First American Home Buyers Protection Company First American Home Buyers Protection Won't Stand Behind Work that was not properly done Hires poor contractors Pasadena, California
Filed a claim to replace hot water heater in November. The unit is a condo rental. It was discovered in January that the new hot water heater was not installed correctly. The piping connecting the hotwater heater to the water line has multiple, messy solderings and is leaking. Called and spoke to three people at First American. While waiting on hold I hear an announcer saying how carefully they screen their contractors, don't believe it! I was told that since it is past 30 days a new work order would have to be issued, so we would have to pay the work order fee again. I said the work was not installed properly and the "supervisor" said, "How can we know that it was our work. Since it is past 30 days we don't guarantee the work." I explained no one has been in the unit since November and that this was discovered by a routine inspection by the building manager. The "supervisor" proceeded to question that the building manager knew what he was doing and asked if he had plumbing certification. I said it didn't seem like one needed a plumbing certification to confirm that the hot water heater was not installed properly, since one can see that the pipe was leaking and the soldering was poorly done. I offered to send a picture of the workmanship and the "supervisor" said there is no way to know if that was their installation problem or something caused by somebody else. When I mentioned that I thought they might want to know that the contractor was doing shoddy work, the "supervisor" just said there is no way to determine that given that it is past 30 days. Rather than pay their service fee for a new work order to have someone come out that they recommend (the "supervisor" said it might be the same person because the system automatically assigns someone and she has no control over who it is) I have decided to pay for a plummer to come out and make it right. I would recommend a different home warranty company -- this one is frustrating, hires bad contractors and doesn't stand behind that work.