Complaint Review: Old Republic Home Warranty - San Ramon California

Old Republic should change their name to Old Unreliable or Old Rip Off. Regarding their pledge of caring, listening, dependability, helpful, sincerity, etc., I totally disagree. Their written guarantees and pledge to make a "positive difference in you life" is BOGUS. Case in point, this organization was notified the afternoon of 30 August (Friday.......beginning of the Labor Day weekend), that the air conditioning system in our property was not working. It was further explained to the representative that I considered this situation to be a medical emergency as the 82 year old tenant (diabetic, on a respirator, with numerous other medical aliments) was becoming distressed based on the heat in the property....nearing 95 degrees and rising. The property is in south Texas and the temperature was forecasted to be near 100 degrees throughout the weekend with 100% humidity. The representative was kind and knowledgeable, however, indicated that the local air conditioning company (Old Republic's representative company on the ground) that would be conducting the repairs did not work weekends or holidays, so the service would more than likely be taken care of the following Tuesday at the earliest. However, she did indicate that should I have the work completed on my own due to the emergency, I could submit the associated repair bills and Old Republic would take care of the amount they would usually pay their local air conditioning representative. Based on the situation, I decided to have the work completed due to the tenant's poor health, and the worsening of her condition based on the extreme heat caused by the broken air conditioning system. The air conditioning system was evaluated by another local company that I called that afternoon, and replaced the next morning by this company. 

I submitted the billing paperwork, a statement regarding the tenant's health and the reasons I had the work completed. All the information was faxed to Old Republic with a case number as instructed by their representative. I expected that I would either receive a call or letter from Old Republic to review the paperwork prior to being reimbursed for the air conditioning work completed. After waiting over a month with no response from Old Republic, I called Old Republic and talked with a representative that acknowledged receipt of the paperwork and indicated that she would have a "supervisor" return my call as she could not provide a case status. A "supervisor" called me and stated that Old Republic does not reimburse any work completed by companies that are not affiliated with Old Republic. He also stated that he had no record of any conversation I had with any Old Republic representative, in spite of the case number given to me by one of their representatives and the fax number to send the information to in order to receive payment for the work I had completed. He also gave no reason why Old Republic does not provide repair work after hours, weekends or holidays. It is my opinion that Old Republic is a WORTHLESS organization that will do anything to not pay for anything that you are promised. They sub their work out to the lowest bidders that only work 9 to 5 (maybe), five days a week (unless one of the days happens to be a holiday, then the work will not be completed either). Should you ever have a emergency situation, speak with someone that has the authority to actually follow through with their promises. I really do not have an idea how you will go about doing this based on my one and only dealing with them. They will promise you anything to get you off the phone to move on to the next Old Republic VICTIM. If you are unfortunate enough to have paid for their "service contract", good luck, particularly if you encounter an emergency. Unfortunately, be prepared to have the work done yourself and have to pay for the service yourself in spite of their promises which are nothing but lies.  Shame on them!!

Dave Corpus Christi

Texas