Huchinson HVAC

The 10 year warranty is actually a 1 year warranty, unless you pay more We purchased a new Carrier heater and A/C unit from Huchinson and had it installed 6/1/2019. We believed that we had a 10 year warranty as they told us. Fast forward less than 3 years and the A/C stops being cold and so we call the company. To our surprise they offered to come out on a Sunday at no additional charge, and told us that items covered under the warranty would be free. So far so good. I could tell from the time the technician arrived that something wasn't right. He stated that there was a $90 charge plus a $20 fuel charge. I said well if it's not covered right? At this time he advised me that well, no. You have to get the system serviced annually whether it needs it or not - and only then is there any warranty. Unless I could prove that I had the annual visit then I would have to pay. $650 it turns out for a part which is; according the to the tech, the “weakest link in the system”. I stated to the tech, well if I need to pay you annually to come out and visit my unit well then the time to tell me that is not 2 years and 11 months after my purchase. Of course, this means that there actually is no warranty included beyond 12 months. So this got me digging into my paperwork and here’s what I found. 5/2019 So my original understanding was a 10 year parts and labor warranty was included although I couldn’t locate the original contract. 7/30/19 The following statement was in a Letter from Huchinson - Extended warranty - Your home comfort system has a 10 year parts and 10 year labor extended warranty. Look for more information about this warranty in 60 days. 60 days later we get a letter from “Climate Shield” which seems to be a third party insurance company. This has a ton of boiler plate language and in one of the tiny paragraphs on the back it states “lack of annual maintenance may result in denial of claims”. We were unaware of this “annual maintenance” requirement until the technician showed up at our house. This is Fraud because I agreed to buy from the company because of the warranty. They led me to believe I was covered under a warranty, then in a SECOND LETTER MONTHS LATER inform me I have to pay more to make the warranty valid. I paid $14,000 for this system, I know they are not the cheapest out there but I had trust that they would stand behind their work. So 2 days later I get a call from the warranty department at Hutchinson. They have this mantra that of course - like a car gets its oil changed everyone should know that the system must have an “annual maintenance”. This is not a car however, and there is no oil to change. No one at the company is denying the fact that the maintenance they provide would have had no bearing on the performance on the part that failed. To their credit they offered to give me a credit back of $200 for the cost of the part. They told me if I wanted to plead my case further I can contact Climate Shield. Look, I’m not a customer of Climate Shield, it’s Hutchinson that I paid the money to, not this other company. To me that’s the equivalent of telling me to **** up a rain pipe.