American Home Shield Reviews

He took the panel off the front of it and said there was nothing apparent there. But he didn't drain it or do anything to see if there was any residue or build-up. He knew we're selling the house and one of the things he did that I thought was questionable was he asked if we needed work done on the house other than the water heater. We told him we had an inspection done, and there were some things we needed to do. He gave us a card for a company and told us they'd give us a free estimate. We told him we already have a handyman that we can call. He told us it was a free estimate so we might as well have them come and check what we've seen to see if it's fair. It felt like he had a monetary interest in it.

We had these guys out, and the estimate that came through was mind-boggling. We hired a guy to go under our house, and he spent all day long replacing insulation and fixing a dryer vent from our dryer. There was a vent that had dropped and not connected right. He cleaned that out, and he vacuumed for hours under there to get anything off the crawl space and clean it up. $600 is what we paid him, plus we bought the insulation, and we bought him a hazmat suit so we're probably 800 into it. But this guy wanted $5,700.

We also asked the plumber guy very clearly, before this guy came out and gave us this horrendous kid, “Will you put in writing that you inspected the hot water system and it’s running fine?” He said he would do that but he left the house and never did. He said it would be on American Home Shield's website. I'd be able to pull up the report ‘cause he would give the report to them. But it's not. All American Home Shield did was put on that the service has been completed, but there are no results. I've called American Home Shield and they said they sent me an an email and they'd send it again. But the email, once again, just said the service has been completed.

I want something that I could show a buyer that says we've had the unit looked at and it's running fine. But we don’t have that, and that's more of a frustration with American Home Shield than it is with the plumber. The plumber was what the plumber was. If the guy did a bid to repair something, my guess is that information would probably be available. But if everything's fine, that information should still be available because I'm sure he had to make a report to American Home Shield. The way that the home warranty is supposed to work is that I pay the deductible, they pick the dude, and dude comes out. If something's broken or needs to be replaced, he lets them know, and they cover that.

I'm a real estate broker and I have sold these warranties for years to people. I have bought them for years for my clients. I just got an email this morning saying that one of my clients had their washer/dryer fixed thru American Home Shield. I also had a client who had to replace their whole HVAC system. My client thanked me for buying them the warranty as it saved them money. American Home Shield covers what we wanted covered and the price is very reasonable. I felt that it was very legit because I've seen it work but it was only a great experience until I had my own.

That was where things got a little dicey. This was not the first time that I've had trouble with the refrigerator breaking down. When the tech got here, I had made a little sideways comment like, "Hopefully, it's actually dead this time," so I can just get a new one. He took that information back and said, "I can fix the refrigerator, but she doesn't want me to." But that was not what I said. We didn't have a conversation and I know that’s not how things work. Friday, he left, and then Monday was a holiday. So Saturday, Sunday, Monday, I was without a refrigerator.

I called on Tuesday because I hadn't heard anything from American Home Shield or the contractor to find out what was going on, to figure out an update. The AHS rep that picked up the call let me know that they were going to put in a request for the contractor to contact me directly. But she didn't have an update for me. So I was very confused about what was going on.

I spoke to American Home Shield, and they said they were going to call and leave a message for him. I also called the last number that he had called me from to see if he could just call me and let me know what was going on since nobody had an update for me.

I did not get a call back from the contractor until after 4:00 pm on that Tuesday and he was not intending to come and fix the refrigerator. Because he told them he could fix the refrigerator, but I didn't want to. I wanted the replacement in lieu of repair. I did not necessarily say that. But then once he said it, I was like, “If that's something I can do, what does that look like?"

I've had several issues with this refrigerator. And even if it was just the cost of the repair that I was going to be paid to replace the refrigerator as opposed to fixing it again, I feel like I should have been given that option. When people call in for repairs, the technician comes and looks at it unless it's a situation where the technician is fixing it right then and there. If they have to leave and go order parts and all of those things, someone should call and say something, "This is what's going on. This is what we can do, and this is your other option." That did not happen.

Fast forward, once the contractor told me that, I called American Home Shield back and the person who answered the call this time around transferred me. I let them know what has happened so far. He said he was going to transfer me to the escalation team. The person from the escalation team was very rude. I let him know, "If I am coming off aggressively, I apologize. I'm just very frustrated at the moment because I feel like I'm being given the runaround."

After the last conversation, when I was told that if I wanted to get the money in lieu of repair, that was an option I would prefer to take. The guy from the escalation team was like, "We already approved for the technician to fix the refrigerator. So that is what's going to happen." I said, "I just spoke with him. He hasn't even ordered parts for the refrigerator. You're telling me that I have to wait for him to do all of that to come and fix my refrigerator? I do not want to do that." He said, “That's what's going to happen.“

I said, "Sir, I don't want to talk to you anymore. Please transfer me to your supervisor." He said he would not transfer me because he already told me what was going to happen. I ended the call, he called me back to continue to argue with me that I had no other options. I was like, "Are you serious right now? I don't want to talk to you. I've already stated what my issue is. I've already let you know how I would like to proceed. You will not transfer me to a superior, so I'll call back and someone else will transfer me. I do not want to talk to you."

I got off the phone again, I called back, I talked to someone else. While I was on the phone with this person this time, the technician called me and he said, "What's going on? Everybody's calling me." When I was on the other line, the person was saying, “We have to talk to the technician." The technician called while I was on the phone with American Home Shield. I asked the technician, I said, "Can you please hold for one second? Are you okay with me merging a call?"

I merged the call with American Home Shield and the technician. I said, "Everybody's on the phone now, so everybody can talk." Everybody had the same understanding about what was about to happen. We got on the call, and the technician said what his understanding was: that he was not coming to fix the refrigerator. American Home Shield said, "Okay. Well, you can get paid out in lieu of the repair. So I have to escalate it so they can calculate how much you're going to get reimbursed." I said, "Okay. If that's what we have to do, that's fine." It is Wednesday, and I still don't have the refrigerator.

After I spoke to the last person at American Home Shield, he sent me over something immediately within the hour for me to sign. And I ordered a refrigerator. I was like, "I'm just going to buy a refrigerator. Hopefully, they give me some money back." But I can't be here without a refrigerator. If I would have known that the repairman told them what he told them on that Friday, I would have ordered a refrigerator on Friday and tried to get it over the weekend. I thought that he was actually coming back to repair the refrigerator. I would not have waited for him to find out that information on Tuesday.

I appreciate the service of American Home Shield. Because if I didn't have the money and I did have to wait for the repairs, I would have done that. But I had the money and I consulted my family and we discussed it and everybody was like, “If you can afford it, just buy a new one. Because what happens next year?"

American Home Shield's deductible is $100. The refrigerator has broken down at least once every year for the last three years. So that's $300 that I'm out of pocket just to get it repaired over the last three years. My family was like, "Okay. So if you get it fixed this year and it happens next year, then what?" I spoke to the man who does the things for me to get the reimbursement and it ended up being $500 -some odd dollars that I got reimbursed because that was the cost of repair.

I called because, when the technician came to me that Friday, he was telling me, “This is what it is and it's going to cost about $600, almost $700 to fix the refrigerator." I was like, “That's crazy." I know parts are expensive and labor is expensive. I called American Home Shield after they gave me the specific amount that I would receive, because I just wanted to know how they got to that calculation and the technician said something different.

The person who explained to me what was going on was very nice. What she did was she refunded me my deductible that I paid because of the service that I experienced. In total, I got $650 in reimbursement for my refrigerator based on that experience.

I've been with AHS for a very long time, and that's the first time that it was horrible. And the fact that he wanted to argue with me, and I told him, "I'm ending the call. I do not want to talk to you anymore." I just hung up. But even when I was saying I'm ending the call, he was like, "You need to listen to me." And I was like, "Don't yell at me." Aside from that, I've never had a bad experience. Also, someone came out and looked at my dishwasher once, and then there was a leak in one of my bathrooms, too. All the time that I've been with AHS, those are the only things that I've ever had repairs on.

In the bathroom, there was a continuous drip on the hot water valve side, and he said they would have to cut a hole in the tile, take out the complete faucet system, and install a new one because there was no way to stop the water from continuing to run. I asked if it was not simply a matter of replacing it and that he has to identify the valve to solve the problem. He said they needed to take this whole faucet system out and install a new one. I knew that wasn't true. Then in the kitchen, he said that it was extreme negligence, that the faucet should have been replaced a long time ago, knowing that American Home Shield will not cover it if there is blatant negligence, which is understandable. The guy unstopped the main sewer with the cleanout that's on the back of the house and then told me that it was going to cost approximately two grand to solve the problems. I knew that wasn't true, so I requested a second opinion.

Another plumbing company came out and did exactly what I said and resolved the problem. They went into the cleanout that was already there in the laundry room and cleared out with a regular snake the stopped-up washing machine draining line. They went to the bathroom and replaced the hot water valve for the tub, and everything was fine. In the bathroom, the stopper assembly, when you pull up the ball to stop it up, it does not. And all that was required was a new stopper assembly. The point of the matter was that the individual did not come out with the intent of making the repairs unless it was something simple and easy. And what he recommended was overkill to solve the problem. The other plumber company that came out for the second opinion went right to it and knocked it out.

I've been with American Home Shield and have had multiple contracts for over 25 years. They are doing a better job at following up quicker, and continuing to do that would be a plus. The second opinion was a great avenue, which, in this case, as a customer, I didn't feel that the first plumbing company did me justice, and it was proven that they didn't. My experience over the years, in large part, is that American Home Shield is fair. The only negative thing is that their marketing department sells the contracts, but they don't have adequate technicians to provide timely coverage for the various problems, which is something I have complained about over the years.

The part of the organization that's responsible for recruiting licensed, qualified technicians isn't locking those down soon enough, and so the customer pays for certain problems to be resolved in various areas like plumbing, HVAC in particular, and electrical. They don't have enough contractors to respond in a timely manner and the customer has to wait as much as a week because the ones that they have are booked to the rim. That's not good because the customer is not paying to wait. The customer is paying for the peace of mind that when they have a problem, American Home Shield will provide technicians to address the problem in a timely manner.

For instance, my last experience was with my dishwasher and within a matter of minutes of the technician leaving, I ran it to make sure the heating element was working correctly. I stepped away while the cycle was running, not thinking anything of it, because I was just trying to get to the heating element part. When I came back into my kitchen, I slipped and fell in a huge puddle of water, which I wasn't expecting because I didn't have a water issue with my dishwasher. At that point, I was fumbling on who to call or what to do. I stopped the machine then tried to reach out to American Home Shield to ask them to get ahold of Sears, see if they could reach that technician, and send them back here. Unfortunately, it was right before the holidays or before Easter, so that didn't quite work out.

So far, I've yet to be able to run a full cycle because we got in the habit of hand-washing dishes. But this was recently repaired two days ago. So, today, I will make sure to run my dishwasher. The tech said that the heating element wasn't installed correctly the first time. But he assured me that all the water fittings were secure, so I shouldn't have water leaks now. But that makes me nervous, because then, I could face other issues with water leaks in my kitchen. So, we'll see.

Then, for my first claim for my dryer, it was pretty obvious that something had malfunctioned and caused several issues, but the technician wanted to first repair the motherboard. I'm no mechanic but that sounded like he wanted to do brain surgery when it was already a zombie. And that was what happened. So, it put me out of a dryer for two and a half months. I was dissatisfied because it was the holidays. I didn't have a dryer for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We're a large household and the laundry was piling up on me. It was causing marital issues between my husband and I when we argue on who would be doing the laundry.

I tried not to take it out on the customer service representatives, but there were times that I was getting a robotic response from them. But there was never an offer to redeem the situation. I even suggested for them to take my dryer to your shop and work on it as long as they want. I'd go pick one up from a rental center, because I needed a dryer. In the end, my dryer was replaced. American Home Shield sent me a link with options of what to select, and I selected one that ended up coming from Lowe's. It was delivered, installed, and now I'm happy. So far, I've had no issues with my new dryer. But getting there was a little frustrating. Anyone else would have given up. It took a lot to get to that point, including days off of work, rescheduling, a part that didn't come in, and the techs saying that they needed an additional part after installing one. It felt like a whirlwind.

John was the technician who came out before with my dryer and I appreciate him. He seemed very knowledgeable and he usually came back behind another technician. He has accommodated little things, too. For example, the first tech who came out for my dryer was George and he took it entirely apart, which was kind of mind-boggling to me. When he tried to put it back together, he was really having a hard time. So, it caused my drum to be disbalanced after that, and that wasn't originally the issue. Then, John came out and he said he was going to do his best to fix it back in place. And he did, which was what I was looking for. Someone to be a little more sensitive to the customer's needs, my needs.

Other than that, American Home Shield has been are very reasonable with their price. I also like the app and the video chat option. I've used it a couple of times and that feature is great because it allows American Home Shield to see what you're talking about. Sometimes I don't know what to call the problem and instead of trying to scratch my head and Google what I'm looking for, I use that feature.

I called American Home Shield back to say that a hole was forming in it again and they said they would need to send someone back out. When the technician came, I told her she had been out before and had fixed my dryer previously. She looked at the same area again but didn’t explain what was wrong with it. She just said I would get a call back. When asked what was causing the issue, she repeated that I would get a call and then walked out. No follow-up was ever received after that. I called American Shield and told them I want to know what's going on with my dryer. Somebody got to fix it. They said my claim was denied because I abused the dryer. I have had it for 14 years so I asked what caused it to happen.

American Home Shield sent another company out and the technician said that because of the way my dryer was, it hits against the washing machine. So, I didn't have space between it. Even though the first technician replaced it, she didn't tell me that I needed to have space between it. The problem is, when she replaced it, it already had the damage on the wheels that were never aligned back. So, whenever she replaced the drum, it just went back onto the same cycle. The wheels and the belt weren't replaced. I also found out that the vent needed to be vacuumed out, and it was why I wasn't getting any heat. So, multiple things were going on with the dryer, but I wasn't told until the second company came out and explained that there was nothing that I was going to be able to do with this dryer now because it had run its course. It's old, and it's going to break eventually.

The second company was more straightforward. They explained that repairing it wouldn’t be worth it because it would likely break again, and it needed to be replaced rather than patched up. But it’s a washing machine and dryer set so I didn’t want to replace the dryer. They said I’m going to keep having the same problem. They gave an estimate for what the dryer was going to need to be replaced. They told me it was going to take time for these parts to come in, but there was no guarantee that once we replace them, it's not going to happen again because of the age and because of the damage that's already been done.

If the first technician had told me that, I would not have been going through this. Instead, she only took the dryer drum out during the first visit and didn’t say anything else. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and reduced the load size and temperature, but it still wasn’t working properly. I started making the load lighter because maybe I was putting too many clothes in the dryer. But my husband said we weren’t overloading it, since the dryer says it can handle up to about 10 towels at a time. So it didn’t make sense. It just kept breaking, and something inside was clearly worn out from age. It wasn’t heating, so even small loads like three or four t-shirts weren’t drying and I had to run it multiple times. It just kept running without drying anything, and I was wasting electricity.

When I asked for the reason why the claim was denied, I was told it was due to abuse and that I was supposedly putting sneakers in the dryer. I explained that I don’t put shoes in the washer or dryer at all. I clean those by hand. I was pissed off and I called American Home Shield to ask if there was anything else that could be done because I wasn’t sure what else to do. I shouldn’t have to go to a laundromat since this is exactly what I’m paying the service for. I was livid but I had to remember that American Home Shield is just licensing people out to contract these jobs. So, my being frustrated with them wasn't the problem. It was the original people I was supposed to be frustrated with.

American Home Shield sent me a quote of how much my refund would be if I wanted to get the dryer repaired, or if I just wanted to get a cash out. So, I said I would do the cash out because I took the advice of the people who told me to just replace it. American Home Shield told me how much it was going to be and I found an appliance store that had a dryer that was comparable to the dryer that I had. It had a scratch on it, but it was brand new, and I got it at a discount. I had a one-year warranty on a new dryer, and I still get the warranty with American Home Shield. Plus, I was able to put the dryer on my current pedestal. I’d recommend American Home Shield to anybody. They stand by their customers. But they have to be wary of the contractors. The money that American Home Shield gets from me monthly cannot equate to what I went through. The $25 I give them every month covers all of my appliances.

Here’s how the scam works:You pay every month faithfully. Then when something actually breaks, they send a technician weeks later — sometimes OVER A MONTH later. After the visit, the technician sends a report to AHS, and then you wait another week or two while they “review” the claim… only for them to deny it almost every single time using the same scripted excuse:“Not normal wear and tear.”

Convenient, right? So after years of payments, service fees, waiting, and inconvenience, they find every possible loophole NOT to help you. What exactly are customers paying for? And the lies never stop. When I signed up, I was promised a $100 referral reward for referring friends. I never received a single dollar. I called multiple times, wasted more hours on the phone, and kept hearing the same fake promises:“We submitted the request.”“Someone will contact you within 24–48 hours.” Nobody EVER calls back.

Their customer service is beyond terrible. Representatives transfer you endlessly, put you on hold for HOURS, disconnect calls, pretend they cannot help, or simply refuse to resolve anything. It honestly feels designed to wear customers down until they give up. But the worst part?Trying to CANCEL this nightmare. It took me 23 DAYS of nonstop stressful calls just to cancel my policy. Twenty-three days. Yesterday alone I spent FOUR HOURS on the phone practically begging them to process the cancellation and send me a confirmation email. And , of course,  you CANT cancel it online . No customer should ever have to fight this hard just to leave a company.

This company has mastered one thing:Taking customers’ money while avoiding responsibility at all costs. If you are considering signing up with American Home Shield — DON’T. Read the reviews first. Learn from other people’s experiences. Save yourself the financial loss, stress, wasted time, and emotional exhaustion. I would NEVER recommend this company to anyone.