The Philadelphia Inquirer Jeff Gelles column [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
By Jeff Gelles, The Philadelphia Inquirer | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Her headache blossomed into a full-bore consumer nightmare the next day, after she called HomeServe
Zager heard an enormous clatter, then discovered the reason: Trying to snake the drain pipe leading to the laundry room at the back of her home, the plumber had poked a hole in a bathroom pipe near the front. Then he had poked a three-inch hole in the bathroom wall itself.
Worst of all was this: While the plumber promised to fix the pipe and finish unblocking the drain, he disclaimed responsibility for the damage to her wall. And when a new crew returned later to finish the job, it refused to proceed until she signed paperwork saying it wasn't responsible for damage to the bathroom wall or tile -- from the mishap itself or the excavation needed to repair it.
Zager said that was the same message she got when she called
"I can understand them having these forms for all the right reasons -- because of people who sue all the time, or people who want everything done even though the company isn't responsible," she told me last week. "But they caused this."
Zager said the bathroom damage was just a small part of damage that may eventually cost
No matter what she signed -- or terms of service that say
The good news? When I called
"I think there was a bit of confusion about what exactly was going on at that customer's home," senior vice president
All's well that ends well? Perhaps. But it's worth asking what went wrong. If this was the outcome
Meehan said
"In most cases, those who have taken the program and have used it find it very beneficial," he said.
And if not? Although
Meehan said
"There are times, of course, where something falls through the cracks, but thankfully that's the exception and not the rule," Meehan said.
Zager, who still has her costly mess to clean up, is just thankful someone finally listened.
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Contact
at www.philly.com/consumer. Follow him on Twitter at @jeffgelles.
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