Old Republic Home Warranty Reviews

No air conditioning until I purchase new equipment that is also under warranty.($1900 to $3200)

As of this date I am still fighting with Old Republic over this claim. I am looking at paying at least $280 to have the fans replaced in the two units. In the meantime I am wasting energy on inefficient a/c units.

On Tuesday I contacted the service company and the told me the order was sent at 8am that morning. I then called Old Republic who again said they had not received the fax yet. While I held on the phone the rep was able to find the fax and told me they would be shipping a compressor to the service company. I was told it would take 3 to 5 days for the service company to receive the unit. When I asked if there was any way to send it faster, I was told this is the shipping time and it couldn't be changed. Apparently Old Republic requires that the compressor comes from their warehouse and they could find or authorize the service company to find one in Phoenix.

I disputed this finding with them as the first contractor actually had two different people out and both claimed there was nothing wrong with the hinges. I also added my own observation that the oven door closed properly before their contractor replaced the gasket. Of course they offered to look at the issue again if I wanted to pay for my own third opinion and it differed from their last determination.

For the last 3 to 4 weeks my wife and I, not to mention our 5 month old daughter, are living in a home that has an air conditioning that should be condemned.

On July 8, a technician arrived with the wrong size air handler to install. He did not know it was the wrong size until after he had disconnected the existing system. Upon his discovery he asked me what I wanted him to do. I told him to reconnect the old one, charge the unit with freon, and to call the office and find the right one. He then reconnected the old unit without properly connecting the condensation line so water has leaked all over our new hardwood floors and caused substantial damage to the sub-floor and the hardwood itself.

Old Republic then told me to contact one of their approved contractors (Tatem Air). I talked to their recording and was told that a Tatem Air contractor would contact me within 24 hours - a long time with an infant in 100+ degree heat. They contacted me the next day and arranged for an appointment at 2:00pm on Friday the 17th of June. When the contractor showed up, he told me that several things were wrong with the AC unit including a compressor (shorted out), blown fuses, contacts welded shut, run caps are bad, and that the start cap was recently replaced, and that when this was done, the run caps should have been replaced also. Essentially, the AC unit had a complete meltdown. When I moved in, it was working fine for five days. On Monday 06/20 - (after 5 days in the heat), I contacted Old Republic again (they did not call me) to see what they were going to do.

I am told too bad, no claim will be opened unless I pay their contractors $45 for each item. It is like a racketeering scam. I asked to please receive a claim form as I would like a written record of my claim. Ofelia advised me that there are no written forms, it is all conducted verbally and I would not get past her until I agreed to pay more fees.

I will have to pay out of pocket to have the shingles repaired, about $150.00, plus the cost to repaint the master bedroom and ceiling where the leak occurred.

The gas company had investigated, found that the furnace was the problem and had red tagged the furnace. The technician finally looked at the furnace, charged me extra to clean the flue and declared it to be working properly. Forty-five minutes after he left, the carbon monoxide alarms went off again. That was almost a month ago and after numerous telephone calls and unanswered messages to supervisors, we are still waiting for a second opinion. The customer service people argue with me, try to make it seem as if I am at fault and tell me that I have to find someone to fix the problem The final straw came yesterday, when a rep. gave me a complaint line number to call and no one answers the phone.

Since we were remodeling the interior and were using multiple fans and left the windows open for about 5 weeks, I didn't call the company right away. Then In November it started getting cold and I turned the heater on. The heater just blew hot air constantly and was not regulated by a thermostat. By mid December I received my heating bill which was unbelievable. Then the tempurature dropped quite a bit so I called them. They sent out a technician who said the unit was basically fried. Literally fried. Wires were burnt inside the unit and he could not fix it. He did try to get a temporary fix in place so we could run the heater a bit. He was going to tell Old Republic that I needed a new unit because this one was not repairable.

They have increased their deductible to $45 per visit. Their premiums have also increased without any increased customer service.

I called Old Republic to have them come out and check out the problem. They referred me to the contractor, US Plumbing in Murrieta, who came out on Aug. 28th to inspect it. US Plumbing found a couple of things wrong and called O.R. to inform them of the issue and what parts had to be ordered. O.R. informed US Plumbing that it would take 10 days to order parts. US Plumbing calls me and informs me of the situation and suggests that I call Sears since the water heater has a 12 yr warranty on it (its approx 2-3 years old and installed by previous homeowner) and see if they can get the parts sooner.

I called Sears and the soonest they could arrive was Sept. 3. On Sept. 3 Sears comes to my home to check out the water heater and finds the same problems as US Plumbing had noted. I was to contact OR while Sears was there so that OR could authorize Sears to make any repairs on the spot if needed. Since the water heater was warrantied in the first place, OR felt they didn't have to pay the costs of the parts and labor. Turns out that because the previous homeowner installed it, for whatever reason, that warranty did not pass on to the new homeowner (me). Therefore, the conclusion was that OR had to pay to have it fixed.

On Sept 4, I had to make another appointment to have US Plumbing come back out to the home to inspect the water heater and start a brand new invoice so that O.R. would order parts and we could get it fixed. On Sept 5, US Plumbing came to the home as requested. They wrote up a new invoice and went back to the office to order parts. I get a phone call at work that O.R. has offered to replace my water heater with a brand new one. However, I would have to pay approx $200 in misc. fees to have it removed and get water heater permits through the city to have the new one installed. I told US Plumbing I would think about it as I don't have $200 to pay for a new water heater.

Approximately 15 mins later, US Plumbing calls again to tell me that O.R. has changed their mind and they want to fix the parts. Therefore US Plumbing was ordering the parts and they would be in on September 10. On September 11, 2003, I called US Plumbing to find out what the status was. They inform me that they had not heard from O.R. I told US PLumbing that they already had the authorization to order the parts. US Plumbing informs me that O.R. insists that since the water heater is under warranty that I had to take care of it. Now I am back at square one and 3 weeks later. I called O.R. to inform them they had to order the parts and that this whole thing is b-s. I haven't had hot water in 3 weeks, my mother is living with me and is very ill and this whole thing with bouncing back and forth about who said what is b-s.

I was informed on Sept. 11, that O.R. would authorize US Plumbing to order the parts. On Sept 12, the parts still have not been ordered because O.R. has not given authorization to US PLumbing (I swear, we have been over this a million times already). I was also informed that I would have to wait until Monday morning to take care of this situation as everyone had 'gone home for the day'. Sept 15: I call US Plumbing and they inform me they haven't received anything from O.R. to authorize them to order the parts. I informed them, that AGAIN, they received authorizaiton on sept. 11. Again, they tell me that I need to contact O.R. I call O.R. and tell them I want a fax confirmation for the parts to make sure they were ordered. They stated they do not fax anything to anyone and that its strictly verbal. (I wonder why?!) I call US Plumbing again and inform them of what I was told.

At this point in the game, it's in US Plumbing's court to get the parts ordered, but it's also in O.R. court to get the so called authorization crap straightened out. the bottom line is that O.R. knows that htey will have to pay approximately $200+ for new parts and they don't want to do it. They are totally jerking me around with "call this person, no call that person, no, we can't do that" and US PLumbing is somewhat in the middle of the whole thing.

Had to pay the $45 insurance co-pay for something I already knew the answer for. The service person said it would cost us around $250 to have the coils cleaned. Old Republic subsequently told me over the phone that they don't cover "pre-existing" conditions and if the previous homeowner didn't keep the coils clean it wasn't covered. My position is the system should work properly and anything that makes it not work properly should be covered. I told them their policy was a joke nothing could be repaired until it failed. The OR rep. basically agreed that their policy was good if "something failed". Short of that their coverage is useless.

We currently have to turn the A/C off when it ices up, wait an hour until it thaws, then turn it back on. This is until the service company repairs the system. Anyone should think twice about buying these warranty coverages. Think about it. For under $500 policy cost, it would take only 1 or 2 major calls for Old Republic to lose money on your policy. How do they make money? By weaseling out of covering anything they can. Put the same money away for emergencies instead of buying their policy. Odds are you'll come out ahead.

A few days later, it went out completely and I called again. They gave me a work order number and the name of a contractor who would be contacting me. I was never contacted, so I called and left a message, but my call was never returned. I called Old Republic again, and they set things up with another contractor. This one actually showed up with no testing equipment and took a wild guess at what was wrong. He ordered a part, and when he came back, the part wouldn't even fit. Next he ordered another part and I was told it was a cold control. I did some research and made some calls and found out that my problem was and still is a defrost timer control. I called and told him this and he argued and told me my refigerator didn't have a defrost timer. It took him a week and half to finally get the part he ordered and come back to install it.

The part didn't fix my problem, so I called Old Republic again and they made excuses when I asked to talk to a manager. They said they would get this taken care of immediately.

Now 4 weeks later. They set me up with another contractor -- the same one who would never return my calls. I gave him the benifit of the doubt and waited for his call.Guess what? I never heard from him. I have left several messages and no calls have been returned to me. At this point I have lost a few hundred dollars in food, spent a few hundred going out to eat, lost several days off work and have been stressed to the point where I have headaches every day. This is a simple problem that any moron could fix, but it has not been done yet. I would fix it myself, but then it would void my warranty. I suppose that would be no loss considering how well their warrany coverage works.

Companies like this are giving the industry a bad name.

July 10, 2003 Maytag Service Store comes to my home. Service man tells my husband he needs to order a part (transformer), it will take 3 to 7 days. I waited for a call. When I called Maytag service store they said Old Republic did not give them the okay to order part. I called Old Republic and asked them why? they said no one called them. I don't know why they wanted to send another company out. I requested Sears. I had already paid $40.00 for the first service call, now I was at their mercy.

Old Republic had to call Sears to get an appointment set up. Sears came out on July 23, 2003. My husband took off work to be at home between 1-5PM. Sears changed a wire and my micorwave worked for one week. I used it to pop corn and on July 30, 2003 I was melting butter and it died again. My butter didn't melt.

So here I go again -- I called Old Republic, they said I wasn't going to have to pay for the service because it's been less than 30 days. On July 31, 2003 O.R. called to tell me Sears will call me to set appointment. They are going to come out on August 9, 2003.

This was my first time buying a home protection plan I will never do it again. My appliance from my old home all have coverage from Sears. The only thing is when I moved from my old home to this new one I had to leave my dishwasher and range, also my microwave.

I had just purchased this home 1 month prior to these problems and had no trouble in those previous 4 weeks nor did the sellers disclose that they ever had a problem with plumbing or a leaky ceiling. This problem started in September of 2002. I moved in August 2002 and it is now May of 2003 and I guess it's time to contact an attorney for assistance!

An attorney may be overkill. Chances are the upstairs bath tile needs new grout to make it waterproof once more or a faucet fitting is leaking behind the wall. Neither of these is a big project. Patching the ceiling would take a handyman a few hours at most.

Recently, we called Old Republic because the heater was not blowing hot air out of the registers. They sent a technician who was paid the deductible of $45. After thinking about the situation for awhile, but without actually crawling into the crawl space to look at the ducts, this technician reported that animals had collapsed my ductwork, and that Old Republic did not cover damage by pests. And that the ductwork was inaccessible because the opening to the crawlspace was only 8" high. However, his company could replace my ductwork for about $1,100.00. I was skeptical about this since he admitted he had not actually observed any animal damage.

I did my own inspection, as best I could The ductwork seemed to be simply loose at the junction to the furnace. This technician did not crawl under the house to do any inspection, and told me he just guessed about the problem. So I called Old Republic, and spoke to Myesha who promised to get back to me about the situation. But she didn't. Then I spoke to Cynthia, and then to Debbie Kennedy who said she would send out a second opinion technician. I spoke with this technician by phone while he was at my house and he said that there are four inches of dirt near the junction of heating unit and duct, the coil needs to be cleaned, and it would take 8 hours to dig out the area around the duct.

I called Old Republic several more times and spoke to Kevin and Leah. At one point, Keven told me that yes, the inaccessible ductwork was covered up to $500. And he offered to "cash out" the problem for that amount. I said I would think about that and decided to take them up on it. But when I called back, I spoke to Latrell who informed me that a mistake had been made in offering me the $500 and that nothing would be covered by Old Republic. So, I ask myself, "Has this ever happened to anybody else?" "Am I the only person to get the run around?" "Is there any recourse for the consumer who pays a premium for a service, and quite often finds the contract is full of loopholes?" The policy states that $500 is the maximum payment to diagnose and repair ductwork. Yet, when I tried to collect -- no performance.

We've experienced three weeks of a cold house, an enormous amount of time wasted on the telephone, on hold, listening to annoying, deceptive company promises about their excellent service or talking to numerous customer service reps who gave conflicting answers. I've paid a premium for home warranty services that are too easy for the company to avoid performing, and I've paid the $45.00 deductible. And so far I've gotten nothing for my money. The biggest costs will be hiring a contractor myself to perform the work that I thought was covered by the policy.

Over the next two weeks I called Old Republic several times to ask about when the parts were coming in and the dishwasher would be fixed. To make a long story short, the technician claimed his wife had called and left a message for me on my answering machine (she didn't) that the parts had come in and that it was my fault so much time had gone by. Nonetheless, he came by on the third week and "fixed" the dishwasher.

The other night I was running the dishwasher and smelled something burning. Just bought a new dishwasher to replace the one that "could have burned down the house" because it was not fixed and really could not have been fixed, it should have been replaced. The same bunch of wires had all melted together again. I didn't bother calling Old Republic. The competent technician told me the previous contractor simply replaced the wires that had melted but did not correct the problem, thus if I had not smelled the burning wires and turned off the dishwasher, a fire would have started.

The third company, "A/C Heat & Refrigeration Systems Inc. came, diagnosed problems with my compressor and coils, and duct problems and fan speed, but the paperwork sat untouched on the desk of the lady in charge (Debbie) for a week, with no contact to me, when I called to ask about the status of my service call, she was rude to me and ended the phone call by hanging up on me!

My continual phone calls for updates on fixing my air, to Old Republic and to A/C went unreturned. I spoke with numerous people at Old Republic, all of whom said they would investigate my problem and call me back. Nobody called me back. My air has been down for 8 weeks now, nobody at Old Republic has tried to help me to get it fixed. I am frustrated at their lack of responsibility in fixing my air. I am now prepared to just fix it myself, insurance or not. It shouldn't be that way. They are suppossed to help me. That is what they were paid to do. They are failing miserably.

We live in the Central Valley, it has reached 100 degrees many times during the last 8 weeks of us having no air. We feel this is ridiculous to have to suffer the heat inside our home (that is only 4 years old, we've lived here for 9 months). I have spent hours on the phone trying to be in touch with Old Republic and leaving messages that go unreturned.

The company responds:

On behalf of Old Republic Home Protection and its employees, please accept our sincere apology for the experiences you related in regard to air conditioning service call last summer.

Old Republic Home Protection, like other home warranty companies, uses independent companies to service Plan holders. Although efforts are made to obtain highly qualified licensed contractors that can provide excellent customer service, occasionally circumstances occur which do not allow us to provide the level of service Old Republic Home Protection or its Plan holders consider acceptable.

I can assure you, Old Republic is committed to take whatever steps are necessary to provide the level of service our Plan holders want and deserve.

Gary Vistalli

Claims Manager

Old Republic asked us to find a technician; we did, he came out and quoted us and stated we needed a new a/c unit. We informed the warranty co. We were on hold for hours again and Rene in authorizations stated "she can authorize any work to be done" in her exact words. Well we went without a/c the whole weekend. Debbie contacted my fiancee and stated the quote from the technician was too high. She promised to call him back by 2:00 if she could not find one of their technicians, then she would authorize the work to be done by the original technician. She never called back.

We called the next day and spoke to Anthony, he sent one of their technicians and he stated the same thing -- we needed a new a/c unit. This technician tried to call authorizations to get the work approved and he was on hold and could not wait any longer. He called the next day and said the work was authorized, it would take about 5 days to order. Today is the 24th, we reported this problem on the 9th of July. I have mailed the VP of the company a complaint letter, and reported them to the BBB.

My fiancee and I lost numerous hours at work on hold trying to get this problem solved. Everytime we called we just got the run around. I explained to them we have three children, I have a newborn son who has asthma, I have asthma. We have spent 290.00 in ceiling fans because we needed to try and keep the house cool. Our electricity bill has gone up tremendously. We have been in the home 3 months only, our first bill was 142.00, 2nd month 262.00, 3rd month 372.00. I called Edison and explained to them the problem I was experiencing. They told me that the compressor was working extra hard that's why my bill has been high.

The company responds:

On behalf of Old Republic Home Protection and its employees, please accept our sincere apology for the experiences you related in regard to air conditioning service call last summer.

Old Republic Home Protection, like other home warranty companies, uses independent companies to service Plan holders. Although efforts are made to obtain highly qualified licensed contractors that can provide excellent customer service, occasionally circumstances occur which do not allow us to provide the level of service Old Republic Home Protection or its Plan holders consider acceptable.

I can assure you, Old Republic is committed to take whatever steps are necessary to provide the level of service our Plan holders want and deserve.

Gary Vistalli

Claims Manager