Liberty Home Guard Reviews

The service company came out, looked at my oven and repaired it, but when the service person submitted the report, they said it was so old that they needed to replace it. I replaced it and I was a bit surprised that I had to pay $750 for a new one, which almost made it feel like there was no warranty on it. However, I know how expensive they are, so it finally made sense. The installer that came to install the oven said something was not lined up. He said, "You might need an electrician or a plumber." He left the oven in my living room floor and said, "Call us back when you get it done." I said, "What am I supposed to have done?" They never could explain to me what I needed to have done before I could have the oven installed.

I tend to believe that all home warranty companies are a scam, but I feel more comfortable having the protection, so that I don't have any surprises, but I still got a $750 surprise with the oven. When the salesman contacted me, they said, "For your service fee, we'll repair or replace," but that's not what happened. I had to pay for the service fee, then I had to pay $750 to get a new oven. All in all, I'd tell people to read the fine print and ask more questions if they don't understand it because what I was told verbally did not match what my contract said. Replace or repair does not mean they are going to replace or repair. It means they're going to either repair it or I'm going to pay to replace it.

I had to call because the online portion either didn't have a dropdown box for my particular question, or asked me a question that I didn't know the answer to. Who knows what models on a lot of things they have? I had to call and say, “This is what's happening.” The issue, although still needing repair, the person that I spoke with was not able to let me know that I could have flipped the switch on my thermostat to emergency heat, then it just goes to electric instead of the pump. I didn't know that. Instead, I kept using my fireplace and my electric blanket instead, while it was freezing.

I have to take some responsibility for not knowing my own equipment and Liberty's website and how to go through things. Sometimes people who build the websites and those items never use them, so they don't have a first-hand experience as to how complicated it can be. But all in all, I wasn't unhappy. I felt that some of it was my own interpretation of some things. It took a bit longer than expected, but we all want everything right now. The contractor came, and several days later could come and check it out and repair it. The repair people were amazing, but they have to wait a bit for the part.

As far as pushing that out and getting the submission, just having to go through and put information in that was as right as I could get it, so that it would accept, I just did my best, and it was a little bit challenging. But I went through that and I had to pay my deductible. And based on what the technician identified, there would be a determination on whether or not the repair or replacement would be covered at that time. It's all standard stuff. They sent a service provider to review everything, and then we could get back to them as far as billing.

The tech was awesome. He was very clear and concise. He made it very clear what my window was to get him back and let me know how to contact him, how to contact Liberty, and get him back out there. He went through everything. He was very thorough as far as asking questions of what was going on at the time, what the challenge was.

Because when he was there, it was working fine. And that's where it kind of came out, that occasionally, you can get the vents covered for whatever reason, snow, ice, leaves. If the vents get clogged up or covered up, they can't vent adequately. So, then safety protocols kick in on the units. They're designed to keep gas and fumes, carbon monoxide, and everything else from backing up, because you can't get proper exhaust on your roof. “We see it happen. It's that perfect storm within a storm,” was how he described it. Not only is it common and everything's designed to work in that manner, you actually have to get the snow or the ice to hit it in the right way and land and then hold up to kind of keep it blocked.

But he was just very thorough on it. We didn't have the issue repeat. We didn't have any more ice storms. So, the unit continued to work fine. Definitely there was nothing repaired. But he helped me understand situations where the safety mechanisms and stuff would have kicked in. And because that was kind of the situation that we were in at the time, it was 15, 16 degrees, and we didn't get snow. We just got freezing rain. He knew that straight away from when he was walking up, because there was still a lot of it in like areas where the sun hadn't hit yet. It was still cold enough that not everything had melted.

My biggest problem with Liberty was when I was originally signed up, I was calling looking for a replacement to American Home Shield. I described to the salesperson what my services were, because I had the top program with American Home Shield, what they covered, and the reason I was leaving.

And that was because they one, increased the pricing by about 25%. Then two, capped, reduced the caps on their payouts. Meaning, if your AC unit went out, instead of a $10,000 cap, they dropped it to $5,000. So, they’re jacking my rates and reducing the coverage all at the same time.

But that said, their cap covered everything. If something had to be replaced, I paid my service fee, and they covered everything: the labor, the parts, the new unit, everything's all covered up. And Liberty said, "That's exactly what we do." I reconfirmed, because the price was so good, I thought, "Okay. Let's make sure.” And promised up, down, back, forth, left, right, that's exactly what was in there.

Then my first claim, the guy came out, said, "Yup, this is what's wrong. This is what's broken.” It was a microwave. Liberty said, "Yup. We'll pay for your microwave. No problem." But “they also said, “It's gonna be $350 for you to have the microwave installed." They said they don't cover labor.

Then, when my AC went out, they bought a new, not super high-end, but fully compliant AC unit. I also had to pay a few thousand dollars to the guy to actually install it. And that was my problem. They said, “You didn't read your contract very well. You had 60 days to review your contract, and you didn't do it. Obviously, because you would have very clearly seen, we don't cover the installation and the labor. We cover the parts." They've been really good about dispatching techs and getting coverage. So when I renewed my plan with them, they've now added coverage where it does include the installation and labor.

The first service call was to deal with a leak for the temperature and pressure release valves. The second service call was for a recirculation pump that pulls cold water out of the pipes and pushes back into the hot water tank so that we have faster hot water throughout the house. The first one was very fast. The technician rushed ou, got a replacement part within an hour and fixed it the same day. The second service required a part to be ordered and shipped to my house. Once it was shipped, I had to schedule them to install it so it took a bit longer. It would have been nice to have it fixed faster, but I understand that the part having to be sourced and shipped was the primary reason for the delay.

I'm only six months in to house and Liberty Home Guard. For someone who is buying a resale house and is not sure about the quality or the reliability of the systems of the house, it's a great service to have in year one. It's a nice peace of mind to have, and I would refer others to Liberty Home Guard. But at the end of the term, if I'm going to renew, I'm going to have to decide whether the amount of times I used Liberty Home Guard based on the quality of the systems might be a different answer. If another six months goes by and I only used them those two times for the two hot water tank issues, then I might ask them how much for just coverage of a couple of systems instead of all the systems.

But their website and their app are not very intuitive. I wanted to submit a claim for my window cleaning and I was asked a question that didn't make sense. I'm a self-service person, so if there's a way for me to do it without talking to human, I'd love that. But this claim submission process involved questions that were not relevant to my claim. So, I ended up talking to a human and that was how I submitted the claim. Once I submit the claim, I usually get a reference number, then I get an email asking for some suitable window or slot availability. After I submit that, someone gives me a call, then we figure out the mutual window that worked for both parties.

So far, I've had terrible experiences with their technicians. Recently, I had a claim for the icemaker that wasn't working and the person who came in did more damage than good. This guy dented my refrigerator door and broke part of the icemaker that was working. Then he made my hallway and kitchen super dirty and didn't bother to clean up. They were very rude, too. That claim is still open and I'll get someone else to do it. This guy did not do correct diagnosis and told us about non-existent problems. He also asked me to buy some parts that were not even relevant.

All in all, Liberty Home Guard is a good insurance company. The technicians are bad, but I can't really blame Liberty for that. They could have better technicians, but they're good at solving problems. If you're looking for a warranty company, go get Liberty. But their coverage is low, so if you have a higher value appliances, then Liberty may not be good. Especially the case that they depreciate the value of the refrigerator or appliances while reimbursing a claim. If that is not a concern for that person, Liberty is a great choice. But if that is a concern, then Liberty is not the best choice.