Lennox Air Conditioning and their broken warranties

Our 4-year old AC unit broke – the condenser needs replacing. It’s a Lennox, and still under warranty. Or so we thought.

Unfortunately, Lennox’s warranty program is completely ass-backwards. They actually require you to pay for the replacement! “Yes sir, that part is under warranty, you just have to pay us for it.” Hello, Lennox, that’s not a warranty. Admittedly, they will refund you the money on some unspecified future date. That’s no warranty – that’s a returns policy. You get to buy a second unit and they refund you for the original. Can you imagine Wal-Mart acting like that? “Oh, your TV didn’t work when you got it home? Well, just buy another and we’ll mail you a check for the broken one.”

Our AC repairman can’t afford to front the money. I can’t blame him. He shouldn’t have to.

Meanwhile we have three young children who can’t get to sleep because their bedrooms are 80+ degrees at night.

What are we supposed to do?

Lennox, how about re-thinking your inane warranty policy into something more customer-friendly?

Update: our repairman stepped up and paid for the new part from Lennox. I hope they reimburse him promptly. Thank, Mark!