The insurance fraud is one of these. It is quite rampant in the HVAC industry. The fraudulent HVAC service provider visits your house. It is a huge relief for you! You get back on your feet, breathing a sigh of relief. But the scam that your call has initiated remains oblivious to you. The technician at his end has parroted the dialogue that he would throw towards you. He would say after a prima-facie check-up, that he has both a good and bad news for you. The bad part of it is that your HVAC is beyond repair. It requires a replacement when the fact is that it does not. The good part of it that he will write in his invoice that the HVAC has suffered damage due to some grave reason such as inclement weather. You have to show it to your insurance carrier, and you will be reimbursed the full cost of replacing the unit.
After the whole act of replacing the air conditioner is over, you pick up the phone to call your insurance agent. The insurance company after an inspection tells you that your HVAC suffered minor problem and could have been actually repaired for $100. The replacement was totally uncalled for. So they would not repay the cost of replacement. For a homeowner it spells doom. It was not his doing.
According to Damon Stafford of HVAC Investigators of Charlotte, NC.- “ The blatant dishonesty and fraud that we encounter on a daily basis is disheartening. We see full replacement claims submitted to insurance companies where a breaker is simply tripped, or where the wiring leading to an HVAC compressor was accidentally cut by a previous repairman."