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Ok well I no longer work for the plumbing/appliance repair company officially, but since it is my grandmother I still go in to help occasionally.
It is due to this that on Friday I had the joy of shooting down the hopes of this deluded woman, since my grandmother, who would have been the one to answer the phone were I not there, had no idea who this woman was, and her evil plan would have been given the OK due to lack of evidence.
Ok backstory time.
Waaay back in mid-September of 2007, I scheduled a call through a home warrant company for a KitchenAid refrigerator for a property on 123 Stupid Avenue*. It stuck out in my mind because the property was officially managed under a trust fund, and so the homeowner was listed as Dummy Trust, with the contacts listed as a Mrs. Dummy, homeowner, and Mrs. Probably-Innocent, tenant. Also, due to it being a trust fund, we made an exception to our rules and billed for the deductible instead of collecting at the door. Therefore, it was quite memorable.
In early October, we were informed by the warranty company that the homeowner was receiving a cash-out since the fridge was so old, and rather expensive to repair. This means, they were paying the homeowner almost 400 dollars (still less than cost to repair!!) to buy a new fridge, send the new information in, and that fridge would be covered, and the old fridge would not be anymore.
Fast forward to mid-June, 2008. We get another call for 123 Stupid Avenue. I remember it, but cannot find the paper file, which is a lucky break for Mrs. Dummy, as if I'd had the paper file, she'd have been caught much more quickly. So, I schedule tech to go out, and then call the warranty with the diagnosis, for them to approve or deny repair. Also, I have to give them make, model, serial, and various product features for the unit. As I'm giving the serial, the autho rep stops me and puts me on hold. When she comes back, she states she has a supervisor listening in, and asks that I repeat the serial number. When I do so, she states that this is the same fridge that they basically condemned, and paid Mrs. Dummy to replace. She is now attempting to defraud the warranty company, and get them to fix this old fridge. They immediately deny the claim, and state they will call the homeowner.
Now remember, we bill this homeowner, which means mailing them a copy of the invoice, and waiting for them to mail us a check. Mrs. Dummy calls our office, and proceeds to scream and yell at me, about how we will not be receiving our check because we have lied to the company and claimed it is the same fridge, and we are horrible people, etc etc. So, of the $62 owed from homeowner and warranty company for our time diagnosing, we get only the $12 from the warranty.
Technically we are supposed to bill the warranty company when the homeowner refuses to pay, but the owner made the decision that we were just going to write it off. It was only $50, and as far as he was concerned, the warranty has already "lost" approx $400 on this woman to buy a new fridge that was never bought.
Fast forward again, to Friday, December 12.
The warranty company calls, stating that this homeowner is claiming that she has a recall claim on her fridge, that she doesn't want the original diagnosing company because they were rude (that'd be us) and that she doesn't have to pay the new company because she paid us. I literally laughed out loud at the person at that statement, because I STILL remembered this woman. I explained the situation and the person pulled up the old notes, which requires a supervisor password to even see which is why they didn't just look at it.. and then stated that they were going to "have a talk" with the homeowner. Something tells me this woman isn't going to have a home warranty for much longer.
*all names and street names obviously made up
It is due to this that on Friday I had the joy of shooting down the hopes of this deluded woman, since my grandmother, who would have been the one to answer the phone were I not there, had no idea who this woman was, and her evil plan would have been given the OK due to lack of evidence.
Ok backstory time.
Waaay back in mid-September of 2007, I scheduled a call through a home warrant company for a KitchenAid refrigerator for a property on 123 Stupid Avenue*. It stuck out in my mind because the property was officially managed under a trust fund, and so the homeowner was listed as Dummy Trust, with the contacts listed as a Mrs. Dummy, homeowner, and Mrs. Probably-Innocent, tenant. Also, due to it being a trust fund, we made an exception to our rules and billed for the deductible instead of collecting at the door. Therefore, it was quite memorable.
In early October, we were informed by the warranty company that the homeowner was receiving a cash-out since the fridge was so old, and rather expensive to repair. This means, they were paying the homeowner almost 400 dollars (still less than cost to repair!!) to buy a new fridge, send the new information in, and that fridge would be covered, and the old fridge would not be anymore.
Fast forward to mid-June, 2008. We get another call for 123 Stupid Avenue. I remember it, but cannot find the paper file, which is a lucky break for Mrs. Dummy, as if I'd had the paper file, she'd have been caught much more quickly. So, I schedule tech to go out, and then call the warranty with the diagnosis, for them to approve or deny repair. Also, I have to give them make, model, serial, and various product features for the unit. As I'm giving the serial, the autho rep stops me and puts me on hold. When she comes back, she states she has a supervisor listening in, and asks that I repeat the serial number. When I do so, she states that this is the same fridge that they basically condemned, and paid Mrs. Dummy to replace. She is now attempting to defraud the warranty company, and get them to fix this old fridge. They immediately deny the claim, and state they will call the homeowner.
Now remember, we bill this homeowner, which means mailing them a copy of the invoice, and waiting for them to mail us a check. Mrs. Dummy calls our office, and proceeds to scream and yell at me, about how we will not be receiving our check because we have lied to the company and claimed it is the same fridge, and we are horrible people, etc etc. So, of the $62 owed from homeowner and warranty company for our time diagnosing, we get only the $12 from the warranty.
Technically we are supposed to bill the warranty company when the homeowner refuses to pay, but the owner made the decision that we were just going to write it off. It was only $50, and as far as he was concerned, the warranty has already "lost" approx $400 on this woman to buy a new fridge that was never bought.
Fast forward again, to Friday, December 12.
The warranty company calls, stating that this homeowner is claiming that she has a recall claim on her fridge, that she doesn't want the original diagnosing company because they were rude (that'd be us) and that she doesn't have to pay the new company because she paid us. I literally laughed out loud at the person at that statement, because I STILL remembered this woman. I explained the situation and the person pulled up the old notes, which requires a supervisor password to even see which is why they didn't just look at it.. and then stated that they were going to "have a talk" with the homeowner. Something tells me this woman isn't going to have a home warranty for much longer.
*all names and street names obviously made up
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