I will let anyone reading this be the judge if you would choose American Home Shield for a warranty, because we did not select them, it was selected by the seller of our new home. My experience thus far with American Home Shield Warranty since we moved into our new home 4/14/21… By end of June, I was in the garage working when I heard water start to leak onto the floor, which was our Hot Water Heater failing and starting to flood the area surrounding it.
We had a Hot water heater made by the same company (if not the exact same model) fail in the same spot, also at about halfway through the manufacturer’s warranty at the home we just left the previous summer. AHS sent someone out for the service call, charged me $75 and when that plumber left, they agreed it needed to be replaced and sent the authorization to AHS. AHS called me and said it was under manufacturer’s warranty and would not be covered. End of discussion. The customer service representative also stonewalled over and over my attempts to escalate to a manager to at least explain my position of not wanting to go with that same manufacturer a 3rd time.
I have worked myself in a customer service call center for 14 years, so I can tell if they are actually trying to see if a Mgr. is available, and this rep clearly wasn’t. When I finally gave up, they said they could email a manager for a callback, which (as I correctly predicted on that call) never came. Then in August I had a roofing company installing a new roof and they notified me of a problem with the AC condensate line, the connection was rusted and it was dripping directly onto the roof. Not the biggest problem, but they said there could be some discoloration on the new roof if left unchecked.
We knew the AC was old, it was working to cool most of the home, but we discovered that 2 rooms had hotspots once the summer heat came. Those kind of things don’t show up on an inspection. I had purchased a couple portables (this is Phoenix in the summer) until I could get some different quotes on a replacement. I submitted a service call to AHS mainly for the leak, to see if they could do anything about the condensation line, but the AC circuit breaker had been tripped a couple times, and I couldn’t be sure what was causing it, or if it would continue.
They sent a company out to take a look. That AC tech said they would send in a request for the condensation line to see how AHS would want to handle it. I didn’t expect much because of the lack of support on the hot water heater, but when we were talking about that issue, I mentioned the circuit breaker being tripped, they checked it out, and thought they had found the part causing the trouble, and that is when everything unraveled. The tech asked for what I can only assume was a more senior tech to come out and help, because after replacing that one component, they could not get the AC to turn back on.
They spent hours working and left with an explanation that may have been plausible, that previous maintenance was done that bypassed this or that… But it also could have been inexperience with an older system. I looked up the AC company they sent, they have only been around since 2015. I asked if they can just put it back the way it was, to at least get it working again and they could not. They would send the info to AHS. Now, thank god I bought those portables, because we are literally huddled into 2 rooms, the living room sealed off with plastic and the rest of our house uninhabitable, while AHS twiddles their thumbs.
I have heard they may try to drag out replacement or major repair for weeks or months… I can’t accept that. It’s brutal heat in the Phoenix summer, and the AC, though old, was WORKING and blowing cold air, keeping a cool 76 degree temp for most of our home, the portables doing the rest. I called AHS two days (Friday) after the service call left us without a working AC, and the rep said they were waiting on authorization, but to call back the next day (Saturday) because it was expected to be completed. They stated the authorization had to do with replacement parts, and the parts to be replaced was 1 3.5 ton Air Conditioning unit. Otherwise known as THE WHOLE SYSTEM.
Well, I checked the next day and it was still at “Authorization Under Review.” I expressed to them while on that Friday call our situation and expressed it again when I THOUGHT I was getting a call with a decision on Monday… The call on Monday was actually the Manager callback I was promised the 2nd time I tried to escalate the Hot Water Heater (back in June) when submitting for the AC. Even that WAS LATE. Trying to call was not the only way I tried to reach out, I also tried their Media Relations email and their email for the office of the CEO, NO RESPONSE on either. So with American Home Shield Warranty, ultimately I feel like I am completely at their mercy and so far we are not protected.
Doesn’t seem to matter to them that the service call left us without a working AC for a week now. How many more weeks do you need to make THE EXACT TYPE OF DECISION THAT YOU ARE IN BUSINESS FOR, DAY IN, DAY OUT?!?! I’ve had much better experiences with their competitors, and I would advise again ANYONE involved in a real estate transaction from choosing them as your Home Warranty. Be warned.