American Home Shield Reviews

He said that the parts that were put in were like universal parts, and they really don't work on this particular Maytag machine. We need to use the ones that belong in there. So, that guy called me back a few times, and there was some kind of holdup with Home Shield. When I talked to them about it, they wanted to send Avantis back. I told them there was no way in hell they're sending them back here. As it is, I waited all day for these people to come. He came at the end of the day after he made all his calls for the day. It was about an hour after the window closed, which was an all-day window. Somebody should have had the decency to at least call up and say, "Look, we're not going to be able to get there till let's say 4 o'clock. Okay," so I wasn't a prisoner in my house all day.

I finally got a supervisor on there from American Home Shield. I know they send these people out. They did one or two other things for us that were excellent, but I told them I'm not having them back here. First of all, they claim they fix appliances. I told the supervisor, "It's not fixed." So, she said to me that she would refund the $125, which I said, "Okay." This has been going on for a while now for the service call part of it that they charge. She finally did. I think that went through yesterday. But she wanted me to make another appointment. She said I could start all over and make a new appointment. I said, "Well, I ain't gonna pay another 100 and a quarter until I get back the one that you told me you would," which happened yesterday.

In the meantime, I got this guy that I was using to come over here, and it's not making as much noise. I'm going to wait a little bit and see how it goes with that. The other one with Avantis was a complete waste. Then the third one they didn't want to even acknowledge that part when I was talking to them. As far as submitting a claim, there didn't seem to be any problem at all. They took care of it. They can only go as far as the place that they're sending here, calling me up to make the appointment. But each time that I call them, not that I've called them a lot, but it was a couple of different things. The people got back to me fairly quickly, especially the first time around. It was an AC thing.

Overall, my experience with American Home Shield has been good. They've been fair. The lady refunded the initial $125 they took because it wasn't fixed. Then she finally realized that I refused to have that one company they were insisting to come back. What got me is I don't think they understand that these people did nothing. The first people, at least, they put some parts in. The stuff that came to the house that was mailed here. They did that. I don't understand why they kept on wanting to send back the company that didn't do a thing. Somebody was missing something somewhere.

In our experience in the past with our AC, most contractors come here, and they check the outside unit, the furnace, and the thermostat. They check everything. But when the repairman came out, he was here for 15 minutes, and he said he's been doing this for a long time and he's laughing the whole time. He also said the unit is not built to do good service with these extended heated days. When we got back from the hospital in the afternoon, it was 98 degrees and the thermostat read 78 but it was set on 68. We called him and told him that was unacceptable. We called American Home Shield back and told them about the issue and about my health. They said they'd send them back out out. That was a Thursday but he couldn't come back till the next Tuesday.

He came out on Tuesday, went up in the attic and asked who installed the unit. I told him the unit was installed in 2019 through AHS. He said the unit outside is a two-ton compressor unit, but the compressor in it is 1.5 tons. I reported that to American Home Shield, but they did nothing about it. The guy also said whoever installed the unit left the fan blowing on low instead of high, that he was going to switch it, and that should fix it. He left and that was about 5:30 in the evening. He set the thermostat at 75 and I changed it to 68. That night, it got down to 73 degrees and the cooling wouldn't go past 71, which makes no sense.

When he left, he told us not to call the company back and to call him directly. He gave my husband his number. That was the day before yesterday. My husband called him yesterday, but there was no response. I called American Home Shield because he was non-responsive. They called them, sent them an email, and told them that they wanted a senior technician to come out to see why they can't get this unit fixed.

The young lady, Nicole, called this morning and asked what's going on. I told her about my illness and being released from the hospital. She told me Keith, the guy that came out, is their most senior technician and he couldn't come out till Monday. I told her we're going on three weeks with an AC which is very unfair and not right. She has the same attitude he does. She was laughing and asking how old is the unit. She said she was hoping I could get AHS to send someone else out so they could see what they're missing. In other words, they don't know why they can't get this unit right. I ended up calling AHS back this morning, telling them what happened. I also told them I need somebody out here before Monday. It's gonna be 100 degrees today and 98 tomorrow. They are making it so I can't even sleep in my own house.

On other claims, American Home Shield has been great. They've replaced our dishwasher. We have two HVAC units in our house, one upstairs and one downstairs because of the size of our house. They've replaced both of those. They've replaced our washer and dryer as well. I really haven't had any other issues until now. American Home Shield should vet their contractors better. I think this recent company has one employee and he's running around trying to do everything. He showed up the other day here about 5:45 or so. That's a long day for him. I understand that, being the only employee, you are servicing everybody so you don't have a lot of time to spend on one unit to really figure it out.

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.

When a problem was found, the contractor reported no issue found so that the ticket was closed. Their response for why was because they knew AHS would not approve the service and that was the easiest way to resolve the open ticket. AHS creates friction at every step and has a lot of fine print to make sure they pay as little as possible to fix issues. I am disappointed we didn't know more before we had the seller pay for a warranty service. We are handling even minor issues ourselves. We are happy we didn't pay for the service but wish we actually had some value for the warranty we were expecting to have.

AHS rescheduled the appointment for Friday, July 24. Wanting to avoid another wasted day, I called the contractor that morning to confirm the appointment. The technician did arrive this time and completed a diagnosis. However, he did not submit his findings to American Home Shield until Tuesday, July 28, and only after I contacted AHS myself to request a status update.

To make matters worse, the technician reported that my HVAC failure was caused by storm/lightning damage. This diagnosis does not align with the circumstances surrounding the breakdown. There were no storms in my area when my HVAC system failed, and none of my other electrical systems or appliances sustained any damage that would indicate a lightning strike. Based on this diagnosis, American Home Shield denied my claim. Additionally, Thermodynamic Technologies failed to provide American Home Shield with an out-of-pocket repair estimate, leaving me without the information needed to move forward with repairs.

After my experience, I reviewed the company's online customer reviews and found numerous complaints describing similar issues with missed appointments, poor communication, delayed service, and unsatisfactory customer experiences. Based on what I found, I am surprised that American Home Shield continues to utilize this contractor.

I cannot recommend this company, whether through American Home Shield or as an independent HVAC contractor. I strongly encourage homeowners to research the company before scheduling service. I'm surprised that American Home Shield continues to utilize a contractor with such a poor reputation. After reading the numerous negative customer reviews describing missed appointments, poor communication, delayed service, and questionable diagnoses, I would have expected American Home Shield to hold its service providers to a higher standard. Based on my experience, Thermodynamic Technologies did nothing to change that perception.