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Home Service Club HSC The Home Service Club www.hscwarranty.com Abusive customer service threatened us when we asked to talk to a customer service supervisor New York, New York Nationwide
The Home Service Club, a home warranty company, was absolutely terrible in the way they treated us after we bought online our home warranty coverage from them. After talking with them on the phone to dispute the effective date of the coverage they later insinuated that we threatened them, that we are fraudulent homeowners, and threatened to notify other companies that we are fraudulent. HSC then immediately canceled our warranty based on those totally false accusations.
I purchased the coverage through their web site on February 11, 2014, which happens to be the date that my previous home warranty coverage with another company expired. I waited to buy my coverage on the same day as my old warranty expired because I talked to an HSC representative the week before who had told me the coverage would become effective immediately once I bought it. However, my contract stated that coverage did not start until February 21, 10 days after my purchase of this warranty. So I called to talk to a customer service representative (I had to wait almost 20 minutes for a rep to answer) to ask about the discrepancy. I asked her if they could make the coverage effective immediately as promised by the first customer service rep I talked to and she said she would contact the office to see if it was possible and that someone would get back to me later.
About 30 minutes later I received a call from an HSC representative who told me that they had made a mistake and that my coverage would instead be effective in 30 days, not 10 days as was indicated by the contract HSC had emailed to me. So when I asked to talk to a supervisor the rep told me to hold on and the very same rep came back after awhile to talk to me as a supervisor. I asked him if he was the same person I had talked to before he put me on hold, he hesitated and then said yes, and I asked him why he didn't identify himself as the same person I had originally talked to. His answer was because he is also a supervisor. So I asked to talk to his own supervisor and he said that he IS the supervisor. I asked again that I needed to talk to his supervisor and he replied that he is the only supervisor I can talk to. I was so frustrated with this conversation that I simply hung up, planning to call back at a later time to talk to someone else who hopefully is actually a supervisor and could possibly be more helpful.
My wife instead called back again, gave the rep our contract number and told the HSC representative what had happened with my conversation with the previous representative. This representative told her that the contract was correct and that the effective date was indeed to take place in 10 days, not 30 days. The rep said she would send us an email to confirm this again. That email never came.
Shortly after my wife finished her conversation with the representative we received another call from an HSC representative telling her that they had canceled our warranty, and would not give a reason for their action. The rep told my wife that according to the contract HSC can cancel a warranty any time within 30 days of purchase. My wife again asked for a reason for the cancellation and was given none. She then told HSC that we were probably going to write a scathing review of HSC based on this experience, which we believe would be well deserved, because of the way they canceled our warranty without reason.
As we couldn't believe any company could be so rude to its customers, my wife called back again to see if it was actually true that our warranty had been canceled. She was told that because one of us had threatened a representative and also planned to write a negative review of their company our contract was canceled. Unbelievable! Neither of us threatened any representative during our conversations with them. All I wanted to do is talk to a real supervisor!
HSC called us back and my wife talked to someone identifying herself as a supervisor from the cancellation department. She was told our warranty was canceled and the fraud department was reviewing a threat made by us. We ask: what does a non-existent or even a legitimate threat have to do with the fraud department? The HSC rep also said if we wanted to dispute the cancellation due to fraud that we would need to hire a lawyer! What? They told my wife that we would be barred from applying for a warranty with them for 48 months and that they may notify other companies that we are “fraudulent”. Furthermore, they told her they placed our address on the fraudulent address list and we probably would not now be accepted for a home warranty with any other company either, seemingly suggesting that they would ensure this would happen.
In the end, HSC instead threatened us, obviously hoping that we would not write a truthful negative review about their own business practices! Well then, here it is. No wonder there are few bad reviews of HSC on this site, as the Home Service Club seems to be actively threatening any customer who wants to tell the truth about their company and the shady practices they engage in. Stay away from this company. We've now decided it is not worth the money nor the aggravation to buy a home warranty from any company that offers them. The home warranty industry evidently is unregulated and therefore very hard for the customer to file for any recourse should there be any problems. This experience was the proverbial “blessing in disguise.” Thanks!
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Bob E.
CHARLOTTESVILLE,Virginia,
Contacted by HSC corporate office, appropriate action taken to inform and discipline employees
#2Author of original report
Tue, February 17, 2015
The Home Service Club contacted us and explained what may have happened when their employees marked us as fraudulent. There were some misunderstanings on the part of some employees and one employee was disciplined for his improper actions. We appreciate that HSC has taken proper corporate responsibility for the actions of their employees and strived to make good after hearing all the facts of this issue.