Last week I blasted Old Republic Home Protection Company for the way that they treated my Mother-in-Law on a home heating system repair. Old Republic’s service company here in Tulsa wasn’t being very responsive and was pushing an expensive repair that was not covered by Old Republic. We ended up getting another service company in who was able to get my MIL’s heater going. I spend a considerable amount of time with a Old Republic representative on the phone but I got nowhere with him and didn’t suggest any alternatives or appeals or anything. I was very disappointed with the situation.

So I decided to write a post about the situation that I perceived as Old Republic taking advantage of the situation. First I sent Old Republic a message via the “Contact Us” section of their web site. I laid out the situation as I saw it and invited them to respond. I also told them that I was going to lay out the situation in a blog post (not that I think that my blog has much influence with anybody but hey, its the only voice I have).

Anyway I sent it one day, waited the next day for  a response, and then wrote my post the day after that.  I got a call from an executive from Old Republic who told me that they emailed me twice. I looked at my email and didn’t see but then checked my spam folder and sure enough they had emailed me twice. Anyway, I have egg all over my face and am still embarrassed by the situation.

What they are doing is they are refunding my Mother-in-Law the money she spent with the other company. They are also going to discuss the situation with their local contractor to see where the breakdown is and how things can be different in the future. I really think that are doing their best to make the situation right. And I’m reminded about being a more responsible about the stuff I write and to always check the spam folder and also allow a little more time.

Also, I think that it is time to rescind the award I gave them before and introduce a new one. So the old award, that shall not be named, is hereby rescinded and a new one, The Firefighter Award (I was going to call it Fireman but I’m totally into the eliminating gender bias thing and also refuse to use the term “fireperson”as being too wrong.) for people and companies who do their best to rectify a situation.

So Mr. Contractor Relations Guy at Old Republic and Old Republic here is your award.

Thanks for responding quickly and making things right. I appreciate it very much.

I like this award thing. The positive ones that is. I didn’t feel good about the the other award. It might get retired.