American Home Shield

I've already fixed the ceiling twice and every time we call, we have an air condition man come out, which was never L & W (the company that installed the air condition to begin with). Whenever they would come out, they'd mess with the PVC pipes. The last person that had been here was a very nice man from Lanier Air Condition and Heating. He said he didn't how they had the drain line hooked up there and that something was not right with it. He adjusted it and blew it out to make sure that it was clear. The Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, my air conditioner started leaking into my kitchen again. To me, it seemed that the plumbing must've been backed up but what was happening was that the device that was supposed to automatically shut off our air condition didn't stop it.

I went to the cleanout that's closest to my house, and when I opened that up, I saw that the water was clogged up all the way to the top. It wasn't draining, so we turned off the air condition manually and then I put in a call to American Home Shield saying that I had a stoppage. Strong River came out really quickly on Friday and the man that came, Mr. **, told me that he didn't know why my air condition was leaking. It was supposed to be Strong River Air Condition, AC and Heating, so I was under the impression that they were not only plumbers but they were AC people also. To me, it wasn't like my air condition was malfunctioning. I was thinking it was all part of this blocked sewer line.

When they started checking things out, they realized that the second cleanout was clogged up. It's near my property line that hooks the sewer line into the city sewage. We needed to get the city to come and use their Roto-Rooter thing or whatever they've got on a big truck to clean out the line that enters my sewer line into the city sewer line. With the pandemic and everything, the city was already closed. It was after 12 o'clock and nobody was going to be there on the weekend or on Monday. On Tuesday morning, after I had left several messages, I just went to our city hall and told them I was having this issue. They said that the machine that they use to clean that out was broken and they didn't know when the part was coming in to fix it.

There wasn't anything Strong River could do to help me until the city sewer line was unclogged. The city did come out though and just used what they call a rod. It wasn't going to cure the problem, but it was going to help alleviate some of the water in the sewer line. Finally, a week or so later, the city got the machine fixed, and they came out and cleared the line. Everything was cleared, but then the air condition kept leaking. The water was leaking down the wall and we had to put a bucket in the return air and keep throwing the water out to be able to use the unit upstairs because that's where all our bedrooms are. It was a frustrating thing.

Mr. ** told me to call him once the city had unclogged the line, so he could come and recheck the plumbing to make sure I didn't have any other stoppages and that granted all my toilets were flushing okay and the tubs were draining all right. I wasn't having any problems with that. It was just the air condition kept leaking. I called him on that Monday after the city had gotten the line free and he said he was going out of town the following day. He could be here on Wednesday instead. I said that it would be fine and that since we've been dealing with it all this time, we would just keep the bucket.

On Tuesday however, I decided to call American Home Shield and open up a ticket on the air condition. Because if this doesn't have anything to do with the stopped up plumbing issue, there has to be something wrong with the air condition. When I told American Home Shield about the situation I was in, the person who was taking my service call over the phone was very nice. He understood what I was telling him and got everything going. I told him that I wanted Strong River to be the service people to come back out on the air condition since they've been here, and they knew what was going on with my problem. The next thing I knew was I was getting a call from Chuck with the Lanier Air Condition place.

He told me he has been to my house before and he knew what I was talking about with the air condition line, so I said maybe AHS just decided to send him instead because he has been here the last time. To make a long story short, Strong River never came back because the plumbing was clear. The guy from Lanier came and he started checking everything out. As he looked further into what was going on with the air condition, he realized that the air condition and furnace had never been installed properly on the platform. It was leaning towards the right rear and the water was then running to that side of the pan and it was leaking down the wall, in the inside of the return air.

That was why it wasn't even getting water into the drain line, so I could shut the air condition down if it started leaking. It was ridiculous. This has been going on now since they put in the new air condition in 2018 and we kept blaming it on the plumbing. He told me he could fix it for me, but he had to call it in to American Home Shield and let them know what was going on. When he called them in, they said that this was not on under any kind of guarantee because this air condition was installed two years ago. The installation problem is not American Home Shield's fault or under their guarantee.

It was so unfair. How was a layperson supposed to know that their air condition unit wasn't installed properly by the company that got sent out by American Home Shield? They have also never been the company that was called back here whenever I complained that the air condition was dripping into my kitchen. After I got a phone call from somebody from American Home Shield, I explained this whole story to that person. She said she would see what she could do and she'll get back with me. I think she was trying to get in touch with the people that installed the new air condition unit, but nobody ever called me back.

I gave them four days to get back with me and when I didn't hear from anybody, over a weekend again, I asked Chuck how much he was going to charge to fix this thing. He told me he was only charging $162 and he said he had to get it lifted up and fix the platform level. I've paid $100 every time an air condition man has come out here only to not ever fix what was really wrong with it, so I told him we would just pay for it. I wrote Chuck a check which was 173.34 and he fixed the platform, plus a big gap on the right hand side next to the wall where the platform wasn't closed up all the way. All this time, for the last two years, it has been sucking air from our attic, which causes more condensation when it's really hot, so we kept getting this leaking coming down our ceiling in the kitchen.

When Chuck was leaving, he said American Home Shield was not letting him complete the job. I said, maybe they still got the ticket open because they're trying to get L & W to pay for it. The guy that comes isn't always the person or the subcompany that's going clear the problem. Strong River had a separate plumber that was going to come here and do the plumbing. Lanier Heat and Air Condition does what they say they do and Chuck comes out and works on air conditioners. Now, L & W was another one of those things. The man that owns it had a cousin or a nephew who came to install the air condition. That guy never came and looked to see if everything was okay.

The sad part about it was when the air condition was installed, we also paid $1,000 to put a new furnace at the same time. The air condition was going out and the furnace was just as old and we figured to just pay that ourselves. When they were finished installing it, they turned it on and had it running. It was noisy, but everything seemed to be fine. However, the guy wasn't out here 20 minutes when it started leaking into our kitchen. I had his cell phone number, so I hurried up and called him back. He turned around, came back, messed with the drain line and put the safety thing back on it. We figured it was fixed, so every other time that the air conditioner leaked down into the kitchen, we've always blamed it on the plumbing.

We never thought the air condition was not installed properly, but that was evidently the problem. It has been a little nightmare, but I'm happy that they found what the right problem has been all along. This was after three different air condition companies have been here and never figuring out the problem until this last time, when Chuck looked at it again. I can't blame him for coming this time and finally realizing what was wrong, but the claim was all the way back for two years ago and money has just been flying out the window. I've paid the $100 service charge for the plumbing being backed up when it wasn't even my fault as well. It was the city's fault with their cleanout.

Also, I kept thinking that the safety feature device that was supposed to turn my air condition off if my plumbing was ever backed up again never worked, but it never was going to work because my line wasn't clogged up. That device was put in when our air conditioning was leaking down into my kitchen really bad one time. I knew it was going to take a few days before we got anybody from American Home Shield who would come and work on the air condition, so I paid a local company not contracted with AHS. The man that came flushed out my unit because at the same time my plumbing was backed up. He flushed that drain line then he started me out with that safety feature on it.

Every house that we've ever had, we've had American Home Shield as our warranty. I'm used to all the phone calls, the holding and all that sort of thing, but I don't think we should have had to pay for this. I've been a customer of American Home Shield for over 30 years and most of the time, it's satisfactory. It takes a little battling sometimes though. I've had a bad situation with the stove in my kitchen and that went on forever. That was when Sears used to do the claims and I've had issues with them when they came here. A man had come out for our stove, because the oven wasn't coming on.

He diagnosed it as being a bad thermostat and when checking on the part, he said that it was no longer available. He then charged American Home Shield $190 something for doing absolutely nothing. I knew a lot about kitchen appliances because I worked for 15 years for my dad's service company and after looking online to see if I could find a replacement part, I found that there was a replacement for the thermostat. I went and bought it myself, but then the guy from Sears refused to install it because it wasn't their part. I have a $5,000 JennAir 48-inch range with the six burners and double ovens. With the part not being available, American Home Shield was only going to give me 600 to buy a new gas range.

The new gas range to put in the place of the one that I have now costs about $8,000. I ended up getting a whole other company, Stringer, to come and diagnose the unit. The issue ended up being the igniter was gone and not the thermostat. Also, the igniter that had been replaced on my stove by a prior Sears serviceman was not the right voltage to begin with. That was why my oven took forever to pre-heat and it finally went out. Stringer replaced it with the correct part, so my $5,000 stove is just working fine. However, I paid $400 for a thermostat which my stove didn't need. It also took so long trying to get somebody to install it for me that when I wanted to return it, I had to do a restocking fee.

The claim went on for at least a month. Did I have problems? Yup, I had problems with that, but I have my stove and I didn't have to spend $7,000 to replace what I had already. I was just out a few hundred dollars because American Home Shield ended up paying for the bill, which wasn't bad at all. With another claim, I think that the igniter was out on my dryer and I don't think it was the motor, but that same man from Sears condemned my dryer, which caused us to have to go buy a new one and you only get a certain amount of money to replace the dryer. We then had to chip in the balance of it as well. All in all, American Home Shield tries to rectify and keep customers happy, but with some of the things that have happened, I'm not completely satisfied.

I stay with American Home Shield because I live in an antebellum home. We have renovated it and put all new appliances in 11 years ago, but it's still an old house and things go out. My husband and I are into our late 60s now and I don't work anymore. He still works, but we don't have available funds to be able to have to replace a dishwasher, a stove or other different appliances like that, especially the air condition. We have a large air condition unit for the downstairs in our house (the upstairs unit was the one that we have had the issues with the leaking), and they have replaced it twice. If we would have had to pay for that air condition unit out of pocket, I'd much rather pay $600 as an insurance policy. We're also not that handy. There are a lot of things that might go wrong here and we need somebody to come and help us repair it.

The tech from a previous company, before Nutex Mechanical, was extremely nice but he said we needed to find somebody that knew this equipment. We did round two. American Home Shield quickly got somebody else out so that wasn’t a problem. But, again, the guy goes, “No, we really don’t work on these.” He got it done though although it took him an extra period of time.

The service could have been knocked out in one trip. Instead, it took three. There is a cost to American Home Shield and to my sanity. There's also the cost for those businesses having to come out. They knew from taking pictures what was wrong. But everybody has to make their own assessment from their own company so I get that. I’m reasonable. The showerheads we had were old and they were like jets. I went out to Home Depot and did it myself. The tech fixed what was behind the wall because I didn’t wanna touch it. I think those were covered. I sent Home Shield a note but they never responded. I’m just moving on. There are other important things to do.

We bought this property in 2014 and we've had American Home Shield on it since the summer of 2014. We also had the home warranty for the previous properties that we had. Sometimes, the problem the home warranty has is that a lot of the people that partner with them are partnered with them to generate and cultivate a churn business. The techs are never happy to come out because they are paid a limit so they look for opportunities. To me, that is a concern overall because you could have a mechanic that turns your brake job into a brake replacement versus just brake pads. My concern is monitoring that. I don’t know how American Home Shield does that. I've reported my concern to them.

Otherwise, I’ve had good experiences with the techs although I’ve also had some very bad experiences with people that have come out and some have just plain said things like, “We’re only doing this because we hope you call us next time you actually need work done.” That experience is not good for them and it’s not good for anybody that has the warranty. Unfortunately, I’ve had so many different properties. You can kinda see and smell things. I’m not a technical person but you kinda get a feel for stuff like that. But the last couple of people that came out were extremely professional and nice.

As far as American Home Shield, they are more processing or transactional. If I call you them, they just wanna know it’s a shower, “Okay, fine,” then click. This is as opposed to, “My shower’s a Kohler system. I need somebody that’s familiar with Kohler, the product.” I did that and it didn’t happen. I just got the first person. I shouldn’t have to do anything more than what I did. I then had to spend time explaining, “This is Kohler. This is what’s happening,” to two different techs in two different companies. That’s the thing. If it's an air conditioner, they should wanna know the type of air conditioner, if it’s within the unit in the attic or outside, and more specifics.

In this case with our shower, it got done and it works great. The head that I bought and put on is perfectly fine. The technicians were wonderful as far as people and very professional and communicative. But it should have been one person. And they also had to order the parts because they didn't really work with Kohler in their warehouse so they had to order directly from Kohler. That could have been done before those companies came in and out. But I know they have to come out and assess and not take my word for it. I don’t know what my other option is. In some cases, I just pay out-of-pocket directly to a company because I found a company that I love but they are not aligned with American Home Shield.

American Home Shield has helped us when we called, emailed, and submitted orders. They’ve gotten people out here. But we want good people to come out and not look for other opportunities and say we really need to change something. For example, I had an air conditioner leak and I had this happen before at other homes. I know that contractors can weld in certain spots and it’s a fix then they put new coolant in. A lot of times, they’ll just first start trying to sell you on a new air conditioner. Instead of a couple of hundred dollars fix, it’s a $15,000 sales pitch. I’m used to that and I get why they’re doing it.

But I just need it fixed. I’m not in the market to buy a new $15,000 air conditioning unit when it doesn’t need to be replaced. That’s the biggest culture problem. But as far as transactionally getting somebody out here quickly that's aligned to American Home Shield, they hit me for a hundred bucks and the people are out here. That happens like lightning speed so that’s good.

I tried to talk to American Home Shield when I get a live person but on the other end of the phone, they are just razer-focused to do the quickest cost-effective transactional point A to point B. They’re not gonna call somebody to ask if they have experience with Kohler systems. I wish it was different. I don’t think I can get that from any other company either though. I’ve had other people that had other home warranty companies that weren’t happy at all.

It’s kinda like going to an attorney. No one’s every happy even if you win. I understand they’ve done some great things for us in the sense that if something was majorly damaged and it was covered under warranty, then that’s the blessing that you’re paying every month for. That’s what you have that type of insurance for. In those cases, the home warranty works fine. But if another company comes along that you don’t have to do those things, I would love to hear it. They would probably have great success in the market.

In the same call, I tried to do appliances. I was gonna cancel a contract and the rep put me through all kinds of stuff. I was totally disgusted and that was not the first time. I got called and I told them to call the tenant. I gave them the number and they assured me that it was in there. It wasn’t. I'm busy, I'm working, and then I gotta tell them to call. They don't even have the number so I have to get the number and call them back and give them the correct number. For the most part, the call center representatives are the pits but you do get some good ones.

I had to make three different phone calls and had to wait over half an hour every time that I was trying to get through. The first and second reps didn't do it and the third one was an American lady. She spoke perfect English, listened to everything I said and I didn't have to repeat anything. That's what I'm used to. They need to hire some people who can speak good English, who are gonna listen to you even if they do speak English, and somebody who's gonna put in the order and make sure it's absolutely correct.

This has been going on for several years now and the last couple of years, it seemed like it's been really bad. American Home Shield has an account executive in a certain area of Florida and she also did our stuff up in Virginia with me. I would call her and in a heartbeat, she could get it resolved. The call center people got to get the work order accurate. I called in for a refrigerator and they put down a stove or a dishwasher. They ask you all kinds of ridiculous questions. Whoever assigns these people needs to train them. This was a major inconvenience trying to get that contract canceled and get that straight. Those were four calls because I had to call the cancellation people because the representatives didn't get it straight. But other than that, the contractors are very good.

I had the appliance service repairman from All Brands. I've been dealing with him for years and they are good too, except that sometimes, they can't get out to you for a week or more. They need to hire contractors who don't accept calls if they can't handle in a week or 10 days. That's bad for All Brands. I ended up calling to get somebody else, which was an inconvenience. The guy who came fixed the ice maker and the dishwasher, and everything was good. But he didn't have on a mask, which kinda bothered me so I stood away from him with my mask.

I have dealt with Air Pro Air Conditioning for 16 years and they are fantastic. They are over the top and I wouldn't have anybody else. They do my kids' properties. They got rentals too and they do those and their homes. They are dependable and they do a good job. Once they come out, you don't have any problems. All Hours Emergency is good too. This man came out Monday. He was outstanding, very professional and he did a very thorough job. I've got three properties and I had all these contracts. I had a townhouse in Ocean City, Maryland, and I had my home in Fairfax, Virginia. Up there, you don't have that many people who are good at trade and you have a lot of people who don't speak English. So, they're not as good as the people here in Florida. Maryland is a resort area and most people who are working there live there year-round and they are not tourists, so they are good too.

I hate every time I have to make a call but I've got to do it because I'm not gonna be trying to do online stuff. I don't bother with that. I wanna make sure somebody understands exactly what I need and what's going on. I can make sure that they got the name, they got the problem and if they got the right part. I would text the tenant and tell them the name of the company, give them the phone number and tell them that they can wait for them to call to make an appointment. Or they could call the company and get the appointment made earlier. A lot of them will and a lot of them just wait.

I do some property manager too part-time, especially for family and friends here in Florida, and I've always recommended American Home Shield. I'm a real estate broker for the last 15 years in Jacksonville. American Home Shield do have some bad contractors and I've been through that before too. When you get a bad contractor and you want a second opinion, depending on who you get on the phone in the call center, they would say that they don't do second opinions. I tell them that I know I can get a second opinion. I also know that if the diagnosis comes back the same, I have to pay the additional deductible fee but if not, then I get to find out exactly what's going on.

I found two crooked ones and reported them. I went through hell trying to get done. That was about 10 years ago but that was really bad. I haven't had to go through that anymore. Just recently, I had a second opinion issue, and I didn't have any problem at all. So, that was good. But overall, I always. When I was up in Virginia, I had at first, Residential, on that property because the woman who was managing it for me said that they got a good deal. Now, I know why, they were absolutely lousy. They will argue with you about this or that, even after the salesman came out and said that the air conditioning had to be replaced. They were gonna fix it. After dealing with them, I know American Home Shield is not perfect but they're the best out there.

I recently had a claim with a range where two different guys came and looked at something. One of them even followed up a little bit but they've never really tried to fix it. I gave up and just had an independent guy come and take care of it. It really wasn't something that was technical. I know they just wanted to order a part. All I wanted to fix was the light but I think they wanted a technical part number from Thermador that they could just order. It was just a little transformer the size of a 9-volt battery and I could have done it myself. It wasn't a particularly difficult thing and it wasn't an expensive part. They weren't able to see it through at all. That happens from time to time, probably a third of the time. They would make the incorrect claim, say it needs to be replaced which often isn't true. They'll say something like they can't fix it or they'll be like, "I don't know what's the model number."

There are a few brands where I just know better than to call any home warranty company about, unless for sure the thing can be repaired, or I'll just go to the factory guy. I accept that that's a limitation of a home warranty contract. If I wanted to get one of our Miele dishwashers fixed, generally, I wouldn't even call AHS about it unless the Miele tech comes and goes, "You need a new one." Then I would call them. And if it really needs to be replaced, then you negotiate the amount, whatever it is. We had one of those recently and that went acceptably well. It didn't cover the full cost of replacing the thing by a mile, but it was consistent with what the contract is.

I think all of these companies like American Home Shield were trained to say no a few times. But AHS is the least worse compared to their competition. I had a claim that took six months. It was absolutely black and white that they had to cover it. In fact, I came to American Home Shield after that. The one little squabble I had with them was resolved in under an hour. We fought over whether they had to buy a new fridge, which like I said, they're trained to do that. But it didn't take weeks, months, or even days, so fair enough.

And once you're in that process, it works like, "You can either have the money or we'll send you this unit." From that point, it's very straightforward and much easier than anybody else, so I give them some credit there. But they always wanna have a fight before buying me a new thing. They try to talk you into how it isn't something that's covered when it is something that's covered. Good policies have limitations, so do the repair guys. I think a lot of that looks like within the price. For $1,000 a year, they're not gonna buy me a $8,000 refrigerator. In worse case, you get maybe 3,000 out of it. You just have to decide if the premium is okay, taking that into account.

Another thing is plumbing where I know is something pretty specialized. I don't want the cheapest monkey from Albania or whatever working on it. I maybe can tell the difference between what anyone could do and what maybe a specialist needs to do. I really wouldn't let a thing like that escalate into a fight with the warranty company 'cause I want it repaired correctly.

I get a little unhappy when the guy can't reach in for a screwdriver and a pair of wire cutters to fix a piece of transformer. It's irritating. I had one guy that I never even heard from again. AHS reassigned it. I didn't have to complain that the guy didn't work on it. They said, "We have a different tech coming." That guy at least followed up by phone a couple of times saying, "I'm still looking for your part." He's like, "I give up. I don't know where your part is." I'm like, "It's just a little 12-volt transformer for God's sake.” That's why I called the guy I know and he came, installed it for me. The repair was like 100 bucks.

The part I paid was 75. But the thing is that I actually put in for two different things so I ended up getting a $1,100 settlement on our little undercounter refrigerator at the same time. It wasn't like, "You really need to give me back the 75 bucks. You guys failed." It might have come to that but in this case, I didn't pay a separate fee for that. I wasn't stunned that they weren't willing to really wrench on the thing. And they didn't make a mess or break anything. I'm sort of okay with it. I didn't die of shock that it went down like that.

Also, American Home Shield could make the renewal process more graceful. I understand that you get a new contract number every year. It's a lot of steps to register if you're gonna use the online services. Your account essentially disappears at the end of the year when the contract rolls over. You have to reinitiate everything over again. They should make it more graceful to roll over at least the online account.

My main thing is around renewal time, it gets much more difficult to use the contract. It's like that you're essentially kicked out of the system when the one contract rolls off. You get an entirely new contract. My email address and all that doesn't change. A lot of my account stuff is still there, but it's still a pain. It should just reflect that you had one contract. The contract number should just change rather than the whole login. It's so annoying when all the contract details are completely wiped out of the account. Something’s happening that's urgent enough for you to wanna get it fixed, then you're like, "What do you mean there's no contract associated to your login?" It's a high blood pressure sort of thing.

Also, the contractors disappear out of your online account which is jarring every time that happens. And we go long periods without using it. We pay every year but I've definitely gone multiple years, about eight or nine, and probably five of those I didn't have any claims for anything. But I keep AHS warranty around. The reason we have that is for like a $10,000 air conditioner quits completely or a water heater, fridge, things like that.

Then you will have to wait on the line sometimes, due to the volume of calls received during the time of your call. Once you get past this, you'll finally get to a customer service agent that will listen to you. However, they all tend to read a scripted response, instead of listening with the intent to learn, then respond appropriately. Why so apologetic is the question that always looms in my mind over time I call. "I'm sorry to hear about that so & so issue that your experiencing, blah, blah, blah."

Onward to the solution portion of the call for help: They will place you on a brief hold, and then return with the assigning of a technician, or company. They'll ask if you have any additional questions or issues that need to be addressed, and finally confirm the payment of the $75 co-pay to end the call. You'll have to be somewhat understanding in regards to the date/time of the assigned technician's arrival to your residence from anywhere between 24 hours to a couple of days depending on the number of previous customer's they have ahead of you in line.

The assigned company's initial call, and assignment of the technician to come to your residence: You will usually get a call from the customer service agent associated with the company fixing the problem shortly after they have been assigned from American Home Shield to finalize when they will be able to come and complete the work intended. You'll also receive an e-mail, text to your mobile device or combination of both. Don't delete this important information. This is your confirmation of who is scheduled to come to your residence. In the event that they fail to reach out to you, you'll have this information so that you can get a hold of them. Just remember that in this digital age of things, some things indeed do fall apart including calls, and emails. If you don't hear from them, don't hesitate to reach out, as a rule of thumb, the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

When the company gives you a call for scheduling note that they are mostly friendly, professional, and attentive; they're also willing to work around your schedule if you need them to. When I state "mostly friendly", is the fact that they are human, and as with all of us, we all have bad days sometimes. This shouldn't reflect on how American Home Shield operates, nor that of each company which is an independently contracted company working with American Home Shield to help you resolve your day to day issues involving your home.

The arrival of the technician to your residence: Prior to the technician arriving, in most cases they'll give you a courtesy call to confirm that you are home, and let you know that they are on the way. I have in some cases received a courtesy text message introducing the technician, with a photo, contact information, licensing information, as well as a chance to rate them with their company once the job was done. That is an awesome feature, and in my opinion should be included with every technician assigned to come to your residence; as these days it is sometimes hard to trust the folk that enter your home.

When they arrive, they will first have to assess the problem to see what is the exact problem, then come up with an appropriate solution for repairs that have to be made. Technician may be able to fix the problem immediately, in a lot of cases this is true, and your heart-ache is relieved. Though sometimes they'll have to leave your home to go get parts, and schedule a return time/date (if needed) to complete the work.

* With regards to scammers, and hood-winkers: It is best practice to have a printed copy of your contract so that you can reference it if the need arises. Some contractors will try to tell you that based on their assessment, you'll have to pay an out of pocket expense that isn't covered by your American Home Shield warranty; ranging from a couple of dollar's to upwards of thousands in some cases.

The remedy is to: First know what your coverage contract states you are covered for *(address discrepancies in coverage before you have a problem), do not fearing telling the contractor that you want to request a second opinion through American Home Shield, not be in so much of a haste to fix the issue that you fail to research the solution *(knowledge opens the eyes of the blind), request to have discounts applied to the final bill as an American Home Shield customer, any manufacturer's rebates, and any online discounts that you can find to help reduce the overall cost; in the event that you have no choice but to pay an out-of-pocket expense. You can even see if it's possible to buy the part directly at a cost savings store to help you save even more, then ask the technician to install it if they're willing to go that route.

Prior to them leaving: After the work has been completed: ask them to show you what was repaired, if parts were replaced, you would like to see/have the new packaging to verify that it was newly purchased, check the operation of the repaired item if possible to ensure correct operation with no issues such as leaks if water is involved.

Finally finished: Once everything is complete, good or bad tell them about it. Write a review, call the company that fixed the issue, and write a review on American Home Shield, this venue, and/or The Better Business Bureau. Consumers need your voice to help them make educated decisions, help navigate through sophomoric insight, lateral issues that others have experienced, and the understanding that reporting bad workmanship might help the company through educating their tech's, relieving them of their duties, or in the worst case scenario lose their contract with American Home Shield. I hope that this review helps within the how-to department of ratings. Wishing you many blessings going forward in all of your future endeavors, and I thank you sincerely for reading this review.

Second tech was a young woman, Brooke, she really gave her best to check out the unit (unlike Robert), and I liked her cheerful and easygoing personality, and I guess I really wanted it to work out this time... But a week later another man came, Chris is his name, he came only to offer me the deal to buy the whole new unit plus the furnace for $$, stating that he will submit a replacement claim to AHS, but it's unlikely that they will pay, since AHS is about putting band aid. I was surprised when days later, called AHS and was told that replacement was not recommended, and my AC is working just fine.?? He has lost interest when I turned down his personal replacement offer. The office personnel is not helpful and wants me to go away.

June 10th - Contractor arrived to state that the leak was in the Compressor and he would put in the request for a new Compressor on that same day. June 16th - I called the contractor to check the status and I was told to contact AHS as the contractor was waiting on the purchase approval from AHS. June 19th - I contacted AHS regarding the purchase of the compressor and was told that AHS did not receive the request until June 16th and it was approved on this day June 19th and would now be purchased.

June 24th - I contacted AHS again and was told that the compressor was STILL not purchased and the customer service representative stated that she would place me on hold and assure that the compressor will be ordered on that day and when it arrive, I would have to pay another out of pocket expense of $500.00 for the coolant.

June 27th - Today. At this point, I'm still waiting. I have paid over $1,200 in expenses in the last 3 months and expected to pay an additional $500.00 and I still do not have working air in my home with temperatures in my house reaching above 90 degrees. No one calls to update me on the status and apparently nothing is being done with the work order until I call. Only the days when I call is there any action taking place. There should be some type of compensation for this extreme inconvenience as well as this being a health issue. My 9 year old daughter suffers from nose bleeds when she is overheated. She has had 3 nose bleeds in her sleep since my air has not been working. I purchased a couple of fans two months ago but she cannot have these blowing directly on her because they cause a sore throat. Still Hot & Waiting for Service...