First of all I would like to mention that I'm the owner of an interior design company and that I deal with general and specialized contractors, handymen and other service providers on an everyday basis. With the purchase of my private residence came a home warranty plan by First American Home Buyers Protection. I have been paying the premium for years now without having any (major) claims. This year however I've had some things that needed to be fixed.
The first thing I noticed when calling this company was that nobody seems to answer the phone. No matter when and what time you call, the customer service center always "experiences a high volume of calls". Which means that you can prepare yourself to be on hold for a looooooong time. That seems to be the first strategy of this company to get rid of custumer claims or at least to make them as unpleasant as possible. Usually I put the phone on speaker and continued with my work at the computer, until I had a representative on the line. Sometimes I had to wait for up to an hour. This company definitely doesn't want to be called and doesn't want to deal with you.
The service reps appear to be understanding, once you have them on the line. They refer different contractors, who are supposed to call back within 24 hours. I've never had a problem, with them calling back.
The problem usually started when the contractors arrived at my house. I'm a pretty liberal and open minded person, but when you have L.A. GANG MEMBERS in your kitchen, fixing your faucet - shaved heads, baggy pants, gang tatoos, chains, gang poise, sexist behavior - you really come to the point thinking that this ain't right!!! On another service call I've had a Russian chain smoker who screamed back at me like a psycho when I asked simple questions. My kids got so scared that they were hiding in their closets.
Then I had a completely depressed Arab guy who was supposed to check out my dishwasher and who just walked in, looked at it and said that there's nothing wrong with it... Me explaining that it doesn't dry anymore, him replying that he doesn't have time to wait until the drying circle comes up. This guy reported in the paperwork that the diswasher has been installed incorrectly (it was installed 5 years ago when we remodeled the kitchen and always worked fine) so that my claim got denied by the insurance company!
First american selects the worst of the worst contractors they can possibly find!
No kidding! Most people will probably be more than happy when these guys leave their house, problem fixed or not. I was always relieved when they left. Couldn't wait to get rid of them...
Not that ONE of them had shown SOME concern, or expertise or helpful behavior... NO, they all did not care the slightest little bit and were in and out between 5 to 10 minutes... While I was staying back with superficial quick fixes or denied claims or being treated like the last person... This insurance company really makes sure that you think twice before you make the next claim!
Apparently I didn't let all this sit on me and filed complaints with the customer serivce. On the phone they were always quite nice and understanding, but nothing was filed or done and nobody ever got back to me (as promised).
I've noticed that, in general, if a claim doesn't get resolved, First American doesn't get back to you and doesn't call you back or doesn't do absolutely anything. They just wait that you call and call and call over and over again, and then find some unfounded reason to deny your claim. Another "great" strategy of this crappy company...
All I can say is: STAY AWAY FROM FIRST AMERICAN HOME BUYERS PROTECTION, because they are PUREST SCAM and their contractors are THE WORST OF THE WORST!!! (I don't even know where they FIND these people...- would be interesting to see how they recruit...)
Sylvia
Irvine, California
U.S.A.
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