SAN ANTONIO — Trevor Youngman closed on his first home on May 9 of this year and started buying appliances soon after. That included a new refrigerator from Best Buy that seemed to work correctly for the first month.
Then, when Youngman returned from a trip around the Fourth of July, he found his home's first floor covered in water. The water, he said, was pouring out of his refrigerator's water dispenser.
"I was kind of shocked and just kind of heartbroken. This is my first house. It's brand new," Youngman said.
Youngman's girlfriend took videos of the floor and refrigerator. The pair then drove to a store to get towels and other cleaning supplies and tried to get a restoration company to come out.
Youngman's insurance provider later estimated the home now had nearly $15,000 of damage.
"The vinyl flooring, baseboards, drywall, they are going to have to repaint the room. The cabinets have to be redone," Youngman said.
The homeowner said he contacted Best Buy multiple times, but said customer service somehow didn't start his claim correctly.
“They said they had a case ID and they would follow up with me. That didn’t happen,” Youngman said.
He said after many additional calls, Best Buy referred him to their claim company, Sedgwick. Sedgwick then referred him to the company that installed the refrigerator. That company then referred him back to Sedgwick.
Finally, around a month after he tried to make the claim, Sedgwick sent an email stating Best Buy was not liable and then tried to send the claim to the refrigerator manufacturer.
The email said in part, "Sedgwick is facilitating the claim on behalf of Best Buy, but there is no liability found against our client. As a service to you, we are assisting in the claims process to ensure customer service.”
Youngman had enough. He called KENS 5.
"I was getting nowhere with them," Youngman said.
KENS 5 contacted Best Buy to ask what the company was going to do to resolve the situation, ask why it was taking so long and ask why Youngman had been passed off to multiple different companies. When Best Buy didn't have a response, KENS 5 emailed the company three more times.
Three weeks later, KENS 5 told Best Buy the story was going to air and Youngman's family contacted Best Buy and said they were looking at a lawsuit.
Sedwick then contacted Youngman the next day and offered to settle the claim after all.
"They called me yesterday and told me that they will cover $15,000 of damages," Youngman said. "I was surprised. I did expect them to pay eventually but I was surprised they wanted to handle it so quickly."
Youngman said he's still trying to work out how much all of the repairs are going to cost according to contractor estimates but he's glad he'll have the money to pay for it.
"I'm glad they are finally playing ball and agreeing to pay for it. It's a relief I don't have to fight with them anymore and my insurance doesn't have to fight with them anymore," Youngman said.
When KENS 5 again asked Best Buy for a comment, the company said via email, "This is not the experience we want any of our customers to have, and we greatly appreciate Mr. Youngman’s patience as we work to resolve the issue.”
Youngman said he's glad he called KENS 5.
"I think that definitely helped influence their decision making here. I think that probably 'lit a fire under them' so to speak and got results," Youngman said.