Home warranty service contracts

Professor

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We just purchased a house in March. I’m not normally a fan of extended warranties and things like that. We decided to go ahead and purchase this because it would be tough to handle a 5-8k AC/Heater unit during the first year of ownership.

Last night the air conditioner went out. I made a call to them first thing this morning and they said the contractor would be calling to make an appointment to come out. Heat and air contractor called about 8:15 and said they would be out Monday between 10 and 3. The person taking the call said they had 2 working days to come out. Hmmm That would Thursday and Friday. I called the warranty company back and asked them about it. She agreed, and said she would try to assign it to someone else who could come in a timelier manner. They would not let here reassign the ticket. I ended up talking to three different people over the next two hours with no luck. Now Oklahoma City is a pretty large community and the contractor is from a small town 30 miles south of here.

When I told them the forecast was 100 degrees for the next 5 days, they looked it up and corrected me. “Oh I only show it is going to be 99 except for 100 on Sundayâ€￾ I guess they looked somewhere different and the 1 degree makes a big difference.

So what kind of luck have you had with home warranties? Help make me feel better about it. I’m not getting a warm fuzzy about this company.

Weather.jpg
 
When I bought my house the threw in the warranty for one year. I never had a chance to use it so I can't relate. I didn't renew it either, but a friend at work had the same problem you have with the outside A/C unit not working and they replaced it for free. He had the home shield protection. Good luck. By the way what problems are you having, it maybe an easy fix that you could do yourself.
 
Call the Realtor who sold it to you... Nine times out of ten our companies have a relationship with the home plan company... They may be able to move this along for you...
 
Have purchased them but never used them. They always sounded like a deal if something went wrong but timing when you are frying your ass off is critical... I agree!
Melissa
 
Do you have to use their contractor?
Can you call another company yourself and turn in the bill?
 
(stlbusarider @ Aug. 09 2007,16:55) When I bought my house the threw in the warranty for one year. I never had a chance to use it so I can't relate. I didn't renew it either, but a friend at work had the same problem you have with the outside A/C unit not working and they replaced it for free. He had the home shield protection. Good luck.     By the way what problems are you having, it maybe an easy fix that you could do yourself.
Sparks were coming out of the condenser compressor unit, closer to the compressor. I may have to pull the cover in a few to take a better look at it.
 
I use a home warranty....have for the last 7 yrs and I have never had a problem like this before. Our home is 30+yrs old so I've used it a lot, especially on plumbing.

I have always had the contractor come out the day I called or the next day.

I'm really sorry your having this trouble. I know how it is to go with out a/c for 3 days.

I just can't believe they are treating a paying customer this way. I would ask for my money back....thats just not right.
who do you use? We have American Home Shield

Did you pay it all up front or is it included in your house payment? If it's included in your mortgage payment maybe they can help you out.
 
(jessup @ Aug. 09 2007,17:40) Call the Realtor who sold it to you... Nine times out of ten our companies have a relationship with the home plan company...  They may be able to move this along for you...
I'm going to try that in the morning. The complaint list I'm now finding online does not give me make me feel any better. They should at least be aware of the complaint.

Heck, they only try to sell it to cover their own tail anyhow.
 
i had a same thing. BS

a couple shingles blew off and they would not repair it. they said they dont replace shingles?? just replace roofs.
total crap
 
(BlueHaya @ Aug. 09 2007,18:11) Do you have to use their contractor?  
Can you call another company yourself and turn in the bill?
Yep, they have me locked in and refuse to assign it to someone else.
 
Or you could just listen to me and come down and stay at our house until they fix it on Monday but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO you want to wait it out in the hottest days of 2007....

Your always welcome to come down..... (Bring tecate when you come)

Cap
 
(BlondeOnaBusa @ Aug. 09 2007,18:41) I use a home warranty....have for the last 7 yrs and I have never had a problem like this before. Our home is 30+yrs old so I've used it a lot, especially on plumbing.

I have always had the contractor come out the day I called or the next day.

I'm really sorry your having this trouble. I know how it is to go with out a/c for 3 days.

I just can't believe they are treating a paying customer this way. I would ask for my money back....thats just not right.
who do you use? We have American Home Shield
That is what I was looking for a positive experience. Same company. Hopefully I am being pessimistic and things will turn out better than I think. First impressions are not what I hoped for.
 
(captain @ Aug. 09 2007,18:43) Or you could just listen to me and come down and stay at our house until they fix it on Monday but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO you want to wait it out in the hottest days of 2007....

Your always welcome to come down.....  (Bring tecate when you come)

Cap
If it gets bad, I'll be knocking on your door! Even if it is just to empty a few cans!
 
(Professor @ Aug. 09 2007,16:46)
(BlondeOnaBusa @ Aug. 09 2007,18:41) I use a home warranty....have for the last 7 yrs and I have never had a problem like this before. Our home is 30+yrs old so I've used it a lot, especially on plumbing.

I have always had the contractor come out the day I called or the next day.

I'm really sorry your having this trouble. I know how it is to go with out a/c for 3 days.

I just can't believe they are treating a paying customer this way. I would ask for my money back....thats just not right.
who do you use? We have American Home Shield
That is what I was looking for a positive experience. Same company. Hopefully I am being pessimistic and things will turn out better than I think. First impressions are not what I hoped for.
I'm very disappointed in how this company is treating you. I know those contracts don't come cheap. Maybe call again tomorrow and give it one more try.
 
I just took a better look at it. It has a bit of oil oozing out of the bottom of the unit.
rock.gif
May be fatal for this one. With the new SEER laws, this may be fun.
 
I had my water heater burst and found out about it after wading through 2 inches of water in my kitchen at 7am on a Saturday morning. At 8am exactly I called the warranty company and they referred me to a local plumber. Called the plumber at 8:10am and was told they would be there sometime between 8:15am and 5pm. I asked them to narrow the time down and they said "no". They also told me not to drain the water heater becasue they need to see it leaking. (Like it wasn't evident from the 2 inches of water in the kitchen and hte 3 inches in the garage). I said "OK, no problem. Will you be bringing a new water heater to install?" Their reply was "no we probably will not get around to replacing it until sometime next week". I was thinking " Cold showers for a week? No thanks"

I went to Home Depot, bought a 12 yr warranty heater, installed it, cleaned up the flood mess and was done in 2 hours. IMO... Screw the home warranties.
 
Prof which company is it? They might be affiliated with my company and if they are I will call if you like.
E

Pull out your contract and go over it with a fine tooth comb... sometimes you would be surprised by what you can actually do...
E
 
I am a realtor and have had my clients use their warranty in the past with good luck. Had ac units completely replaced for $50 deductable. Call your realtor and have him put call in.
 
Home Warranty is a good idea.  I have had American Home Shield now for about 15 years.  I have never had a problem with service or having major items replaced for only call charge, which is $35.00.  For example, we have had a $5000.00 AC, $1500 Range replaced and our only cost was $35.00.
 
(jessup @ Aug. 09 2007,19:51) Prof which company is it?  They might be affiliated with my company and if they are I will call if you like.
E

Pull out your contract and go over it with a fine tooth comb... sometimes you would be surprised by what you can actually do...
E
It is American Home Shield.

Hopefully everything will work out Monday.

I'm worried about them coming out, deciding it needs a compressor and then putting me off to order/install. There are several suppliers within 10 miles of me. OKC metro is about 1.2 million. The contractor they have assigned me to is 30 miles south in a town of 6000. If they had explored other options of trying to get another service tech out before the weekend, I’d be a lot happier with them.


Looking at the contract, it looks like they may be limited to $1500, but I also paid for the option to have to upgrade to the SEER 13 units as required by law now. So we’ll see how it plays out. At least I have heard some positive things about the company now.

Worst case, I’ll be arranging for a new SEER 15 unit and fighting them for my money back for the contract.
 
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