American Home Shield Reviews

I had a problem with my microwave, and it was a horrible experience with ACT Appliance to the point where I was ready to drop American Home Shield altogether. I had them out in the spring. The repairman did not speak English so he had to enter everything into the phone and do a translation to speak. He took the microwave apart and it took 2.5 hours but he got it back working. But I kept noticing that I was having sparks, and I would get these random power outages in my house. I determined it was because of the microwave so I called and asked them to come back out. They said I had to pay them again because it was more than 30 days from when they came which was ridiculous. It's the same appliance and I'm having the same problems.

I made the American Home Shield person give me a partial credit back. Then the same repairman came out and told me that it's an old microwave, that he was gonna have to figure out how to get parts. My microwave was replaced by American Home Shield in 2018, so I don't consider it to be that old. I was going back and forth with him in his language, and I called their office because he was extremely rude. I got these two folks who also didn't speak English. I told them I wanted to speak to the manager but they said they didn't have a direct manager, that everything gets sent to them via text message and emails. I told them somebody's gotta make the decisions for the company and they said that person would be up in Dallas and they don't ever talk to that person. They gave me the runaround and told me the only person they had to do microwave repair was the same guy who has come out twice.

I then called back to American Home Shield and told them I didn't want that company to come back out. But they said they're the only ones they refer out for small electronic repairs in the Austin area, so they couldn't send anybody else out. The guy came back out, and he had four bad fuses that have burned up inside my control panel of my microwave, which he had just repaired in the spring.

I called and tried to get a hold of somebody at this ACT Appliance main office in Dallas but they wouldn't take my call. Then I got a call back from somebody at American Home Shield, following up. I told them I was not happy. Then the same guy came back again. This time the cord had a split in it at the back where we can't access it. It was between the microwave and the wall and there's no way that I or my two children could access this unless we pulled the microwave out, which we don't know how to do. I told him, “Why don't you just put in an order to replace the microwave then? You're making me feel very uncomfortable.”

He said they are contracted with American Home Shield to repair, repair, repair until the customer no longer wishes to repair and wants to replace. My microwave is 6 years old and I didn't feel like I needed to be replacing it that soon. He was telling me that maybe I would want to buy a new microwave, but they would not be recommending that to American Home Shield. I also had to pay for an electrician to come out and do a check of all of my downstairs outlets because the microwave took out half of my outlets in one side of my house.

I got a really bad service from American Home Shield from the fact that they only have one servicer in a town the size of Austin. Then the servicer is huffy and rude. I get that he doesn't speak my language. If he knows how to repair appliances at the end of the day, I could be okay with that. But I couldn't be ok with the fact that he was rude and that he had to keep coming back out. I went another 2.5 months without the use of a microwave. This year, I've been almost four months without the use of my microwave because of American Home Shield and their inability to do business with some other appliance service here in Austin, nor give me the choice, nor replace my microwave.

When it comes time for me to think about renewing again in February, I am not so certain I'm gonna do it because that was terrible experience. I did not like the way I was treated. I was driving the bus for everything and I didn't feel like that's why I pay my money every month. I seriously was going to go up the food chain at American Home Shield. I got the email address to their CEO and a phone number for escalations to their C-Suite. I was very close to doing that because it was not the American Home Shield I signed up with years ago. American Home Shield used to be the only one I knew of. Now I got all kinds of them that are sending me stuff all the time.

When the air conditioner broke down, that was another nightmare. We were in 104-degree weather. One day went by, but I didn't hear anything. The second day went by, but I still didn't hear anything. I called American Home Shield and what happened was they waited until the end of the day to get an air conditioning repair company to come to the house. On the third day, I never heard from them so I called the company. They said they got the work order from American Home Shield. When they came, they realized that a piece of the equipment needed to be replaced. They said in order for them to order it, they needed to get an approval from American Home Shield. I called American Home Shield and asked if they already had the recommendation from the contractor. They said yes but that they had to go through a different department and that department was gonna have to approve it which was gonna take anywhere between three and five business days.

I asked if they could transfer me to that department so I could see if I could ask them to expedite it. They finally transferred me to this other department and I asked them to expedite it. I waited another day and they finally approved it. They sent it back to the company so that the company could then do what they needed to do. But it was American Home Shield that was gonna order the equipment, not the company that was going to install the new equipment. That was gonna take between 7 and 10 days in a 100-degree weather. I had to buy two portable air conditioners, one to install in the living room and another one in one of the bedrooms so that we could sleep comfortably at night. That was an extra expense for me and I had to pay somebody else to install it right away.

Eight days went by but there was nothing. We were still waiting for American Home Shield to receive the equipment that they ordered. I don't understand why American Home Shield was the one that had to order it rather than leaving it to the expert, which was the air conditioning company who could order it in an expedited manner and get it between two and three days. That is a bureaucracy that is not working. On the ninth day, American Home Shield got the equipment but they didn't call me. I had to call them every single day. Then they were telling me that they got it, but they haven't called the company. When they called the company, they were busy with too many installations so it was gonna be at least two days before they could come and install it. They finally installed it but it took three weeks to get it done.

I'm very disappointed with American Home Shield's procedures and process, and I'm very close to ending the contract with them. They're too expensive, they have too much bureaucracy, and they're too slow in responding. Sometimes they don't even cover a piece of equipment and I have to pay thousands of dollars for the difference so why am I paying so many dollars every month to have the homeowner protection plan. In addition to that, every single time they come to look at anything that breaks down, I have to pay $125 service fee. Sometimes, if a piece of equipment is more than a certain amount, then I have to pay the difference. I might as well hire somebody else and do it right away.

American Home Shield could have been more transparent on what they did and didn't cover. I was under the impression that my air conditioner was covered. They said anything that breaks in my house and an air conditioner is part of the house, then all of a sudden, they didn't cover all of it. It also took two months to get it fixed. That's a ridiculous amount of time to have no AC and it was in the middle of the summer. Any time I called to have it escalated and we tell them when I was available for them to call me, they would call when I was not available.

I've been protected for a long time, and I've never had no trouble out of American Home Shield. I love them to death. I never had a problem with them until this latest time but that was not a problem. It's just that I got charged, but I didn't need the service. I always recommend them all the time. I tell people, "If you want a good warranty on your house, get them. They covered just about everything in your house.” The service is dependable when they're there. I have no problem getting them to come out.

When I had a water leak, the contractor ended up coming out and replacing some parts. Then they had to come back because it was still shaking violently. There was a broken shock absorber inside that we didn't know about. They found it when they opened it up to fix the water leak. They also found a bad water pump in there too. So they replaced a couple of things and that seemed to be fine. But they didn't put the back cover on correctly and the screen fell out. So I had to call them back a couple of times. But the guys were very friendly. They explained everything and cleaned up after themselves. They were quite pleasant. The scheduling was good. They were right on time.

Overall, American Home Shield is worth it. It gives me peace of mind that if an appliance breaks like it did, it only cost me $100 to fix it, besides the plan every year, which is like 1,700. Whatever it is, heating and air conditioning or swamp cooler, they come out and they repair or replace, depending upon what's going on. I haven't had any issues so far. I submit my claims online and their website is pretty good but it's very vague. So, a lot of times you can't really nail down what's wrong. You just have to put down washing machine and it does not tell you exactly a bunch of things. It could have more options.

When I had the pool heater fixed a little while ago, there was one guy who was not a highly-ranked technician, and he was coming from Fredericksburg. Home Shield said, "Hey, we're gonna cancel that guy and have somebody else come out." But he came out anyway. Then he looked at it and he didn't seem very qualified. He said, "Oh, yeah. This is not one we deal with." That was the first one they sent out that didn't come out for a week or two and then eventually did come out. I've had many people come to the house and most of the people are really quick and prompt. So it's less than 10% that I had experience like that.

When I mention to people, "I have American Home Shield," they say, "Oh, they're terrible." Most people just get the short warranty you get when you buy a house, which doesn't cover a lot. I had some bad experiences, but not many. I'm sort of reluctant. But I will say, "Look. Hey, I've got the three by three program that covers everything pretty much." I tell them that it's expensive. It's $800 a year now for me, but I got the full coverage. It is expensive, but then you just pay $100 each time they come out and that's it. They fix it. Most times it's well over the $100. But it's for the years that you have the big-ticket items go bad that it's really worth it. This year, the items we've had involved the plumbing, the water heater, the pool heater, and the refrigerator, including parts. It would been about $1,500, at least. I've been with Home Shield for 15 years. If you do the average across the 15 years, I'm still coming out ahead.

I've sent in videos to American Home Shield's media department with the contractors consistently adding in Freon, and saying it's gonna cost this amount of money. I'm giving them this amount of money, and then they tell me it's this amount of money. Then they charge American Home Shield a different amount. I got everything on video. So I'm frustrated. I've never had this issue before.

The contractor wants to charge me $3,000 for a coil system. But how do I know that they didn't poke a hole in the coil system? How do I know that they didn't do something to the coil system when they were doing these repairs? Because I don't know what repairs they've done. American Home Shield is refusing to send me documentation on what they've done to the air conditioning unit. The contractors won't send me the documentation on what they sent American Home Shield in regards to what they did to the unit. So that's where we are. They offered me $400 to sign off on the work for the air conditioning unit, but I'm not gonna do that.

The customer service in American Home Shield is horrible. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Then those leads that they send you to don't look over the documentation before they call you, and customer services reading off of the contract, telling you what you can get and what you can't get. It's just so frustrating that I don't even call anymore. I wouldn’t recommend them get Home Shield because they sent three contractors out here.

Three weeks passed and we didn't hear from anybody. We were still leaking water because of the dishwasher. So we took it upon ourselves to buy another dishwasher, and then we were told by American Home Shield that, “Hey, you're basically SOL because you took it upon yourself to buy the dishwasher.” So we're not very happy with American Home Shield at this point. We're not happy with the way the whole repair was handled. They should have known within a week that whether or not it was gonna be repairable, or what was gonna happen, and then give us an option. But when we had a problem with a washing machine, it was handled excellently. The repairman came out and said, “I can't fix it.” We were given several options for a new washer. We took one, and we were very satisfied with it.

The second company was supposed to be out today, but the tech was sick. So they're supposed to be out Friday and they don't know what's wrong. They're just guessing and replacing parts on a washer that's over 10 years old. American Home Shield fights you on getting a replacement. You get limited time to do it again. You just have to keep having companies come out until somebody eventually says, "No, it needs to be replaced."

One time, I called American Home Shield because I had a toilet that had not worked properly since I bought the house. They asked me what was wrong and I said it wasn't flushing properly. Then they asked me, what do I think is broken, and I said whatever I thought it was at the time. But because I didn't guess what the issue was correctly, they refused to cover the fix. So now, whenever they ask me what is wrong, I just state the issue. Then when they ask me what I think is broken, I tell them I don't know because they'll use it against me. Also, the cost keeps going up and up and up, and it's ridiculous. But I have the worst luck in the world. So I continue to use the home warranty because I can't afford multiple things to go at once.

The contractor was supposed to be here on a Saturday. They never showed up. They never called. They came to fix the thing Monday and came after hours. I commend them that. The tech said that his van broke down. Prior to that, American Home Shield assigned me to Flowertown Heating and Air. I heard nothing from them for a week. I called after my 72 hours every day and I got the runaround from AHS. The customer service was horrible. They read off a script no matter how angry I got with them. I had to tell them to give me to a higher up because I wasn't getting anywhere with the regular people. They kept telling me, "You're gonna have to wait." 90 degrees, I can't wait. I live in South Carolina. It's not like I live in Pennsylvania. Nobody would do anything about it. I had to threaten them with going on social media and talking them down before they reassigned me to Palmetto Breeze.

I was charged for a service fee the first time and it didn't last four hours. I had to wait another week for the tech to come out to fix it the second time. That one lasted three months. I ended up paying another service fee to have someone else come out and fix it correctly, because it has been fine since. It has worked better than it ever has. Flowertown is not friendly. Palmetto Breeze was friendly but I still have not received a receipt from their tech, because I like to keep receipts for all my repairs. He was supposed to email me a receipt but has not.

We don't have a range top, but AHS keeps on prolonging. The last guy said that everything is rusted and I need a new range top, but when I called AHS, they said they ordered the parts. Many times I've called up and I asked to speak to a supervisor, but they won't put me through to one. They don't help at all and I'm not happy with the service. Once we get this repair, if we ever get this thing fixed, I want to go on social media and tell people about my experience. We've had a couple of houses, had gas leaks, and blew up the whole entire swinging house. AHS don't take it too seriously about the situation, and I can't get any satisfaction from them. It's okay to make the payments. But if you have a problem, good luck.

The tech that came out did a very comprehensive test. He went into the garage, looked at the wiring, then came back and said that my condenser had gone out, which is not unusual. He said, "So we will have to fix it. I will put it on order." He then went ahead and said for me to call the people right away, to tell them and he will touch base with them too. They said that it should be about four days, and they would get back out there to complete the job. They did a very good job on it. The tech went all around the air conditioner itself, made sure it was all clean in the area, and picked up anything that was left there. Now it works great.

American Home Shield is very knowledgeable with the service people that they have. They know who to send out and they don't waste any time getting the appointment set up. they were also very nice in the way they treated me and didn't quibble or quabble over anything. They just, "Hey, you got a problem, we're gonna fix it."

He looked at it and told me the reason it was shooting out and splashing like that was because I have a buildup from hard water. He also told me all I needed to do was soak it in baking soda and vinegar for 24 hours, and the splashing would go away. I soaked it then cleaned off the little buildup inside really good with a toothbrush but it still had the same problem.

I called American Home Shield and put in a request to tell them that there was something going on with the faucet and that the recommendation from the other guy didn't work. The same company came out and replaced the faucet, but my understanding is whenever they need to replace something, it's gonna be of the same value. What they installed were contractor-grade faucets. The ones I had were custom made and were much nicer. The replacements look like the cheapest thing they could have found.

What it says in the contract sounds great and American Home Shield has replaced items that needed to be replaced, if it came to that, or they’ve serviced to my satisfaction. But often it feels like you got to battle with them. It feels like you're an attorney trying to advocate for yourself. I may have to talk to the supervisor and go back and forth several times then eventually, they'll do it. When it's time for me to renew and they wanna go up on the price, we go back and forth about the fact that I've been with them for a while, and they usually will come around and lower it a little bit.

I have an elderly aunt who, at the time, owned a townhouse in Los Angeles, and as a gift to her, I paid for her to receive a year of American Home Shield. But it began to be a big technical glitch with American Home Shield. When I talked to the sales department to set it up, I gave the salesperson my credit card number and asked him to charge it for the whole year, which is what I do for myself. But then I started receiving copay bills for my aunt’s when it was supposed to be for her. I had to call them, and it was a lot. I kept telling them that it was a separate account but on the website, it still had her as an added property under my name. I used to be able to log in to the website quite effortlessly, but not anymore. Since I added my aunt, it's very difficult. It was her email address and a lot of back and forth.

When I asked customer service why was I being billed my aunt's deductible, they said because my credit card was the only one on record, that my aunt had to put a credit card. I asked why they were also sending monthly bills. The customer service person said the salesperson didn't show that I paid for the whole year so they were charging my aunt monthly. They had to try to fix that and I was on hold for a long time. What they ended up doing was, instead of billing me the whole amount for my aunt for a year, they billed me 12 months for her separate payments.

Earlier this year, my aunt moved and no longer needed the service. I tried to cancel it for her and thought taking her name off would help me access the website easier, but it still hasn't. I used to have a username and password to just log in with no problem before I added my aunt. Now, I can't do that anymore. It says there's an error. If I wanna put in a order, look at a history or get a copy of my contract under my name, it's three extra steps. I can't just go to the website.

When you call on the phone, the reps are not comprehending what you're saying and sometimes when you ask for certain products or ask certain for services, even though it's on your plan, AHs would say that they cannot produce that product or they cannot go with certain carriers. I had a company out of Fayetteville come up and they fixed my heat and air unit. When I called back to have the same company come back out for a routine service checkup, they kept giving me several other different companies. I told them if they're not gonna do it, I'm just gonna drop American Home Shield and go with somebody else.

Another major fault with American Home Shield is that they have a limited number of companies that they work with to choose from. I had a situation like a year ago where my heat and air unit went out. I called American Home Shield and they sent this company out called Island Breeze. The tech did some very faulty repairs and the next day, I had coolant and water leaking out through my HVAC unit in my attic. It damaged my whole top floor and the walls caved in. I had to call my homeowner's insurance company and I went back to American Home Shield that they were liable because it was the company that they recommended. They said they don't take the responsibility and when I called Island Breeze, they said they didn't do anything wrong. State Farm had to go back and sue both companies to recoup the money for the repairs that had to be fixed in my home, like the drywall, the ceiling, and the fixing of the HVAC unit again.

Their website is very easy to use. You just have to drill down to the type of service problem that you're having. Sometimes that wasn't specific and you would just pick one of the general categories, but they would make sure that's what it was covered under the contract. So if there was actually a leak at a pipe, the descriptions might say a faucet leak. But if it was a pipe leak, then you see it's a difference.

The last contractor they sent out, Greenway Home Services, did an excellent job and that was who I was pretty used to. Over the last 15 to 20 years, they've always done a great job. The last maybe five years, they started using Best Care Home Services and I think that they were not as good. The technicians were good, but they weren't always trying to do the best that they could. They would just do a quick fix. Just a couple of times when they would come out, I would just be amazed if they would actually call a service call when they would only spend 20 minutes looking at the problem and then be out of there. I wasn't real crazy about Best Care. They are the ones that actually overcharged me for several things that they did not provide and it was like $1,200 that I ended up having to challenge them on it and get my money back.

There was another service, Draingo, which would only do patchwork. They never would actually fix anything to the extent where it was fixed. They would patch it, and it would work for a while. But the problem I was having with a leak, they just never would take care of it. But this last call changed over to Greenway. They actually changed out the faucet, which is what should have happened five years ago so I wouldn't have to call them every year. So they took care of it.

In the past, when you could speak to a live human being who spoke English sufficiently to understand the idioms of American English, you could explain what kind of system it was. In turn, one of my systems requires someone certified in servicing the specific system. So every single time there's a problem with that system, it delays my service by as much as a week while they find somebody qualified because they first have to send somebody who says, "No, I'm not qualified." It's just a pain in the ass and very annoying. It's worse than before.

The department that deals with the replacement of a system is still based in the United States and the people speak our American English and understand the idioms. But all the rest of it is all offshore somewhere. Sometimes the Philippines, or sometimes India. They are all very nice people, but many of them speak to you they're a robot and the customer service human interaction part sucks. Over the last three years, American Home Shield has clearly made an effort to try to get better English speakers. That's noticeable both from the quality of the interactions I've had and they now have a little survey at the end.

I had a terrible experience with my oven and I'm going to file a complaint. But apart from those the oven and the air conditioning instances, the contractors are fine. They're timely and they do what they're gonna say. But some of their contractors for some of the covered services have been awful. With respect to the oven, two sets of contractors had no idea what they were doing and, as a consequence, cost me money instead of the other way around. Also, American Home Shield has gone up in price quite a lot even though I have this ancient policy.

I changed phone numbers since I started with American Home Shield. So, when I called for the dishwasher the first time, I told them also that I had changed numbers. For some odd reason, maybe it didn't go through when they told 3 Boys, but they were using my old number to try to call me. And then because 3 Boys came out for the washing machine, they still had that old number, plus my new number that you just called on. So, I've been having issues.

When I had an appointment, they said they called and left messages, but they didn't. Or if they did, they called that old number that's no longer associated with the thing. My son even called them because my husband and son were home that day. So it was very upsetting. 3 Boys needs to update how they make things. There were three things in 10 days that went wrong. I had plumbing issues and 3 Boys needed to do it all through email or text messaging the night before, saying, “Yes. We will be out there tomorrow. This will be your technician. We’ll be coming and calling you in the morning to set up the time.”

When the day came to fix the washing machine, the technician called my old number, and then he called my son's number, which we had given when they didn't show up that first time. But whenever I called them to verify that they were coming out, they told me, “Yes. This is the number we have on file.” But for some odd reason, I didn't get the call. So, it’s very frustrating when you sit around all day. Overall, American Home Shield is responsive. But the contractors that they use need to be vetted better. The people that they deal with need to have certain standards.

They replaced my furnace and we still had to pay almost 1,900 bucks out-of-pocket to help pay for it. In the contract, it says they’d replace it. but they keenly put parts that they know are the most expensive so they don't have to pay for it on that end. I'm pretty sure there's a fine print that says they only cover certain parts. But just in layman's terms, “For pretty much 99% of the furnaces, we're only gonna pay 50%.” Just say that so the customers will know. People are not gonna look at the contract so it is very deceiving to them. They could say they cover everything with the $100 deductible but in actuality, they don't. That's where it gets deceiving and I don't like that part.

The first guy that came out didn't solve the problem. He told me he would come back on Saturday but he never called me and never came. So, I placed another call in. The second guy that came out ran the roto-rooter but it still did not flush the way it does. He said it was the toilet paper, but I've been using that toilet paper for years. I'm still having a problem with flushing the toilet. I still gotta put my water down it. When I talked to the tech about that, he said AHS won't pay for a new toilet. I'm getting very frustrated with this toilet.

The guy that came out for the toilet the last time knocked American Home Shield, and he told me, "Contact this and they do good." So, I called them. But their price was close to $90 a month. They covered more with the air condition. With American Home Shield, I had to pay over $5000 on the air conditioner out of my pocket. They said they had to replace the unit. They told me that I had to pay $5200 myself. I had to pay it because I needed to get an air condition. AHS also sent a contractor out and fixed the dishwasher. That was fine. It took a long time to get the part in, but I know they don't have control over that, which is understandable.

Four months ago, I had to call American Home Shield to speak with a supervisor to see if I could get a resolution to this because it wasn't being fixed and it's been 2 years. The person at that time dispatched another plumber, which was Plymwr Plumbing. They came out and determined that there was some parts that needed to be replaced. They ordered those items but it took a few weeks to get them in. They got them in, installed them then closed the claim. An hour after they left, the water heater went out again with a lot of bang.

I called again and it took about a week for a gentleman to come out. It was the same guy that had come out previously. When he was there, he lit it. It went out and made that big boom sound. He took it all apart, investigated and found that the water heater that was purchased was for modular homes, but it was universal. It could go from propane to natural gas. The previous plumber, Robco, installed it with the natural gas orifice. The house has propane so it kept igniting and blowing itself out for the two years that we were dealing with it.

The repairman said it was gonna take 16 days to get the part and when they get the part, they'll make an appointment to come in to do it which could be three weeks. My mom would be without a water heater for 10 weeks and she has been going through a lot of health issues recently. She needs to be able to take a bath. That was when the young man determined that we could get a new water heater which would cost us $491 for them to do some plumbing adjustments to make it fit. I had said to the guy that when we got this other one installed two years ago, we had to pay $1,000 to have some plumbing things done to it. Why does this new one require stuff to be done if the other one was new too. But my mom's been dealing with her health issues and frustration and said to just pay the $491 and get the water heater. It was a two-year ordeal.

We can't understand the reps. We've talked to six different reps and when we asked for a phone number to call, the lady was snooty. When they booked the second contractor, they said it would be October 30th before they could get to us. We told them that was unacceptable and the rep just said, “I'm sorry. Do you want us to book it or not?” They also tried to charge us for the second time. The rep said, "We gotta charge you another $100 because you're the one that booked the company.” But no, we did not book Sears, they did, so she had to get another manager on the phone.

But there was only one lady that we could understand. She was very nice and helpful. She told us she was gonna get to the bottom of the issue because she could tell it was really a bad train wreck. We're almost done with American Shield. We've never seen such a fiasco take so long to get to the bottom of something. We've been without refrigeration for over a month and we've been so ready to go buy another refrigerator. That's how bad it is.

People can get the home warranty on a new home and see how things go. If they have an older home and things are falling apart and they're in need of maintenance, it's great. However, if they have a home that doesn't have any problems, I don't know if I'd recommend it. I've had American Home Shield for a long time and I'm satisfied except the prices keep going up. It's getting more and more expensive to maintain the Home Shield warranty. When I first got on it years ago, it was $40 a month and now, it's 100. Everything's gone up. I can just put the money aside and pay for it myself.

A lot of Realtors, including the Realtor I had, don't give American Home Shield a fair rating. I had a great Realtor, but he still was misinformed about them and said, "Oh, I've heard a lot of bad reviews about it." He didn't know I had American Home Shield and I don't know what reviews he heard, but all I know is that I've had so much luck with AHS. I've had them work on my air conditioner, toilet, water pipes, microwave, dishwasher, ice maker and the electrical thing that they recently replaced. This is my second home, and at the other house I had, they replaced a circuit breaker that was malfunctioning as well.

Back then, I had a brand-new home and the AC unit kept on going out every two years. So, I finally got American Home Shield, and in the time that I had them in that house, they replaced the capacitors multiple times. They've also replaced the motor, the entire outside unit and the entire inside unit, at least once. That's how much American Home Shield did on my old home even though the issues were no fault of theirs. Unfortunately, a lot of home builders give people the smallest and cheapest AC unit for their home if they don't upgrade it. I had a two-story home and the unit I got was not big enough to handle that, so I had problems.

I also had a brand-new Samsung refrigerator, but the warranty was only good for one year and the ice maker on it went out. American Home Shield had someone come in and replace it for $75. That was their fee. It would have cost me hundreds of dollars. Overall, American Home Shield is affordable and if someone can afford the monthly fee, it'd be priceless. Because if something breaks and they have to pay to have it repaired, it's gonna be extremely expensive.

On Monday, I was calling Advanced Air just to get an estimate. They didn't reach out to me. Then I called American Home Shield. I got an email that they were gonna come out on Tuesday. I was out of town, but we had somebody there to open the door for them. I was trying to call them to let them know, “Hey, I'm out of town. You guys need to call me before you guys get there and after so we know what's going on.” They didn't call me. I left several messages. Even when they got there, the people that did let them in asked them to call me. They never called me. Then I tried calling them again to talk about what was going on and to give me an update. They never called me nor they returned my call. The AC is fixed. The thing is that I never got an update from Advanced Air about what happened, what caused it, and what can we do to prevent it.

One of the reasons I have American Home Shield is it is rated exceptionally well. The service is provided quickly, especially if it's an emergency. This wasn't necessarily an emergency, but still, they got to it within a day. I do like the peace of mind. With the cost, it wasn't quite so much, being a senior on fixed income and so forth but for the peace of mind, I kept it. I know if I have a problem, it'll get taken care of.

I got a message to call AHS back. I called them back, and they said that they decline any participation because the second guy said it was dirty. After I raised Holy Hannah with them for 45 minutes, they agreed to send a third person out with the understanding that if he came back and said it was dirty, I had to pay another $100. He came and said it was burned up, it was damaged and needed to be replaced. It was replaced yesterday. That part was perfect. But this whole process, I had to pay two copays, which I should not have had to pay but one. I am looking for one of those $100 back. It was not a good experience.

When I first did American Home Shield, I was told that once a year, you'd get your air conditioner and heater serviced for free. If you had septic tanks, they would come out and do that too. When I did the air conditioner and heater service, I couldn't understand the lady very well because she didn't speak American English. She told me that there was no tech in this area that would do that for me, and if I'd go ahead and get it done, that they'd pay $100 of it. But that's not what the agreement said. Other than that, would I recommend American Home Shield. It could be cheaper, though. When we first started, it was $75. Now, it's gone up a little bit but it hadn't gone up too bad.

The washing machine guy was great. He did what he needed to do. He ordered a part and when the part came in, he contacted us again. The washing machine went super smoothly. The other one was the dishwasher and the part wasn't available. So, they had to replace the whole thing, which the person that came out was very nice. He was gonna look for the part was what we knew when he left, and then I got an email telling me the part wasn't available and we had to pick from some machines for this much money. So, we picked one. We were given about five choices within a reasonable price range and many more if we wanted to pay a whole lot of money.

I would have preferred them saying the refrigerator couldn't have been fixed and giving me more money, but I appreciate the fact that they at least gave me the option to not fix it since this is the third time. I used them for probably 10 years in our last home. And then when we moved into this home, I used a couple of others and ended up wanting to go back because I felt like I had the best service from them. Also, they've been around for a very long time and they've been true to their word and we've been satisfied.

They said we were qualified for a new water heater, which they would replace. What I didn't agree with was they would have to notify the city to get a water line permit and a bunch of other permits that would cost me 600 out of pocket, even though a brand new water heater costs $700. When I told the rep, “Absolutely not. I'm not paying the city to have a permit for a water line when I'm not replacing a water line,” she said she understood. I said, “I can just go buy a whole new water heater and get it installed for free.” She said, “If you do that, let us know. And we'll give you the money back for the water heater.”

I can understand if I will replace a whole bathroom or a whole water line, but this is a water heater. I unscrewed two hoses after I turned the water off and replaced the water heater itself. When I talked to the technician that came out, he laughed and said, “Yeah. I see that. You made the right decision by just doing it yourself.” I said, “I'm not paying $600 for the city to come out and then have to do an inspection.” And I don't know how long that whole process would have taken. That was pointless.

I used to have Choice, and they were really pitiful. American Home Shield is a whole lot better, and I've recommended them to a bunch of people. They answer my questions and do what they need to do. I like talking to people because you can get your point across, like what's going on. When you're online, you gotta type in this and that. But when I'm on the phone, they always ask me three, four times if there is something else they can do to help me. The price is a little high, but I understand because when they ask if you've got anything else that need to be repaired and there's more, then it's a little bit lenient.

Recently, it takes them at least a week to get any information from American Home Shield whether they're gonna get paid or not. Then it takes them a couple of days to find out where the parts are and how much they cost before they can give that to American owned Shield. I know it's going to be a week or two before I hear from anybody and that's about where I am right now on the process of them getting back to me with what's going on. That process used to only take a couple of days. 10 years ago, they used to be able to buy the parts and fix it and not have to worry about American Home Shield not paying them. Today they have to worry about not being paid.

American Home Shield's rates have gone up drastically as well. I started with them over 10 years ago, and their rates have tripled. I'm very disappointed in that. I was in the process of starting to go through other companies to see how much their rates are. Also, when I call American Home Shield on the phone, that usually takes me a long time to get them. This time, I got lucky because it only took me 20 minutes before I was able to talk with somebody. In the past, I've spent half an hour or longer on the phone, waiting for somebody to answer. This is the first time I had somebody that spoke decent English too.

This last time didn't go well. AHS denied the claim because they said it was not covered under the warranty, which is incorrect when the part that broke is in the air conditioning and they said it was not covered because they took the word of a tech who came out and didn't want to fix anything. He tried to sell me a new air conditioning unit. AHS said, “If you do a second opinion, we're gonna charge you a trip charge.” I had somebody else come out, and I said, “That's not happening. I'll dispute the charge.” That was the end of it. The AC is still not fixed.

On the website, all you can do is start a claim, then they'll get with you about when they're coming out and who's coming out and it's really basic stuff. If you have a problem, the website doesn't help at all. This latest time that they came out and worked on an appliance, they replaced one. The first one they sent didn't fit. So, I'm having a hard time. It's been two weeks ago back and forth and I'm still not really getting ahold of the person we need. We are probably gonna keep AHS. Everything else that went on, they've been good.

If you have American Home Shield and something that is covered goes out, they'll replace it. But they give you such a hard time about replacing something. A couple of years ago, in our old house in Oregon, the fridge went out. It was not repairable but American Home Shield didn't wanna give us a new, comparable fridge. We had to go through all the begging, the paperwork and the arguing and the debating to finally get something decent and comparable in its place.

I have two contracts on two different houses, and I'm thinking of letting go of one of them. It's getting more and more expensive and I've paid a lot for the contract but it's not worth the money. I’d rather pay out of pocket and hire somebody who I know is gonna be good quality and show up versus to be at the mercy of American Home Shield and who they're contracted with.

I had one issue in my Oregon property. I had somebody that was sent out for a tankless water heater who had never seen the unit before. They tried to give me a hard time telling me it was working fine and charging me for it. I had to go and get a tankless water heater specialist on my own. In the California house, most recently, I scheduled somebody to come on one of my days that I'm in town. I waited and waited. Not only did they not show up, but the company on the phone also couldn't even articulate what was going on as to why the person didn't show. It was ridiculous.

When we bought our older property, we knew that the AC was older in this property. I knew it would go out eventually during my American Home Shield contract. But the thought of having to deal, beg and negotiate with American Home Shield to get a decent-quality AC is not worth it. They don't wanna give anything so I went and replaced it myself.

For the most part, I've had some great vendors come out. But when I deal with American Home Shield. directly and I need to speak to somebody qualified who really understands the process and what's going on, I don't get that person. I'm stuck in the call center with somebody reading from a script which is very unhelpful. They bumped me up to their manager but she wasn't able to resolve my issues or transfer me or send me an email. They should have an escalation process, if needed. We have filed multiple claims for one issue. It would be great if we could have a dedicated team to assist with escalated claims.

For my recent claim, I had gotten a new filter thing two years ago and the gauge part of it started leaking. The tech came out and put a new gauge on it. Now, it's working well. However, I just put in another request because I've got some leaking now in the plumbing in the joints where the PVC pipe is connecting it. Before the gauge got fixed, it caused some issues that made it start leaking. I'm waiting for a call back from him right now.

The bathtub is built into the wall. I have an access point from the outside of the house, and I had to cut part of the sheetrock on the interior wall out because it was leaking into my bedroom. I had to take the handles off the faucet just to get the water to stop. He said, “Well, since you touched it, there was preexisting work done, I can't touch it because I can't be responsible if something goes wrong.” I said, “All I did was take the handles off to get the water to stop running into my bedroom. I can stick them back on.” He said, “No. It's too late. I've already seen it. And I've already taken pictures.” This is the second time he's been in our house for stuff that he didn't get anything done.

I asked American Home Shield for a second opinion. They were unable to send somebody else. I guess they don't have any other plumbers in my area. So, they just said, “No. We can't do it. We're gonna have to not do the claim. You're on your own.” They said I'm entitled to a second opinion. So, I was waiting for Home Shield to call me back. A week went by and I called them. They finally called back and said, “Well, we can't find anybody to give you a second opinion.” I said, “Well, what am I supposed to do? Well, I'm gonna need my $100 charge back.” They said, “Okay. We'll give you that back,” which I didn't received yet.

I tell myself every year that I'm gonna cancel American Home Shield because not one claim that I've had has ever been taken care of. I am just waiting to get my $100 back and probably gonna cancel. My faucet is still leaking right now. It's just running. I would tell other people not to sign up. I would tell them all the experiences that I've had, and I would say, “Do not do it. Not worth it.”

American Home Shield knew what was happening because when I called them, they said, "Well, let us try to call them." They tried to call them and the same thing happened to them. Mr. Appliance wouldn't answer the phone. They did not report what the situation was for them. AHS needed to know that diagnosis and where we were at with the problem. It was a big mess. I hated it. I waited too long and I had to find places to wash my laundry and it was an inconvenience for everybody around.

Mr. Appliance came in timely but they didn't follow through. The machine was leaking water. So, they told me there was some problem with the motor area and they were gonna replace a piece. They didn't know how much damage was there, but they would do their best and get what they needed. They got the part in there, and then the motor wasn't working. The tech said, "Well, we're gonna try to replace this piece of the motor." That was six weeks in. The tech said, "I guess this is not gonna work. We just can't spend that much money," which was another issue. My washing machine is a $1,200 machine and Mr. Appliance said it was gonna cost $800 to fix it.

I said, "Well, I would be surprised if Home Shield would repair that." They decided to go ahead and fix it but now, they have only given me a $600 machine. I'm thankful for a new machine, but I did not get the amount of value of my machine. The lady at Home Shield said that that was common. She said, "We do not match brands. We only match appliance." I don't know why they didn't compensate me sooner. Why would they fix it for $800 and then only replace it for 600?

Most of the time, I have fairly good luck with the technicians. This one was just a bad one. It was the worst. I had about a four-week experience one time with my refrigerator, but this one was terrible. American Home Shield seems overall good. I was divorced and I needed help with my things around the home. I wish they were more timely. A lot of the contractors in my area don't pick up the Home Shield program. Mr. Appliance was over 30 minutes away. That was half of the tech's problem. He didn't wanna come as frequently because he had to drive. The cost to repair the machine just overcame what was worth it for him. AHS needs to do more marketing in the Iowa area to pick up the program so that the customers have more of a variety and choice of who to go to.

I didn't tell them I bought it already. I waited until I got the approval. Then I sent them the receipt that I had already purchased a dryer, and they reimbursed me. But not for what we had paid because they wanted me to buy out through their company, which would have been fine if it had been a timely manner. The dryer we bought was a little bit more expensive than the one that they had for sale, which was fine 'cause I just upgraded our dryer to something a little bit different. It was less than $100 difference and that mainly was the cost of the dryer cord and the delivery, which I probably would have to pay for out of pocket anyway.

Whenever we needed appliances fixed, they use A&E Appliance Services at Indianapolis who are always double weeks. When our ice maker in our fridge went out, they had to come out, diagnose it, and order the part. The parts didn't come on time so they had to push back the appointment. It took three and a half weeks, from the time the guy ordered the part till they came to put it in.

Every time we try to call American Home Shield, it's 45 minutes of waiting for somebody. Then they just transfer you around to other people. I spent an hour and a half on the phone trying to get an answer on why our dryer wasn't getting replaced - 45 minutes waiting for a call, waiting to talk to somebody, and 45 minutes of getting the runaround. It was aggravating to say the least.

I wish I could choose to pick my own repair person 'cause we have local places in Newcastle where we live that can do the work quicker than I can get Sears out there. I'd even be willing to pay out of pocket and then get reimbursed. I've done before with one repair we had to do where they couldn't find somebody to do it. I had somebody do it, paid out of pocket and got reimbursed. I would rather do that than deal with the headache of trying to get them to schedule it and have their person come and do it. But they have to go through their contractors. The last guy that came and worked on the dryer came from Cincinnati, which is almost three hours away.

We recommend American Home Shield to people we know because it is a nice service to have. I tell people that their customer service is not the greatest but it gives you peace of mind on your stuff. I don't have to worry about my refrigerator completely dying on me and not having the money to buy a new one. They cover a lot of items in your house and usually they take care of it. They're also reasonably priced on the monthly fee and the deductible that you have to pay. But hopefully, they lower their prices ‘cause I need to save every penny I can. I wish the deductible was half. We had some repair for the microwave. It was only $180 for them to repair it and I paid $100 of that.

We had the garage door spring broke and they had that fixed within an hour. They put a new cable on it 'cause the repairman saw what was wrong as he was changing the spring. But the cable wasn't covered so I paid for that. Also, I had a claim for my washing machine but they couldn't get the part for three months. They always gave me the excuse that was because it was during the pandemic. I told them I needed a machine as I wash a load almost every day. I asked if I could go out, buy one and get reimbursed. They finally did that after I called them a few times.

So far, American Home Shield has been good. It's been easy to operate. But something that I would recommend is emergency calls. I had something that I needed somebody to respond right away. But American Home Shield was not able to respond super quickly on something in that matter. The contractors don't come out until the next day or two days later. That's not a good thing if you have a water break. I understand emergency calls are more expensive. But when I need somebody, I need somebody. Even if it was an extra charge, I don't care. I just need somebody out. Also, when I purchased my package for my duplex, it doesn't allow me to say both of my units on American Home Shield's website, like A and B. It only says my covered property is A so if I have work that needs to be done in B, the contractors always go to A.

But I was told that they don't train. They're too busy and they just get their jobs done. I had also asked the repairman about the rest of the air conditioning system. He said, "In my 20 years experience, I can tell you that there's nothing wrong with that stuff." He refused to go inside the house and even do a check on that equipment, much to my disappointment. It was just very matter-of-fact, very standoffish. That's not the kind of customer experience that I was hoping to get. It was a very unfriendly and do-not-approach-me type of atmosphere.

I just recommended to American Home Shield that perhaps, they might want to take a look at another contractor. I understand that to do business, you have to typically get some people that charge less because it's hard to afford. But in this case, I didn't feel like these folks were doing their job. One of the issues we had early on was that the breaker kept tripping and shutting off the air conditioning system. The first time they came out, I wasn't aware how to reset the breaker. They came, reset the breaker, did no further investigation and left. The breaker tripped a couple hours later again. We asked for the company to come back out again, and they did. They don't shut that ticket down for 30 days in case something like that happens.

They got into the outside air conditioning system for a period of time and made some basic checks. I was asking him questions again and was trying not to be too invasive. I was curious and don't know how AC systems work. I was hoping to get some answers on basic functionality in case I could do my own assessment before I had to make that call. He found that nothing was wrong with the AC system and they left. We had to issue another a second recall and ask them to come out again because the breaker would, at that point, not even shut. It kept popping back open. It was at that point that they determined that there was a shorted out compressor inside the system and they had to replace that.

It was during the heat of summer in California, and it was getting upwards of 85 degrees. Because we had no AC, and the outside air was upwards of 100. We couldn't open up the windows and it got warm in the house. They got the replacement part in, in about a week, which was better than their estimates of three weeks. Then the air conditioning system shut off again so we asked for another call. They came back out and said their replacement compressor shorted out. They came back within three weeks with the same part.

I've been with American Home Shield for the last 10 years and overall, it's been a good service for us. The plus is they are responsive and empathetic. We put a call in and the call gets answered within a couple of rings. Generally, within 24 hours, we get a call back. However, it takes a minute to understand what their people are saying. It takes some focus to understand the lady. They read off a script because it seems like I get the same questions or feedback every time, but that's to be expected.

They almost reliably get back to you with the status but the return call is much better than the status update calls. It's about a 50-50 proposition with getting a status update when they say they're gonna let us know. Also, their prices have gone up. That's to be expected but when you're working with deductibles, that's gonna hit the pocketbook. Another thing is the coverage is impossible to read. A lot of people, including ourselves, tend to skip over a lot of the legal to say, "I accept." But we weren't aware that by replacing the compressor, they would have to let all the freon out of the system, and a recharge would cost out of a pocket. Between that 1,300 and the upgrades that were recommended at that time, it was total out-of-pocket of 1,800. It was financially challenging.

The people they contract with, through no fault of their own, are probably trying to cut corners in order to reduce the cost or remove the liability away from themselves. In one case, we had a microwave. A piece of the front door cover had broken off. When we shut the door one time, it flew off and we couldn't glue it back on without it coming back off. We told them that we'd like to get the door replaced. But they said, "No, you guys are shutting the microwave door too hard." But we've had microwaves for years and we've never seen a piece of the material break off like that. Shutting the door on the microwave was not a justifiable reason for why that was done. It was brought up because they didn't wanna replace the door. It might have cost too much or been too much of a nuisance on their time. The microwave door never got replaced.

I recommend American Home Shield even though I closed my contract with them. They weren't offering the stuff that would really benefit me if something happened. For instance, having my well pumps covered would have benefited me. I talked to them to see if they offered it before my contract ended and they didn't offer it. So I told them I didn't wanna keep paying every month.

American Home Shield's web portal is really easy to use. So far, all of their techs seemed friendly and relatively knowledgeable. But I would never use J-Tech Mechanical again. If they were to utilize that for future AC issues, I would call American Home Shield and say, "No, I'd like a different AC company." The owner at J-Tech Mechanical was very, very, very inappropriate in the way he spoke to me. So I don't wanna do business with a company like that.

He went to Home Depot. Got the parts. I heard drilling. I asked him what he was doing. He said, ”I gotta cut some bolts to get it loose.” Okay. He did that. So, I sat down here and waited. He was on the phone when he left. He came back and said, “I'm finished.” He gave me a card and left. Very polite, professional, did everything, except the job that he did was not professional.

I went up after he left. I said, “Let me go to toilet. It's working. Let me go see how it's working.” I found that he didn't put water back in the toilet. Had he put water back in it, he would've found that my toilet leaked profusely. I stopped the water and drained back all the water back out of the toilet tank so it could stop leaking. I called AHS back and told them that there was problem. They said they would send somebody back out. Sent the guy back out. He never showed up because he kept getting late. He told me that he was en route. He had an emergency job. However way he went, it did not work out. He did not come back when he said he would.

Called AHS, said, “I need to get somebody out. I need my toilet.” American Home Shield said, “We'll call the plumber back.” I had a little thing with them about, “Why would you have to put me on a waiting list for ticket? By now, I've been out of my toilet about 10 days. So, why won’t you have to get somebody else to come? Why would you put me at the back of your line when this guy came out and dismantle my toilet and said that it wasn't working and all like that?" Finally, they did. American Home Shield gave me an appointment day. The guy came back out. He came out yesterday, fixed the leaking thing. He said, “The guy put it on the wrong side.” Fixed that, went in there and looked at my toilet. He said, “It's gonna be hard to fix this because it's been here for a while. It's gonna take a lot.” There was a lot of calcium buildup. It still won't flush. He said, “I'm gonna go back to AHS and put in a request to proceed.”

Got our email back and called AHS back. Said, “The plumber said due to the customer. It was the customer's fault due to excessive pressure." I don't know how much excessive pressure you could put on a toilet other than sitting on it. Said it was not covered. It would be 300 and something out of my pocket. What they did was wrong. I talked to the girl in AHS. She said, “I'll send another plumber out to counter if you wanna have somebody else do a review and to see what their thing is, without a charge to you.” That's where we are at.

These plumbers that came out here, in order to stay in business with American Home Shield, they rule in favor when it's stupid what he just said. It goes against what he said when he was here. Nobody jumps up and down on a toilet. Nobody went in there and beat on the toilet other than that man. That would have broke the tank because of the drill. Nobody does the things that they said to exempt them from being responsible for replacing the toilet per what they want, he said when you buy into them. They figure out nine ways not to repair it.

Some of the stuff that these plumbers say doesn't make sense. I'm 70 years old. It's just me and my 97-year-old mom. We have no energy to go upstairs in the attic and tear up ductwork. We have no energy to beat our toilet to death. I can't get up and down the stairs. I need the toilet. As a person who's in the house, I know it’s false. I know it's incorrect what they're saying. These plumbers say what they need to say in order to keep AHS from coming out of pocket or either to stay in grace to keep getting job calls from AHS.

I've also had them AHS send a contractor out and do my air conditioner. Similar situation with that. AC wasn't cooling upstairs. The guy came out and did a good job for doing the box outside. He went up in the attic. He said, “Someone went up and tore up your ductwork.” Who in their right mind would go up in the attic and tear ductwork? The ductwork is old and probably disintegrated. And to this day, AHS never sent a contractor back out to do my duct. I also had a refrigerator. The worker came out, said, “You have an internal leak in there. And when it freezes up, it tears your things up. And there's nothing that you can get in there and fix.” To this day, they never got in there and fixed it. AHS kept denying it.

My hot water heater went out. AHS did the repair. They replaced it. I chose to take the cash offer to buy my own. AHS did. They said, “But if someone else installed it, we would not be responsible for anything that goes along with the installation.” The guy that they sent out to do my hot water heater charged me $1,000 to do a $20 repair just to hook it up. So, I opted out of it and signed all the papers on that. To this day, when my hot water heater works good, I pay for the installation on my own. I still have my receipt for my hot water heater. They said they will cover the hot water heater. So, if anything goes wrong with the hot water heater, they will see if it can be repaired or they will replace it. But for the installation, I'm aware that I'm on my own with that because I didn't go their route.

When I got home, I was like, “Did the plumber come out?” My daughter was like, “Well, I don't know. Didn’t nobody knock on my door. Didn't nobody knock on the door.” I'm a little embarrassed to admit that the day that he said he came out, my water got turned off by the City of Little Elm. So, my daughter was like, “No. Nobody came. Nobody knocked on the door, so I don't know if he came or not.” I got an email from American Home Shield telling me that the job has been completed. I was like, “How is it completed when, one, nobody called me to let me know that they were out and, for two, my water is turned off?”

So, I called American Home Shield and they were like, “Well, we have a report here from SDL that state that the hydrant is working properly and that it’s cosmetic repairs that need to be done.” I explained to the Home Shield people that it may be cosmetic to them, but if I can't physically turn on my water, then it's more than cosmetic. It's a function issue. They were like, “Well, unfortunately, the way the tech wrote this up, you're gonna have to talk to them because they said that the service is completed and that everything is working properly.” I was like, “And then the other thing, my water’s off. So, how he knows it’s working properly?” She was like, “Unfortunately, I can give you their number, SDL number, because there's nothing we can do.”

So, I called SDL. I spoke with a man and he told me that the tech came out. I was like, “Well, I don't know if the tech came out because nobody contacted me and nobody knocked on the door. Because my daughter was at home and she didn't say anybody came out.” He said, “Well, ma'am, we have pictures. And I have the tech report.” I was like, “Okay. You have pictures. You have the tech report. But nobody, to my knowledge, came out because we were not greeted or anything.” He was like, “Well, I can read off to you what the tech said.” He read off what the tech said.

I said, “Well, the warranty people are saying that I needed to get back in touch with you guys because I need this fixed.” He was like, “Well, my guy came out and he said that it's a cosmetic issue and that I don't know why the warranty people are giving you such a hard time. I don't know why they just don't be honest with you, because they're not gonna pay for the repairs.” I said, “Well, that's the issue I will sort out with the warranty people. My issue with SDL is this. If your tech came out, he lacked communication with me, with my daughter. And he didn't even allow me to tell him exactly what was wrong. I don't know if he came out. And he says that it's a cosmetic issue. But if I can't physically turn on the hydrant to use it, I would think that it’s a functioning problem, not just cosmetic.”

He was like, “Well, you don't have to get aggressive and you don't have to get hostile with me.” I said, “I'm not. I'm just telling you the fact that he did not communicate is a big issue to me because I could have told him what my issue was.” If he felt the need that the home warranty people wouldn't cover it, I would have paid out of pocket because I need to use this faucet because of me not watering my yard. I'm getting foundation issues. So, the lack of communication is not the warranty's issue. It's SDL's issue. He was like, “Well, whatever. Just call your warranty people back and tell them you want a second opinion. And they'll have somebody to come out and do a second opinion. But I'm gonna tell you now, they're gonna say the same thing that we said.” I said, “Well, hopefully they'll communicate that with me and not just leave me in the blind.”

I called American Home Shield and they told me that because of the way that SDL wrote the report, they wouldn't do a second opinion. And if we were to do a second opinion, then there would be an out-of-pocket charge of $100 again for the service fee. I just got one of my neighbors who have a plumbing business. He came out and he repaired it. He charged me 280. I paid him to get it fixed. But as far as the home warranty, Shield didn't do anything. SDL didn't do anything either. So, I just paid out of pocket.

I called customer service three times and told the customer service person I spoke with, “I need to speak to a supervisor because I need to speak to someone that can make some decisions.” They gave me a very hard time with speaking to a supervisor. Finally, I had to get irate and belligerent, and I got to speak to a supervisor. Once I spoke with the supervisor, she acted as if she understood. She said, “If we do a second opinion and they come out and pretty much say the same thing that SDL said, you will have to pay out of pocket.” So, I had her set it up. However, I canceled it because I was like, “Why continue to go through this when I could just pay somebody out of pocket?” So, that was what I did. I'm very dissatisfied. It was a horrible experience. I'm looking for a new home warranty people.

American Home Shield took a long time. My claim started in June and finally, the upstairs and downstairs were working in September. So, that was how long it took back and forth with American Home Shield. All Comfort ended up being my second-opinion company. I did not agree with the first-opinion company's assessment. American Home Shield was wanting to charge me a whole bunch of money. Then I got the second opinion. All Comfort came with a more reasonable assessment. As the end result, I finally got my air conditioning on, but summer was over. At some point, neither unit was working when we had the triple digits here. So, I suffered through the summer without complete air. All Comfort did a good job. I'm not satisfied with American Home Shield.

I've been paying AHS money for years but when it comes to a claim, they find every excuse and every reason not to pay. The only reason that the new unit was put in is because All Comfort insisted on it saying, “It's obvious this is wear and tear. And this lady needs a new unit.” Instead of piecemealing this old unit, which they were trying to do. So, I give All Comfort a good rating for their service and their support.

American Home Shield kept telling me that they would email me the paperwork. They kept telling me every day that I would get it in 24 hours. I never received any emails pertaining to the reason. And then I received in the mail two items for the reason why they weren't paying, but I haven't received the third item. It's very frustrating that they tell me every day that I'm gonna receive it by email and I never have for three weeks. Every time they send someone out, it's $100 and then I can't even get paperwork for $100, and they sent multiple people out.

He didn't have the parts because he didn't know what was wrong. So, he came out with just testing equipment to check and see if it was something as simple as a switch or if it was a bigger problem. Once he diagnosed the problem, right there in my kitchen, he researched what parts and pieces were needed, and saw that most of them were available, but one needed to come in. He told me when the parts would be in and we scheduled a follow-up appointment for him to come out and replace all the parts right then and there. It was professional and exceptional. Everything works great.

The first guy that came out didn't speak English. He was here five times just coming and going. I told American Home Shield I don't want him back. He can't understand me and I can't understand him. All he did was replace my kitchen faucet. I called because all the faucets in the house were leaking, and all of them still leak. American Home Shield said they could send another vendor out, but it'd cost another $100. I also called a guy for my heater that was running a lot. He came out and looked at it. He said the vents needed to be cleaned which is maintenance and something he could do for $200.

The claim for the stove took a very long time. It was almost a month later before I got it fully completed. I put in the request but no one called me. It took weeks before I called them to ask if someone could come out, and they eventually did. I shouldn't have to ask them for the service instead of them calling and reaching out to me. Also, instead of them taking their trash and my old stovetop, they just left them in my kitchen. But I'm glad that American Home Shield replaced my stovetop. In the home that I live in, American Home Shield has taken care of everything that I've asked for. But with my other home, they didn't repair the AC. I had to go in and hire a company to do that. I also have so much other stuff like septic tank and pool, but they don't cover those things.

My biggest frustration was the fact that someone called me and told me they could give me "$125" cash-in-lieu settlement for the repairs, or I could send in an estimate and they would send me the money for the estimate of the repair. Whenever I did that and called AHS back and told them, "I've got the estimate here. Can I send it to you?", they told me, "No, it can't be an estimate. You have to pay for it first and then we'll send you the money to cover it." They said they wouldn't promise to pay the full amount. It depended on whether they could get it approved. I got a lot of turnaround stories and nobody could give me a straight one. Everybody said everybody else lied. I took the 125 in-lieu and called it good because I didn't wanna fight anymore. Other than that, it has been fine.

The tech was very cordial. He came in, introduced himself, and told me who he was. In turn, he said, “Is this the hot water heater?” I said, “Yes.” He looked down and said, “You do have some water down here. I'll see what I can do about finding it. When I find what the problem is, I'll let you know.” He started working, and 45 minutes later or less, he told me that it was the upper element that had a bad seal. He took that out. He drained the water heater, and took the element out. Said, “Here's your problem.” He put a new one in, turned the water back on, and we were back working.

I received my renewal contract with American Home Shield and there was approximately a $50 increase in my monthly premium for coverage for a year. That is on top of what I received last year, which was an increase in the dispatch fee for a technician on a service request. I couldn't afford or didn't wanna pay the increases that they've shown me in the last couple of years.

My husband agreed and said, "It's probably a good idea based on the age." They said, "You have to pay half up front and we can get the water heater for you and replace it when we come out to finish the repair." My husband asked, "Can you go ahead? And since we're going to do the replacement anyway, can you move the water heater now? So, it can be repaired before the water heater comes in next week." He said, "No. I've got a bad back. I wouldn't be able to do it. I'd have to get someone else out here anyway." My husband said, "I can still hear water rushing." He said, "No. That's just residual. It'll stop." An hour later, when it was still going, my husband had to crawl under the house himself. He saw water spewing out from the pipe. He had to shut off the water at the road to the whole house. Not only did we not have hot water, we didn't have any water.

We called AHS. AHS was unwilling to help with any of it. They just said, "You'll have to pay $85 for us to send someone else out." My husband said, "Why? We already paid $85. Nothing was done." They said, "That's just the way it is. We didn't even get paperwork from Discount. We don't even know what the problem is." My husband said, "That's the problem right there. They still haven't sent in paperwork. And it's been days." They wouldn't listen. We said we wanted to use this other company to do the repairs because they came out and did the emergency stop of the water. AHS said, "No. You have to use one of our plumbers." My husband said, "Are these guys one of yours?" They said, "Unfortunately not. Is there anything else we can help you with?" My husband said, "Are you kidding?" That was the end of that.

We called Discount Plumbing back. We ended up calling our own homeowners. We had to pay for the plumbing repairs out of pocket. We got the money back for the heater from the Discount Plumbing after we paid out of pocket for an emergency repair. They said, "You don't even have to move the water heater to get to this. There is no access needed." They repaired the pipe.

When I pulled up, he said, "Hey, bud. Is this you?" I said, "Yes, it is." He said, "You said 10 minutes. It's 11 minutes. I told you I was going to leave after 10 minutes." I said, "Well, I got stuck behind a slow driver. I'm here now." He gave me an attitude. At that point, my patience had started to subside. I was like, "Well, you're here to do a service for me. I don't understand why you're talking to me as if I'm working for you. Or I don't know what you think this is, but it ain't that." He slammed his phone down on his dashboard and got out of his truck and came towards me as if he was going to try to fight me. When he saw that I wasn't backing down, he got back in his truck and continued to try to yell at me. He left.

I immediately called his company. I never received a call back from his manager. I told them the situation and what happened. They assured me that they were working on the claim right then and there so that I could talk to American Home Shield and tell them like, "Hey, this company, they didn't work on my ticket. I need a different company to come out." But they took forever. While I was in talks with them, I also got in contact with American Home Shield. I told them what happened through the text chat and their response was, "We can't assume that that's what happened." I was like, "Well, I have video proof. I have proof that this is what happened." I don't think that this company should be sent out to anybody else.

I've seen a lot of similar situations. I looked up their Google reviews, and they have a very low rating. That made me look at American Home Shield a bit differently because why are they sending companies who do not have a good track record, companies who have low ratings to people's home to do work? It was traumatic as far as a technician threatening me. He knows where I live. American Home Shield saying, "Well, we can't assume that's what happened. So we're not gonna do anything about it" was very wrong to me. Nothing was done at all. I travel for work. So after that situation, which was so pressing because I wasn't gonna be home for a month, it made me look at American Home Shield very differently. Also me not being home, I requested to cancel the ticket and to get a refund.

The only thing that I would change is that I pay monthly, but yet I still have to pay for the service call when the contractors come. But it isn't a big deal, especially since we had one claim with our furnace. The parts would have cost us an arm and a leg, so I'm glad I only had to cover the service call. It would be nice if that was covered too and if we could agree to a five-year term and get a lower rate, but I'm still satisfied. Recently, my kitchen sink backed up and I was having issues with a few other drains. A plumber came and augered the drains, and everything's draining well now.

I paid the money but my garage door is still not working. He put it in on October the 11th and when I came back home that night, my garage door was not closing. I can't close my garage door unless I do it manually. I need to stand there and hold the button. I called the company back but they said they couldn't come out until Sunday. He came out Sunday and made an adjustment. I left him behind to go to the store and when I came back, it was the same thing. The garage door was not opening. I called him to tell him to come back. He said, “I need to order some part on the door. I'll give you a call tomorrow and let you know when I’d be in.” But he never called or did anything.

I called American Home Shield and told them what was going on. I said, “Their company told me that you didn't cover the garage door opener.” They said, “Yes because he put on the ticket that you wanted to upgrade.” I said, “That's not what I told you. I told you I was having problems opening and closing my garage door. You guys are here for me, not for them.”

American Home Shield was telling me if they send somebody else out to service the garage door, I would have to pay another $125 for a service fee. That's not right. They should eat that 125 and send a new company out. The rep said, “If they come out and find out that the same thing is wrong, then you're gonna pay for it.” I told them I'm not paying for anything, that they should have stood behind me when I called and told them what was going on. I got ripped off a total of $1,700 with their fee of $125 but my garage is still not opening. It's getting cold outside and I won't be able to pull up in my garage and into my house. American Home Shield should reimburse me my money because I specifically told them that I was having problems opening and closing my garage but they believed the technician when he put in that claim stating that I wanted an upgrade.

I had also put in a claim for a stove and ended up buying another stove because I didn't feel like going back and forth with them. After I get this issue with my garage door opener resolved, I'm gonna cancel American Home Shield ‘cause it's no use to me. Every time I try to use them, they don't cover it. American Home Shield is not for the customers. They're just out for the money. Also, nobody speaks English. American Home Shield has foreigners who you’re talking to on the phone. They're frustrated ‘cause they're not understanding and you're frustrated ‘cause they're not understanding what you're saying. This customer service is horrible.