Complaint Review: American Home Shield - Carroll Iowa

In June of 2008, we purchased a home warranty to cover our major home appliances. Well, unfortunately December 24th 2008 we woke up to find the furnace had quit working overnight. We called American Home Shield to report the problem around 6:30am, we were contacted by a company that works for them. A technician came out to our house around 5pm that afternoon. We were informed at that time that AHS would replace the furnace, but we would have to pay out of pocket to bring everything up to code. We were fine with this because that was stated in the contract. The contractor quoted us $2000 for additional work.

Feeling that those prices were inaccurate we sought out our own quote from an independent contractor for a comparable furnace. AHS informed us that they were looking for parts for our 48 year old furnace, they said once they could not find the parts they would have no choice but to replace the furnace. We put multiple calls into them and each time we were told we would have

and answer by the following day.

On January 2nd we finally received the answer that our furnace would have to be replaced, in this time we had read reviews on the contractor AHS had sent to our home and were not happy to find that overcharged on items. So we inquired into the cash buy out option of our contact so we could weigh all our options, we were told we would have a response within 72 hours. We waited 72 hours, but received no calls back, so we proceeded to call them daily to find out when we could get this taken care of.

Finally after 11 days of no heat and a very cold Michigan January we had our calls returned January 13th at 4:25pm. At this point we had been dealing with this for 20 days. The lady on the phone told me that our cash buy out for replacing the furnace and labor would be $514.91. After the other quotes we had received we knew without a doubt that $500 would not cover half the price of the furnace let alone having it installed.

At this point we are desperate, this weeks forecast calls for temperatures in the single digits and our house is freezing. I am very upset with the way this company handles a very serious problem. We requested the make and the model of the furnace that they would replace it with, in doing some research we found that this furnace is a base model and the lowest line in the carrier brand. Included in the research we found it was common for these furnaces to break or become faulty after 5 years of use. We were disgusted that they wanted to replace a furnace that had lasted 48 years with a base line model that has issues after just 5 years.

So we are stuck, we have to have our furnace replaced ASAP so our options are to have AHS replace our furnace with a base model by a company that charges above what other companies in the area charge. (We have received multiple quotes comparing these services), or take $514.91 and try to get our furnace replaced on our own paying thousands out of pocket, before it gets so cold our pipes freeze.

I was planning on renewing with this company believing the concept of paying for insurance on our appliances was a great idea. I thought this was a reputable and trustworthy company and I am very upset they would treat us like this. I paid for a service and I expected them to protect me and my family not leave us in the cold for 20 days straight with no answers.

Their guarantee states all repairs will be completed to your satisfaction, but when you try to call and talk to them these people

you don't get answers they just brush you off, their business practices are deplorable and my family has to suffer for it.

Ria

Rochester hills, Michigan

U.S.A.