Total Home Protection

Recently, I filed a claim because I noticed that the refrigerator was on the blitz. and they just came out and fixed it for the $75 agreement. I got it repaired within about three days because that part had to be ordered for the refrigerator. It was a good experience when I filed the claim. By and large, they got on it. They assured me that somebody would be out there and assigned to it, and I told them how the process worked. Everything was fine. They were pretty prompt and they called me in plenty of time for me to be ready for the person coming on the day that they said they were coming once got they got the part. The contractors were really good too. That guy was a young-ish guy. He came in. He was very nice and he got in here and he did it within 30 minutes. He explained what he was doing and he went ahead and just hooked everything up and it's fine after that. It's been good. I've had no issues with the refrigerator since that time.

I was really well pleased with the service that I got for the price. This is the first time I've ever owned. So, going into it, having the repairs and everything, but knowing that I had a pretty solid protection on my electrical, my plumbing, my appliances, those things that I really felt that I was covered on that. Especially, going forward, that also includes my heat and my air conditioning and making all the way up to 100 feet to the sewer line in the front of the house. And the electrical panel too. All those were really important to me being a homeowner, even though I had an inspection that came back clean. Who knows what awaits you. So, I was glad to have that and I do thoroughly intend on keeping it next year.

We’re the type of family that once something goes out, we replace it. Some things are gonna last for a certain amount of time. But we’ve been lucky and we haven’t had anything major go wrong with anything we’ve owned. We were affected by Hurricane Isaac a while back. We’ve gotten new appliances and we’ve replaced things. Our home is not that old, so when our dryer had an issue, I thought it was just something minor. And it was. It was fixable. That was my first claim. We’ve been with them close to 2 years and I’ve got a second claim now.

We live in Laplace which is halfway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The contractor came from New Orleans. It was a little bit of a drive for him to come here. When I got the email, I contacted him. He didn’t reply immediately. He’s a busy guy, and it’s a small, local company so I gave him a little time. But I did hear from him by text that he would call me later. He was on a job. We did communicate and he was fantastic. He came by. Unfortunately, we had to go on vacation, so that kinda delayed our repair because we weren’t home. I did inform him that we were gonna be out-of-town because he ordered the part and said, “When the part comes in, call me, and I’ll come and install it.”

I had my child who doesn’t live here come by and check on the house and make sure everything was fine. When the part came, she said, “Mom, the part came. You can let your repairman know that it’s here so when you get back in town, you and him can make arrangements.” And that’s how it happened. He was awesome. He responded to my concern immediately. I’m very satisfied with the promptness and efficiency of the contractor that Total Home Protection sent. And I do highly recommend having this type of service because homeowners insurance doesn’t cover everything all the time. Total Home Protection is a good backup protection for our home.

Then he said the motor needed to be replaced but Total Home denied the claim. They said they would not cover it because the unit was in improperly. I had to get a second opinion and when the tech came out, he charged $350. But Total Home denied it again and kept saying the unit was in improperly. Then they said they'd cover my claim for just 200 instead of 350. I was so shocked. They also said that the second opinion was covered but I'd have to wait for 30 days. So, most the time, Total Home would say that the work is not covered but I don’t have that list of what's covered and what's not covered.

The third claim I had was about the water leaking in the toilet. It was all over the floor from the kitchen to the bathroom. I called in on a Friday morning and they said I'd get a response within 24 to 48 hours from the contractor. So even though I filed a claim on a weekday or a weekend, I'd still have to wait that long. The tech they assigned to me was 5 Star Construction and Total Home sent me his name, number, and email. I texted and called him but he didn’t respond.

So, I emailed him in the morning and he emailed me back around 3 o’clock. He said he could come over at that time but my tenant was not available until 8 o’clock in evening. So, I sent them each other's phone numbers and they scheduled the repair. So, at least the tech responded on the same day, Monday. And he said he could come by the end of the day at 5 o’clock, so that was good. Recently, we had an issue with the washing machine and dryer in my property in Georgia, Lawrenceville but Total Home hasn't fixed it yet.

All in all, my experiences with Total Home have been pretty good. But a lot of things surprised me. For instance, they don't respond right away and I have to wait for a long time to get a response from the contractor. I also have to contact them again. If I don’t call and I don’t do anything, my service request doesn’t get a response.

I had my garage door opener quit on me. I called them and they sent a technician to replace it. He told them the truth and the guy was very nice, very knowledgeable, and he was completely honest. However, it was alarming that while I was waiting for the Total Home Protect rep to decide what they were gonna do, there was so much hesitation on the other end of the line. It made me a little skeptical. I said, what am I signing up for here? They ended up replacing it but only because the installer said this thing was totally dead. Heaven forbid something else happens in a short span. But everything seems to be working fine.

However, I still don't know how everything works with them. I don’t have a policy from them. I don’t know what’s covered and what’s not covered, whether they just pay a percentage and then we pay the rest of an appliance or air conditioning. I couldn’t even remember who it was and then I had to go through bank records to find out who was taking the money every month. Then I finally found out then I called and verified. That was disappointing and I still don’t have the questions answered.

But the gentleman that came out fixed the garage door in a very timely manner and he’s also a plumber on the side. It wasn’t two weeks ago, I had him come out and fix a leak. I paid him directly, so it was a good thing he came out because that type of thing isn’t covered. He was more than fair, very good with what he did, and I would like to think that whoever Total Protect all send out in the future should there be an issue is as good as this guy was.

Recently, my dryer stopped working. I had it for about four years and it never gave any issues. It’s just that I had noticed that my clothes weren’t getting dry and I didn’t know what the issue was. Once I called Total Home Warranty, they said that they will come out to fix it. It wasn't a long wait. When I submitted a claim, I gave my address, name. Sometimes, they may ask for my email address and phone number that's associated with the account. They would also ask a couple of questions like has the appliance been repaired or was there ever any issues with it.

The contractor they sent out was very resourceful. He let me know that they will call when they get the part. Any questions I had, he was answering them. In fact, I was asking him what's the first thing that goes or what's the main thing that people have issues with. He was giving me what they experienced. It wasn't like he was a nonchalant tech that came out. He got straight to the problem, but he was educating me as well.

As he was taking my dryer apart, he found out what the problem was. He put it semi back together so he didn’t have to take it all the way apart. They got the part in early and they wanted to come in early and fix it, but I wasn’t home. Still, I was very satisfied with my experience with Total Home Warranty. Since the repair, the dryer has been working better. I’m getting my money’s worth because some home warranties have a limited call. Total Home has unlimited calls. If a neighbor would ask about them, I would seriously recommend them.

To make a long story short, I personal processed four claims (work orders) only one was properly taken care of. The other three heater system ($1000.00), I replaced a unit out of pocket; two refrigerators had problems from the two different rental properties, I replaced out of pocket another $800.00 for both units. You can’t leave your tenants hanging. Bottom line, Total Home Protection is a sham, poor service. The second refrigerator work order took 10 days before I was even contacted by the designated company, no exaggeration. I hired another company and fired Total Home Protection. Very poor service overall, not reliable, a total rip off. Due to the process of pro rate, I only received $1600.00 back from $3000.00 and some change (only seven months of coverage). Do not waste your hard earned money on Total Home Protection, substandard service overall.