American Home Shield Reviews

At 5:00 in the morning, I went back into the system and selected the earliest possible appointment again, which was that day. It didn't give the computer enough time to reset, figure out and postpone it again. So, the guy showed up. He said the part wasn’t necessary and he was able to clean out the existing pump mechanism. The washing machine has worked happily ever after. That first service call was by a guy who was not competent enough. Because if the second guy had come the first time, I never would have had to put up with all that hassle and delay.

I don't wanna do without American Home Shield but I've had other frustrations. I had a toilet that was smelling and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the smell. So, I reached out and said I need a service call for the toilet. And they said okay and took their $100 fee. But when the plumber arrived, he said they don't do smells. It was the first time I heard about it. If there's something having to do with the toilet that they don't do, then they should say they do everything except smells. I went back to American Home Shield and told them I wanted my $100 back. They said no to that and that it wasn’t their fault that the contractor doesn’t do smells. I understand that things happen. Nothing is perfect. But I was shocked that they would not give the $100 back.

I've recommended AHS to neighbors and family members. And we have a condo at the beach that’s old enough now and I'm considering signing it up. Plus, when my son moved into a townhouse in Gaithersburg, which is a town near where I live, as a housewarming gift, we gave him a year's worth of the warranty with AHS for his benefit. So, I appreciate the service. Most of the technicians who come are excellent and courteous too. They tell me what they're doing. It would be nice if they would give me the same contractor.

Recently, I had a plumbing problem under the kitchen sink and historically, AHS always sent United Air Temp. They were spot-on. But this time, when I had a leak under the kitchen sink, they assigned me to this other company. On the day that he was supposed to come, I got a call from the company saying the technician called in sick. I asked if they only got one guy and they said they only have one who comes to my area. They called me the next day and said the technician had to go to the hospital and so I asked to be released from them so I could get someone in here.

Finally, that guy came the following Monday. He was excellent, so I don't hold it against him personally. But if you don't get prompt servicing, then American Home Shield should have a mechanism to notice that or have me let them know. It might be good for them to send out a message to me within a certain amount of time, such as 48 hours, and ask about the status. AHS is a needed and wanted service. It’s generally well executed with some flaws that could be improved. But I'm not dumping them. Also, when we started with them, the monthly fee was less than $100. It's now $159 a month. And that rankles a little bit.

AHS handled things quickly and efficiently. The technicians they sent have resolved the situation. I would have every intention of renewing with AHS. I've already recommended them to a couple of other people because I've been positively impressed. I told them, "These guys are very legit. They've done everything they've said." I have always shied away from these kinds of home repair warranties because I always felt they were unlikely to be legit or serviceable. But my experience with AHS has been very good. If I never have another claim with them, I would still be happy with the service I've received so far and the peace of mind and saying, "If something goes wrong with one of the sort of infrastructures in the house, I know I have somebody I feel pretty good about relying on.” I've been turned into a non-skeptic.

The last claim, our washing machine stopped. It didn't stop working, but it banged around and made a lot of bad noises. There was something wrong. I went on to American Home Shield's app and I filled in relevant lines. It said, “Do you want to report or make a claim?” I said, “Yes.” It showed of a menu of the things that they cover. I checked an appliance, and from there, it gave me a menu of what was the appliance in question. They said, "Okay. A technician will be in touch with you in the next 24 to 48 hours." The following day, I got called by a local appliance repair company, and they made an appointment to come the following day and look at it.

The tech had to call us back and reschedule because another call he was on was running late, which is understandable. Things happen. But he came when he said he would come for the rescheduled appointment. He immediately went to the machine, looked at it, and judged the issue within minutes. He realized the gravity of the problem. He said, "If I try to repair this thing, it's probably going to cost $900 to $1,000 and you could probably replace it for around $700. So, I have to condemn the machine, because it's not worth the price of repair." I said, "Okay. Whatever is the appropriate thing." He said, "We'll let American Home Shield know." They did it that day, because I heard from AHS by the end of the day. They gave me my options, which included ordering another machine through them or a Lowe's gift card or just a refund of the value that they assessed the machine to be.

The problem with ordering a new machine through them was it would take a week and a half to get the machine. We have four people living in the house. That wasn't practical for us. So, we just took the money, which I was a little skeptical about because I thought, "We go out and buy a machine, how do we know we're going to get the money?" But we did go out and bought another machine, and it was delivered within a day. A day after that, we got the money that AHS deposited it into our checking account for what they claimed as the value of the machine. The machine we bought wasn't the same amount, but I was very pleased. We had to pay a little over $800 for the machine with the delivery. They gave us $791. It was seamless and quick. It paid for our membership. Sign up for AHS. If you have concerns about the longevity or the state of repair of your home's various systems, AHS seems like a good plan.

I moved away from American Home Shield briefly, and I went to HSA, which is an AHS back company. I have different vendors from straight up going through AHS. Maybe the same company, but I get a different set of vendors, and that makes all the difference. It's cheaper, and I get to get my systems fixed. The garbage disposal with the sink needed to be changed. The tech came out and looked at it. He had to order a part. He came back and did something. It wasn't quite fixed, so I had asked for them to come back out. They closed out the order and said that they came back out, and that I wasn't home. That was a lie because I worked from home. I'm home all day. I have cameras all around my house. I had to reopen the claim. That took a month of me going back and forth, and still not able to use my part.

This year, I had to get that same garbage disposal part that was supposed to have been fixed with AHS. I did it through HSA, but when I moved over to HSA, they had better vendors. I use the same vendors, but I never had the same vendors that AHS would send out that I had with HSA. And there are some subtle differences.

AHS outright kept increasing the deductible. Based on the poor merchants, it wasn't worth my payment. I will pay for service and quality all day long, but the waits were too long. It only happened at the end of the year. My theory is it grew so much in popularity that it made it hard to handle the workload. But with HSA, it's a cheaper price per month. I get a military discount. I don't care about the deductible because I seem to have good vendors. Even with the open claim, I've never had a bad report about a vendor. They come out, something else happens, or they have to come back out, but they kept in touch. They called and showed up on time. They were always nice and courteous. They took time to explain what's going on.

Going through HSA is much simpler, and maybe it's the different pool of vendors that service that side. Also, I like the fact that with HSA if I have three plumbing issues, if I put them in one claim, I pay one $100. With AHS, it will be $300. If a plumber was out here and he checked a leak, a toilet, handle or something, and maybe one other thing, it's just one $100. With AHS, I gotta pay $100 for the toilet, $100 for the leak, and $100 for the sink. I don't like the individual deductible per item. But with a good vendor, I could have dealt with it. If somebody fixed it right, hopefully, they didn't have to come back. I love the fact that if the repair is in the same system, I just pay one fee on the HSA side.

Within the contract itself, AHS had a limit on Freon. After that limit was reached, I had to pay out of pocket. For HSA, I don't. I pay the $100 deductible, and if it needs 300 pounds Freon, they take care of it. There's no limit. I always get the upgrade. Recently, I had an issue with both of my units, and I tried to put in the claim, and I didn't see them located on the online. The vendor said, "AHS said that they gave you a payout, and you didn't get something fixed." I said, "I absolutely got something fixed because I paid an additional $4000." It was a cut off, so I took the money, got what they told me to fix, plus some additional upgrades for the code, and I had to pay the difference with the Freon. I got wet switches put on the unit. I kept having problems with the same unit. When I had AHS, the vendors seemed weren't doing what they're supposed to do.

I added lightning protection on the outside. I paid 4 grand out of pocket. AHS tried to say, "You didn't fix it, so therefore, what you're trying to fix is not covered." I said, "That's absolutely a lie. And see, this is what I mean." I sent that paperwork in, and I still had to call in the claim to put it out there. It was, "She did get that done." I was able to get both units serviced.

Recently the garage door wouldn't open. There was a disconnect between the button on the wall and the sensor. The tech changed out something with the wiring and the thing that goes all the way down. He made everything communicate and talk. He was amazing. He even tightened up the other ones on the other side.

On a second occasion, miscommunications arose when I rescheduled a repair. Despite personally contacting the same technician, the system hindered the reconciliation process, leading to delays as personnel needed time to adjust shifts and routes. Unfortunately, this caused drawn-out delays and created the need for additional calls.

I have a refrigerator that’s dying. The freezer part leaks into the refrigerator part. I keep a large bowl and a small bowl inside to catch the water. I don’t have a packed refrigerator since I’m just one person, but the first time it happened it soaked everything, and I had no idea what was going on until I figured out where the leak was coming from. After that, I called American Home Shield. A young technician came out, and he was great. He unpacked my freezer, took a picture, and packed it back up. He said there was some tubing that he cleared out and told me it would be fine, that it happens sometimes and it’s not really a problem. And for a while, it was fine. But about a month later, it started leaking again.

So, I called AHS again, and another technician came out. He said the first guy didn’t do it right, not to knock him, but just that it hadn’t really worked. He fixed it, and everything seemed okay. But about a month later, it started leaking again. I called AHS and told them I needed a replacement because it’s old, and that’s what people have been telling me. But they told me that if I need a replacement, I will have to call within 24 hours after they fix it if it’s not working. The problem is it’s a slow leak. It takes a while to show up, and it’s never going to fail within 24 hours. So, I just let it go because I’m fine living with this refrigerator, even though I have to be careful.

Sometimes, if I’m not paying attention, the large bowl fills up and overflows. It takes up about a square foot of space in my fridge, which wouldn’t work if I had a family or if my husband were still here and we had it full of food. To me, that’s a stupid policy, because there are plenty of things that are slow leaks. Now I’d have to pay another repairman $125 just to come out again and lie, so I can call within 24 hours and say it doesn’t work, or he has to lie and say it’s unfixable. Meanwhile, it works fine for about a month before it starts leaking again. I just don’t think that’s a great policy, so for now, I’m just living with it.

There was also an incident with American Home Shield when attempting to purchase an induction stove that took over three weeks of back and forth because the store didn't have it in stock, despite scheduling my delivery. While these complications weren't directly related to American Home Shield, having to use their Lowe's gift card increased that burden. I eventually planned around the delay by investigating other buying possibilities; however, the obligation may deserve a reevaluation as well to allow for broader compatibility.

When reflecting on the service costs, it has significantly increased, currently standing at double the original rate, now set at $50 a month, with a service fee of $125 for calls made. All things considered, American Home Shield provides adequate service, especially by way of the friendly, patient technicians once they arrive, though accommodating incoming information comes more slowly. Overall, I would rate my experience a 5 for service and a 4 for cost. I understand, especially given the numerous experiences I've had over four years, that there's plenty of potential left should improvements emerge in these areas.

Additionally, they took forever. They're called Pronto, but they took weeks. Most of those reviews that I saw about them are related to having to go to them through American Home Shield. It would be good if we have the option to pick our plumber and not have to go with them. When you call them, either they don't pick up and don't call you back or they pick up but they're rude. I called them a couple times, trying to figure out what the situation was after leak detection came. A couple of days went by, I called them again, but they didn't answer. I left a message but didn't get a call back. It was a whole week after leak detection came that I called them and they finally answered. They said they were about to call me because their service manager got the report back from leak detection. It was the most convenient excuse and they gave us this astronomical price to fix it.

I talked to another plumber from Fix the Drip Plumbing and he said it was the worst, most expensive and most inconvenient way to fix it. He gave us an alternate route to where we could fix it by just rerouting the water line through the attic down the wall so we don't have to cut concrete. I ended up fixing it myself, finding where the pipe is, capping it off, then rerouting it back to where the source was. Now it works fine. I got half a month worth of water bill with no leak. It went down to $170 instead of $330. I was able to do it within the cost of the cash payout that I got from American Home Shield for the material.

The process with American Home Shield was fine as far as getting the claim set up. It was nice that I could, at least, talk to somebody pretty easily. I didn't have to call 10 different times and do a bunch of menus and talk to a robot for a while. But it was at times a little difficult to understand people's accents. That puts a wrench in communications. Also, it's a little confusing about what is covered and to what extent. The person I talked to didn't know what was covered and what was not. There could also be more transparency upfront about a cash out option. That was a last-minute thing when I was talking to American Home Shield. I was telling them the Pronto Plumbing wanted to charge us and we couldn't pay that. All of a sudden, they told me about the cash out option. I wouldn't have even started the process if I had known that from the beginning.

We have American Home Shield because the seller of the house we bought paid for a year of the home warranty. But I don't plan on renewing next year. We paid for an annual subscription which is $700, and we got paid 300 and something dollars for this specific repair. If I put $650 in the bank, I could have just taken $350 out to pay for this repair. I don't think that it's worth it to renew.

This is day number two. So, I said, "Get your manager on the phone." I never ever got to talk to anybody, but a customer service person that did the scheduling. I wrote letters. I emailed. I did everything. So, he said that he got in my house at 1:45. They sent another gentleman that came around 5 o'clock. The other guy that came first sat there from 1:00 to 2:00 to 5:00 waiting on this guy to come. So, they sent a second guy. He had to go to Home Depot and buy the piece that he said needed to be put on. I have a brand-new bathroom that I had put on, put in, and he took and put this putty around. He said it's caulking. I told him that bathroom never had caulking, that the piece that you turn the shower on and off is flushed through the wall. It does not need caulking. So, he couldn't get that on right. It never worked. They didn't leave my house until 7:00 p.m. after all-day service that wasn't done.

I told them, "Just please leave." And I called again. I told them, "Do not send an inexperienced plumber to my house. Send somebody that has some experience and been with the company for a while." I still never got to speak to the branch manager. I'm sending emails. I'm talking to this guy named Tamaro. I'm talking to a girl named Sierra. I'm talking to all these people that answered the phone. They sent an email, they said they escalated this to the escalating department.

Yesterday, they sent out David, and still my plumbing is just still not resolved. I have a mirror that's on my wall when you come up the bathroom. They told me I had to have that whole mirror removed, a whole cut in my wall, to put a valve in. I have to cut the water off and cut the water back on to take a shower to keep it from dripping. I'm 72 years old. I've been in this house since 2005. Nobody ever told me that I had to put a hole in my wall and take down a mirror to fix a plumbing problem. I don't get it. I'm still lost.

A young man came out and said he did not know how to fix the issue. AHS then sent North Alabama out. They came and said they had to order parts. They ordered parts, came back out, but the parts were wrong. They went back and said they had to order more parts. They ordered more parts, came out, but those were again wrong. They did that five times they did that. And the last time they came out with the wrong part, the tech said he'd have to go back and get AHS to order more parts. They had ordered the wrong ones again. This has been going on for months. My stove still doesn't work, and they haven't come back.

The last time I called AHS, which was a few weeks ago, I said, "Can we just say this thing is not fixable and get me a new stove, please? I really need my stove to work." The rep said, "I'll have someone call you back." I said, "Okay. Will they call me back today?" She said, "No later than tomorrow." That has been over two weeks ago, no one has called me back, and I still don't have a working stove.

I have an almost brand-new stove. It's a little over a year old. It's not like I'm asking AHS to fix something old and decrepit. And I cannot believe they won't return my call. The guy that has been comng out and trying to repair it keeps saying that this is a very difficult thing that he keeps telling AHS exactly what to order, but they keep ordering the wrong thing. So, the last time, they sent him a drawing and said, "Please circle the part you want ordered." He did that. He sent it back to them. He said, "They sent me a drawing this time, and I circled what part I needed. I should have it this time." He came out, and was, "Oh, my God, they ordered the wrong part again." This is crazy.

In terms of my years of being a customer with AHS, I don't make a lot of claims, but when I'm making a claim, I feel like I have to pay this money for them. They automatically gonna charge me. And then, the other company comes. My understanding of AHS, according to my contract understanding, is that if they're unable to fix the problem that they are going to replace it. In past situations, I have appliances in here now where they didn't replace it, and I just said, "I give up. I give up on it."

The requests are not that many, but in terms of saying whether they get me someone that's supposedly coming into my house, they've been good. The turnaround time to put the claim in, normally, within not even an hour, I can get a response back. If it's not on the weekend, I can get a response back, and they say, "Okay. This is the company. A technician will be coming from this company. This is their phone number. Somebody should be sending you a message or calling you or something like that." That's good service to me.

The service guy that came out this time was very personable, very courteous, and efficient. He replaced our toilet and he did a good job. The only problem that we've had now is the lid and seat are not fastened completely, so it's slipping, so I was gonna call him back and ask if they're in the neighborhood they could stop by and just tighten that bolt, because you have to get behind it and I can't get down on my knees. My favorite two service providers here locally have been All Points Plumbing and Eagle Eye Appliance Repair. Those two companies always do a good job, and their technicians are knowledgeable and courteous and responsive. They answer any questions you might have and make sure that the problem is resolved before they take off.

As far as American Home Shield, I've had some horrible experiences too, and particularly, most recently, with our washer. I submitted the work order in mid-November And finally got the washer replaced last week. It was a solid two months without a washing machine. During that time, we had to have three companies, five technicians look at it, and six parts ordered before American Home Shield would say, “Replace it.” That was absurd because it cost American Home Shield, the provider, and me negatively because new parts were expensed to put on there, the technicians' time for all those companies to come out here. The first company that came was Hotpoint and they had two really young technicians come. They were here for a while. First they diagnosed it, and then when the parts came in a week or two later, it was over Thanksgiving holidays and they came out and replaced the parts in the washer. They said they tested it before they left because we didn't wash them. The utility room's not big enough for all of us.

They assured us that it was working, and then we tried to use it and it was doing the exact same thing as it was before. They didn't fix it. So then I called American Home Shield and they sent the same company back and I called that company and said I want a skilled technician to come that has experience and knows what they're doing. So he came and he looked at the parts that the other guys installed, and they installed them incorrectly. They installed one part on the outside of the bottom of the washer and it should have been installed on the inside, for example.

So, he said he corrected the mistakes and that it should be good to go. And then we were able to wash one load of clothes and then it started doing the same thing again, and it fills up with water and the water won't cut off, so it's gonna flood the house kind of thing. And then the control board on the washing machine was going crazy, saying it was going to take 260 minutes to wash a load of clothes, and it was just clearly not fixed. So then I called American Home Shield back and I was told that Hotpoint assigned it to another provider. I don't know if they just didn't want to deal with it anymore, and we obviously wanted somebody else that knew what they were doing to fix it, so they sent another company.

That company sent their technician and their technician worked on it, and said he fixed it. He left and we experienced the same thing. It still wasn't fixed, and then I called American Home Shield. We care for our 91-year old mom and we have to be able to wash her linens and so forth. I called American Home Shield and I was not happy, and I said, “I want A different company or I want a new washing machine. Just replace the washer. It's going to cost you less, going to cost me less inconvenience,” and they wouldn't do it.

The first line help desk kept repeating the same thing. They had to have a diagnostic report from a provider that said it had to be replaced, that it was not repairable. And apparently, that's not what the technicians wrote on the report they send to you, because they said that they fixed it when they left, so I guess they thought they did, because they didn't stick around long enough to test it thoroughly. American Home Shield hadn't received a report that said it was not fixable. So I said, “Well, that's because they didn't stick around and test it.” So I said I want to speak to a supervisor, and after being on the phone for an hour and a half in that particular call, they transferred me to the escalation department which was totally useless. They told me the exact same thing that the first line help desk told me.

It was extremely frustrating. Then he said he was going to transfer me. He transferred me to some person. It sounded like in the States, and that person said she needed to pull up my account, put me on hold, and hung up on me and never called back. Needless to say, I've been on the phone two hours trying to get this resolved and got hung up on after all that. So my blood pressure was probably through the roof. I just sat there and I was like, “Okay. How am I going to get this addressed aside from letting the third company come back and finally make the right call about it?” After all of that, I just went in and said it’s still not fixed. AHS sent a third company, and the guy walked in and I said, “Okay. Do you have the history on this particular repair?” And he said, “No, I don't have any information. I thought, “Oh, that's a red flag, If you're the third company that's been dispatched, why wouldn't you have the history to know exactly what's been replaced and what they've done?” He said he didn't have any of that. And so I had to go through the full spiel again about what had happened.

One guy, probably from Sears, came out, looked at the refrigerator and said, "It looks like a compressor problem. We don't do compressor problems. See you later." He spent 10 minutes here. He pulled the refrigerator out, looked at the back of the fridge, said it was a compressor problem and said that, "We don't do that." I had to call back American Home Shield and they got me another company to come out that did compressors. The guy ordered a compressor. It took nine days to get the compressor in. He finally brought it over on Monday, installed it and the refrigerator is working.

AHS has a list of vendors and those are who they call, but the vendors weren't great. I wonder if AHS chose those vendors because they were cheaper. I'm sure they will change some of their vendors after what we've been through. They just need to have better vendors. However, the response from AHS was very good from the people I spoke with. I had to wait a while but my fridge is fixed. I had to eat nonperishable foods for a week, but that's okay. I like that the people responded to my phone calls. That was the most important thing. They were very understanding and responsive.