HomeServe USA HomeServe Home Emergency Insurance Solutions HomeServe USA Repair Management Corp. HomeServe USA Repair Management (Florida) Corp. HomeServe USA Energy Services HomeServe USA Energy Services (New England) Utility Service Partners Service Line Warranties FAILURE TO DISCLOSE - DECEPTION IN ADVERTISING Norwalk Connecticut
HomeServe has entered into some sort of "partnership" with DelCo (a water utility located in the Columbus, Ohio area) under which HomeServe will be attempting to sell an exterior water line repair service to DelCo customers. I have no idea what the exact nature of this partnership is because so far both HomeServe and DelCo have refused to disclose to me, a DelCo customer, a copy of the Agreement. This refusal is probably due to their desire to conceal as many details of the “partnership” as possible from the PUBLIC. Why else would they fail to be above-aboard and get everything out in the open? Customers who sign up for the HomeServe exterior water line repair service are assessed a monthly fee. But, according to a telephone conversation that I had on March 1st with Glenn Marzluf, who is DelCo's General Manager and CEO, there is only a 1 in 500 chance that in any given year a DelCo customer's exterior water service line will develop a problem. In percentage terms, that means that the annual failure rate of DelCo water service lines to homes is 0.2% or, rounded, the failure rate is ZERO! HOMESERVE'S FAILURE TO DISCLOSE TO DELCO CUSTOMERS that the actual exterior water line failure rate is close to zero means that the program is in essence a scam that will just simply create a stream of monthly payments from ratepayers here in Ohio all to benefit of HomeServe. Initial estimates, which are being refined in a paper that I will be publishing shortly, are that on a net basis consumers and the local economy here could LOSE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS per year, depending on how many sign up for this scam. In Ohio alone, there are 84 complaints filed with the Ohio Attorney General against HomeServe. If you input the search string "HomeServe scam" in a Google search you will see article after article after article discussing the inherently deceptive manner in which this unnecessary service is being sold. This company is preying on the ignorant, naive, and most vulnerable. I'll have much more to say shortly when my investigation of this incident involving DelCo here in the Columbus, Ohio area is complete.