Choice Home Warranty Approved claim, then denied claim after repair was done! Edison NJ
January 2019 We purchased a whole home warranty from Choice Home Warranty online, never got a copy of the policy. Have called them several times to request a copy of the policy, still don't have it. Then....Noticed kitchen sink had a leak, called Choice Home Warranty at 866-528-7701 on 03/20/2019.
Told them we had a leak somewhere from the kitchen sink, they said it was covered and gave us claim # 73214841. Told the warranty covered the repair completely and we just need to pay the $60 Service Call Fee. They scheduled a repair person to come out on 03/21/2019 between 7 am to 11 am, we received a voicemail with the times and date of the service call. Nobody showed.
Called Home Choice Warranty back on 03/21/19 when the repair person did not show, Choice Home Warranty had me call the plumber directly at ***-***-****. Scheduled ****** Plumbing to come out on 03/22/2019 after 9 am. Dan at *****Plumbing arrived at 1:40 pm on 03/22/2019. He found 2 leaks and determined the cause were clogged water lines. He unclogged the lines.
Service time took 4 hours at $95 per hour, which was over the one hour "normal time" Home Choice Warranty auto approves, so Dan said he had to call Home Choice Warranty and get an authorization # to get paid for the additional time.
Dan called Choice Home Warranty on speaker phone, first person he spoke to said he had to be transferred to the authorization department. So Dan got transferred after being on hold for while, then got put on hold again for about 30 minutes total. Choice Home Warranty person came back on and said he was denying the claim, which was now up to over $400.
Dan went back and forth with Choice Home Warranty person for about 20 minutes, they kept saying he had to get the authorization prior to doing the actual work, which is not possible. Then he said he was denying the coverage because we had a home filtration system, which they ALREADY knew about and we had been told was not an issue.
Choice Home Warranty person then transferred the call without waiting for us to agree to it. We requested to speak to a supervisor, who came on and said the claim was denied because the plumbing was modified. Plumber Dan and I explained to the Choice Home Warranty person that the system was correctly installed, there were no modifications, that was how the kitchen was built.
Supervisor said the water filtration system was the modification, that is why it would not be covered. We were told the filtration system was fine when we purchased the home warranty and that it wouldn't impact the warranty for the plumbing. The bill was NOW $503.50 after making us wait or be on hold for over an hour.
So as not to take up any more of the plumber's time, we paid him the $503.50. I have looked over the ONLINE contract general details because we NEVER got a copy of the contract, even after requesting one at the time of filing the claim and previously. There is NOTHING in the general online contract saying a filtration system voids coverage for the plumbing warranty.