REAL interesting morning!

Rickf1985 · February 25, 2019, 02:48 PM

I had plenty of drama this morning when 60 MPH winds took down the top of a tree and took my house wires with it. Problem is that it only took out the neutral wire which left me with 220 volts on my 110 wiring!!! 04:30 I hear thump, bang, fizzle and instant house full of acrid smoke. Race down to main, slam it off race around looking for flames, find nothing actively burning and then try to calm down wife. Unsuccessful at that I look outside to see what happened and then run around the house again checking for fire. Finally get things under control, get a fire going to keep warm. (fire IN wood stove) Get power company informed and tell them I have hot wire laying on a chain link fence. They get here about 2 hours later and run a new drop to the house and I tediously fire up one breaker at a time after unplugging everything. One power control center for all the plugs for one of my computer setups goes up in flames as soon as I plug it in! Lucky on that one! The other one for the other computers was just dead and SMELLED it! Lost the microwave, washer, house heater, fridge and the worst of all.................. The COFFEE POT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Got this computer plugged into the wall with no accessories so I can do check my forums but need to go out after the heater guy gets here to get new control units. Well, heater guy got here and after replacing a few parts we came to the conclusion that the 220 spike took out most of everything so I am looking at a new heater. I have insurance but I also have a 1000.00 deductible so damn this is gonna hurt!

kenwautoone · February 25, 2019, 03:04 PM

Ouch.....Ken

TerryH · February 25, 2019, 03:24 PM

Sorry to hear this, Rick. Glad to hear as least you did not have a fire.
Don't think I've ever heard of something like that only taking out the neutral leg - not really something you can prepare ahead for, is it?
Good luck with the insurance company.

ClydesdaleKevin · February 25, 2019, 03:35 PM

Ouch! That sucks Rick! Hope it all works out for the best, and soon!

Kev

Elandan2 · February 25, 2019, 05:54 PM

I've always wondered why when they come to replace the drop to a house they don't just bury it and get over with. Wind never affects the underground services. At any rate, glad there was no fire and hope you can get everything up and running.

BrandonMc · February 27, 2019, 09:41 PM

wow, that sucks. Glad you had the insurance!

TerryH · February 28, 2019, 01:27 AM

Is your insurance company treating you well so far, Rick?

LJ-TJ · February 28, 2019, 10:47 AM

D:oH! Sucks, Been there, done that, got the tee shirt. It's a real kick in the teeth. Especially when your working on limited funds. Sorry to hear about your luck.

Oz · February 28, 2019, 11:16 AM

Damn! Good nothing happened to you.

Rickf1985 · February 28, 2019, 11:25 AM

Sure am glad I have the wood stove!!! The insurance company has been a real pain in the arse about this. They say they will take care of everything quickly so go ahead and do what I have to do about replacing the heater. I get together with the heater guy and I get a new one ordered. So what does the insurance do? They call the heater guy and start asking a ton of questions about repairing the old one. Well, They are talking to his wife who is the office manager and she gets info from him on the phone about what it MIGHT take to GET STARTED on a repair on the heater and that is around 1500 dollars. Soooo. That is the figure the insurance jumps on and minus my thousand dollar deductible they will give me 500.00. So he calls me and asks what I want to do and I told him, I simply do NOT have 5300.00 to spend on a heater. So I am now hoping my wood supply will last at least until the freeze ends but next week it is going down to the single digits again. I have one cord of wood left and I think I know where I can buy one more but it is not very good stuff. And it is expensive. I told the insurance company that even if the heater was fixed to where it would run I still would not feel safe with it since it got double the voltage it was supposed to have run through it. They replaced a burnt transformer and immediately the inducer motor went up in flames. Now that is with the repairman sitting there so he was able to shut it down and put out the fire. But if something else lights off later due to damage that was incurred, this is under my floor and right at a point where it blocks BOTH of my exits! Know what the insurance company said? We don't care what can happen in the future, we can only pay for current damage. There was dead silence for a minute and then I told the lady to F*** off and hung up on her. I got a call back about an hour later from one of the senior representatives apologizing for the insensitive manner in which I was treated and he started to try to explain their position and I cut him off and said, "are you going to replace the heater?" " If not I am going to hang up on you also" . He paused for a few seconds and said hold on a minute. He came back on the line and said they will approve 4200.00 for a new heater. Minus my thousand deductible. I still have to try to find 2700.00 but that is better than before. He was all apologies and I told him that I will be revisiting this whole thing when I cool off mentally since I am already frozen physically. I did not tell them I had the wood stove. A lot of times they will cancel your policy if they find you have a wood burning stove in the house. Sooooo, as it stands I am getting some help but I still need to find some money before I run out of wood.

Elandan2 · February 28, 2019, 04:23 PM

That really sucks. I think that the only people that insurance is designed to benefit is the employees!!

tmsnyder · February 28, 2019, 04:54 PM

Sorry to hear that Rick, hopefully they get you fixed up in a hurry.

Berlin-Tioga · March 02, 2019, 05:08 AM

Insurance companies do read what customers spread in the net.

Rickf1985 · March 02, 2019, 08:38 AM

I hope they do!!! I have not mentioned the name of the insurance company for the same reason I do not mention the names of people I have had bad dealings with, I am not that type of person. I am not into personal vendetta's. It is very aggravating to think that over the coarse of the last 30 years I have given this company close to 50,000 dollars in payments for auto and homeowners insurance! 12,000 of that was homeowners insurance and there has only ever been one claim total on any of it for a massive 3,000 dollars and they tried to give me more which I turned down, I only took exactly what I needed for the repair after hurricane damage.

LJ-TJ · March 02, 2019, 10:55 AM

Man we really are a strange breed. My car was totaled not through my own doings. It was a used car and I love it. The insurance tried to give me more than what I paid for it. I turned them down and said I just wanted the same car. No more no less just the same car. I finally found one of the same make and model for less that what the first one was. Darned if the insurance didn't pay for it no problems. Yep! I was surprised too. Hm? crazy. I feel for yeah Rick.