Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Insurance

When we bought the house, we were given the option of buying insurance that would be essentially a home warranty. Because so many things had just been repaired and so many appliances were new, because the house was in such good shape, we figured we'd save several hundred dollars by not getting the insurance.

Bad move.
Lesson learned: No matter how great the house appears to be, ALWAYS get the warranty!

(In February we learned how to fix a stove. In April we have to learn how to fix a refrigerator.)

1 comment:

  1. Oh no! Sorry to hear about the refrigerator!

    But to give you another perspective on the home warranty--we had one some years go. It came with the house when we bought it, and we renewed it a few times. And yes, it can be a load off one's mind to know that if certain things break you will only have to pay the deductible amount to have them fixed. But the problem with the home warranties is that you are totally at the mercy of the home warranty company and how they decide to fix the problem. You have to go with their repair company (which is working for them, not for you, and it shows in how they approach you), their assessment of the problem, and their prescription for addressing it. And they of course are going to take the absolute cheapest approach. Just one example: when we had the warranty one of our toilets played out and we were happy to discover the warranty would cover another one. But the one that got installed was the absolute cheapest, worst-functioning unit anyone could have picked. We constantly have problems with it--sorry for the graphic details, but the trap is just not big enough to accommodate the things it needs to. So the thing is constantly getting blocked (and I don't mean stopped up, I mean blocked--water will be flowing freely and fine, but matter won't fit through, if you get my drift). So here we are needing to replace that toilet that should be lasting many more years.

    I understand that there are times the warranty might still be desirable because of the peace of mind of knowing certain things are covered--but just wanted you to know you might not be missing out on as great a deal as you might have thought.

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