C
chinabear
Guest
i'm writing to you from plainfield, new jersey.
back in august 2000, my husband and i placed an order for a 6-foot aluminum fence, 10-foot gate to be installed with an electronic gate operator, gto2000. the cost to me was $2600. we were told the operator had an excellent rating and history and has a warranty of two years if anything should go wrong.
we have had nothing but problems since they started installing it. the original installer/salesperson had one excuse after another delaying the completion of installation. my patience wore out and insisted the owner of gate company to complete the job. they did finally in late september. in december, the gate would not function at all, due to sloppy installation of the support posts. after a number of calls the gate company came out in april to repair once the ground thawed out. a few weeks later the gate operator stopped working and we had to manually dismantle the operator to gain access to the yard. we made several more calls for service. the gate company referred us to an electronic repair service leading us to believe they are a division of their company. the electronic company came out to look at the unit and determined that the transformer and the battery were bad. they took these items with them to see if they had these items in the stock back at their office.
cost for this service was $60.
i got a call from the electronic company that the parts would have to be ordered and the cost would be close to $300 dollars. remembering the warranty conversation and paperwork i referred her back to the gate company to pay for these repairs. several hours later they call back stating the owner of the gate company will not pay for the repairs that he will not honor the warranty, he's just the installer and he does not handle act of god. he stated that the unit is outside and was most likely struck by lighting.
his lightening theory appears to be way off base as the operator was working fine the day before and part of the day that it died and the weather had been beautiful that week. there appears to be no burn marks in or around the unit, nor was there any evidence of a power surge or outage on our other household appliance etc.
my husband called back and spoke with the owner, after some haggling the owner said that he would only commit to $60 for a service fee. coincidentally, while my husband was talking with the owner, from his office i was speaking with the gto operator in florida regarding their warranty. they asked me to send the battery, transformer and the circuit card to them and they would repair and return them within a week. the cost to me to fedex $45.
yesterday, i got a call from gto in florida that the warranty would not be honored be cause the battery used in the unit was not spec, the one originally sent with the operator. they feel the battery went bad and blew out the gate transformer and corrupted the circuit board. the gate operator has only been serviced one time by the gate installer. shortly, after the final installation did we require service from the gate company on the gate operator. i was informed that the problem was a loose wire that was repaired by the gate company.
it appears to me that the gate company voided my warranty from the very beginning when they installed the unit. whether they unknowing used the bad battery that eventually corrupted my operator, i feel they should be held accountable.
my question to you is who should be responsible for the repair of this unit? if they are, (the gate company who installed the gate/fence and operator), is it unrealistic of me to expect a new unit with spec parts to be installed with the original two year warranty in place? What should be my next course of action?
this has been most frustrating, the gate and operator have been down more than it has been operating.
back in august 2000, my husband and i placed an order for a 6-foot aluminum fence, 10-foot gate to be installed with an electronic gate operator, gto2000. the cost to me was $2600. we were told the operator had an excellent rating and history and has a warranty of two years if anything should go wrong.
we have had nothing but problems since they started installing it. the original installer/salesperson had one excuse after another delaying the completion of installation. my patience wore out and insisted the owner of gate company to complete the job. they did finally in late september. in december, the gate would not function at all, due to sloppy installation of the support posts. after a number of calls the gate company came out in april to repair once the ground thawed out. a few weeks later the gate operator stopped working and we had to manually dismantle the operator to gain access to the yard. we made several more calls for service. the gate company referred us to an electronic repair service leading us to believe they are a division of their company. the electronic company came out to look at the unit and determined that the transformer and the battery were bad. they took these items with them to see if they had these items in the stock back at their office.
cost for this service was $60.
i got a call from the electronic company that the parts would have to be ordered and the cost would be close to $300 dollars. remembering the warranty conversation and paperwork i referred her back to the gate company to pay for these repairs. several hours later they call back stating the owner of the gate company will not pay for the repairs that he will not honor the warranty, he's just the installer and he does not handle act of god. he stated that the unit is outside and was most likely struck by lighting.
his lightening theory appears to be way off base as the operator was working fine the day before and part of the day that it died and the weather had been beautiful that week. there appears to be no burn marks in or around the unit, nor was there any evidence of a power surge or outage on our other household appliance etc.
my husband called back and spoke with the owner, after some haggling the owner said that he would only commit to $60 for a service fee. coincidentally, while my husband was talking with the owner, from his office i was speaking with the gto operator in florida regarding their warranty. they asked me to send the battery, transformer and the circuit card to them and they would repair and return them within a week. the cost to me to fedex $45.
yesterday, i got a call from gto in florida that the warranty would not be honored be cause the battery used in the unit was not spec, the one originally sent with the operator. they feel the battery went bad and blew out the gate transformer and corrupted the circuit board. the gate operator has only been serviced one time by the gate installer. shortly, after the final installation did we require service from the gate company on the gate operator. i was informed that the problem was a loose wire that was repaired by the gate company.
it appears to me that the gate company voided my warranty from the very beginning when they installed the unit. whether they unknowing used the bad battery that eventually corrupted my operator, i feel they should be held accountable.
my question to you is who should be responsible for the repair of this unit? if they are, (the gate company who installed the gate/fence and operator), is it unrealistic of me to expect a new unit with spec parts to be installed with the original two year warranty in place? What should be my next course of action?
this has been most frustrating, the gate and operator have been down more than it has been operating.