Culligan of Dulles

Review: Approximately five years ago I purchased a whole house water filter system from Culligan and within a month of having the system I called to have them come out to check the system because the water was running into a pipe nonstop which resulted in me having a huge water bill $300 versus the normal $80, they did come out and work on the system and that issue was temporally corrected. When I called them to tell them about the water bill I was informed they were not responsible for my water bill. I called on several other occasions to voice complaints regarding either water coming from the system or the system alarming. The problem always occurs after a storm and the power went out. Each time our electricity would go out and come back on there would be something from an alarm going off to water on the floor. Most of the time the water was just a small amout but there has been two occasions where I actually had to get up at least a gallon of water from the floor. On July 12 of this year I came home to the sound of water pouring out of the system there was so much water the sump pump failed and was full of water and my basement was flooded. I had to have all of the carpet removed I lost my computer several other small items but the biggest issue was the salt water fried my furnace with all of the salty water. Yes I made a claim against my home owners insurance but because the sump pump failed there are certain items they will not cover and my deductible is larger than for a regular claim. I have lost several days from work trying to get the house back to gether which is still is not. My son and I had to move out of our home for several days as the temperature in our home was over 95 degrees. I still have to take more time off from work to have the rest of the repairs and work done. During this last issue the repair person that came in took a part from the system showed it to me and said this piece is the problem it has been faulty all of this time and that I was lucky this problem had not occured earlier. I called Culligan to speak with them and to let them know my insurance complany was not going to cover all of the expenses and asked what they could do. One of the general operations managers came to my house I gave him the broken part he looked around my house telling me how sorry he was and that he would make sure things are taken care of. He would not stay very long as the temperature in the house was intolerable, he handed me a case of water and said he would get back with me. He asked for my insurance company and a contact person all of which I provided him. the next time I heard from him he said they were not responsible for anything and would not be able to help me. He said if his hot water heater broke he would not be able to contact [redacted] but would go thru his insurance company I informed him that if he purchased his hot water heater from [redacted] and it was defective [redacted] would take care of it his reponse was you know [redacted] you are probably right I will contact my GM and get back with you. He then called to tell me based on my contract they were not liable and he would send me a copy of the contract he said I had the system for almost five years and never had a problem I then told him to check my service records as I have had several issues with the system (as stated above) he said he would check them talk to his GM again and call me back. Well he did not call back and I called again today his response was again they are not responsible and he did not see anything in my service records about issues with the system. I asked him to send me what he was looking at because I have had several complaints. He said he would and would send them to me via email to date I have not recieved any of the emails he has promised to send. I think the reason he came to my house that day was to pick up the defective part so that I would no longer be in possession of it and have proof of it. Also during my conversation with him today I asked about the statement from the repair person regarding the part being defective from the beginning his response was he had only been with the company for three months and did not know what he was talking about and that he never should have said that to me. I asked if I should suffer and pay for damages caused by yourequipment, he said that guy does not know what he is talking about and neither did the manager at the [redacted] office.This has been a very difficult process to go thru to have to move out of my home for days to miss time from work and still have so much to do to repair my home from the damage caused by this company. I am a single parent and do not have extra funds to pay for what was not covered by my insurance claim.Desired Settlement: I would like for Culligan to cover the cost of those things not covered by my insurance which includes the $1000 deductible the cost of the Hotel stay, the cost of repairing the sump pump, and I now have no leave as I had to use it all to be home for the extraction people, the HVAC people, the insurance people.

Business

Response:

Complaint # [redacted]

When [redacted], our Operations Manager visited the customer to access the damage he explained to her we cannot cover sump pump or air conditioning unit failures and she needed to contact her homeowners insurance. At that time she indicated to [redacted] she carried a supplementary warrant on her homeowners insurance policy that would cover her AC unit. Customer is aware we cannot honor any claims. [redacted] gave the customer the contact information for the person in charge of damage claims in our corporate office since there was nothing we could do for her.