American Home Shield

If American Home Shield tells me that it's on hold and the company's not taking any more calls, because they're just too busy, I tell them, "Yeah, they will for me." I call the company and have the company call them. There was also a plumbing company that I found that does exceptional business, and I've done business with them outside of the home warranty company, so I will go through the trouble. Recently, the appliance company that AHS sent out, I'll do the same for them and have recommended it to other people as well.

American Home Shield has been very good. It's sometimes a little long getting there though. With our dishwasher that was very old, the company recommended that it be replaced because there were no parts available. AHS found a part, which was probably refurbished. The first time our dishwasher was run, it ran all day long. They then replaced it, and I'm getting it this week. I've also had my daughter's washing machine replaced by them. It was a company recommendation again, and they took care of that, as well as my microwave. The first time, they sent GE out to repair my microwave and it did the same malfunction. When the technician had to come back out again, they replaced it.

Another thing is AHS only warranties their work for 30 days. For example, I had a problem with my garage door opener. They sent a company out, and the company said to me, "You really should replace this." I said, "How much are we talking?" The guy said, "600 and some dollars." I said, "No, let's just go ahead and replace these parts. We'll kick that can down the road a little bit." The same problem happened two months later, so I called the home warranty company and they said, "Nope, sorry, only good for 30 days." I said, "Well, I'll be darned if I'm paying another $125 to have somebody come out and fix the same problem that was repaired two months ago."

I called the company and said, "Excuse me, but do you stand behind your work?" They said, "30 days." I said, "Thank you," then they said, "Well, do you need help?" I said, "Not from you, because you already answered my question. If you only warranty your work for 30 days, then I'm not doing business with you." I called the company that I've done some work for doors and said, "Hey, need a new garage door." I've learned the lady has American Home Shield, and she said, "Sandy, don't buy this from us. Go through American Home Shield." I told her what happened, and she told me that the part that they replaced absolutely should not have gone bad unless they put a malfunctioning part in there. It was the same thing with the dishwasher and the microwave.

I may pay on this home warranty year after year, which I normally do without anything being replaced. I'm being honest with AHS by paying my money every month. They should be honest with me, too. They shouldn't put a refurbished part in my stuff, just do what they're supposed to do and fix it right with either a brand-new part, something that's reputable, or replace the appliance.

I'm cool if they wanna try to fix something, but in just over 30 days, they shouldn't make me pay another $125 service fee for something that was inadequately fixed to begin with. If it was a different problem that presented itself, I get it. That happens. However, the exact same problems presented themselves on two different things. One was the garage door opener, which I ended up biting the bullet, and I went with a company that I trust and paid $700 for a new garage door opener after paying American Home Shield $125 to not fix the problem. That's the only reason I'm giving a 4. Otherwise, I've been with AHS since 2002, and it's not just one property. I usually have multiple, because I have done it for my daughter's as well.

I started with American Home Shield when I started with Legum's, which was the first HVAC company that I had come out after I bought a home. I had a $75 service fee, but because it was so infrequent, I thought, "Okay. It's probably better to pay a little less a month, consecutively for months, and just go ahead and suck it up." Once I did that though, I started having more calls for service, but that's just the way it is. Overall, I recommend this home warranty to everyone, and I tell people they have to learn to work it. They can't just go online and submit a request and expect to get the person they want. They've got to go through the pain of calling. Although, as of late when I've had to call them, it's not that long of a wait.

The only other thing that I might add is a lot of the customer service reps that answer the phones have a script. They have a manual that they go by, so if I had to escalate a problem, it's near impossible to do. It used to be that I had a phone number for the supervisory group. If I had a problem, which I wouldn't do that just ordinarily, I had a recourse. However, that's no longer available. Also, if I ask to talk to a supervisor, there's never one available, and they'll say, "Somebody will call you back." That doesn't really happen.

I live in Oakland and the actual Lowe's is in Union City. It's half an hour drive from me. When I got in the store, they had this great sale going on. I had a range and a over-the -range microwave that went bad. I picked out the range and it went fine. For the over-the-counter microwave, I came in the store and told a salesperson that I needed a 30-inch slide-in. We started talking about that and he said, “Well, microwaves are a different bugger. We suggest that you get a premeasurement. It's gonna be $45. And if you buy the unit, we put it toward installation.” It sounded like a winner to me, so I took that and I went on about my business. Since he was sending me in another direction, I asked him if I would get the sales price or when was the sale over? He said, “I don't know when the sale is over.” I was really excited about the pretty range so I just let it go.

The sale was ending the next day. So I tried to call the store, and I was on hold for 40 minutes. Then someone came and hung the line up. I tried the Lowe's customer service and I was on hold again. They said, “Oh, well, you need to speak to someone in the store to find out about the sale. Let us send you over.” I told them, “No one answers the phone, which is why I called you.” Then they said, “We know how to get you in through curbside pick-up. They're the only ones in the store that answer the phone.” So I went through curbside pick-up. The guy here was what I wanted. But I was back on hold. The same thing happened after about 30 minutes. The line got hung up. I gave it a little bit of time. I read over the paper that Lowe’s gave me around the actual measurements. It said they would call you in two days to schedule your measurement. But I didn't have a measurement yet. They haven't called to schedule a measurement.

I called the store again. I tried to call early in the morning when they first opened. They still didn’t answer. I went back over to corporate again. First corporate lady I talked to said they didn't answer her. I called back later and got another girl. She had been there a little longer, so she knew what was going on. She said, “Well, let me call.” They didn't remove my stove. I wanted that reimbursed. I was gonna figure out how to measure the microwave myself. So I wanted that refunded back on to the card. I’ve had stuff refunded on my cards all the time. But they told me that I have to go back to Union City to get the refund. I'm a senior and handicapped.

When I called on the 7th and the 8th, Lowe's was supposed to escalate a claim with the manager that would get my questions answered. I told them, “Look, I have a responsibility to American Home Shield. I'm supposed to turn in the receipts. But if I can’t purchase it, how can I turn in all the receipts?” I also told them that I found that the sale was going off the next day and then asked them, “Should I purchase it now just online to get the sale price?” They said, “Well, if you do that and it's the wrong one, then we don't know, you won't get the sale price when you return it.” So they had me in a spot. I was supposed to have a call from the Lowe’s manager to say whether I got the sales price. Then I have to go back out there and get stuff credited and then purchase and have to deal with the delivery all over again.

I called American Home Shield to say, “Hey, I think maybe you should know that someone you guys are partnering or contracting with, not taking really good care of your customers. I'm letting you guys know, they're not doing a good job with us. And it doesn't look good.” I'm a person that's been in business for so long enough to be able to separate the two. That's not American Home Shield. That’s Lowe’s. But American Home Shield is contracting with Lowe’s. I was told, “They're not our partners or anything. We just send them to you.” So I said, “So, you really don't think that there's an agreement between American Home Shield and Lowe's to provide a service to American Home Shield’s clients?” She told me no.

I had to talk to the representative and it took a pretty long time to get her to understand why this wasn't good for American Home Shield that Lowe's were treating their customers like that because it changed the whole process. I loved American Home Shield but because it continued to get dragged out, it didn't make it feel right. Meanwhile, someone did an identity theft and shopped with my credit card at Lowe’s. He put it under my email, so all the receipts started coming back to me. I called the Texas store and sent them all the stuff to say, “Hey, these are fraudulent charges someone's doing on your store.”

I have totally enjoyed the experience with American Home Shield. I trust them. I went online and paid my money for the person to come out. They called the next day and scheduled the appointment. They were ready to come out the day after that or so. But I needed someone to be here to go up and down the stairs. So I pushed it out. American Home Shield should have more options on who they're gonna give out the gift certificate to. They should have more care on the vendors.

A few years down the road, our furnace went out in the winter. AHS sent someone here to put a new furnace in and he was from Lansing, Illinois. We depended on AHS to send us reliable people. He definitely was not. He was terrible. He put the system in and he took days. We were in our home without heat and he never once told me that supposedly we had some sort of insurance with AHS that would have allowed us to go to a motel. We had no idea. We went out and bought a few little heaters to try to keep us warm.

The tech did a very poor job of installing the new furnace to the point that we were calling AHS with complaints. I even called my town sheriff over where I live to complain about this person. She said there was nothing they could do because we should have called and found out if the company the guy was registered with the town. That company never registered. Finally, we put our foot down and insisted that AHS use somebody else that was not in their system. The company that came was Seamer HVAC and they're highly respected in our community. I knew Seamer was a great HVAC company but I was initially told by AHS that I could only call whoever was on our sheet of accepted people.

AHS should up getting a better quality of people. In the end I got Seamer and they gave AHS a report and said that the first company put a certain piping all wrong in our installation. It was just a pitiful job. We still have that same furnace and I am so squeamish about that. I was told AHS still uses the first company even though I gave them a bad review.

We dropped AHS for a couple of years then we went back. So far, the insurance has been good. But I am on edge when I had the fan and the light go out. AHS sent somebody out to work on my light. They were polite and nice. When I was confirming our appointment for our fan, I told the rep that I had Casablanca fans and there was a need to have somebody with experience. Casablanca was bought by Hunter Fan Company and when you want to get something fixed, you have to take off some sort of part at the top of the fan to read the engraved serial number. That's how you can order parts. Otherwise, you cannot order parts.

The first man that came could not take off the part and could not find it so he was frustrated by it. In the meantime, he dropped part of the light fixture and it exploded on the floor. He did a few things like that then he was gonna leave it. I asked if he was not gonna sweep it up and he said that was for the homeowner to do. I called and mentioned what happened. The company apologized and said they were gonna send out a senior technician. Supposedly, he has worked on Casablanca fans.

The senior technician could not find the part and said “We recommend there's nothing we can do for the fan. It's just broken and you just need to get another brand. And we're gonna get you $99 to purchase Casablanca fans.” I already paid a $100 service charge and they were willing to take my fans. That was a hustle. They could repair the fan and can probably sell it for $500 or $600.

I mentioned to AHS that the first two men that came out didn't know what they were doing. I asked them to send somebody and the rep was on it. He was a senior representative named Carlos. He oversaw the case and he was right on top of things. He even called to say, “It's been a few days or almost a week and we haven't heard from you.” That was because once the fan was taken down the fan, the tech found the number then had to order something. He was gracious and nice and kept reassuring me that he would help us. Carlos was just tremendous.

AHS sent Cruz Electric and Handy Service and their guy got me taken care of. But that was another week or two down the road. Cruz worked on Casablanca fans for years and their tech knew that they had been sold to Hunter Company. I still have to track this back. I haven't resolved this one because I've had to have surgery in my eye twice and I have to go back to my canceled checks. I have been having a problem doing that. Whenever you put in your service request, you have to charge the $100 fee to your credit card, which I did. On a previous one that I'm still trying to work on, I immediately charged that $100 fee. I was told I had to pay it again and I did. But I found out that wasn't necessary.

What happened this time was one company was sent out but they didn't work out. That was not my fault that they didn't get that fixed. They didn't know how to do it. But they started charging me again. This happened before. I started to go after AHS for my $100 and they told me they returned it to my bank. I checked and they did not return the money to my bank.

This time, it happened again and AHS started sending me a text telling me that I owed the $100 and that I never paid it. I was right on top of that because that was the ploy they used before. I just assumed they know and that they are tracking this. I owed the $100 and I submitted another $100. I found out later they were wrong. They tried to do it again. This time, they sent me two or three emails telling me I owed the extra $100 when I didn't. Carlos was taking care of me and I told him how AHS keep telling me that I owe $100. He checked and said I don't owe that. AHS then upped the pressure and they sent me something telling me I was in arrears. They finally sent me a letter and they told me I owed the $100. It sounded like I'm like a deadbeat and that I wasn't paying that $100.

I mentioned this to Carlos again and he said, “I don't understand. I’d taken it off through your account. They shouldn't be bothering you at all. Because that was from the same job.” AHS put some pressure on me and I sent Carlos an email saying AHS had not given up. He called me just to double check. He said he was going to make a concession. They sent me a letter. All through that paper, it said that I owed them and that I need to pay.

I called to speak with them myself and they said, “I don't understand why you think this is an invoice.” I said, “Because you have the words that I need to pay you and I need to pay you now and invoice.” They said, “Oh, no. We're giving you concessions.” I said, “Why did you have to even send this letter then, if you're saying a concession?” And I didn't understand the meaning of that word. Concession. It's hard to understand the letter and the word when they were basically telling me I still owed them $100. I'm 80 years old. Anybody that would have gotten that letter and those emails would all think that $100 is owed.

Another claim I had with AHS was for a built in microwave and it's probably 12 or 15 years old. It's one of these large ones that sits on the counter. It went out so I called AHS to say it suddenly had stopped working. They said, “Well, it's a built-in.” I said, "But you knew that. Several years ago, when I started paying for this, I clearly said that, just like we have a built-in refrigerator in the kitchen.” I was upset because the rep said if it's on the counter, then they were not covering it.That didn't make sense to me since I've been paying extra. They treated me like I bought a piece of junk and put it on the countertop

There was one other thing. AHS sent something saying I should be getting one month free when I renew. I didn't get that. I called their attention to that and they said they would fix it but they never did. In October, I'm going to be paying for a renewal. I'm disappointed. I shouldn't have to have all this contact back and forth. It's not that complicated. AHS should be able to look at their file on me and say, "We didn't give her that free month. She has been paying for years.”

Sometimes I've had some representatives that it was not their first language, but they were easy to understand and they were good. Then there were some that you could clearly tell that they were reading from a script. So you could get very frustrated very fast and say, “Please stop reading from the script.” Or I’d ask to speak with their supervisor. But they would immediately go to the script because it’s scripted. So it’s hard to communicate.

Usually, when I need to get something done, I have to call and speak to quality control or retention services at American Home Shield. A lot of times, I’ve had appliances break down and they come in and fix it. But I’ve also had appliance break down and they come in and say, “Oh, well, there’s been an update to that under the protocol or new builder’s thing, and now, this is required.” So I’ve had to pay $300 out of pocket on top of the service fee, yet they still fixed one part of it. In some ways, it can be misleading.

Earlier this year, I had an issue with a refrigerator in my rental property. I went online and placed the servicing that evening. Within an hour, I had a vendor who I reached out to. The vendor set up the time and then they went by and fixed the issue. I paid $100 for that service trade agreement. But for what we had, it was more all-encompassing, so it was $100. Now, the flip side of that is I don’t know if what the person came and did cost $100 or $35.

When my dishwasher was broken in my rental property, the call was placed on January 6th and the contractor came out. They allegedly fixed it. But the next day, it still wasn’t working. They had to come back out and tried something else. It still wasn’t working. It wasn’t until the end of March before that dishwasher was replaced. So that was frustrating because that was for my renter. If that would have been in my home, would I have allowed it to go? It wasn’t life-altering, but it was definitely an inconvenience. Since it wasn't life-altering, American Home Shield kept giving the runaround. It’s not always straightforward.

American Home Shield has saved me. They paid for the hot water heater. But I also had to pay out of pocket for them to do an update that was required because it wasn’t up to code based on when the hot water heater was entered when the house was built. So you think you’re gonna be okay but then you’re not, and that’s frustrating. It's that fine print.

My greatest dissatisfaction with American Home Shield is that there’s not an email. I had emailed them before, and I’ve never received a response. Even if you click chat, it doesn’t go to chat. If you click on the website that says, “Contact Us”, there should be multiple ways but the only option is a phone number. So you call and wait on hold. If I’ve ever want to get anything done, I don’t call to ask about a repair, but I call to speak to a new plan. Then I get somebody who answers the phone on the new plan side. Those are very quick to answer because they’re wanting more business. From there, I say, "I need to speak to somebody in the retention service, and quality control.” But that’s wrong. You shouldn’t have to do it. There should be an email support.

Most recently, I got an email notice that I had a payment that was outstanding due, which didn’t make sense because my payments are automated monthly for the service, and then any time there’s a trade service call, that’s an automatic deduction. It comes right out of the account you set up for them to dispatch a vendor to go out and do the call. When I looked at the email that they sent, it said, “Pay it online.” But I couldn’t get any other information except to call. So I had to call and wait on hold. The young lady who answered was in the Philippines. She spoke very well. She was able to communicate. There wasn’t much of a language barrier. But I laughed because the whole time, you hear these chickens cackling in the back.

We are getting ready to sell the rental property that we have and I’m trying to figure out, “If I renew it, am I on the hook? If I cancel a month later, am I on the hook for the whole year? Or how does that work?” But I can’t get anybody to answer. So I’m really torn because I don’t want to cancel it before I sell the house because Murphy’s Law. Everything’s gonna break the minute I cancel it. But I recently thought about looking at other home warranty companies because American Home Shield's prices have jumped so much. For the first three yeats, it was $50 on each house per month. But now, the house that I have in Colorado is up to $61 a month.

I was thankful for the replacement, then I said, "Look, you guys, you're gonna put in a basic unit just like what was originally installed." They said, "Yes, because that's what we do. Whatever the basic current is, that's what we do." That's usually better than the basic original, which was 30 years ago, so I can't complain. But I said, "Look it, I'll pay for the difference to get an energy efficient unit and get it one size up." They wouldn't allow it, and I don't understand what the issue could possibly be. All they would allow was replacement of a basic original, because that's what I had. They've done that several times on several different items in the house.

We've had a couple of occasions where I've had to call and threaten American Home Shield too. Because it's Friday afternoon or Saturday night, and nobody can come out, or it's the old, "You'll be contacted within 24 hours." 48 hours later, we're going. "Isn't somebody supposed to contact me?" It's always the same, "Oh, well, we didn't get that call," or "We sent that call to the wrong, whatever," or "Well, sorry for that. It just got lost."

People make mistakes. I understand that and I don't have an issue with that. That's why I'm still with American Home Shield 30 years later. It just gets to be a bit of a problem when it happens to you personally. When it's the middle of summer, it's Friday afternoon, and your air conditioner goes out, and the best they can do is, "Well, you have to wait till Monday or Tuesday for that 24 hours, 48 hours to actually kick in." Are you kidding me? I say, "I'll pay the difference. Send them out immediately." On the call, "Oh, we can't do that." Unfortunately, whenever we've had an air conditioning issue or a backed up plumbing, it always happens Friday night or Saturday morning, and we always get caught on this 24-business hours.

The call may go into the company, but your call gets buried by all of the real emergencies that people called in and are willing to pay for that Friday, Saturday, or first thing Monday order. Yours just gets shuffled down in there, because you're just a routine call. So you don't get that call till either late Monday or first thing Tuesday maybe. So, now you've been without AC till, at least, Wednesday, and they don't have the part. It has to be ordered. This happened twice with my air conditioner, the first unit that we replaced. The parts that they needed were in town, but the company that was doing the repair work only ran to that distributor twice a week. I had to wait till it was their turn to go to that place to get the part, and then I had to get put on the schedule.

Using my example, a guy comes out on Tuesday morning and says, "It needs part X, Y, Z. I'll place the order." Guess what? Tuesday mornings is when they go to this company to get parts, and then again on Thursday. So now, I have to wait till the Thursday run to go get parts, and then they have to put me on the schedule once the part comes in, which means the part comes in Thursday evening. They put me on the schedule, but Friday is full, so guess what day it is now? The following Monday, because Saturday and Sunday are emergency calls, and a routine part replacement is not an emergency. My furnace or my AC has now been going on seven days, and I ain't gonna get the part put in for 10 days. That's American Home Shield's business model and I don't like it, but I accept it. Still, they could do better.

I've also had a year where I paid my $450, and I may have used them twice. I didn't need a service, but I go back to when I first bought the house that we're presently in. The house had issues, and the people that originally owned the house either lived with the issues or didn't consider them issues. I had somebody from American Home Shield out here every other week for the house. We had them out here for plumbing issues and for minor electrical issues, and a year like that, $75 a call, it's real easy to break even. I had a plumbing issue one time, where they just had to replace a water spigot. I didn't know if that was covered or not, but I called them out anyway.

The guy came out and said, "No, this isn't covered." Just getting a water spigot replaced because of the freeze was a $300 expense to me. American Home Shield makes sense if you've got an older home and you might have issues. They have worked on a dishwasher, a microwave, my refrigerator, and my washer and dryer over the course of 30 years. When you add up what these appliances could have cost me in terms of expense, it makes sense to have something like American Home Shield. It doesn't make sense when I have that year where I didn't need them at all, but I cannot predict when it's gonna be that year, so I just gamble and pay it. If I sit down and add it all up, I come out ahead.