We have never been suckers for extended warranties or "service plans" on new items, but last October we weakened and "bought " the Black Hills Energy Service Guard plan for extended care of our furnace. We had received advertisements indicating the plan would cost 15.50/month and when the BH technicians cleaned our furnace in early October, they indicated that the discount from the billing of their services would nearly cover 3 months of the cost of the plan, so we bought it. Our first disappointment was when we found 27.28 added to our monthly billing. But when the basement wasn't heating properly as we got into colder weather, we called BH and the technicians who came didn't appear to be familiar with Hot Water Boiler systems. They were unable to even diagnose the problem. Meanwhile I went to our local Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning people who quickly recognized the problem and got it repaired. Our contract with BH for their Service Guard plan is for a minimum of 1 year. Today, I wrote to Black Hills asking them to cancel our Service Guard plan as soon as possible. Such service plans and extended warranties may be appropriate for some consumers but for those of us that take reasonably good care of equipment, they are a "Rip-off".
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