This is a recap of a letter I sent in desperation to a local news station that is supposed to help consumers. I have heard nothing back from them, so I am writing to you.
We just purchased a new home in November, and I have exhausted every avenue trying to get HWA Home Warranty of America to honor our contract for a leak in our heating system. Below is a statement of facts about just some of the actions I have taken. We are getting our home ready to occupy on February 1. We hope you can help us, because this has been so stressful that both my husband and I have become ill.
HWA Home Warranty of America has been stalling me on a leak in our new home. I submitted a claim on January 10, and I cannot get anyone to call me back. I have tried at least 4 times to reach a supervisor, but they keep telling me that is not possible and that I have to deal with the customer service reps. I am supposed to be covered for the leak in my condensation pipes due to improper installation. I have done everything they asked and have sent my complete Home Inspection Report, which we had done prior to purchasing this home in November, 4 times now. They keep telling me that their claims department has to review it to make sure the problem was not reported in that inspection, which it was not. Everything with the heating system was working fine until we discovered a leak on the plywood sub-floor in the basement. Now we are concerned about mold forming.
Here is the breakdown of events to date. On January 10, I called to request a service call and was referred to Hug Plumbing. I waited 3 days and never got a call, so I called HWA back and told them it was unacceptable that no one had called me, and I reminded them this was a leak. They told me they would call out another HVAC contractor, Guerneville Guys, who should be in contact soon. A few hours later Guerneville Guys called me and scheduled an appointment. They came out and met with my husband at the new house. They told him that the heater had been installed improperly and was too close to the wall and had to be moved in order to fix the leak. They said they would need approval from HWA before they could fix the problem. My husband tried to pay them, but they did not accept American Express, so they left. I waited another few days and called them back to see what was planned, and I was told that I would have to call HWA for their decision but that they thought HWA was not going to cover it. By this time a week had gone by.
I called HWA, and they told me our problem was pre-existing, so they would not cover it. They then told me that Guerneville Guys (GG's) were supposed to have given me the decision, and I told them the story GG's had given me. They would not consider the claim any further.
A week later I received an email stating that I owed HWA $60 for the service fee. When I called HWA, I complained that the GG's had done nothing but take one look at our heater and tell us it was installed wrong. Then the service rep told me that my Home Warranty policy had been canceled due to non-payment of the service fee. I was outraged because the GG's had not even billed us for the fee and had refused to take the credit card my husband offered. HWA had just canceled the policy we paid about $560 for in escrow. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and she refused. I agreed to pay the $60 fee on my VISA card to get our policy reinstated, but told them I was angry that they never gave us a chance to pay the fee before they canceled our policy without any notice. It was then that the rep, Juana Garcia at ext. 735, told me I had purchased the orange plus protection and she thought our claim should be covered by that extra coverage we purchased for improper installation, and that as long as I paid the $60 service call fee they would open the claim again. This was Thursday, Jan. 24. She asked me to send them the Home Inspection, which I immediately sent to her. I called her back to make sure she had received it, but she did not answer her phone and never called me back to confirm. I called again and left another message, which was also never returned. I called a third time two hours later with no response.
The next day, January 25, I called the main number, (888) 492-7359, and was connected to Aaron at ext. 859. I was told that Juana did not work on Fridays and would return on Saturday. I asked if he could tell me whether my Home Inspection had been received, and he said it did not show up in the system, so I asked if I could send it again. This time I sent it to [email protected] for the second time. He said that would ensure the Home Inspection was received by the claims department and let me know, because Juana had me send it to her attention on Thursday the 24th at [email protected]. I waited and received no response, then called back and spoke to Lisa Hoelscher at extension 850. She also said she did not show that anyone from the claims department had received the Home Inspection and asked me to send it again to her attention, so for the third time I sent it to [email protected]. I asked a second time to speak with a supervisor and was told that was not possible at their company and that I just had to wait for someone from the claims department to review our Home Inspection report and decide if we were covered. I reminded her that this was a leak that had been called in on January 10. She empathized with me but said it had to go through the process to be considered. I asked if they would email me with their decision, and she said it is their policy not to put anything in writing and that they would call me with the decision.
I waited until January 26 to call Juana Garcia back, since she works on Saturday, but she did not answer her phone and never called me back, and I did not receive any calls from HWA's claims department. This is a leak and it is getting worse by the day! I think they want us to take care of it ourselves, because then they can deny the claim on the grounds that we already had it fixed without their permission, even though we should be covered. I am also not happy with the contractors they have working for them: the first one, Hugs Plumbing, never even called me, and the GG's solution to fix a leaking pipe was to remove the heater and relocate it further from the wall so they could get to it. That seems to me like the tail wagging the dog!
We need your help desperately before we have a huge problem made worse by all of these delays of almost 3 weeks. My insurance does not cover mold, so this is a big concern with water standing on the wood subfloor in our basement. Can you help us? We have been turned over to so many people who seem to do nothing to get our claim reviewed or to assure us that the Home Inspection report has in fact been received for review. No one follows up on anything there, and they refuse to let me speak to a supervisor despite my asking for one each time I call in. I have never dealt with such an unethical company in my life!
January 29
I have been trying for days to reach 7 on Your Side about an urgent problem with Home Warranty of America. Your link does not seem to work, and I have even tried to email you using regular email instead of your link. HWA Home Warranty of America is a despicable company to do business with, and I have been trying since January 10 to get them to fix a leak in our house that is supposed to be covered. First they denied me and never told me that I was denied. They just kept me waiting and waiting until I called back to complain. Long story short, I was finally approved for the claim on Monday, January 28. The HVAC vendor they use is Guerneville Guys, who were not returning my calls to get an update on when they were coming out to finish the job. I finally got through to them on an alternate phone number, and Guerneville Guys just told me that they had not been paid by Home Warranty of America for their service call and that they were notorious for not paying in a timely manner, so they would not help us at all until they got the $60 we already paid Home Warranty of America for their service call. I did not think it was very professional of Guerneville Guys to leave a customer waiting without any communication, especially with a leak happening. They also do business as Rainbow Comfort. I also found out from HWA that they no longer use Hug Plumbing and Heating and that they would need to find a new vendor for us.
Home Warranty of America needs to be called on the carpet for its unethical business practices and needs to have the Attorney General investigate it. Seven on Your Side is my only recourse at this point, and I really need their help! I have a leak that is going to cause serious damage if it is not fixed soon. Home Warranty of America had the nerve to tell me that they would not cover secondary damages due to problems caused by the original problem! And they are the ones who caused the water damage by not responding in a timely manner and taking care of the leak. Please help me. I will never use HWA again and will tell everyone I can what they did to try to get out of honoring the warranty we paid $550 for in escrow when we purchased this home. I am praying that I get a response from you.
I can only estimate the damages at this point because no one will get back to me. We have paid $60 just to get the HVAC contractor to come out and look at the leak. Now there is water leaking and adding to the damages we will be forced to seek, besides repairing the installation of the heater. The cost of the policy was $550, and it seems to be useless. There needs to be regulation on these home warranty companies as to the amount of time they can take to respond to problems that are supposed to be covered. They should be regulated in a fashion similar to the insurance industry.
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