Total Home Protection

I went with Total Home. You don't have to be the homeowner with them, and I liked that. I liked the prices too. However, it'd be nice if they could get a few more people that were either online (to be able to chat with somebody that's gonna put in the claim) or on the phones (to have somebody answering calls so a claim could be put in). This is so you know somebody has the request and it's not just a machine. To me, communication is a big thing and they need to improve theirs a bit. I like talking to people when I'm doing business. If I'm on the computer and I'm not doing business, I'm playing a game. I chat with the folks I play with all the time.

I balance the ease of putting a claim and being able to talk to somebody against the company I use in Indiana that I've had for a couple years. I compared the two and Total Home Protection's claims process was a little frustrating for me to start with because it's a little different with the service I use in Indiana. There, you pick up the phone and you talk to somebody. With Total Home, I didn't. Because of the pandemic, most of the stuff is done online right at the moment, so I went ahead and went online and submitted a claim. It got handled right away and it was taken care of for me, so I can't complain at all. I got a plumber out here the next day. Got cleared up quick too. The service was good.

I had an issue with a contractor that was dispatched. He was very unprofessional. He told me what he charges an hour but I told him he was dispatched to address the issue. Once he comes out and tells Total Home Protection what's going on, they will make a decision if it's covered through them and if it's not covered, then he would contact me and tell me what my charge is. Otherwise, I will be writing him a check and he would get the remaining of his money from THP if everything is covered.

He never showed up so I called back THP and asked if they could please dispatch someone else and they did with no problems. The next guy took care of business. I asked him if he could please contact me prior to showing up because I wasn't home but I will make sure someone would be there and he did everything that was asked. Everything was handled with no problem.

Some other AC company called me and said that they wouldn't be able to get out there for a couple more days. But I told them somebody that was out there already. So I called Total Home back and said, “Hey, we've already gotten our unit fixed. Now there's people calling me, telling me that they can't get out to look at it for a couple days. Can you update your system?” The rep said, “We don't show that anybody's even been out there.” It was like their system wasn’t connecting with whatever. They have communication problems. But we got everything fixed and under our warranty and paid our deductible. It all worked out. It was just weird.

It's nice that the deductibles are pretty cheap. My monthly stuff is pretty cheap. I don't like the sales when they try to sell it to people. They say, "Oh, well, yeah, we'll make it cheaper if you pay for like three years in advance." It's like, "Well, I don't know if you're gonna be here three years." So, I pay a monthly. With my initial one, I paid for like 18 months. I pay monthly for both of mine.

As far as the contractors, it's a mixed bag. Some of them are really really good and know what they're doing, and some of them are really bad. The problem is that you're not believed. The only reason I was believed in this situation that I had was because the contractor was so rude to the technician. I have a double oven range. The top of my range is gas. The bottom of my range is electric. My bottom oven stopped working, but that's the larger oven. I was not able to cook a turkey in my house this year because my bottom oven was not functioning. I called the technician out. He came out a day or so after I called in. He was very unprofessional. I typically try not to judge a book by its cover because if you come here and fix my problem, I don't care. He came, looked at it and pushed some buttons and then said, "Yeah, it's the coil. That's what the issue is. I had to order the part."

I figured he should have some type of tools to figure out what the problem was. He left, ordered the part, came back a week or so later with the coil he said he needed, and he disassembled the coil that was in the machine, and then he hooked up this new coil. He tried it and he said it didn't work. He then disconnected the new coil that he had ordered through the warranty company, took it back, put it back, and left my old coil just laying there. He didn't reattach it. He just left the oven disassembled and said, "Yeah, it can't be fixed." He left, told the warranty people that he fixed the coil and then also told them that, now, other things in the stove are broken, and so, that was why the stove was not working. So therefore, they need to replace the stove. He couldn't fix it, and so he lied to them and said the stove needs to be replaced.

My stove is very expensive. Everything in my kitchen is expensive. It was a couple of thousand dollar stove. Their response is, "Oh, we're not trying to pay out a couple of grand. That would be a prorated value. So, we're gonna deny your claim 'cause we tried to fix it and that's that." I said, "No, he didn't even fix what he's telling you he fixed. If he fixed that, then I would have no problem, right? He's telling you other things are broken that aren't broken. There's no issue with those things." Their response to me was, "Well, he has 30 days to warranty his work. So, we have to give him another opportunity to come back."

My response was, "Okay. But he didn't do the work in the first place. So why would we give him an additional 30 days to make a determination about this thing working or not?" They said, "Well, this is what we have to do." I said, "Okay. Well, I don't have a stove for Thanksgiving because you're telling me you can't change the contractor at this point in time and that he has 30 days to warranty his work that he didn't do. Well, can you all call him? Because I've tried to call him, he won't come back." They took the time to call him and he cussed out the representative. The representative said, "Oh, I see what you're dealing with now. Okay, we'll send another technician."

They sent another technician. The guy came out and he was excellent. He was in a uniform and he had a truck and tools. He was professional and put together and he said, "Yeah, I ordered a part and it's just not here. I'm waiting on dozens of parts for dozens of customers because of the global pandemic, unfortunately." What I've learned is I need a computer board for my stove, and that's why it's not working. He did call the warranty company in front of me, which I don't think he was supposed to do, but he did. The warranty company said, "Yeah, we'll approve that." It was a $700 part. The guy knew his stuff. He did what he was supposed to do and went well beyond that. I was gonna cancel both my plans and get another service company, and then he made up for the first guy.

I wanted some explanation. I called that person that sent me an email regarding my claim but she never emailed me back or answered my voicemail. I made several calls and did speak to someone. They transferred me to somebody 'cause I was calling to cancel. The person on the other end asked me why did I wanna cancel and I told her. She offered me two very good things that I couldn't turn down and I was very pleased that she was more interested in keeping me as a client.

However, it did kinda make me hesitant to call in another claim. My garbage disposal is rattling when I turn it on. It feels like something is loose. I'm thinking is this wear or tear or do I need to file a claim. I don't want somebody else to come out then tell me it's not covered. Plus, I didn't wanna seem like I was making claims back-to-back even though the first one wasn't covered. But I don't mind paying the service fee. I'll do anything to get that rattling noise out of there. It'd be even better if they could replace the whole thing.

I called to dispute this and they said the claim says that the system malfunctioned on the circuit board and there was rust on the drain pan. My system was in mint condition on the outside and sat 2 feet off the ground on a stand with a drain line that ran to the floor 2 feet below the bottom of the system. The only way rust could have formed was through the air or a leak in the system. The Resolution manager Tommy (refused even last initial) I.D. ** in the state of NJ said there was no leak reported. At this point the line disconnected and I received no callback.

I called back to further discuss this and Tommy claimed he was the highest authority I could talk to. He advised me to wait out the dispute claim to see the final resolution before I canceled my account which at the time would have been $245. Tommy did inform me regardless of what was requested the max they would pay for any system is $500. So they don't even fully cover replacing items in your house anyway.