American Home Shield

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Home Warranties • American Home Shield • Buyers Home Warranty • Choice Home Warranty • First American Home Warranty • Home Warranty of America • National Home Protection • Nationwide Home Warranty • Old Republic --- • Home Warranties Not Always What They Seem • Old Republic Responds • Think Twice Before Buying an Extended Warranty --- • Home Warranties Not Always What They Seem

It seems like a good idea -- prepaid home maintenance, basically a service contract or extended warranty on your house.

The AHS booklet states, "Commitment to your total satisfaction"� "That's why we back every job we do with the unique money-back guarantee shown on the back of your home warranty" ... "AHS guarantees that all approved covered service repairs will be completed to your satisfaction. If for any reason you are not satisfied with that service received, we will work with you until you are satisfied or we will refund the trade service fee."

Unfortunately, consumers tell us it often doesn't work out that way, as David Wood reports in his report, . The complaints to the right break it all down into neat little categories ... whereas those below sort of sum it up.

Michael of Spring Hill TN (06/16/08)
I received the AHS warranty and I thought I would be covered. I moved in and the very first day I noticed the air was taking a long time to come to the temperature I set it on. Next morning called AHS and local service man showed up in an appropriate time. I was there with the service man and he said it definitely had a leak but the fins on the coils were badly damaged. He told me if I did not get them fix the compressor would eventually burn up due to not having any air flow and dirty. This was not just a couple of spots on the fins it was totally damaged. He requested that I need to replace the coil. The service man fixed the 2 leaks and requested to get the coils changed out due to circulation and would cause the compressor to burn up. He said he would see how long it would take to get the coils. He called me in an reasonable time and said they only had 2 at the factory he gets them from.

AHS said they would not cover the coil that it was considered normal wear and tear which it is not. The service man said it needed to be done and I agreed. So by saying this I am going to be out 625.00 and this was the sole reason of getting a warranty to protect me from something being broke. Well guess what! The coils are totally smashed and cannot even be combed out. So I am another disappointed homeowner and so is my Realtor that will never use AHS again due to just using common sense and repair something that is unfixable like the coils.

My compressor will burn up since AHS is not conserding the coils as something that should be covered. This is costing me 625.00 due to someone not using common sense to repair something that is broke just like the 2 leaks. Plain and Simple. That is alot of money to me when I bought something to cover me in case something like this happened. I just left a home that was destroyed by a Tornado and wanted to be protected but I am not.

Roman Watkins of Greensboro, NC June 16, 2008

Roman of Greensboro NC (06/16/08)
In 2007, my A/C went out, AHS A/C technician stated that my 15 years old entire A/C needed to be replaced. I had to pay a 500.00 for an uncovered part. My wife was a cancer patient and I could not afford it at the time. I spoke with AHS and informed them of my situation and if it was OK, I would have the job done in 2008 and would have the money. They said OK.

This year, I saved up for the 500.00 and contacted AHS for my A/C. Another techniciam showed up and 3 days after, I called AHS and this time, AHS denied all repairs stating that the A/C was not properly installed. I had two inspectors check the house, before I bought the house and a 2d time when I had my house refinanced, none of the inspectors told me anything about my A/C conditions. I've been with AHS for several years and they have never sent me an inspcetor to make sure that everything in my house was OK, to their standards, but insured me very quickly...I have contacted BBB who have contacted AHS. The A/C company AHS sent to my house is subzero A/C co. subzero never answered my questions and have an unsatisfaction rating from BBB for not answering to complaints or to BBB.

AHS sent me a 741.83 check to solve the problem and I have returned it today by mail. The case is still wide open for me. It has been 100 degrees lately and my familly are staying with relatives because of the heat! My A/C unit is over 10 years old, it's OLD and it came with the house when my house was built...

The A/C unit in my house was leaking, damaging my wooden floor, my wife had to move out because of the heat!

Pam Sagoo of Overland Park, KS June 14, 2008

Pam of Overland Park KS (06/14/08)
On June 9/2008 our AC quit working. My husband noted that the air conditioner was not working, so he went down in the basement and noticed that the breaker had tripped. He turned it on and it tripped again.

We put in the service request on their website that night. According to their policy the service company is supposed to call you with in four hours. We did not receive any call from Aire-Serv the local company that they use that morning. My husband then called them at 3PM and we were told that the technician will be there at 11:00 AM. on Thursday 6/12/08. We are in Kansas and the weather was hot and humid and I was sick from the allergies. The technician arrived at the scheduled time, and checked out the furnace and told me that the motor and the control board had shorted out due to the power surge. He informed me that he had to send the report to AHS for the repair to be authorized. It was really hot and humid that day and I asked him as to why he could not call them now and get an approval. He said he is required to send in the report and someone would contact me in the morning and let me know of AHS's decision. He collected his 55.00 service fee and left.

Then on Friday 6/13/08 I waited to hear from AIRE- Serv or AHS. NO Call. I then called Aire Serv at 10:00AM and asked them if they had any news for me, the lady that answered the phone told me that they won't know anything till after 10:30AM. So I wait again. Finally at 12:30 I call AHS and the customer service representative that answered the phone told me that the technician from Aire Serv has not sent them the report and therefore they cannot give me any decision. At that time I informed them that this is an AC issue, I have been without AC since Monday. She told me that this is the only company that they deal with and that maybe the tech is very busy. She then put me on hold and came back saying, we just received the report and the technician has diagnosed the problem being power surge, they do not pay for this repair. I was also told that if I did not agree with the report I could request a second opinion.

At this time I mentioned to them that this is already Friday afternoon, and when was the other company going to come. And then I have to wait another week. The weather forecast is hot and humid for the next few days. She said that there is nothing they can do, since the problem arose from a power surge. After I hung up with them I called a local heating and air conditioning company at 1 PM. They told me that a technician will be at our house between 2-4PM. At 4PM the technician arrived and I explained to him about the breaker tripping. After his inspection he told me he found a loose wire from the blower motor making contact with the cabinet. The Blower motor shorted internally causing breaker to trip. He also said that if this had been due to a power surge the breaker would not trip everytime.

It cost me 698.00 to get my AC working. I guess AHS just want to collect the dues but do not want to pay for repairs. I am not renewing my contract with them. They also increased my dues to 41.57 per month from 39.00. I am going to put this money in my bank and save it for repairs.

Craig Sharp of Charleston, SC June 13, 2008

Craig of Charleston SC (06/13/08)
The comments that I read online are equal to my experience with this company. When you are done with hidden charges, you will have paid for all but the labor on the work. If you are paying a premium of say 450 that is 9 hours of labor before the company starts losing money so they will make sure that you never get ahead of them through hidden charges. It is easy for them to do because your contract will not cover enough minutae that they can simply stick in charges until they stay ahead of the game.

We used them for three items in our house. It wasn't worth the continual hassle and I had to do a lot of the work to avoid the additional costs. That is the only way that you can hope to break even... do the hidden cost work yourself and get them to simply provide the replacement part(s). The 'service visits' are another scam and if your first 'contractor' screws up, you will get to argue with them about paying another service call to get a better contractor. Do not EVER buy one of these policies from American Home Shield.

Terri Holcomb of Azle, TX June 13, 2008

Terri of Azle TX (06/13/08)
After 3 year service contract with AHS I called them out over a one year old dryer that stopped turning on. They denied the claim saying that the lint and coins in the dryer was negligent. The dryer was properly vented and we always remove lint between every drying. This is obviously standard procedure because I can guarantee there is not a dryer in the world that has been used that does not have some backed up lint or coins. After holding for 30 minutes and sent to a supervisor coverage was still denied because of 'lint.' Amazing what they can get away with and still collect your 41 every month.

Frank Andrews of Wilsonville, AL June 12, 2008

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