American Home Shield Reviews

The one I'm concerned with now is on June the 25th. I requested repair of water valves in a couple of lavatories in my bathrooms, one in a half bath and one in a full bath. Also a shower head that was leaking, and a shower valve that was leaking in my main bathroom. Since that time, I still have no resolution on it from American Home Shield. They have offered me cash in lieu of payments, which I've turned both of them down because they were chump-change amounts that you couldn't even hire a plumber for a couple of hours.

American Home Shield sent two different plumbers out here. The first was assigned to do it was a group called Giants Plumbing. They came out, made an estimate, and was supposed to come back and fix it, but didn't. They said because of the cash in lieu of offer that I turned down. Now, I'm not sure what that has to do with anything. If American Home Shield had approved their estimate, then I presume that the plumber would come out here. I'm not a plumber. I don't wanna be a plumber, and I don't want a DIY project. So, I've told them that.

They put me off for several weeks, and then sent another plumber out here, a group called Plumber for Hire. They came in and said they were diagnosing, and were gonna prepare an estimate and buy parts. They left and never came back. I talked to them a week later. It was a small leak in the valve. I'm not sure that they could have found the parts because I live in a house that's built back in the 50s, and I was trying to get the plumbing. But the plumbing to the shower is accessible from the backside as well as the front, and they need to fix it. It was left by this last plumber in a state of disrepair that it cannot be used. In fact, the shower is kept off with a pipe cap, and the valves are turned off and it's unusable.

I've been working with American Home Shield over a series of weeks to get this remedied by sending a plumber. It doesn't have to be one of the ones before. In fact, I certainly don't want that last one. I want a professional plumber to come out here, and fix my shower and stop the leaking valves in two lavatories. This is not a monumental job. This is something that supposedly could be fixed within reason for money. I pay them $150 a month for the peace of mind of being able to call on them when I need them. My wife and I are 80-year-old retirees, and we depend on this insurance to see that our homestead is kept in good repair. I find that the methods of talking to American Home Shield are totally unsatisfactory. About as far as you ever get is some call center with people who barely speak English, mostly Asian.

I've never had anyone of any part of the whole organization to address this problem. I was never shown the estimates of either of the plumbers. In fact, in that last plumber, he came by and told me he located some of the parts, but he couldn't find some of the parts. They just brought him in for a second opinion, which did no good. He's the one who tore up the shower to the point you can't use it.

I'm now trying to get American Home Shield to do what the contract calls for because I was never notified that there were any non-covered items that I had there and asked them to fix. I sent them pictures of this to the plumbers, and I presume they showed them to American Home Shield. But this thing has gotten absolutely incredulous, and I want them to schedule an appointment with me with a bona fide plumber, and have him come out and fix this thing.

I'm not a plumber, but I know enough about it that it can be fixed by going through the back wall that backs up to the shower of a small closet that we have there. If the access is not large enough now, you can always cut out a piece of sheetrock and reach it. The other thing about that is, when that second man came, he flooded that wall between the closet and the bathroom. Now, I've got mold growing in my closet, so I've had to move stuff out.

I've got a lot of correspondence that I've had with different folks in American Home Shield. I've had conversations, but they have a phone chase that is impervious. It's almost impossible to get through to anybody that you can really talk to. Their chat service is less than good. They can answer some staid, little questions that they have in the box, like frequently asked thing. But trying to get any service out of it is impossible. I need someone who is able to provide best service.

I had to turn into the ugly veteran to get to a manager who proceeded to tell me that between Howard and the manufacturer of the water heater, they couldn't figure out what the problem was. I find that hard to believe. The manager couldn't tell me when they could come back. I told them, ”If you can't tell me when you're gonna come back to my house, don't bother coming back.” And that was all they put in the report.

American Home Shield closed that one, transferred it to another one on Thursday the 20th, and they dispatched another guy out here on Monday, but he showed up on Tuesday, the 26th. By then, I'd hired my own people. And they showed up. They came out on Monday. And they got on the phone with Renai, the manufacturer.

So, I'm getting a brand new upgraded water heater today, and I'm not paying out of pocket. The other problem we're having is that the people that I hired got fired by Rinnai because they were being greedy. When Cody, the technician from We Care Plumbing, Rinnai comped them $450 in labor. And I know there was some other comp and labor going on too.

When Cody left my house on Wednesday night, everything was in place. He was going to pick up a brand new unit, come to my house Thursday morning, and install it. But Thursday morning, I got a phone call from the general manager saying they hadn't been paid. It's pretty much well-known that if you don't complete the job, the money doesn't get paid until the job's complete. I told him, “Unless you ask me for money halfway through the job, you're not getting paid until the job's complete. So, I'm not sure why you're making that statement.” He said, “We're not getting paid in accordance with our hourly rate.” I lost it on him. I said, “At this point, you making that statement, you ain't gonna get paid at all.” People should go somewhere else. I chose Select Home Warranty.

Whenever I am submitting any service request, if it is not working, somehow, they are showing something from their law that this is not covered because of some reason. From the beginning, when I take the plan, they said that everything is covered. All the appliances, whenever it is going to not working, so they are gonna fix it, or if it needs to be replaced, they're gonna replace it. But after taking the plan, whenever I submit any service request, they show a lot of laws that, "This is not working because we only cover this part. If this happen with this reason, then we cover. With other reason, then it's not." But before taking the plan, nobody explained like this. They said that, "Okay. We will cover everything for your appliances."

So, to me, this is like a tricky things they are doing. This is not good. My washer was working fine. Suddenly, it stopped working. So, it should be covered in the plan. Now, they are saying that the control board is not covered by the plan. How could I know which part is covered and which part is not covered? Before, I had another house that I had American Home Shield for also. Once I just called them with a video call, and the technician was good enough. He gave me all the feedback and real thing that okay, what should I do and what should I not. So, that thing was a little bit different for me. But the in-person technician is doing something wrong.

American Home Shield’s contractor came out on time and was very thorough. They did a good job. I would recommend American Home Shield. It was a great experience. However, the guy who came out to do the repair asked for me because the insurance wouldn't cover the refrigerant fluid. He said he would call me later and get my credit card information or my debit card, however I'm going to pay it. I don’t like to do it that way. The guy wanted to be paid promptly and I was just coming home. I felt uneasy about the request for payment. But I was only out about $147 and American Home Shield picked up the rest.

We've been with AHS for two or three years now. They're great. I ended up recommending them to my other family members, and they've gotten on the AHS train as well. My mom uses them all the time in Louisiana. I usually set claims up via the app which is pretty convenient and straightforward for the most part. However, I have a distinct issue with my account where it doesn't show that I'm subscribed for heating, ventilation, and HVAC work, although that is part of my plan. When I open up the app, it says that HVAC is not covered on my plan. I call them and they tell me they're sorry and that they'll update it. Then they manually put in the request for HVAC work. The plan covers it, and ultimately, they honor it. I've flagged that with them in the past as well. They keep promising to make sure that that is an available option. Also, if they keep hiking the rates, it's hard to say whether it's good value or not until I've seen next year's bill.

I have contacted American Home Shield repeatedly, only to be told that their contractors cannot find anything wrong with the system. Meanwhile, water continues to leak into my home! How can there be nothing wrong when my ceilings are being damaged? I have paid too much money for this home warranty, service calls, and additional repairs to still be dealing with the same unresolved issue. I am now concerned about hidden water damage, mold, and the potential cost of repairing my kitchen and living room ceilings.

The bottom line is that American Home Shield arranged for the installation of this HVAC system, and nearly three years later, I am still dealing with leaks, property damage, and no accountability. I am beyond frustrated with the lack of professionalism, poor customer service, and repeated failure to resolve this problem. I should not have to keep paying for service calls while my home continues to sustain damage. I would strongly encourage anyone considering American Home Shield to carefully research their contractors, coverage, and claims process before purchasing a warranty. My experience has been extremely disappointing, and I am still waiting for someone to take responsibility and provide a permanent solution.

What I didn't think was great was they did not tell me that the air handler with the air conditioning coils in it that sits on top of the furnace, that if something happened to that, it could potentially compromise the furnace. Two weeks later, that did happen. The AC system got low on Freon and it iced up and caused water to condense on it and run down through the furnace. So then they came out for that service call to look at that.

The AC also was not covered, which I wasn't happy about the coverage on that through the warranty. The whole coils had failed or leaking Freon. If you couldn't put Freon back in, it would just leak out. So, rather than authorize the replacement of the whole system, the solution that the warranty provided was to replace the coils, and they said the AC system was covered, but none of the cost of replacing that was covered because something had to be modified.

I didn't understand why American Home Shield denied any coverage for that. So, that was going to be $2,600 to replace the coils in an 18-year-old AC system, which made no sense to me. They had that upgrade program where they said that they would give me a quote on that. I asked Foxcroft to send me that, and I never did receive what the discounted replacement would be through that upgrade program from American Home Shield. I did ask them to email it to me, and I didn't ever get it. That may have been because I was kind of complaining about the whole situation.

They left there and did not test the furnace. This was right at the end of summer, and they were starting to get cold nights in Ohio, where my mother lives, where the system is. They told her before they left that the furnace might have been damaged by the water coming down from the air handler, but they weren't there for that, so she would have to call back if it didn't work. About four days later, there was a cold night, and she tried to turn the heat on, and the furnace wouldn't come on. So, we had to call them back, and they said that had to be done. They had to come out on another service ticket for the furnace, not the AC. Because the furnace had been replaced recently, it was still under the warranty from the installation.

They came back on that ticket, which they're three hours away, too, from where my mother lives. My mother lives in Youngstown, and they're the closest warranty service provider, and they're in Columbus, which is like a three-hour drive. So, it took them five days to finally schedule something and come back and look at the furnace. Thankfully, it wasn't damaged. The tech just had to reset a switch, but he checked everything and said that it was fine. There was no damage from the water. So, the furnace was working. But there's still no working AC, which really is not going to be a big issue until next spring. But in any case, it was a mixed bag with Foxcroft and also with American Home Shield.

Another reason why I’m not impressed was I had an electrical issue, and American Home Shield told me that I had to find the contractor to come out and take care of the billing, and then they would reimburse me. I said no and dropped them. Because if I'm paying for a service, I expect them to do their job, which says they're going to provide this service. And they weren't doing that. Then I decided to go back, and this time, it was a great experience.

I took the entire day off of work. My appointment window was from 8:00 until noon. The technician did not show up until 4 o'clock. So, I lost an entire day of work and pay. Then they showed up late, and no one called to say the technician wasn't going to make it on time. I had to call and figure that out. When they came, they attempted to do the repair. The refrigerator worked for a day and a half and then it went back out. So, I requested a reservice, and they never got back to me at all. I contacted American Home Shield and asked them if they could change the service provider. That was a hassle because it was a whole bunch of runaround.

Finally, I got escalated to escalation services, and they sent another service provider. The tech looked at it and said, "I don't have the tools to repair it. It's going to take a major repair." He said, "I'll notify American Home Shield." At this point, it's been three weeks without a refrigerator in my home. They sent another service provider, and he looked at it. He said, "They just need to give you a new refrigerator because the amount of time is going to take to do this repair and the cost, they could just give you a new refrigerator." But he also said, "They're probably not going to do that. So, I'll order the parts."

I got the notification through the app that the parts were ordered. Another week goes by and he said it would take 10 business days. So, I waited for the 10 business days, and no response. I called back to escalation services, and then they informed me that the service provider is not going to do the repairs, and they would send somebody else out. That was four days ago.

Now, it's been a month since I've had a refrigerator. I get a notification in the app that my case was closed. But I still have no refrigerator. I haven't heard anything back from the fourth person they were supposed to send out. I called American Home Shield, and then they said, "Oh, you have to go in the app and select the new refrigerator, or you can select the Lowe's card and we'll pay you out."I told them, "Wouldn't it have been nice for somebody to call me, or email me, or notify me to let me know?"

I went on the app to select a replacement refrigerator, and they had the measurements wrong. So, I called back again, and said, "You can't send me a 36-inch-wide refrigerator. It's not going to fit in this space. The space is 33 inches. So, I would need a 33-inch and below to do it." Now, I had to do all of this. I'm not a mechanic. I'm not a refrigerator person. I talked to the rep, and she said, "Oh, we have the measurements because we have your model and serial number." I told her, "No. You have it wrong." So, then she looked, and she said, "Oh, yeah. You need a 32-inch." Then she sent me an updated list of refrigerators to look at. I found one, and it's supposed to be delivered today between 2:00 and 5:00.

From the beginning I asked AHS to expedite this request as I am a disabled veteran with home oxygen and could not be without ac. I was told my situation was not an emergency although another rep told me they had no emergency SOP. I was told they would not cover or reimburse me for buying/renting an AC unit to cool my home in the interim. In fact one rep told me they did all they could when they refunded me my service fee. I have had AHS since 2019 and didn't have any issues before this. Beyond surprise that they slow crawl repairs. To date still no AC, part has been ordered after approving additional out of pocket costs. Yet standard shipping of part (5-7 days) although again I have asked for expedited shipping. While it maybe more to pay out of pocket you won't go days with broken systems.

Just horrible, beyond that the company policy appears to not be clear, multiple reps have provided conflicting information. When you pay for a service you expect to get good service. This has not been the case, beyond disappointed. I would not recommend AHS! They just take money with subpar results, they have no emergency provisions and don't reimburse you if you get the problem fixed before they can! Taking money and providing crappy service is what they do best!

Since I am mechanically inclined, I proceeded to remove the outside cover to see if there were any frayed wires. I took photos and sent them to an electrical contractor I know and we came to the same conclusion. There were no frayed wires however, there was corrosion on the unit. After 14 years that would be normal. So at this point, I am assuming that the A/C company is working with AHS so that AHS doesn't have to buy me a new unit. That's OK because I am a realtor and I will not be recommending AHS to anyone else in the future and I will not be adding an AHS policy on any new listings I post.

I was in the house for a year, owning it, and my oven died in the middle of cooking the turkey on Thanksgiving Day. I had put a call into American Home Shield. Someone came out and said, "Oh, no, this thing's too far gone." I went and picked out an oven that I wanted. The check came and everything was easy-peasy. So, I highly recommend people get American Home Shield because of that you never know factor, and also make sure that you understand and read what it is that you're insured about.

I didn't know about the electrical box on the outside of the house, and that was covered. I had to replace it because it was all rusted, and the water was coming into the fuse box and the basement. It was only when I was reviewing my policy, and not in the throes of all the craziness that you're involved with when you're purchasing, that I really sat back and really read the policy. I would have had coverage for that had I paid more attention to what I was taking out.

I went with another company for about six months, and it was the worst mistake I ever made. I ended up having to pay over $300 for the washing machine, and I had to go pick it out. American Home Shield would have never done it that way. Over the 10 years, they've replaced quite a few things. They gave me the space to upgrade, and I really like that. So, for example, when the hot water heater went out, they let me upgrade it to a bigger unit just for 100 bucks and get the hot water going into the washing machine, because it didn't happen before. That's what's so great about American Home Shield. They must have happy people working there because they always go the extra mile, and they are very informative. Sometimes I'll call them because I need to ask some questions about stuff, and they're always knowledgeable.

I went back and went onto the American Home Shield website. I looked at the past requests, and it said the problem hasn't been fixed. I clicked on that button to have them send out somebody. I explained the problem, and the service rep got to work fixing it. He was fine and not disruptive at all. I had no complaints about the service until the microwave stopped working again, and that's not even necessarily a complaint about the service. I just wish my microwave worked. I got the service in April because I bought a new house. If someone doesn't know the house they're buying, it might be in their interest to be protected, and they're going to get hit with hundreds of solicitations from purported home warranty sales as soon as they move in.

I've had a positive experience with AHS. I'm going to keep them. They're a little expensive. But other than that, I've had good service from them. I would recommend them because I haven't had any problems with them. Every time I've called them, they've sent somebody to fix it. I'm going to stick with them. I thought about changing them, but I'm happy. The only reason I thought about changing them was the price. But you get what you pay for. I've heard from some people that the lower-priced ones deny a lot of claims themselves.

We had two appliances that never fully got fixed, and I submitted them multiple times and paid the fee more than once. The techs fixed the suction part on the vent hood, but it made the lights go out. So, the lights never got fixed. Then we had an older cooktop, and the burners were going out. The techs fixed a couple of the burners, but there was one in particular that won't adjust. Once it gets to a certain heat, it just stays that hot, and you can't turn it down. The techs said American Home Shield hasn’t sent the part, which could very well be the vendor not doing it.

Whenever I called American Home Shield to complain about a certain vendor to say they’re not doing their job, the rep would say that it’s the vendor who’s assigned. We had the experience of American Home Shield not sending a very good vendor for our AC, too. We cancelled the warranty because we were sick of dealing with the runaround with the other vendors. There are some good vendors like True Vine. But there are some vendors that aren’t good. How they are paid may be low motivation for them, but because we were an American Home Shield client, it did not ever seem we were at the top of their list. And the amount of time it would take for them to get to us would be weeks.

Our dishwasher had lost power and was down for over a month. American Home Shield sent a company that couldn’t fix it and then True Vine came out. The techs had to diagnose it, get the right part, and then fix it. They did a good job. They had to come out a couple of times, and it was a long process because of how they had to submit it to American Home Shield. But they stayed on top of it. The last two companies that came out had nice guys, but because of the whole American Home Shield process, we had people out four different times. It was a six-week process to get our dishwasher running again. If this was our AC, we're not waiting six weeks.

On other things, we could put up with the inconvenience if it ultimately gets fixed. But we were just looking at what we were paying a month, and then how long we would be down, and it's not worth it. There was just a lot of inconvenience. There were a few positive interactions with customer service but the best one was when I cancelled. When they got me to the right person, she didn't argue. I had tried to cancel the year before and the guy wouldn’t let me. We were in the middle of a claim and he said that when it gets fixed, I would change my mind. So I said okay, since we wanted to make sure it would get fixed.