American Home Shield Reviews

I asked American Home Shield to get the next company out for a second opinion. They came out and said the water heater is bad. They see a little bit of a leak, and initially, they said the PRV valve wasn't bad at all. I told the guy the last company literally came out here and told me it was bad and that it was so high that I'm gonna cause pipes to break in my house. I asked this repair guy to check, but he said it didn't matter if he checked this or that water hose. It's still gonna be the same. I asked him if we could just do it for peace and sanity of my mind because something doesn't sound right. So, we went to the backyard, and he checked the hose back there. And it was high for him, and I saw it. But it was way different than what it was when the other guy had tested my water hose.

The repair guy wrote the report up and said that the PRV and the water heater were bad. But American Home Shield denied me on the water heater and the PRV valve was secondary, and it's not covered. So, now I'm upset because the guy initially told me that my PRV valve wasn't bad, but because I persisted and was insistent on him checking again, it turned out bad. Now, all of a sudden, I just screwed myself. So, I paid $1,600 to get my water heater changed out of my pocket from somebody else, because it was higher to go through American Home Shield and the company because they weren't gonna cover anything.

American Home Shield sent the third company out, and the repair guy said he didn’t know why I was being told these. He asked if any of them ever checked my water heater pressure. I said no. He said he checked it along with the three hoses and the water heater and all of them are within limits and none of them are issues. So, now I'm really mad. It's easy to file a claim with American Home Shield, though on this last incident, it took me four extra phone calls to get my claims refunded and my rate dropped. It was super high compared to my neighbor, whom I recommended. His was super low compared to me, who has been with American Home Shield for many years. I'm on a temporary price right now and I like it. If I were going off this price, it'd be great. But I've not been paying this price.

I recommended Cinch to my neighbor when I was dealing with my water heater. By the time I got done with the bad situation, I called him back and told him I was sorry I got him to sign up and wished I had never recommended them. It seems like every time I've called them to come out, they've always found an excuse not to fix my appliances or issues. It's always something in the fine print that they use to say they can't cover it. At times, they feel like a scam, and that they just go through the motions to figure out a way to deny your claim. I only got covered from my garbage disposal, and everything else has been denied.

The technician who came out knew exactly what he was doing. He was a consummate professional. He was friendly, very knowledgeable, answered all my questions, and was very competent and amenable. The product works fine, and I'm very satisfied. Having the coverage means having the benefit of not having to do it anymore. I'm 81 years old. I used to do all the maintenance in the house and the garage myself because I wanted to save money, but I'm tired of doing it now. I'm still updating my house, but you can't be an expert in everything. I'd learn how to do something, buy all the special tools, and then never do it again.

I had a leak in one toilet, but I didn't pay much attention to it until the water company called and said I had used 25,000 gallons in 60 days instead of my usual 4,000. I live by myself, so I knew something was wrong. I started checking the water meter and turned off the valves at the toilets. The next day, I had still lost another 200 gallons, and I realized there were two leaking toilets.

When I called American Home Shield, I first reported one leaking toilet, but after I found the second one, I called back and told them. They changed the work order to include both toilets, and it didn't cost me extra. I thought they were going to charge another $125, but because they were both plumbing issues, they added them to the same work order. I’d rather talk to customer service than use the automated system. So, I just keep asking for customer service until they finally connect me with a person. I'm very happy with the results, and I hope they continue.

American Home Shield said they would send me somebody, and they sent me someone from Sears. Sears then called to make the appointment. I was very pleased with the scheduling. It worked out on the right timing. The gentleman that came in and looked at the machine knew his business. He told me he was gonna order some parts and also let me know date when the parts would arrive. The parts were here a little bit earlier. Then Sears called and let me know they could come in to fix my machine a day earlier. They came in a day or two earlier, and everything worked out fine.

So far, the washing machine is working out pretty good. I have not had to call them back to fix anything. One time, I turned it on and I had to just turn it off. I've been told this by Whirlpool, when I had a problem when I first bought the machine. They told me just turn it off and disconnect it, and that will reboot it. I did the same thing, and it worked right away. But that was the only incident and I might have caused it because I turned it from quick wash to colors, and the switch threw off my sensors. I disconnected it, rebooted it, and just reconnected it again. It's been working ever since they fixed it.

My sister in San Antonio referred me to American Home Shield. They told me that they would credit them for having referred me. But when I asked my sister if she ever got a credit, she said she never got anything from American Home Shield. She said perhaps it's because the account is under her husband's name and phone number and not hers, and I didn't know that. When I signed up, I submitted her phone number, but the account is not on her phone number or on her.

I've had people who have had American Home Shield, and they canceled it because they never used it. I get that. But I like the peace of mind of knowing that the things I can't fix are covered and someone can come out and get them fixed. But sometimes, the quality of the people who have come out has been sketchy. The website is easy to use, but you can't say you have two sinks that are broken. You have to call it in. The customer service reps do a good job, but sometimes it's hard to understand the person at the call center. Price-wise, American Home Shield is getting too expensive.

After that initial attempted tune-up and then looking at the repair, it took over a week to get results back on what the next steps were. And I was calling to follow up. They claimed pre-existing conditions, and that's not the case. The units were old, and we knew that, but they worked. So, they denied my claim. And I raised havoc. I called and called. I tried to be nice, but overall, I got along with most I spoke with. I went as far as I found the CEO on LinkedIn, and I sent him a message. The next day, I received an email from a department. And now they're waiting on me, and this is my fault.

We replaced one system. My significant other is six months pregnant. And we had to get one fixed, at least my window units- we had to do something. So, they escalated it. They sent me an update back, and they offered to pay 900-some dollars towards one new unit. Then 1,200 and some. I said, "We've already bought a new one." And we also went ahead and got a matching furnace for that system, just in case. I said, "Can you just put the money towards the one we already replaced on top of that for the other? And that way you're not losing any more money, and it's still doing what I feel is right by us." And they've asked for the invoice. They can have it, but I mistakenly threw away the paperwork. But I'll have a new invoice today.

But prior to the threat of the lawsuit, they asked for my entire home inspection. I did send them the AC part section of the home inspection, because that's not on the contract. And they tried to say they wouldn't honor it. I didn't care to fight. It is what it is. Hopefully, after I send them this invoice, I'll have a more permanent resolution by Thursday. It's a really good deal on the system either way. The people you speak with on the phone are very nice, but they also can't really do anything for you. But American Home Shield, they're really shitty. It's been frustrating.

My frustration is not with the service fee but with the lack of accountability. Customers do not choose the contractors, so when a repair fails shortly afterward, American Home Shield should stand behind the work performed by its vendors. I also reached out directly to the original HVAC company in hopes they would return to address the issue. I encourage American Home Shield to improve its contractor oversight, require vendors to stand behind their repairs, and empower customer service representatives to provide meaningful solutions instead of scripted responses. As a loyal customer of nearly two years, I expected better.

The second technician came out, spent more time here, and diagnosed the problem with pretty similar wording to what the first technician said. He said, “I'll put the notes in. And if American Home Shield approves it, I'll order the part, and we'll fix it.” That went pretty smoothly. It took about a week for the parts to get ordered and then scheduled them to come back. They came back to fix it. It took a couple of hours. I came down and the technician showed me that the drum was indeed working. I said, okay. But it went downhill after that. I went to use the machine later that night. The cycle ran for 15 minutes, and all of a sudden, I got this weird alarm. When I went to look to see what was going on, there was water everywhere. It flooded a portion of the basement.

I called the second company back that night. I knew that they were closed, because this happened about 8:30. I said, “I don't know what happened. You guys were here. Water was not the issue. It wasn't leaking, so something happened during the repair. I need you to call me back first thing in the morning.” I called American Home Shield and after being on hold for 45 minutes, I finally got a person on the phone to explain what was happening. They said they were gonna put in another ticket. I had to call both American Home Shield and the company again the next morning to say this repair wasn't done well or wasn't done correctly. The company did send somebody out.

The technician told me that several screws were not tightened properly. It was loose. So, apparently, that caused this leak. I've since had to rip up my entire basement. I have no carpet down there. I've had to pop the baseboards off. I called my homeowner's insurance, and I explained to them what happened. While they are paying a portion of the damage to my house, they were gonna try to recoup that payout from the contractor. I am annoyed at American Home Shield and how they handled the situation. If I'm using them as my warranty company and they're telling me that I have to use their people. I'm relying on them to send somebody that's going to do the work and do it well without causing additional damage to my house.

The first time I called, it must have been like 28 minutes, and then I had to hang up ‘cause I was working from home. Then the next time I called, it was about half an hour. Again, same thing, I had to hang up. Then next time I called, it was close to 38 minutes, and I hung up. In the end, I had to go to the app and text, and somebody texted me back, and they issued the service request again. But the thing is, the one and a half hours of my life were wasted trying to reach American Home Shield, which is not a good deal. There should be a representative when you call, and when you’re trying to reach out to companies, somebody should pick up the phone, ‘cause this business is only done through phone. There is no office that I'm gonna go to.

I had one water heater replacement job. They gave me 500 for it, which doesn't even cover the cost of the water heater, let alone the installation costs. The company that they're working with is called My Cousin Vinny. That guy wanted to charge me $1,800 to connect the water heater. The water heater was like $700. So, the 500 didn't even cover the water heater cost, which it should have, but that's all they gave me. It was non-negotiable. So far, my experience with AHS hasn't been good.

Our garage springs were broken and AHS said they would send some third-party agent. They wouldn't be able to repair, and we have to do the modification, even though the parts are available in the market very easily. They wanted to remove all the existing hardware for the springs and put new ones for exterior springs. They quoted $600 for that one.

Before signing up with AHS, let them go through every appliance you have and let the customer service representative explain what is covered and not. They will say everything is covered but when the actual problem comes, they will say, "Under section xyz, it is not covered. Under section abc, only this much is covered." No one reads all those documents.

Essentially, when they came out, they charged me the full price that they do for that, $100. But it was a small little thing that they came and did, and they ignored the rest of the stuff. I felt like they didn't do their part on the end to document it very well. Also, they didn't try to help me to make the situation better.

I had sent pictures of all of the things to them, and I was texting before they came out. I said that somebody could come back out to take a look at the things that they missed. But they said, "It's going to be another service call that we're going to charge you for.” Overall, it's really bad. They didn't really help. They keep telling me, "Oh, this is what it is.” It's pretty disappointing.

Out of the three things, only one thing was repaired. They didn't even do anything. They were trying to charge me more for them to come back out to take a look at them. I would like a refund for that service call. But they refuse to do that, so I'm just disappointed. AHS has to be worth it. If it's not worth it, why would somebody be a member?

Also, whoever their representatives are, it seems like they are overseas. They're not fully able to communicate, seems like a limited vocabulary. That was a frustrating part as well. And the other thing is, I was expecting them to at least make the situation a little better, however they can, but it seems like left high and dry.

Having American Home Shield, I like that I don't have to go shopping when there's a problem. However, they keep going up on the price every year. Also, when I first started with them back in 2010, they answered the phone, and they took care of the problem right away, but now, that's not true anymore. You get to talk to an AI bot, and they send somebody out. You don't get to choose or say anything. You don't have any input at all. When I had an issue with my refrigerator freezer, the resolution was almost two months.

I had a small problem. AHS said, "We'll send the company out.” I tried to look the company up on the internet, tech reviews, but I couldn't find the company name. But I thought, "I guess it's okay.” I've used AHS before. I never had a problem. The company came. I described the problem, that the water kept running. I said something's wrong inside the tank. The water keeps running. I went into the office, and after seven minutes, they said, "Okay, it’s fixed.” “That was fast.” I went in and said, "It's still running. You didn't fix it.” They said, "We put a new handle on.” I said, "But that didn't fix the problem.” I spent probably three weeks on this. I kept calling AHS to say the company did not fix the problem. They were very unprofessional. I couldn't even find a review. And AHS kept telling me that there’s nothing they could do about it. I had to use that company. I asked another company, and they said, “We can't do that.” It went on and on.

Finally, I escalated. The managers would promise me, “We're gonna give you another company.” “They would come back. I would call three days later. I wouldn't get any notice of anything. They'd say, "You have to use the same company.” This went on for a couple of weeks. They would say, “Just give us till tomorrow,” whatever. You call back the next day, late in the day, and it's, "Oh, no. You gotta use the same —" over and over. It's not a big request. I’m not asking for a whole new heating system.

I made up my mind. I tried calling their headquarters, which routes you back to the same group that I started with. Some guy said to me, “I see what you're going through. I'm gonna take care of this for you. I'm going to assign you another company.” That's what it took. And the next company came out and fixed it in 10 minutes. I've been with AHS since August of 2020. They were fine before. Something dramatically changed. Last time I used them was last year for a small thing, but they were fine. The whole process this time, all of a sudden, changed. I don't know what happened. They clearly it, but it was so aggregating. And only because somebody finally took sympathy and said, “I'm going against the process here. If they ask me about it, I'm just going to say, I can see it's been going on for weeks. I see all the notes. It's ridiculous. It's a waste of our time and hers.” I'm thinking of looking for another company.

The water softener is not covered under insurance. I contracted with some other vendor directly and fixed it. But they came and inspected it. That was good. Initially, we thought it was because of the tap and they replaced the tap. That is also fine. But at least they should let us know whether the issue is fixed or not. They simply came, did something and left without letting for the first time. But the second time, the tech came and showed me the things. AHS at least refunded that one. Otherwise, I thought of skipping that time. So far, I'm happy with the service and I'd like to continue.