Several years ago, we purchased a heat pump system from Tim Geiger of Geiger Associates in Skippack. Since we were unable to reach him and the system was supposed to be covered under warranty through 2018, we contacted Geiger "Service" Associates to get the system repaired. Upon visiting our home, the technician informed us that Tim Geiger is not (or is no longer) affiliated with their company, and that Geiger "Service" Associates simply handles parts, sales and service for all of his (Geiger Associate's) customers. The technician then informed us that most of the system needs to be replaced, and that unfortunately, Mr. Geiger apparently never submitted our warranty paperwork to the manufacturer within 60 days of installation, as required by the manufacturer, so we're unfortunately responsible for paying 100% of the replacement cost (estimated to be in excess of $2,500). We are still paying for this system, and needless to say, we're pretty upset by this. After all, Mr. Geiger promised us a turnkey price that included a LIFETIME manufacturers compressor warranty, a 10 year parts warranty, and a 10 year workmanship warranty -- all of which is very well documented.
My wife, who was home at the time of the technician's visit, demanded to speak with Mr. Geiger directly and the technician was able to reach him by phone. Moments later, Mr. Geiger called my wife back from a restricted phone number, apologizing profusely, and said he had some personal and financial problems, was no longer involved with the business, and was unable to help us. When my wife raised her voice and demanded a legitimate call back number and that he make good on his promises, he stated he was not going to be threatened or spoken to in this tone, and hung up on her. The technician later explained Mr. Geiger made the same promises to many of his customers, and that his company deals with these complaints every day -- yet apparently they still work pretty closely with one another.
My wife then called me at work and had the technician get on the phone to explain the situation to me. In speaking with him, the technician explained that unfortunately, his company couldn't do anything for us, but suggested I call the manufacturer's consumer help line. Since we had all of the correspondence, paperwork, and financing information documenting our communications with Mr. Geiger, as well as documentation of the original installation and purchase date, he suggested we contact them directly and that they should be able to help us.
As suggested by the technician, I called Goodman's consumer help line and explained our situation. I explained that we had all of the correspondence, paperwork, and financing information documenting the warranty we would be covered under, including the installation and purchase date. Despite having all of this, the customer service rep from GMC stated that the warranty would have needed to be filed within 60 days of the installation date to be valid, and that it's a strict company policy. I explained to her that when we purchased the unit, we were told we were buying a system for our home that included an extended warranty and that no mention of this was ever made to us. She said that it's common for their distributors to submit the paperwork on their customer's behalf, but that it's ultimately up to the homeowner to make sure it was submitted by the distributor within 60 days of purchase. I never heard of such a thing and argued the point with her at length before demanding to speak with her supervisor, but her supervisor was unavailable, and I've yet to receive a call back from her, as promised.
Needless to say I would not recommend using them.
Jim Mathias
