American Home shield Horror Story
 

We have an American Home Shield warranty to Repair or Replace our 20 year old AC in the Villages. We have paid over $2500 in premiums over the past 4 years. During the first week of April our Air Conditioner died. Now, 11 weeks later, AHS has neither Repaired nor Replaced our AC. We were forced to abandon our home because we cannot live there without AC. AHS has given us two choices, continue to wait for a part on indefinite backorder and then pay an additional $1400 for a Repair. Or, they will buy us out of the repair for $450 (after we repair or replace the AC at our expense).

The moral of the story: if you have a Repair or Replace warranty contract, make sure that contract requires the company to do the Repair or Replace within a reasonable time frame.

I disagree. The moral is to not buy a home warranty in the first place.

It appears that most of these home warranty services operate the same way, and the homeowner is out of the loop on any decisions for making repairs, etc., which is the main reason I self-insure, then I am in charge of the entire process.

These policies are nothing more than a marketing tool for realtors to sell a house. They often encourage the seller of a home to purchase this to give to the buyer to give them a false sense of security. We had it included on a house we purchased back in the early 90's in NC. The first January we were in there the heat pump died and needed to be repaired. Contacted AHS and they sent somebody local out a couple days later. Same story...they needed a part to fix it so they would have to order it and it would take a couple weeks to get it. Fortunately, it wasn't horribly cold out and we did have a fireplace that was also a heater so we were fine during the day and we all slept in the living room near the fireplace at night until it was fixed. I would never actually purchase one of these policies and I don't really consider it a benefit when it comes with a house I am buying.

Our sons frig died about three weeks ago. Sent a repairman who said the condensor was shot and had to get approval from Samsung to get a new one under warranty. 4 days later approval was given and was shipped a week later.

Repair guy bit backed up and came 3 days after receiving the part. Puts it in and with in 24 hours frig stops working.

Now coming on Monday to diagnose this problem. And for this you pay for a warranty?

Luckily for them they have second one in their garage but rather a pain to go in and out while so hot.

Better to self insure and deal with a local repairman who will give you service and has faster access to parts.

The reality of all insurance. They access the risk. They charge a fee to cover the risk plus overhead, plus a profit. They make money on the fee, the premium and lose money on any payout. As far as replacing a twenty year old AC. The typical life of an AC in Florida is around 14 years. I expect the policy that you signed has some reduction in payout for a replacement unit. Can't find the part? Perhaps, a good excuse to get out of whatever you are entitled to.
Reasonable time frame-what is that? A day a week a month? Were it me and I wanted that, beyond it's normal expected life unit repaired, I would ask what the part is, part number etc and see if you can find it. There are all kinds of strange businesses on the internet. I am stubbornness personified. I needed a no longer made plumbing part. I was told by a plumber the part is no longer made and I had no choice but to replace all of it. I found a guy a business that would make old plumbing parts. The part was not cheap but far less than tearing out the tile etc.

We had an old dryer that needed a part and parts not made. Our repair guy had a friend who had all kinds of old machines stored in his basement and amazingly enough our part.

I decided to investigate American Home Shield. I sent them an email. Now, regardless of endless attempts to block them, I'm enjoying two or more emails from them EVERY DAY.

Try them you will like them. NOT

10 Years
 

I do not have appliance insurance. We have been in our TV home for 10 years and the top double wall oven died, and our glass stove top is a bit worn. I decide to replace them both.
Even with the upgrade newer models it only coming in a little over $5,000. I've never trusted any of these insurance companies and block their calls. My outlook even if I am paying a little more in the end instead of getting an old appliance repaired, I'm getting new ones.

Had unsatisfactory experience 20 years ago. Very difficult to get timely service

We also had AHS warranty and they refused to repair or replace our air conditioner due to terrible banging noises. the said it has to be totally dead before they do anything.. we cancelled

Very few repair persons want to work with them. They want customer to pay service call then want us to spend too much time getting repair approved.

Get help. You can either contact the Florida Insurance Commission or Senirs vs Crime. Maybe you can get some help through either organization.

Had AHS as well. My fridge wasn’t getting cold. Called and they had only one company in the area that they are contracted with, and one guy working for that company. Had to come 3 different times waiting for part then part came, installed and still didn’t work then another part and so on. Needless to say I was 3 months without a fridge, calling corporate fighting on the phone almost daily. Finally cancelled and called Broward. With one visit my fridge was fixed.

It's not all bad; it can vary. We have a different home warranty company who managed to find an obscure warranty that covered a $3.500 replacement on the inside coil of our air conditioning system. Our son, who also lives here, had his A/C go berserk. He called the warranty company, who sent a technician within a day, who found that the system was fine but that the thermostat had failed. (I'd never heard of a thermostat failing.) The technician replaced the thermostat, checked it, found it was now working correctly, smiled, and left. No additional charge, and his A/C now works perfectly. Granted it could change, but so far we have no complaints about the warranty company..

As P.T. Barnum once said...
 

All of these after market home & auto warranty companies are scams. A quick Internet search would have saved the O.P. from being duped but as the quote attributed to P.T. Barnum states, "There's a sucker born every minute".

How superior it must make you feel to type that.

Ripoff
 

Realtors must get a huge kickback for selling it. Been there, a huge ripoff.

I’ve never heard of self insured. Now I have another thing to investigate.

Self insured just means that you create you own fund to be used to maintain, repair, and replace things that break or wear out in your house. When something fails, you pay for it with your own money.

Interesting (and from where I sit) timely discussion.

We inherited an appliance repair plan; Broward Factory Service "Silver" plan, covering appliances (washer, dryer, range, fridge, disposal, etc.). All major appliances except A/C, but we have a deal with Munn's (service plan) and so far very happy with them. The premium with Broward Factory Service ($350 per year) isn't that great, but it is due this month and we were thinking of not renewing.

Anybody out there with wisdom on Broward that they'd like to share?

Most of those warranty policies are a money maker for them, that includes store and auto repair policies...

We had American Home Shield a year ago on our 25 year home. We made out like bandits. They replaced an extra large hot water heater valued at $2700 (cost us $60), and replace our heat pump /furnace at value of $8300 (cost us $1200). The reason for the high $1200 was something to do with replacing the old unit with new technology and the old had Freon (??) in it and it was a high disposable fee. The heat pump took 3 months to replace once all components were in their warehouse. I’ve had AHS on 4 houses and they’ve always done well. However, you have to stay on them (bug them), but they always come through. Better than paying $8300.

As for your problem, it’s not AMS problem that the part they need is not available and on back order. Are you going to be able to order the replacement unit and that part be in stock? Most likely you’ll have the same issues on your own they won’t be paying for any of it. As far as vacating your home…use fans or buy a small window air conditioner for one room to make one room reasonable. Our ancestors lived for many centuries without AC, since it was only invented 120 years ago. This issue won’t last forever.

I understand your frustration and anger because it’s warranted. However, I had a similar experience waiting for a car part to come in. Our insurance paid for a rental for 30 days but after that we had to rent the car out of pocket. We were calling and calling but they said the part was no where in the US, and they had no idea when it would come in. This sounds like a similar supply issue and perhaps they really do not have control over when the part will be available. Having said all that I think I would at least consult with another A/C company to see if the part is available.

A 20 year old HVAC unit should be replaced, not repaired.

I agree with everybody else on here. These home warranties are nothing but a joke and a scam for people to spend money. And for real estate agents to tell the potential buyers you have nothing to worry about your house is under warranty. I’m even done buying an extended warranty on cars. I spent thousands of dollars on warranties on cars just to have a $250 window fixed. And if your AC is 20 years old it sounds like you’ve got the life out of it anyways. But home warranty suck
For the amount of money people spend on the warranty you can usually have a fax cheaper than what you’ve spent on the warranty anyways.

Have had Broward for 19 years. Very dependable. Always on time and quick to fix any problem we’ve had. Money well spent. Saved us a lot of money over the years.

The OP should take the $450 offered by the warranty company, and cancel the warranty contract. Then, buy a new HVAC system to replace their 20 year old system.

According to Clark Howard, home warranty and other extended warranty companies only pay out about 8 percent of the money they collect in premiums for claims.

Self Insurance
 

How does one "self insure" for home repairs?

Replacing HHVAC
 

Hello: Yes, I had a similar problem with American Home Shield. Well, my problem was that they would only replace the malfunctioning part, not the whole unit. They say this in the contract, so its buyer beware.

But....this is very important....I talked to an HVAC mechanic. Putting a new compressor in an old unit just results in other parts breaking (perhaps because they can't keep up...I am not sure).
'
Moral: The 20-year-old unit you have, sadly must be entirely replaced. American Home Shield will pay you what the part and labor would have cost, but no more. Also, call your electric company - when I replaced my unit there was a $500 rebate for buying any new HVAC, no certain company had to be used.

Silver Lining: You can have this done right away rather than wait weeks.

Come on people home warranty is a scam we’re smarter than this!

Simple. Have a savings account for emergencies. (You can fund the savings account with the premiums you are not paying for appliance insurance.)

When something breaks, look here on TOTV for recommendations, then call a repairperson.

You will save money in the long run.

You might consider Broward Factory warrantee I in the future. They usually keep items in stock since they service a lot of Village customers.

agreed. i have an acct especially for these things, in a different bank to avoid using the $$

Wow great business to go into than, they must make a ton of money.

Broward did the same exact thing to a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago.

If you cannot purchase the Manufacturers owned warranty, then you are at great risk. These second party warranties are not worth the paper they are printed on in most cases. I say this because I was in the Automotive Service Industry with a major manufacturer for 25 years. I have seen great disappointment over and over again to customers who opted to purchase a non-manufacturer warranty. You may pay a little more, but the peace of mind is worth it.

Not Broward either. A friend of mine just had the same awful experience with them regarding her A/C a few weeks ago. She replaced the A/C out of her own pocket because Broward would not hold up their end of the bargain.