Our Better Business Bureau complaint has been answered. It hasn’t resolved anything yet but I remain hopeful. At least it re-opened the case. Here’s First American Home Buyers Protection’s response so far:

Company’s Initial Response – Posted 10/08/2008

First American Home Buyers Protection would like to apologize for any inconveniences and/or delays Mr Hawkin’s may have experienced during the handling of this matter. At this time First American has dispatched an independent contractor to investigate the problem further, once a complete diagnosis is reached, this independent contractor will submit it to First American and a final determination will be taken at that point.

Initial Response Summary

First American will wait for the diagnosis taken by the second contractor dispatched to Mr. Hawkin’s residence to make a final determination on this matter.

I was informed by the Better Business Bureau that I would need to respond within seven days or they would assume the complaint has been settled. Here is my response:

This issue has not been resolved.

Other than a phone call on October 3rd, I have not heard from First American Home Buyers Protection. The phone call was simply someone asking a couple of questions and he said we would receive a written determination in the mail in a couple of days. We have not received this notice yet.

October 8th we receive a call from contractor name removed. Contractor name removed is one of the two original contractors originally sent by First American Home Buyers Protection. Load Side Electric said they were being re-sent for another evaluation and estimate. I have no idea why First American Home Buyers Protection selected contractor name removed to come back again since they were almost twice as much money as the first contractor’s estimate. Contractor name removed will not do the work without first bringing everything up to code which is a large part of the cost. I have not been told if First American Home Buyers Protection plans to cover these costs but I do know it is in their terms not to. I certainly hope this is not another one of their games in order to cause expense on my end. Had they sent the original contractor we would probably have our electric back.

We are still waiting to see how this plays out and will keep you updated.

I just filed a web complaint on the Better Business Bureau website. To honor their terms of use policy I won’t link to their site but it’s readily available with a simple online search.

The BBB reliability report for First American Home Buyers Protection shows a company rating of BBB and an accredited business since 05/30/2000. This is apparently a good rating but I find it fascinating that they have had 1164 complaints filed in the last 36 months. Here are the stats.

Complaint Closing Statistics:

No. of Cmpl    Type of Response
140    Making a full refund, as the consumer requested
50    Making a partial refund
818    Agreeing to perform according to their contract
14    Refusing to make an adjustment
138    Refuse to adjust, relying on terms of agreement
0    Unanswered
4    Unassigned
1164     Total

The complaint I just filed with the Better Business Bureau should add one more to the stats. I can’t wait to hear the response and I’ll post it right here as soon as I receive it.