Living a Saturday Night Live Skit or is it a nightmare?

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The dead heat pump.

This saga started last December, before Christmas.

We have a heat pump. It’s less than three years old. Contractor grade (lower level) systems last between 10 and 12 years. The one in our new house was 12 years old, louder than a 747 and on its last legs. We could have waited until it died but decided to replace it right after we moved. We selected a better model with a 12-year warranty (parts only). The new model had features like error codes which help diagnose problems. That did not work in our situation.

The week before Christmas, the heat pump failed. It went into backup auxiliary heat, which is electric resistance heat, the most expensive heat there is. Our HVAC distributor came out the same day.

The technician, who we know because we’ve been using the same company for over 20 years, spent five hours here. He didn’t know what was wrong. It was either an internal part or the compressor needed to be replaced. He was thinking the second. That was December 22. Since it’s under warranty they needed to work with the manufacturer. Big mistake.

The manufacturer didn’t do anything for a week because they couldn’t read the codes. They didn’t contact us. We found out by calling for status. We did what they wanted us to do and waited another week. The manufacturer couldn’t agree on what was wrong, so they didn’t do anything. In early January the distributor finally ordered a new part (the cheaper of the options).

The day it came, the beloved husband and I did a modified snoopy dance. Neither of us had a good feeling about it. Rightly so. It wasn’t the problem. The compressor was still dead.

Another few weeks went by without any action that we were aware of. The manufacturer still doesn’t know what’s wrong. We pleaded for our local company to order a new compressor. They said they did. That was at the beginning of February. We don’t know if they did. We can’t get an expected date of arrival. Nada. Zippo. Crickets. Tumbleweeds.

Over the course of this disaster, we heard the following answers to our questions:

“Our company president is going to call the manufacturer’s president to put a push on it.” When I asked if that happened, I was told the president retired.

“We’re checking now and I’ll call you back (put any deadline in here) by noon, by end of day, by end of week.” There was only one time when we actually got a call back. All the rest of the time, we call for an update.

“The manufacturing engineers are arguing about what’s wrong. They can’t agree.” Super! Let your customer go through an entire winter without a proper heating system. Don’t worry that the auxiliary heat is costing twice as much.

“I can’t get an answer on (put in anything here) Fridays, Mondays, holidays, close to holidays.” Seems to me that the manufacturing company works three days a week during non-holiday weeks only.

“Try calling the manufacturing company yourself.” That landed us with Consumer Relations which doesn’t interact with consumers. I don’t know what they do. Maybe it’s a fancy name for a Sales Department.

“The latest we heard (which probably isn’t true) is that the magic compressor will be here in a couple of weeks.” They were not able to say what a couple meant and we already know that most of what they say doesn’t happen. When we ordered the new heat pump back in 2021 during the height of the pandemic, it was shipped and installed in a week. We are going on eight weeks to get a new compressor. Something stinks here.

Possible solutions from a customer standpoint:

Replace the compressor and use our old one as a training or research tool.

Replace the compressor and take a write-off.

Replace the compressor for goodwill or because it’s the right thing to do.

Just fix the damn thing.

If you’re still reading and curious, we have a TRANE HEAT PUMP. I would not recommend any of their products. They get good marks for technology (when it works) but close to 0 stars for customer service. If you have a problem, you are screwed. What I’ve learned is that their engineers can’t agree on anything and they don’t care.

As for our local distributor, we are very disappointed with them. They guarantee 72 degree temps. We only see that on a very sunny day. We don’t live in Arizona. Our part of the country is overcast most of the winter. During our cold snaps it was a whole lot colder in the house. I wear at least two sweatshirts every day and sometimes a sweater on top of that. We are tangled up in a service agreement with them for this year, but we’ll see what options we have going forward. The weird thing is that we recommended them to a friend who bought a unit just before ours went berserk. No more recommendations from us.

At this point, I would welcome a replacement from any other heat pump company. Or a phone call with some truth.

I rarely write a disgruntled post but this one needed to be written. We are grateful we have some heat and a roof over our heads but the feeling of being powerless is overwhelming. My condolences to anyone who has ever felt this way.

69 thoughts on “Living a Saturday Night Live Skit or is it a nightmare?”

  1. My neighbors have a Trane (their second) and they have had nothing but trouble with it since it was installed. The unit is visible from our kitchen window so we notice how often the HVAC company is out checking the unit,
    And that is a lot. After several years of rather frequent service calls and lots of new parts. He complained and recieved a new unit several weeks ago. The madness persists. He has only had the new unit a few weeks and HVAC company was out several times last week. It looked like freon was added last week. He has some kind of remote access to the efficiency of the unit and watches it. I wonder if the problem is actually a software problem rather than actually a part gone bad. He was definately not happy with the unit one of his complaints was that his electric bill was so high.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Sounds so familiar. Heat pumps are so expensive that replacing it with another brand at this point is out of the question. We’ve had very poor response from Trane. Our local distributor doesn’t know what to tell us so they don’t tell us anything. We’ve used them for over 20 years and this is the first time we’ve had issues with them. My husband said our old house had a Trane and we didn’t have problems (other than mice chewing through wires) but we will never get another Trane product of any sort. It’s disheartening to hear that the new one isn’t any better than the old one. We’ve been advocating for a new unit. It maybe software but I wouldn’t know.

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  3. What a pain – “the gift that keeps on giving” as that saying goes. I think I mentioned when it first happened to you it reminded me of the issues I dealt with as to my instant-on generator. Thanks to the only diligent generator tech of the bunch, who did escalation with the manufacturer, did they come up with a “fix” – it was a red piece of plastic on a toggle that had not been fastened and made the oil pressure level go up and it would shut off and not do the weekly test run and didn’t work after the fire and we lost power in December 2022. After that, I have had this tech for its yearly maintenance evaluation and oil top-off. I e-mailed the President of Flame and said I wanted a new model, so he said “we will escalate with the manufacturer – Generac/Honeywell first – Moe will do this”. Why did it have to wait until I made a fuss?

    Liked by 1 person

    • We have made several “fusses” but none have given fruit. At this point we are giving bad reviews all over. If this doesn’t resolve soon, we will have to look into legal measures. No one wants to do that.

      Liked by 2 people

      • I feel for you as I went through nine years of issues with the high-efficiency furnace. I pressed them to find a fix for its short-cycling, shutting off and going offline because in June 2022 the 10-year warranty was up. They would not extend the warranty on it as they no longer carry Bryant (previously the only brand they carried). They sent a new tech out and he knew the problem right away – they put in a wider pipe (by 1/2 or 1/4 inch). I heard “well we learn as we go along.” For almost a decade? You hope that Yelp or Google reviews would prompt them to follow-up and be attendant to your issues but that is not always the case.

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  4. Oh brother! What a heap of irritation and lies and bad juju. I’m sorry this has happened but am glad you shared it here, for your sanity, and for anyone else who might be going through the same heat pump issues. Still, oh brother…

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Oh my God, Kate, I feel your pain. You needed to share this. To both get it off your chest and for others to know what NOT to buy. They either need to fix their business practice or go out of business because of word of mouth.

    Your situation reminds me of the refrigerator saga I wrote about on my blog back in 2018 when we were supposed to have 20 people for Christmas Eve. It is such a helpless feeling when you pay good dinero for something and no one will help you fix it.

    Hope you get this straightened out soon. 🙏

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    • My brother had a refrigerator saga too but it was resolved in 2 weeks. In the meantime, friends and family took in his frozen foods and loaned him one of those small ones. The new one didn’t fit the space even though he had measured carefully. The appliance store was wonderful. They sent out a guy to measure and ordered a new one while letting him keep the one that didn’t fit. It sat in the middle of his kitchen but better than no fridge. Now that was good customer service.

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  6. I had a couple of amusing repair stories I thought about sharing, but I don’t think you’d find them amusing right now. So, I’m sending you my very best positive thoughts and hoping this gets resolved soon. It really sounds as if you might have to take some sort of legal action as they are not fulfilling their end of the contract.

    Liked by 1 person

    • They are not but I’m not sure if we have enough length of time to go full rogue. I’d love the real story. Did they really order a new compressor? Did the manufacturing engineers kiss and make up or are they still feuding? Does everyone’s sphincter muscle clench when they see we’re calling again? So many questions go unanswered.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Well, keep on documenting everything. Even if you can’t go full rogue right now, you deserve some fair compensation for the stress and financial burden they have put you under. I am not usually one that talks about suing a company – stuff happens, you know? But you have given them more than enough time to make things right and they’re still dithering. I, too, will never buy a Trane if I need a new furnace.

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  7. It’s just crazy! No Trane HVAC system will be purchased by us. Thank you for sharing your story. I am not a fan of heat pumps but here in Florida it’s the thing. Hoping ours keeps working for a few more years. I am sorry this has been issue. You have been dealing with this way too long.

    Liked by 1 person

    • It seems like layers of bad luck this winter. This was layered over Gus’s issues and subsequent surgery. There were a few other things that happened but have resolved. It’s been a stressful winter. After this, I’m not a fan of heat pumps either. They are very expensive and have a short life compared to an oil or natural gas furnace. I wish solar would be more practical here but we don’t get a lot of sunny days in the winter.

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  8. Years ago, we had a heat pump challenge where we almost froze to death trying to be earth friendly. We’ve never owned one since. One thing I think we all can agree on – customer service is dead. They say and do what sounds good, and then you’re on your own hoping whatever it is works until you feel you got your money’s worth out of it. Remember that old saying – let the buyer beware. 🙂

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    • This is the first time we have been skunked by our local distributor. My husband blames it on Trane (manufacturer) but I’m not convinced our local person is doing all they can. This heat pump will be 3 in March (no birthday celebration for it!). It’s too expensive to replace with another brand at this point but you can be sure we will never a Trane product again.

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    • Me too. All this happened while I was dealing with my cat Gus’s issues and surgery. Talk about layers of stress. My mantra is “at least I don’t live in a war zone” which seems to be growing.

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  11. A real horror story for sure. We need our heat – it’s one of those basic needs everyone deserves. Heating systems are NOT CHEAP but they act like “CHEAP” when they fail or have an issue of ANY kind. I don’t care if it’s a loose screw – it costs a fortune OR nobody can figure it out. That’s just plain incompetence/we don’t give a hoot. Seems having a warranty doesn’t even mean much if you get the “we don’t know what’s wrong” response. Just so sorry you are going through this. I am happy to hear Gus is doing well though…..hopefully he will soon be “coneless” while all of you are still “heatless” (other than the most $$ heat).

    Hugs, Pam

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yes it is. I don’t know how else to spin it. We work hard to let it roll of because it’s been very stressful. If we win the lottery (note to self: buy a dang ticket!), this piece of garbage is history.

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  17. I’m at a bit of a loss for words! You’ve been doing business with this HVAC company for 20 years and they put no more effort into getting you a solution than that? I hope you are keeping track of the difference in your heating costs with having to use an auxiliary unit. Heck, I hope you’re keeping a record of each time you’ve contacted them (because the don’t contact you) and any other expense you’ve incurred as a result of this fiasco.

    I also hope you will share this story with any local news – paper or TV – because I believe once TRANE gets negative feedback that reaches “the masses”, they may consider a quicker resolution.

    I do have a friend who just passed the BAR exam at the end of last year, and she is strong and knows her stuff and takes no BS from anybody. If you ever feel you want some legal advice or action, let me know!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thanks! We are tracking costs, phone calls and anything else that happens. The local distributor says that they will go after the manufacturer for the extra costs but we haven’t seen them be able to do anything about that or getting the new compressor. We will have to fight for it. You get to a certain stage in your life when you don’t want to do this but we must keep on going.

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  22. I hate it when no one will take responsibility and fix something. It is absolutely maddening that you have to wage a daily battle to get someone to do their job. And it’s so common that folks have taken to tagging companies on social media to get their attention (and some leverage). I feel for you and am impressed you have not yet drop kicked the compressor to the curb.

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  23. How awful! Is there a BBB or some other entity you could report them to? Any lawyers in the family who could write them a legally threatening letter? Often I think they rely on the customer not wanting to push too hard. It seems to me that they owe you a new unit and the extra money you spent for heat, as well as some additional “pain and suffering” reimbursement.

    Liked by 1 person

    • BBB doesn’t seem to have clout these days and no lawyer in the family. We will keep pushing or there will be no AC this summer! I don’t understand what’s going on as the message changes frequently. I expect most companies would stand in back of their product after all this time. We’ll keep on calling and telling people.

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      • So sorry, Kate. Does your state have a consumer protection department through the Attorney General’s office? If the BBB isn’t very helpful have you contacted the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection? Sounds like a complete cluster. Keeping my fingers crossed this gets resolved soon.

        Hope Gus is feeling better. Can you do any kind of wipes to help with the smell or is that off limits still?

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  24. I am so sorry to hear that 😢 I have been an electrician for 50 yrs and have taken care of my own HVAC systems & (not to brag) am quite knowledgeable of all electrical equipment except under water heart monitors 😉
    If there is any advice you need get a hold of me ⚡️

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