to wait until she got his report before any further action would be taken. No sense of urgency on her part, which in my opinion is consistent with her pattern of very weak customer service.
Once the ticket was transferred to an electrician, they promptly called me and came out same day. The electrical problem ended up being simple - a breaker that had been shut off for the cooktop was mislabeled at the panel and actually was for the AC unit. Dustin probably should have been able to figure this out himself.
Dustin has specifically said that once electrical was fixed, he would need to come back one more time to test the unit and make sure that the newly installed fan motor had been wired in the right direction. He specifically said don't run the unit until he returned to check it.
When I talked to Deborah, explained that electrical problem was fixed and requested Dustin to return, she was very rude and said that she didn't know anything about it and she would need to talk to Dustin. A couple hours later she phoned and said that Dustin didn't need to return, just to run the unit.
I have made two requests of Deborah to speak to the owner, Bob, to share my weak customer experience with him but he has not called me.
In summary, Fidelity was fairly responsive, but the contractor was very marginal and has a lot to do to improve customer service and communication. It is especially troubling that the owner isn't interested in feedback from clients. I will encourage Fidelity to drop this contractor from their list of vendors.
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