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American Home Shield American Home Shield SCAM!! Memphis, Tennessee
Frankly I cannot say enough bad things about the American Home Shield (AHS) Warranty Company. And I hope I can save others from the nightmare experience I had to go through dealing with them.
The AHS warranty advertisement tells you that if you buy their warranty you will not have to worry about spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on repairs.
But want they do not tell you; is that AHS will do everything to deny your claim and if they do replace an item it will still cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars.
If anybody is aware of a class action lawsuit against this company, please count me in. Also I plan to write to the attorney general. If anybody is interested in going to the attorney let me know. I have never been so pissed off with a
company in my life.
Below is my experience with this compnay:
I have an AHS warranty and I called them regarding two repair items: 1) A shower faucet that was leaking and 2) a hot water heater that was not heating properly.
AHS authorized AZ Remodeling & Plumbing Inc., who is not even located in or near my city to make the repairs.
1st Repair
Shower Faucet Leaking
The repair company technician says the shower faucet was improperly installed, so AHS denies the claims. This shower faucet was the original shower faucet that came with the house 20 years ago. It has worked fine for 20 years. How could it possibly have been improperly installed?
And then the repair company offers to do the repair for 3 times what any other plumber would charge. Do you see the SCAM here? Most homeowners are not going to search around and get quotes to see what it actually cost to make the repair. Instead they will just be ripped off by this AHS contractor. The whole thing is a blatant SCAM! AHS pays the
contractor virtually nothing to make repairs and then the crocked contractor says the item is improperly installed so the claim is denied and then the repair company offers to do the repair for 3 times the normal cost.
I went to the Home Depot and bought a MOEN cartridge removal tool and removed and installed the new shower faucet cartridge myself in less than 10 minutes, which this repair man said he could not do.
2nd Repair
Hot Water Heater.
After the repair company came out 4 times and could not fix the hot water heater they finally agreed to replace it. So at this point I am weeks without hot water.
This company wanted to charge over $500 in non-covered expenses with the majority of that cost coming from: 1) modify the water line and 2) modify the temperature and pressure line.
I informed AHS that I had a local licensed plumber take a look at the hot water heater replacement and he stated none of the non-covered expenses were necessary. In addition he stated the price being charged for the non-covered work was 3-4 time the going rate.
I informed AHS that I would provide statements from several plumbers showing that the non-covered expenses being charged by AZ Remodeling & Plumbing Inc. where not required and I would provide AHS with evidence documenting the fees for the non-covered expenses being charged by AZ Remodeling & Plumbing Inc. was absorbingly high.
I would think any honest and respectable company would care that the contractor that they sent out is making false statements about additional work required and the fact that the contractor estimates are 3-4 times the going rate for that type of work. But not AHS! They just replied that this is the contractor they use; period.
In order to come to a reasonable compromise, I requested AHS to buy the Hot Water Tank and I would have my plumber install it. AHS refused. When I requested that AZ Remodeling & Plumbing Inc. only do the covered work, (of course there was no additional work needed); AHS refused. I then told AHS I believed the non-covered expenses were fraudulent estimate on the part of the contractor and asked AHS to get a second opinion. Again AHS refused to get a second opinion. The only other option AHS offered was their buy out option, whereby they pay you a small amount of money that does not even cover the cost of the water heater.
I called a local licensed plumber who came out promptly and informed me that NONE of the non-covered expenses that had been identified by the AHS contractor were necessary. This plumber got the hot water heater and installed it. The receipts are shown at the end of this document (hot water heater and installation fee). Here is the cost breakdown:
1) Hot Water Heater ------------------------ $316.91
2) Installation of Hot Water Heater ---- $175.50
Total Cost Too Buy and Install the Hot Water Heater - $492.41
As you can see it was going to cost me more to have AHS replace my hot water heater than if I hired a plumber to do the job. Yes, you are reading that correctly. It cost less for me to purchase and install the new hot water heater by a local licensed plumber than it would have cost to have it done under the Warranty. That speaks volumes about this company.
So why does AHS insist on using an out of the area company to do the repair when I live in a metropolitan area of over 1 Million People and tons of locally licensed plumbers. In fact from what I can tell this AHS contractor only does home warranty work and I can see why; no one would hire them!!
Here is my assessment on the AHS business practices and reimbursement models. Basically, in my humble opinion it appears that AHS and their contractors are committing widespread fraud on a consistent basis, with the home warranty client being the primary victim.
The hardest part of installing a new hot water heater is draining the old hot water heater, removing it and installing the new one. AHS pays these contractors way below the going rate to perform this task. No licensed, honest, and reputable plumber will do that work for the amount AHS offers. So this AHS contractor adds on what I believe to be fraudulent charges, which AHS categorizes as non-covered expenses and sticks them to their unsuspecting customers. There whole Business Model is done right shameful.
Bottom line - My advice would be to avoid this company like the plaque.
And I should add I found out as part of this experience, the Better Business Bureau is a Joke. The BBB has had thousands of complaints against this company, yet gives them a favorable rating and I found out why. No matter how much evidence you supply the BBB all the company has to do is respond and the BBB will file in their favor no matter how much evidence you supply.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Consumer
Scottsdale,Arizona,
United States
RWBil regarding American home Shield If you were review
#2Consumer Comment
Tue, February 20, 2018
RWBil Regarding American Home Shield Review. A shower faucet is so easy and not expensive at all change. So many people think that everything in their house is covered by warranty and they wrote to the walking company thinking that it’s a repair company and they’re going to do everything for you that is the furthest from the truth. I noticed you did not say how old the hot water heater Is. let’s talk about these two items. When you go to Home Depot you have an option of what type of shower faucet you want I don’t know if you’re talking about the shower head which is extremely cheap to replace why would you want to go see warranty company and expect him to pick up The tab everything. I bet you do not have your cord to the contract close At hand i’m also willing to bet that you have not read every word above text both sides of your contract With American home shield. Would you want to replace the showerhead it’s so much cheaper for you to go to Home Depot and pick the one you like and a pair pliers or vice grip and change it yourself. You can do that task for less than 25 bucks maybe 45 bucks if you got expensive taste.
If you want submit every little thing to American home Shield warranty company sooner or later they’re going to start denying things that are not covered as if you were abusing the warrant. You were not very descriptive of what problems you were having with the hot water heater maybe it was only giving more because one of the elements were burned out. Those are not very expensive to replace. If you nickel and dime the home warranty company to death you’re starting to place a bad taste in their mouth. Expecting them to pay for everything that you got to complain about just not go over very well. Is your hot water heater electric or is it natural gas ?
The problems tween a natural gas hot water heater in a electric hot water heater or completely different. Usually when somebody has problems with the electric hot water heater did you think one of the elements to Haiti to be elements are burnt out. Or maybe the hot water heater is so clogged up with LIME deposits that he can’t probably heat very well. If your hot water heater was gas so many different problems can come to life if they can be more expensive than Alexa hot water heater Here is a small sample list of problems that come to life with a hot water heater that runs on natural gas 1. The exhaust stack for the top of the hot water heater is not properly ventilated.
2 The electronic or mechanical igniter has failed they could be expensive to replace. The natural gas regulator the supplies the natural gas to the hot water heater has failed and is sending reduced LP gas for natural gas pressure to the hot water heater so the flame does not get hot enough. That would not be a home warranty either because if you were getting natural gas you not all the gas regulator that sitting on the side of your house Gas company does. That would not be covered under your home warranty. 3. The next thing you could come to life as a problem would be your burner plate at the bottom of your hot water heater. They get clogged up for pricing narrow getting lunch for all the time and not allowing proper gas oxygen mixture to work correctly.
As you can see there’s a big difference between electric and gas hot water heater is able to go to the gas that all of the issues are going to be covered under the home warranty company which would you get. I don’t know if you’re a man or woman that does not make any difference morning did you like being on your house and knocked live in your home warranty company crazy with every little issue such as the showerhead is going to be To your disadvantage. Anybody with a level of intelligence that could be measured can go to YouTube and do research on various other repairs and find out how to do some of those repairs yourself stop expecting you would you company to pick up the tab for everything you Want repaired or replaced. Doubt do yourself a big favor and go watch this YouTube video about how to replace the showerhead https://youtu.be/fiv4Zq9v4co