About 2 years ago, we replaced our boiler at cost of approx $5,000. Our previous boiler had lasted for well over 20 years with minimal maintenance and repair. The new boiler (Slant/Fin) was sold to us on the basis of its efficiency and reliability.
Recently, we returned from our vacation to discover that our home was 43F. Our boiler had failed.
Our first call was to McKinnon. The person on call that evening was a pleasant enough fellow who did his best to assist us in troubleshooting but who (by his own admission)was not a technician (only an installer), and not in a position to diagnose the problem. We therefore engaged the services of a different company who came immediately and who determined that the unit’s transformer was burned out and needed replacement.
Confident that the problem would be covered by the boiler’s "lifetime warranty”, we decided to wait until the morning and then have McKinnon undertake the repairs. We spent that evening in a hotel.
The following morning, I called McKinnon. I advised the service call operator that a technician from a different company had determined what the problem was. She informed me that McKinnon would be doing its own diagnostics (I wasn’t about to argue with her) and she arranged for a technician to perform a diagnostic test. The technician determined that the transformer was indeed burned out and that a gas valve also needed replacement. He issued a “red tag” for carbon monoxide, even though he was unable to determine the CO level (it turned out to be well within acceptable limits) - because we had not signed up for McKinnon’s service plan in the previous year.
The necessary repairs were undertaken later that day. The transformer and gas valve were replaced. The CO test was satisfactory.
We were informed that none of the repairs were covered by the boiler’s “lifetime warranty”. The boiler was barely two years old and the wording was open-ended.
I wrote to McKinnon and they refused to stand by the warranty. Apparently, it is my fault for not having had a service inspection a year ago. As a lawyer, I can tell you that this is nonsense.
As a "goodwill gesture" McKinnon offered me $50 off if I agreed to sign up for their service plan.
I will be pursuing this matter in Small Claims Court.
In summary:
1. McKinnon sold me a boiler that was supposed to function for many years free of headaches but which, in fact, functioned properly for just over 2 years.
2. When called upon to remedy a malfunction in the boiler, the person they had on call that evening was not competent to handle the problem, forcing me to find a diagnostic technician from another company and causing my wife and me to spend our first evening back from vacation in a hotel.
3. On the following day, McKinnon duplicated the services of the diagnostician that I had used the previous evening, even though their diagnostician reached the same conclusions, resulting in my having to pay twice for the same service.
4. McKinnon failed to honour the boiler’s “lifetime warranty”, resulting in my having to pay over $1,200 to fix a problem that was guaranteed not to happen.
5. The McKinnon technician issued a “red tag” for carbon monoxide testing as a means of intimidating customers to sign up for its annual service plan.
6. I have no confidence that future problems with the boiler will not occur and I have every reason to believe that McKinnon will not stand by the $5,000 boiler that it sold me 2 years ago.
