SAN ANTONIO — Under normal circumstances, air conditioning parts should become available in less than a week. Unfortunately, companies are still seeing shortages.
And the issue can get even trickier if you are dealing with a home warranty company.
Jeffery Molina, president of American Air Conditioning & Heating Company, told KENS 5 the issue has improved from last summer, but there are still plenty of parts on backorder.
"It's supply chain issues. Having trouble with raw materials like copper, chips for circuit boards, motors, stuff like that," Molina said.
Molina said, if he's working for a home warranty company, things can go even slower; those companies must authorize needed parts and order them on their end.
That leaves his company and others waiting for specific parts when the warranty company is picky about where to get them.
"It takes five to seven days for them to get shipped to us, if it is readily available. If it's not available... we are seeing 30 to 60 days on backorder," he said. "Some get really extreme: six to eight months depending on what the item is or who the manufacturer is."
Even when parts are available sooner, there can still be confusion. Homeowner Julie Finley had her air conditioning go out around May 18 and called her warranty company, American Home Shield.
American Home Shield then sent out American Air Conditioning & Heating Company to address the issue.
Molina said he sent in a request for needed parts around May 20. At the same time, Finley said, when she called American Home Shield she was told no parts had been ordered.
She then spent hours going back and forth between the companies to try and find out what was going on. She said the warranty company still claimed no part ordered at the end of last week, and she had no idea when her air conditioning would be fixed.
"I was sitting in the living room with laundry, just trying to get though the day, and just cried."
Fortunately, the air conditioning company had ordered the part, according to Molina, and received it on Monday. Molina's company installed the part Tuesday, and Finley's home is now back to normal.
KENS 5 reached out to American Home Shield Tuesday and asked why their customer service was still saying no part had been ordered. American Home Shield responded with the following statement:
"Our network of service professionals works diligently to ensure that they provide timely service to homeowners. Despite the fact that the great majority of all service requests are completed smoothly and without incident, regrettably, there are times when this is not the case. In those instances, we work to do the right thing to ensure the situation is properly resolved.
"We sincerely apologize for the breakdown and miscommunication with Ms. Finley. As a gesture of goodwill, we are reimbursing her service fee. We deeply value our relationship with her and look forward to serving her in the future."
Finley confirmed the company would be refunding the $125 service fee. She said other homeowners in this situation should stay in close contact with their local A/C company to find out what is happening with their repair.
Molina told KENS 5 that his company will sometimes work to get on a three-way call with the customer and the warranty company in order to sort things out.
"We ask for the home owner to call us on a three-way call so if they are trying to give the homeowner information that is incorrect we can stop them right then and there and correct it," Molina said. "A lot of time they say, 'Well, the company hasn't ordered the part,' or, 'The company hasn't turned this in yet.' So when they call us on a three-way, it's hard for them to do that."
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