Fidelity Home Warranty uses nice-sounding words like "A Fidelity National Home Warranty (FNHW) provides both the homebuyer and seller with "peace of mind" when it comes to repairs and/or replacement of a home's major systems and appliances" when selling their policy. But I feel it is a complete rip-off.
Recently, I filed a service request when I found water under my kitchen sink. They sent a plumber, who determined the leakage was due to wearing of the sealant around the faucet. My wife asked him to fix it, but he refused, saying Fidelity insurance will fix or replace the faucet but will not cover any failure due to the wearing off of sealant or caulk. He demanded a $50 service charge for coming to this conclusion. I was so surprised by his conclusion that I called Fidelity and asked them about this. They told me to read my contract, and lo and behold, their contract excludes any wear and tear due to caulking. So in essence Fidelity is telling me caulking is not part of plumbing. I can imagine that if Fidelity ever replaces a faucet, the plumber they send is not going to put a water seal around the faucet.
Why does Fidelity do this? I am sure they conducted an audit, which showed them that most of the service calls they were getting regarding plumbing were due to failure of sealants or caulking. So they decided to exclude it. What a nice way to deny a claim. On top of it, I cannot even cancel their plan as I already paid for it upfront. What "peace of mind" for Fidelity: they have your money.
Is it worth buying their policy just for the sake of big appliances? I had another bad experience last year. I had a GE Profile stainless steel refrigerator in my house. For some reason, the freezer could not maintain a low temperature. I called Fidelity and they sent out a Sears Home technician. He came out and changed a part. Now the refrigerator started freezing everything kept in it. Even milk and food kept in it would freeze. I called Fidelity again. They sent the technician. The problem did not go away. I made nearly 6 service calls, and the technician came nearly 10 times. Every time they give you a 6 hour window, and I had to take half a day off from work to wait for him. I called Fidelity and asked why they were not simply replacing the refrigerator as they promise in their contracts. Their response was that they never promise they will replace an appliance. They will think of it only when the total cost of repairs exceeds $1000 for a $1600 refrigerator. Even after 6 service calls, the total cost was only $600.
So in essence Fidelity is telling me it never cares about its customers' convenience or "peace of mind," as they put it in their ads. The supervisor I talked to never cared about all those half days of leave I had to take from my job and all those $50s I paid for service calls. They were only hoping I would get fed up and replace the refrigerator myself or stop calling them. That is what I ended up doing in the end. I could not afford to buy another refrigerator, but I just started buying milk for 2 days. It never brought me "peace of mind," it only brought me a big hassle. I will dump them at the first opportunity.
0 comments