Florida

After Delays, NBC 6 Responds Helps Family Get Generator Installed

Nadine Wenzel is battling Stage 2 Breast Cancer. She is also fighting to bring her husband home from the hospital. She worried that a slow-moving contractor could delay her husband’s arrival even longer.

A wife fighting to bring her husband home from the hospital feared a slow-moving contractor would delay her husband’s arrival even more.

“I’m fighting with all of my strength for my husband, so I don’t have any fight left in me for other things,” Nadine told us.

But for the last eight months, Nadine has been forced to fight another battle.

Last November, Nadine signed a contract with Total Power and Gas Contractors of Miami for the purchase and installation of a generator.

Nadine paid an initial deposit of $13,749.

“I’ve taken care of people my whole life. And I have to get healthy. I don’t want to be fighting with Generac,” she said.

Nadine says she was told by a salesperson the project would take around six weeks. But after 5 months, she says her generator was still not installed. Without progress or word from Total Power and Gas Contractors on when it would be completed, she told us she reached out to the generator’s maker, Generac Power Systems, Inc., for answers.

She says within days, Total Power and Gas Contractors workers delivered her generator to her home.

But the installation wasn’t completed and then she says the company stopped communicating again.

“There’s been no communication since mid-June,” she said. “That box was dropped off and the generator was dropped off and the gas tanks were dropped off.”

After several unsuccessful attempts to reach out to Total Power and Gas Contractors, Nadine reached out to NBC 6 Responds.

“I’ve been ignored, no consumer deserves that,” she said.

When we showed up to Nadine’s home, we saw the generator had been moved into place but was not bolted down. Empty fuel tanks sat idle.

Nadine worried that all the delays would stall her husband’s arrival home from the hospital.

Nadine’s husband is bound to a wheelchair. His medical equipment needs electricity to run and a generator would provide extra security in case of a power outage.

“It is hurricane season,” she said. “I worry. I worry.”

After we reached out to both Generac Power Systems, Inc. and Total Power and Gas Contractors, within days an electrical permit application was submitted to the city of Cutler Bay.

And within a week, her generator was being installed.

In a statement, Generac Representatives told us “Once Generac was made aware of the situation, we immediately engaged all the resources necessary to fully understand the situation and find a resolution for the customer. We’re truly grateful that Ms. Hutchison-Wenzel chose Generac for her backup power needs.”

For Nadine, this may be a small victory but she says it made all the difference.

“It’s just one more thing off the checklist to put his mind at ease and to let him know I’m taking care of things. ‘Honey, you just get better and come home,” Nadine said.

A representative for Total Power and Gas Contractors told us the delays were due to “issues with the location of the generator.”

As a courtesy, the company has offered Nadine and her husband lifetime maintenance on their unit, at no charge.

Also, Generac Power Systems has offered the couple a 10-year extended warranty.

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