American Home Shield Reviews

75% of the contractors are great, and then there's 20% of them that I would change. But overall, it's fine. I've had some delays that have taken too long, and then there have been two that have been completely unacceptable. American Home Shield's biggest problem is not being able to be flexible after they've assigned a contractor.

I've had two. One guy tried to have me actively defraud American Home Shield. He was going to pretend to fix something, and then have to come back and show that it was a bigger issue, and then give me a whole brand-new air conditioning system, but he was going to defraud American Home Shield out of a new air conditioning system when that wasn't necessary. And they didn't kick him off. And then, the other one was the most recent one and the most recent negative experience.

It was a company that fired its entire front office and replaced it with AI. I had an edge case where a technician came out and tried to order a part, but it wouldn't get delivered, and the AI wasn't able to handle that edge case. I couldn't contact a human being, and American Home Shield couldn't contact a human being. But rather than drop the contractor, they just kept them on the books, and I had to hire somebody out of pocket because it never got fixed. It's been three months, and it's still not fixed.

The other context that I think is important is that I live in a relatively rural area. I live in Harrisonburg, which has 50,000 people, and that's the largest city in a decent amount of space. I lived in Atlanta before, and I didn't have any complaints about American Home Shield, and that was because they had a bigger network to work with. Whereas the contractors that work on a national scale, who would partner with American Home Shield, don't have the same type of coverage in this sparsely populated area. So things take longer out here.

Then, there are mistakes or problems, and those things are compounded. For example, a guy fixed a faucet for me, and it was straightforward, but they didn't have the finish that I wanted on his truck. And it took a week for them to get back to me, not because they weren't diligent, but because the guy only comes to Harrisonburg once a week, because that's what his route dictates, and it's not in their interest to make a new route for me for a one-off $100 faucet. And that totally makes sense. But in Atlanta, that would never happen. They have their pick of the litter for contractors. Sometimes it takes longer for contractors to come because they have to find someone who's willing to come out here.

And I'm okay with that. It's a trade-off. What I tell my clients is, "You have to pay blood, sweat, and tears, but you're getting free stuff." So if that's a good trade for you, then they stand by it, and they do what they say in their contract, which I understand is not necessarily the case for these other such companies.

D & B was supposed to come out as a plumber to take a look at the leak caused by the first company that tried to install the dishwasher. They set a time with me to come out on a Friday, but I had to cancel it on Sunday because I got called into work for a Monday appointment. It was over 24 hours in advance notice to reschedule, but the guy still came and they charged us. I called American Home Shield and they refunded me the money. The company has two owners, D and B. Dennis was the one I originally scheduled with, but B was the one who showed up. He said it would have been better if they had been informed about the reschedule. But they still told American Home Shield that they showed up. I said I gave them a 24-hour notice. I tried to call them myself to reschedule, and there was no answer. I left messages but there was no response to reschedule it.

The rep from American Home Shield couldn't help me and told me that I was gonna have to call back during business hours. They need to contact that company to see if what I was saying was true. I called back, and they said there was nothing that they could do. I got more help through the online texting service than I did over the phone, and the online reps showed more empathy. The people that American Home Shield sends out are a gamble. Some of them are good, but you don't know what you're gonna get when they come out.

The guy from the first company didn't speak any English. So, to tell him what was wrong, we had to type it up and then translate it into his language. Then you had to wait for that company to get the part. They came out but that didn't do anything. They ordered another part, but that still didn't fix it. So, we had another company come out. They were fantastic. They said we need a new dishwasher because repairing the control panel doesn't make sense. But we had to wait and take several days off work. Plus, we have to be home the whole day because these people will give you at least a four-hour time slot. And sometimes, they don't even show up during that time slot.

I had to take off a day off work to get the dishwasher in my house, and when it arrived, there was nobody scheduled to install it. It had to sit in my house because the company won't come out until you have it on your premises. When the installer came, he did not take away the old one. He said if it was still there the following week, he would come back later and get it. But he said the trash company will pick it up. It sat out there for several days and I got a letter from my HOA asking why I had junk sitting in the front yard. The trash man ended up picking it up. I'm glad my dishwasher’s working now. But it was a complete nightmare. Everything was resolved, but it took four phone calls, messaging, and hours of back and forth to get there. It was frustrating all around. The price is decent, but it took me four months to get one issue fixed. So, it was more of a headache than it's worth. Even though it's cheap, you get what you pay for.

I've had 24/7 here before with my air conditioner and they did the same thing. They come out and looked at my air conditioner. It wasn't working at the time. Their guy unplugged something beside the unit and plugged it back in and then wanted to charge me 500 for a new air conditioner. They charged $115 just to look at it. So, I called another air conditioner guy out that was nearby me here and he came out, looked at it, and he pulled that same unit out and he put it back in. We turned it on and it worked. So, there was nothing wrong with it. He also said, "You don't owe nothing. I didn't do anything." That was two years ago, and I've had it worked fine last year and it's worked this year already. I won't have 24/7 back at my house again. I've had them come and tear my furnace apart about 13 years ago. They said, "By law, we can't put it back together. We got to replace it." So, they charged me an exorbitant amount for a new furnace.

I heard another guy tell me the same story. He had somebody that knew about this system come out and look at it and there was nothing wrong with it. It was something just minor that had to be fixed. So, 24/7 was just in here to replace everything without even fixing it. I think this pump here for me this time must have reset itself when I unplugged it and plugged it back in, but their guy never checked it. He even thought that the drain pipe needed to be replaced because he didn't ever look at it. He did shake it a little bit. It was loose, but that's because it sits on the pump itself and that's normal. It is not fastened on anything. It's fastened to the wall, but down at the pump area, there's nothing holding it down there other than the pump itself. So, if Home Shield is contracted with these guys, I would suggest you guys to find someone else to contract with.

I called American Home Shield back and told them the situation and they refunded my money. So, that tells me that they're an upstanding company. I was happy with that. If they didn't refund me that, I would have been disgusted and dropped them. I've been having issues with my water heater. I've been struggling along with it. I figured, at some point in time, I'm going to have an issue with it. So, if that happens, I was going to see how it's handled this way and see how it goes. I'm going to ask them who's coming to see if I have any issues at all, and if it's 24/7, I won't allow them in my house.

He took the panel off the front of it and said there was nothing apparent there. But he didn't drain it or do anything to see if there was any residue or build-up. He knew we're selling the house and one of the things he did that I thought was questionable was he asked if we needed work done on the house other than the water heater. We told him we had an inspection done, and there were some things we needed to do. He gave us a card for a company and told us they'd give us a free estimate. We told him we already have a handyman that we can call. He told us it was a free estimate so we might as well have them come and check what we've seen to see if it's fair. It felt like he had a monetary interest in it.

We had these guys out, and the estimate that came through was mind-boggling. We hired a guy to go under our house, and he spent all day long replacing insulation and fixing a dryer vent from our dryer. There was a vent that had dropped and not connected right. He cleaned that out, and he vacuumed for hours under there to get anything off the crawl space and clean it up. $600 is what we paid him, plus we bought the insulation, and we bought him a hazmat suit so we're probably 800 into it. But this guy wanted $5,700.

We also asked the plumber guy very clearly, before this guy came out and gave us this horrendous kid, “Will you put in writing that you inspected the hot water system and it’s running fine?” He said he would do that but he left the house and never did. He said it would be on American Home Shield's website. I'd be able to pull up the report ‘cause he would give the report to them. But it's not. All American Home Shield did was put on that the service has been completed, but there are no results. I've called American Home Shield and they said they sent me an an email and they'd send it again. But the email, once again, just said the service has been completed.

I want something that I could show a buyer that says we've had the unit looked at and it's running fine. But we don’t have that, and that's more of a frustration with American Home Shield than it is with the plumber. The plumber was what the plumber was. If the guy did a bid to repair something, my guess is that information would probably be available. But if everything's fine, that information should still be available because I'm sure he had to make a report to American Home Shield. The way that the home warranty is supposed to work is that I pay the deductible, they pick the dude, and dude comes out. If something's broken or needs to be replaced, he lets them know, and they cover that.

I'm a real estate broker and I have sold these warranties for years to people. I have bought them for years for my clients. I just got an email this morning saying that one of my clients had their washer/dryer fixed thru American Home Shield. I also had a client who had to replace their whole HVAC system. My client thanked me for buying them the warranty as it saved them money. American Home Shield covers what we wanted covered and the price is very reasonable. I felt that it was very legit because I've seen it work but it was only a great experience until I had my own.

That was where things got a little dicey. This was not the first time that I've had trouble with the refrigerator breaking down. When the tech got here, I had made a little sideways comment like, "Hopefully, it's actually dead this time," so I can just get a new one. He took that information back and said, "I can fix the refrigerator, but she doesn't want me to." But that was not what I said. We didn't have a conversation and I know that’s not how things work. Friday, he left, and then Monday was a holiday. So Saturday, Sunday, Monday, I was without a refrigerator.

I called on Tuesday because I hadn't heard anything from American Home Shield or the contractor to find out what was going on, to figure out an update. The AHS rep that picked up the call let me know that they were going to put in a request for the contractor to contact me directly. But she didn't have an update for me. So I was very confused about what was going on.

I spoke to American Home Shield, and they said they were going to call and leave a message for him. I also called the last number that he had called me from to see if he could just call me and let me know what was going on since nobody had an update for me.

I did not get a call back from the contractor until after 4:00 pm on that Tuesday and he was not intending to come and fix the refrigerator. Because he told them he could fix the refrigerator, but I didn't want to. I wanted the replacement in lieu of repair. I did not necessarily say that. But then once he said it, I was like, “If that's something I can do, what does that look like?"

I've had several issues with this refrigerator. And even if it was just the cost of the repair that I was going to be paid to replace the refrigerator as opposed to fixing it again, I feel like I should have been given that option. When people call in for repairs, the technician comes and looks at it unless it's a situation where the technician is fixing it right then and there. If they have to leave and go order parts and all of those things, someone should call and say something, "This is what's going on. This is what we can do, and this is your other option." That did not happen.

Fast forward, once the contractor told me that, I called American Home Shield back and the person who answered the call this time around transferred me. I let them know what has happened so far. He said he was going to transfer me to the escalation team. The person from the escalation team was very rude. I let him know, "If I am coming off aggressively, I apologize. I'm just very frustrated at the moment because I feel like I'm being given the runaround."

After the last conversation, when I was told that if I wanted to get the money in lieu of repair, that was an option I would prefer to take. The guy from the escalation team was like, "We already approved for the technician to fix the refrigerator. So that is what's going to happen." I said, "I just spoke with him. He hasn't even ordered parts for the refrigerator. You're telling me that I have to wait for him to do all of that to come and fix my refrigerator? I do not want to do that." He said, “That's what's going to happen.“

I said, "Sir, I don't want to talk to you anymore. Please transfer me to your supervisor." He said he would not transfer me because he already told me what was going to happen. I ended the call, he called me back to continue to argue with me that I had no other options. I was like, "Are you serious right now? I don't want to talk to you. I've already stated what my issue is. I've already let you know how I would like to proceed. You will not transfer me to a superior, so I'll call back and someone else will transfer me. I do not want to talk to you."

I got off the phone again, I called back, I talked to someone else. While I was on the phone with this person this time, the technician called me and he said, "What's going on? Everybody's calling me." When I was on the other line, the person was saying, “We have to talk to the technician." The technician called while I was on the phone with American Home Shield. I asked the technician, I said, "Can you please hold for one second? Are you okay with me merging a call?"

I merged the call with American Home Shield and the technician. I said, "Everybody's on the phone now, so everybody can talk." Everybody had the same understanding about what was about to happen. We got on the call, and the technician said what his understanding was: that he was not coming to fix the refrigerator. American Home Shield said, "Okay. Well, you can get paid out in lieu of the repair. So I have to escalate it so they can calculate how much you're going to get reimbursed." I said, "Okay. If that's what we have to do, that's fine." It is Wednesday, and I still don't have the refrigerator.

After I spoke to the last person at American Home Shield, he sent me over something immediately within the hour for me to sign. And I ordered a refrigerator. I was like, "I'm just going to buy a refrigerator. Hopefully, they give me some money back." But I can't be here without a refrigerator. If I would have known that the repairman told them what he told them on that Friday, I would have ordered a refrigerator on Friday and tried to get it over the weekend. I thought that he was actually coming back to repair the refrigerator. I would not have waited for him to find out that information on Tuesday.

I appreciate the service of American Home Shield. Because if I didn't have the money and I did have to wait for the repairs, I would have done that. But I had the money and I consulted my family and we discussed it and everybody was like, “If you can afford it, just buy a new one. Because what happens next year?"

American Home Shield's deductible is $100. The refrigerator has broken down at least once every year for the last three years. So that's $300 that I'm out of pocket just to get it repaired over the last three years. My family was like, "Okay. So if you get it fixed this year and it happens next year, then what?" I spoke to the man who does the things for me to get the reimbursement and it ended up being $500 -some odd dollars that I got reimbursed because that was the cost of repair.

I called because, when the technician came to me that Friday, he was telling me, “This is what it is and it's going to cost about $600, almost $700 to fix the refrigerator." I was like, “That's crazy." I know parts are expensive and labor is expensive. I called American Home Shield after they gave me the specific amount that I would receive, because I just wanted to know how they got to that calculation and the technician said something different.

The person who explained to me what was going on was very nice. What she did was she refunded me my deductible that I paid because of the service that I experienced. In total, I got $650 in reimbursement for my refrigerator based on that experience.

I've been with AHS for a very long time, and that's the first time that it was horrible. And the fact that he wanted to argue with me, and I told him, "I'm ending the call. I do not want to talk to you anymore." I just hung up. But even when I was saying I'm ending the call, he was like, "You need to listen to me." And I was like, "Don't yell at me." Aside from that, I've never had a bad experience. Also, someone came out and looked at my dishwasher once, and then there was a leak in one of my bathrooms, too. All the time that I've been with AHS, those are the only things that I've ever had repairs on.

To start with, they contracted Sears to fix my fridge. Well, the ONLY way to talk to Sears is to talk to their AI agent. You cannot get a hold of their techs or a live person anywhere, which means that I have no idea what's happening on their end. They continue to schedule appointments without contacting me and without providing a reason for the appointment. Their parts department sends the wrong part 3 out of 4 times, and when they sent the right part, it didn't even work. Not that it didn't fix the problem, it performed worse than the part it replaced! My compressor fan was running with my original control board but the interior fans weren't.

When they replaced my main control board with their 'new' part, it didn't fix the interior fans and it stopped the compressor fan! The Sears tech, Kevin, straight up told me on his first day out that he wasn't a refrigerator repairman and wasn't sure what he was doing. 7 weeks and 6 appointments later (each appointment of which was an all-day window requiring my wife or me to take the day off work), he finally gave up and told me in person it was un-repairable and he was submitting his notes so that I could get a replacement. Only he didn't submit his notes. I had to wait for another AI scheduled appointment 2 weeks later before he finally submitted his notes.

I called AHS that day and they noted the un-repairable notes had been submitted and that I would get a call from their replacement department within 24 hours. 24 hours later (9 weeks and counting), no phone call. So I called AHS back, and the tech that answered on that day said there was no such un-repairable note from Sears and that the ticket had been closed out as 'repaired' and complete.

After a frustrating 20 min conversation (after waiting on hold for an hour), I was told that they would escalate the issue but that escalation team was unavailable at that time and that they would call me back within, you guessed it, 24 hours. Well, 3 days later, after receiving no phone call, I called them back. The tech told me the escalation department would call me at any time and that there was nothing they could do besides wait for that call. They couldn't call their escalation department; they couldn't walk down the hall and talk to their supervisor, nothing. Now at 10 weeks, I finally get a call from Mary in their Indian based escalation department. She has no record of Sears providing an un-repairable notice, and the ONLY thing she can do is send Sears an email and call me back... within 24 hours.

There is no workaround for AHS to realize that after 10 weeks that my appliance needs to be replaced regardless of what their process says. There is no escalation that doesn't involve waiting on the response from an email. It is absurd. 10 weeks to replace a fridge is far too long, and these people lack all humanity. You and I would be better off just buying a new appliance and leaving AHS in the gutter. If a home seller offers you an AHS warranty with your purchase, take it as an insult, they hate you. It is the only reason anyone would buy their product.

The technician that came out this last time was the same one that did the repair the time previously, which was only three weeks apart. The repair had happened three weeks prior, and then it broke down again. The timeframe of the repairs is increasing in frequency. The technician said the way the things are written is that American Home Shield doesn't ask if there's a recommendation as much as they ask, “Can this be repaired?” And since it can always be repaired, it's always going to be patched up.

And that's been my biggest complaint: that this is patchwork, and the fact that the repair that needs to happen is constantly a fuse that's burning up. That feels like a fire hazard for me, and the fact that I'm smelling it now when it goes out. I've been a little perturbed with the fact that we can't get anywhere with this. They're just willing to continue to patch it up. And my compromise was, if this needs to continue to happen, then I don't see why I have to pay a co-pay if you all are aware that this is going to continue to happen.

And also, the technician that we had wasn't fully appropriate. Took it upon himself to take clothes out of my washer to put in the dryer to test the dryer, which they've never done before. They always have their own little device to check and see if the dryer is actually heating up. And these particular items in my washer were my undergarments. It felt very invasive and just not appropriate.

I definitely feel some bamboozlement with joining AHS, and not fully understanding the repair. ‘Cause I went under it with the notion that if something was a problem, whether it could be fixed or not, if it's continuously being a problem, that replacement was going to be simplistic, and that is far beyond my experience right now.