Anyone ever deal with a home warranty company?

[SunnyD]

My air conditioner decided to tell my family to fuck off on Saturday, and I believe the evaporator froze over for whatever underlying reason (other than it's probably a piece of shit sub-par unit installed by the home builder).

So I was left with two choices over the weekend:

Option #1 - Spend umpteen million dollars for a "weekend" call to the HVAC guy to come out and fix it right away.

or​

Option #2 - Tough it out and deal with the home warranty folks and put in a claim which will get serviced potentially second Tuesday of next week thereby threatening by marriage, let alone my manhood or even personal safety due to a miserable female lurking in the shadows.

Being the cheapass that I am, I have opted for option #2 (obviously my survival skills are top notch as I am posting this). Anyway, anyone ever deal with these home warranty types before? What type of service response should I be expecting? Do they let you use your own shops or are you locked into whomever they send? What's the dilly?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I actually used mine and was actually pleasantly surprised. I had a leaking pipe fixed and it was done the same day. They chose the repair company but I wasn't complaining about free. If yours is a new home shouldn't the builder cover everything for a year or did they just buy you a service contract.

 

[apac]

#firstworldproblems

 

[SunnyD]

I actually used mine and was actually pleasantly surprised. I had a leaking pipe fixed and it was done the same day. They chose the repair company but I wasn't complaining about free. If yours is a new home shouldn't the builder cover everything for a year or did they just buy you a service contract.

I have a $50 service fee on every claim (think deductible), but still it's better than having to pay everything out of pocket. I'm already past the first year on the house, but I still am on the 2nd year of 2 years on systems (essentially all appliances/electrical/hvac/etc) and 10 year on structural.

If they do a decent job on this call, I *might* renew it. I mean a <2 year old AC unit already having issues isn't exactly comforting.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I have a $50 service fee on every claim (think deductible), but still it's better than having to pay everything out of pocket. I'm already past the first year on the house, but I still am on the 2nd year of 2 years on systems (essentially all appliances/electrical/hvac/etc) and 10 year on structural.

If they do a decent job on this call, I *might* renew it. I mean a <2 year old AC unit already having issues isn't exactly comforting.

They can work you in a little faster usually. Call and complain. Say your freezer can't keep up with the warm house and your food is spoiling or some BS. The bitchiest customers are gonna get worked in first.

I seriously considered renewing my contract which is surprising considering what a tight ass I am. In the end though im just not an extended warranty guy and Im cheap.

 

[grohl]

Against my better judgement I have succumbed to a home warranty, due to the wife insisting on it.

Experienced has been overall pretty good. I have used it for HVAC, garage door repair, and ice maker repair. Doubtful I have come out ahead on money spent, but it makes the wife happy (I'm away from the house frequently).

 

[SunnyD]

Oh, what companies you all going through while I have you here?

 

[AFurryReptile]

I've used mine for AC issues; never had any problem getting somebody out promptly. Are you with American Home Shield?

 

[vi edit]

Yeh I was covered by American Home Shield for a couple years in an older house. Paid for itself a couple times over. First year the water heater crapped out. New heater for $50. Next year the thermostat in the stove went crazy and it replaced that. After that something in the furnace broke and they covered that. It should have covered my septic tank pump but it was also used as an ejection pump for a clothes washer so they denied repair on it.

Each time I usually had a call back the next day if the call was made after 5:00PM or within a couple hours if done within normal business hours. All were local, well respected contractors that came out and did very good work.

No complaints. Also - if you let your policy slip, let them do a couple retention calls. Eventually they'll knock your contract down to almost half price. Mine was going to be nearly $600. After a couple months of saying "no" they finally offered me a $300 contract and a lower deductable.

 

[SunnyD]

Oh well, nevermind. Apparently my homeowner's warranty is ABSOLUTELY FUCKING USELESS. They just told me to call the builder. Classy.

This is 2-10 Home Warranty by the way. I couldn't fucking catch a break this month, could I?

 

[SearchMaster]

Check the drain line on the A/C unit. Mine froze over last week, it was because the drain line had clogged. I unclogged the drain, melted the ice with a hair dryer, and was back in business pretty quickly.

 

[sactoking]

If you have trouble you may try calling your states insurance department. Service contracts are not legally insurance but they are often regulated like insurance.

 

[olds]

Ours tried everything to get out of replacing our heating unit. Part wasn't made any more so the unit couldn't be fixed. Told us that they would give us the price of the part as if it was available. The part was $600, cost of a new unit was $1800.
We declined as $600 wasn't close to $1800.
We called our realtor, who had purchased the warranty (as he did with every home he sold) and asked him to intervene. He told the warranty company that he would stop buying warranties if they didn't cover our full cost.
They did.

 

[SunnyD]

Ours tried everything to get out of replacing our heating unit. Part wasn't made any more so the unit couldn't be fixed. Told us that they would give us the price of the part as if it was available. The part was $600, cost of a new unit was $1800.
We declined as $600 wasn't close to $1800.
We called our realtor, who had purchased the warranty (as he did with every home he sold) and asked him to intervene. He told the warranty company that he would stop buying warranties if they didn't cover our full cost.
They did.

Yeah, we called the HVAC guy that our builder uses - we "assume" this is the next step. He's supposed to be out this afternoon. We'll see what happens from there.

Next step is dealing with the builder directly, which won't be fun since I'm starting to get royally pissed off. Granted though, our house is just about 2 years old now, so I'm not really "expecting" free service at this point. I also wasn't expecting things to be breaking quite so soon (just don't ask about the patio door issue).

I'm more irritated at this point about having a home warranty that on the surface and via most all advertising says to cover just about everything, but when you actually read into the contract that you get for the new home construction, it really covers pretty much jack shit. And this is a selling point?

Couple that with the fact that our sales rep/realtor who had helped us quite a bit over the last couple years and with the process of buying is no longer with the company as of last month, yeah. Fucked.

 

[endlessmike]

One was included when we purchased our 10+ year old house. We didn't ever need to use it, and declined to renew it after the first year when we would've had to pay for it ourselves.

From talking to others who had filed claims, it seems that the warranty company would often deny paying to replace something if there was no evidence to support that it had been properly maintained. No record of annual HVAC service, no new unit. Obviously that's going to pretty much screw over anyone who bought a not-new home.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Most all home warranty services are shams, and scams, some are outright criminal!!! One of the worst is Sensible Home Warranty LLC. They are a cash only company, operating out of a PO box in Nevada. Customers are being sued left, and right by contractors not being reimbursed for work authorized by them. They have even set up a *FAKE* web site giving themselves glowing reviews. BEWARE!
http://www.bbb.org/reno/business-re.../sensible-home-warranty-in-sparks-nv-90007878
Expect a fake response from Jared in this thread in 3-2-1----
We were with 2-10 for the first few years of our NEW home, and they were really great in the beginning, but after a while they started to nit-pick. They replaced the honest contractor they were using with one that would come to the door and ask for the deductible without even looking at the appliance, HINT, just say NO!
Another tactic that they use, is to make you just give up. Like the part your stove needs is on a row boat from *their* supplier in China, ( est. deliv. 3 weeks), when, in fact the part is readily available near you by at least a dozen supply houses.
My advice, save the money you would be paying these scam artist, and set up a slush fund. Remember, gone are the days when you bought something, and it would last darn near a lifetime.

 

[SunnyD]

The good news - the AC guy stopped in today, no thanks to the warranty company since they don't cover jack shit. The bad news, the evaporator coil popped and has been leaking Freon which is what caused this problem. The worse news, apparently this is a common problem for this unit - the AC tech said they've been replacing at least one coil a week.

Now the good news - it should be under warranty (manufacturer mind you).

Now the more more bad news - since it was about 7:00pm, I won't know until tomorrow morning whether it is actually covered (it should be) and whether they have the part (which they should with as many as they seem to be replacing).

I'm still on the hook for labor, which I'm sure won't be cheap.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Heh. I am going through the same thing you are SunnyD right down to it being a bad coil. It went out on Friday afternoon (natch, friggin AC always seems to wait for the weekend to go out). I have American Home Shield and put in a service request immediately fully knowing that I'd be lucky to hear from the clowns they use for AC service by Monday at the earliest. The AC guy actually showed up today, told me it was a bad coil, and now I have to wait to see if they can get a replacement coil or need to replace the entire system. After reading some of the home warranty horror stories in this thread I'm a bit nervous.

No AC during the height of summer in Florida really sucks.

 

[SunnyD]

Heh. I am going through the same thing you are SunnyD right down to it being a bad coil. It went out on Friday afternoon (natch, friggin AC always seems to wait for the weekend to go out). I have American Home Shield and put in a service request immediately fully knowing that I'd be lucky to hear from the clowns they use for AC service by Monday at the earliest. The AC guy actually showed up today, told me it was a bad coil, and now I have to wait to see if they can get a replacement coil or need to replace the entire system. After reading some of the home warranty horror stories in this thread I'm a bit nervous.

No AC during the height of summer in Florida really sucks.

What brand is your system? Just out of curiosity. If you say Amana/Goodman, I'll laugh.

$350 labor + $40/lb for Freon.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

It's a Heil system.

$40/lb? Is your system still using R22? If that's the case you might want to ask about having it converted to R410A because R22 is being phased out, which is why it's so expensive.

 

[jaha2000]

I have had AHS since i bought my house.
First year, water heater went, made the Call, it was replaced in less than 2 days, cost to me 50 bucks.
Couple of summers ago the compressor went in my AC unit. It was original to the house. Made the call, Entire outside uniit was replaced in less than 2 days including a new A-Coil. Cost to me, 50 bucks.
I am a believer and am a firm believer if you are nice to the folks on the phone, it goes a long with with getting taken care of.

 

[SunnyD]

It's a Heil system.

$40/lb? Is your system still using R22? If that's the case you might want to ask about having it converted to R410A because R22 is being phased out, which is why it's so expensive.

Nope, that's for 410A bro.

I have a feeling the labor costs are a bit on the high side too.

So far the death toll stands at 1. One of my daughter's fish was found dead this morning. Pretty sure more will succumb before the end of the week.

 

[calvinbiss]

What brand is your system? Just out of curiosity. If you say Amana/Goodman, I'll laugh.

Care to explain?

Here's my HW story with Frist American Home Warranty Co:
Bought a 24 year old home and a warranty obviously came with the house. Home has two ACs (heat pumps), the upstairs one is all original, the downstairs one (most used unit) had an original coil and blower with a newer (maybe 10 years old) compressor. I don't think I evenhad to use the warranty within the first year and I decided to renew it solely based on the age of the ACs. I believe the 1 year renewal cost me about $500.

During this second year, I have had the capacitor replaced and R22 added to the upstairs unit. The downstairs unit is where it gets exciting. I experience an obvious coolant leak, and the warranty co sent out company A, who filled the coolant and replaced a valve. Not too long after this, the AC stopped cooling again and I called Warranty Co. They sent out a different company this time and he immediately said my coil had developed a leak and needed to be replaced. During the work, they also determined that the compressor needed to be replaced. I was given two options by the Warranty Co: take an in-kind replacement or take a cash-out option. Well, i was obviously interested in getting a more modern system with mulitple 2-stage compressing and blower speed plus an increased SEER rating. Total cost (installed) $9000. I got about $1900 back from the warranty co. So the warranty obviously paid for itself, but I expected a lot more back! Plus you have to deal with idiots who don't speak English and you can't choose your own contractor.

 

[SunnyD]

Care to explain?

Oh nothing, other that it appears that the particular problem I'm having is a rather well known issue with Goodman copper coils as of late (which is why they've switched to all aluminum coils now) and Goodman has recently changed their warranty policy to no longer cover any labor/Freon replacement cost at all (apparently they used to cover it).

The tech that came out last night told me they've been replacing on average about one coil a week this summer, each one with a leak in roughly the same spot.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Nope, that's for 410A bro.

I have a feeling the labor costs are a bit on the high side too.

So far the death toll stands at 1. One of my daughter's fish was found dead this morning. Pretty sure more will succumb before the end of the week.

Holy shit. R410A runs about $4.00 a pound or less for the average AC guys so they are giving you a 10X markup. That's ridiculous. Personally I'd rake them over the coals on Google reviews and Angieslist just to warn others and give them a little fuck you in return. I might even file a complaint with the local BBB. Companies that screw over people in a time of need deserve to die.

I'm still without AC myself and have no idea what these ass clowns are doing. I called them today and got a song and dance about things being in process in "the system" and they would call me back later in the day. Never got a call.