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  • Report:  #52346

Complaint Review: American Home Shield - Dallas Texas

Reported By:
- Dallas, Texas,
Submitted:
Updated:

American Home Shield
www.americanhomeshield.com Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.
Phone:
800-776-4663
Web:
N/A
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
American Home Shield "IMPROPER INSTALL" RIP OFF SCAM for Air Conditioners.

If you have an older home BEWARE of this RIP OFF company. You will think your system is covered when in fact they will claim "IMPROPER INSTALL" and deny coverage.

American Home Shield Contract states " During the contract period, American Home Shield of Texas, will repair or replace the systems and components mentioned as protected in accordance with the terms and conditions of this contract so long as they:

3.ARE IN GOOD WORKING ORDER ON THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS CONTRACT AND

4.Are properly installed throughout the term of this contract for proper diagnosis"

Our air conditioner WAS IN GOOD WORKING ORDER ON THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF CONTRACT.

When the air conditioner was leaking. They sent some one out who cleaned out the line and said that if that did not fix the problem we probably needed a plumber to check the pipe.

Two weeks later it began leaking again.

When we called Home Shield and asked for a plumber they decided it was "IMPROPERLY INSTALLED" because is was OLD PIPE and they "only cover PVC pipe" ..... so much for "IN GOOD WORKING ORDER ON THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS CONTRACT"

They told us we were entitled to a second opinion but if the second tech agreed with the first we would have to pay yet another 50.00 for the "service call". Since we were being told it was the pipe we declined.

When I complained to the head of customer service that I felt this "improper install" business was a scam his response was to ask why we had kept Home Shield for over 5 years if we thought it was a scam and started reading me the history of our service calls...

When our WATER HEATER went out the guy they sent us wired it wrong. It SHORTED OUT AND CAUSED A FIRE - this was on a weekend so they REFUSED to call it an EMERGENCY. After several frustrating calls and DAYS LATER we finally got another guy out here and they did replace the water heater.

When our DISHWASHER went out (the door catch would not lock to start the machine) the guy they sent was rude and said that because my husband had attempted to fix it first he was reporting it as "dishwasher abuse" and it would not be covered. WE REPLACED THE DISHWASHER AT OUR OWN EXPENSE.

They came out several times on the DRYER. It NEVER stayed fixed and we ended up also buying A NEW DRYER AT OUR OWN EXPENSE- after being "fifty collared" to death on it by Home Shield.

We DROPPED THE APPLIANCE COVERAGE but kept coverage on the major systems - the AIR CONDITIONER being the main reason since we live in Texas where it is health threatening to be without.

After they denied coverage for the "IMPROPER INSTALL" -

We called a company on our own. It took him about 3 minutes.... he pulled out the filter which was wet on top meaning the leak was from the drain coil pan up ABOVE!It had NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PIPE and FURTHERMORE the pipe WAS copper and PVC!!!

My husband called home shield and told them they argued with him then finally offered us the second opinion option . He told them he would think about it.

We decided to CUT OUR LOSSES AND DROP HOME SHIELD because it was soo likely that they would send more of their incompetent techs out, it would never be fixed right and we would be "fifty dollar-ed" to death with the system never properly fixed.

If they post some kind of rebuttal be aware that:

I have found MULTIPLE web sites with MULTIPLE COMPLAINTS on the SAME story with the "IMPROPER INSTALL" SCAM on air conditioning units.

Jackie

Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.


1 Updates & Rebuttals

Cindy

Edmond,
Oklahoma,
U.S.A.
Warranty Co's often not regulated

#2Consumer Suggestion

Sat, May 03, 2003

Part of the problem with warranty companies is that they are often not regulated. Insurance companies are, and most of us know it can be to get an insurance claim paid...now imagine what insurance co's would do if they were not regulated at all...and that's what warranty co's are. Warranty co's usually call themselves "risk retention groups," not insurance co's. The so-called policies they sell are often not worth much if anything. We showed our home warranty policy, (2-10 Home Buyers Warranty), to about a dozen attorneys...their opinion was that it was "illusory and deceptive." The policy you have probably also has an arbitration clause in it...don't bother going to arbitration...it costs you more money and the arbiter is chosen by the warranty co, plus you'll probably get a gag order so you can't tell anyone how you got ripped off in arbitration, too. I have heard many complaints on warranty companies. The policies are not written to be consumer friendly. They're written to exclude most things, or make it too vague to be a clear cut violation of the policy if they deny you, (not that you have much recourse if they do violate it). For example, 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty certainly would not advertise that they don't cover defects in construction that are code violations, but that exclusion is in the policy a builder buys, and which the home owner does not see until after closing. There is a lengthy report on home warranties and on arbitration at the following sites: www.hadd.com and www.txbr.org This entire industry is akin to those worthless "extended warranties" sold for appliances. I guess when you get your renewal notice from AHS you'll know what to do with it!

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