We had a nasty thunderstorm last Wednesday night. We found out that our sump pump failed when our basement flooded for the first time in the 7 years since we moved in. The flood was ankle high in the deepest parts, we are thankful that we were there and it didn’t rain during a one week vacation. Last year, I already had a “feeling” that something was wrong because something was pretty noisy in the basement but it comes and goes. We thought about having the sump pump replaced but for some reason we were very pre-occupied by more pressing issues.
We called BGEHome Thursday morning at around 8:00am and a courteous and professional guy was at our footstep by 12:00noon. He replaced the pump in less than an hour! The great thing about it we were only charged $50 instead of $434 because we have a Smart Service contract with them since last year. For $30/month contract covers cooling, heating, water heater, electrical, plumbing, etc. If something breaks down parts and labor are covered and we only pay the deductible, it certainly pays for itself even from the yearly cooling/heating maintenance. It’s an easy way to save-up solely for an unexpected high cost home related emergency repair. We most definitely appreciate the priority service because we experienced having to wait for weeks for a service from a mom and pop operator. It definitely simplifies life by not having to scramble for an HVAC, plumber and electrician when we need them most.
It’s great when things work out as smoothly as possible. The positive experience helped us decide that we are going to call BGEHome to replace our water heater by next month. I was already told that water heaters last between 8-15 years. It’s now past 15 years, definitely on borrowed time. It’s better to prevent a possible basement disaster or I’ll be kicking myself if something happens again due to a problem that could have been prevented.
Thanks BGEHome!
So, you paid $360.00 for a year service contract (which btw can be changed without your consent and without BGE Home even notifying you), and then another $50.00 to have a sump pump installed that costs some $90.00 at Home Depot. LOL
Where did you get the supposed $434.00 charge IF you didn’t have the contract?
Also, why didn’t BGE find the defective sump pump when they performed your yearly preventative maintenance service?
Hi Don,
Thanks for taking the time to post your comment. I appreciate the feed back.
Anyhow, the service contract works for us because we aren’t handy with things like replacing the sump pump. The sump pump by itself is cheap from Home Depot, but it’s the labor that would cost us more. And yes there are plenty of plumbers out there but if our furnace stopped working in the dead of winter, someone without enough manpower would tell us that they would schedule us next week unlike BGE Home who can offer 24hr emergency service. When we have other issues we just pay the $50 deductible and not have to worry how many hours it would take them to fix the problem.
They charged the contract service fee on the BGE bill with our consent after we agreed on the terms and conditions in the fine print.
BGEHome preventive maintenance was only for the AC and Heating, it’ll be good if the included sump pump.