We opened an American Home Shield service request and paid the trade call fee ($75). AHS contracted the appliance repair service out to Whirlpool. Whirlpool subcontracted the job out to Scott's Appliance Service.
Scott's Appliance technician inspected the appliance and concluded that the appliance was not faulty. The technician told my wife that the issue was electrical service to the appliance and stated that we needed to have an electrician repair the service. My wife was then told that because the issue was not with the appliance, Whirlpool (their contractor) would not pay Scott's Appliance (the subcontractor) for their work. In turn he had my wife write him a check for $90 to cover their service call.
In the professional world, the subcontractor would have contacted the contractor for payment of services rendered.
Requesting additional or even any payment from my wife is unethical as it leads to potential double dipping on a project.
Had we requested additional services, the relationship would have changed and direct charges may have been justified.
Discussion with Scott's Appliance (Ellen), resulted in continual interruptions and ended up hanging up the phone due to the hostile nature of the conversation.
While the technician was professional, courteous, and did a great job, I cannot recommend Scotts appliance due to unethical and unprofessional billing practices.
----------------------- Update -----------------------
Just got off the phone with both AHS and Whirlpool. According to both entities, it is not acceptable for the technician to charge a service fee when responding to a prepaid warranty claim.
I suggest you review your contractual agreement with those companies. If there is a future concern about this, a wiser route would be to invoice the home owner instead of demanding payment at the time of service.
I made sure to let Whirlpool know that this is standard practice with your company.
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