That Broken Air Conditioner Isn’t Your Problem Anymore

What’s more annoying than an air conditioner that doesn’t keep you cool? One day everything is fine, and the next, you wake up covered in sweat because the AC decided to take a nap.

This is a problem many Americans encounter, and they’re not using ancient machines. Many are brand-spanking-new, expensive, space age-looking appliances that come with a full list of incredible-sounding features that promise to make your life easier. Too many of them fail to live up to that promise.

Instead, they break down, making all those cool features less than useless. Then you get to fix the AC, which is a unique form of torture thanks to the way they’re built and installed.

Many air conditioners have to be professionally installed, and even the ones that don’t can be a real pain to install on your own. After having an AC repaired, you have to install it all over again, potentially just months or even weeks after you got it installed the first time.

A lot of these machines come with extensive warranties that cover the cost of the repairs, but still. Nobody wants to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on an appliance, then wait around for repair people, then spend hours and hours on the phone with customer service.

A Growing Problem

Ask your grandpa how many times he had to get his old ACs (which he probably installed in ’68 and finally replaced in ’94) repaired. Probably fewer times you’ve replaced your ACs in the past ten years. But it’s not just air conditioners; it just doesn’t seem like appliances, even big-ticket expensive ones, are built to last these days.

Whatever the reason for it, the end result is a whole lot of consumers stuck in a never-ending (and really annoying) cycle of purchase/enjoy/repair/enjoy-for-ten-minutes/repair until they finally give in and buy a new one, only to see the cycle begin anew. Does it really have to be this way?

Well, not if a little-known law passed by Congress in 1975 has anything to say about it.

A Solution for Frustrated Consumers

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975 (or “Mag-Moss”) was a bill intended to protect consumers from the deceptive warranties being sold at the time. This law is still on the books, and it can be ideal for people who purchase expensive machines and appliances that don’t work properly from the start, or that start falling apart earlier than they’re supposed to — for example, air conditioners.

This bill allows people who have purchased a troublesome new appliance, like an AC, to file a lawsuit to get a full refund or replacement. All it takes to get started is giving a warranty lawyer a call.

These are real cases. One of our clients (in Riley v. Ameristar), whose HVAC unit kept breaking, got his whole unit repurchased by the manufacturer. Even better, the manufacturer paid all attorney fees and costs.

That’s right. In Mag-Moss cases, the manufacturer is responsible for attorneys fees if the plaintiff (the person suing to get their appliance replaced or refunded) wins. And if the lawyer is a contingency fee lawyer — like all of Morgan & Morgan’s attorneys are — the plaintiff doesn’t pay if their case isn’t successful, either.

No matter the outcome, if you hire Morgan & Morgan to file a Mag-Moss case, you have nothing to lose and potentially a lot to win. More than a new appliance or money to spend on something else, you could recover peace of mind, and the knowledge that, for once, the big shady corporation didn’t get away with it.

Stop the Sweaty Nights

Now that you know you have this option, don’t let that busted AC annoy you a minute longer. Call us today for a 100% free, no-obligation case review. With any luck, you’ll be cooling off in no time.