Complaint Review: American Home Maintenance Inc.

In June of 2010, we were talked into signing a three-year plumbing maintenance contract with American Home Maintenance, Inc./Orangutan Home Services.

This past Thursday, February 3, 2011, we woke up to find that we had no water service due to the extremely cold weather conditions.  Water was finally restored at 2:00 pm, and we shortly discovered a burst pipe leading to our irrigation system.  After shutting off the water to our house, I called American Home Maintenance at approximately 2:30 pm.  I was told that we would be put on a priority list because we have a contract.  Six hours later we received a phone call that someone was on their way to our house.  By midnight we gave up the wait and went to bed.

The next day I again called, and nobody seemed to be aware of the call the night before.  At that time, I was told that we were third on the list.  At noon, we were told the plumber would be here between 3 and 4 pm.
We again waited until midnight with nobody showing up.

Today I called once again and was told we were still third on the list and that they were having problems getting parts to fix plumbing problems.  Finally, a plumber from Presidio Plumbing showed up at 4:30 pm, 50 hours after my original call, and stated that American Home Maintenance had begged them to come out to fix our problem.  Under contract, we are only supposed to pay for parts, but we had to pay over $100 for the plumber to put a plug in the pipe.  So, now we have no irrigation system, are out $124, and have been lied to numerous times.  We were told to contact American Home Maintenance to see if we could get a refund.  

I'm sorry, but as far as I am concerned, going without water for two and a half days and having to pay extra to getting a temporary fix is a definite ripoff!  What really ticks us off isn't that they couldn't get a plumber out here in a timely manner but that they lied to us and did not keep us apprised as to what was going on.