Complaint Review: American Home Shield

My hot water heater was blowing water out of the pressure relief valve.  I figured the valve needed replacement and filed a service request with American Home Shield.

The repairman they sent was from a Fresno area plumbing company.  He looked at the hot water heater and went into a tizzy over how badly it was leaking.  It wasn't leaking.  He looked around my house at the other plumbing.  He stood in my bathroom and told me, "You know, if you call in and tell them that your toilets are leaking, I can get you some nice new toilets with elongated bowls."  

The repairman was really creepy and I got the feeling he was also casing my house for items of value.  We live in the country and he told me that as a teenager, he and his friends used to drive out to my neighborhood to smoke pot.  He told me that if I wanted some pot, he could get me that, too.  He also told me that he expected a tip for coming out.  I gave him $20 and thought that was cheap for getting the sleezy SOB off of my property.

The repairman was clearly looking to make work for himself and to enlist me in a conspiracy to defraud American Home Shield.  

When I called American Home Shield to complain, they did not care that I didn't need a new hot water heater (and I didn't, it's two years later and I'm still using the same water heater). They told me that I'd have to let the crook come back to my house or get it fixed on my own and if I could show them that I'd had a new water heater installed properly, they'd reimburse me for part of my expense.  I fixed the pressure relief valve on my own and had to eat the cost of that repair.  I am retired and living on a fixed income.  If I had the money lying around to go out and buy a hot water heater that I didn't need, I wouldn't have bought the AHS home warranty in the first place.

I am appalled that this business would send a crook to my house and then turn that against me when I reported it to them.  My advice is to stay the heck away from American Home Shield.