My girlfriend and I purchased a home that came with a Home Owners Warranty. Several months after the purchase various circuit breakers started to flip... Sometimes even when under minimum load.
Then we started to experience a "flicker" in the electrical power. We called HSA (Home Security of America) and they sent out an electrician. He apparently replaced the worst of the offending circuit breakers and told us that the flicker was being caused by our local utilities equipment and that we should contact them.
Which is what we did. Ameren/UE, our local electric utility, sent a technician out who spend quite a bit of time going over their portion of the electrical service. When he was done, the technician told me that Ameren/UE's equipment checked out and wasn't the cause of the flicker.
He went on to say that the only way to definately get rid of the flicker would be to replace the electrical service and box in the home... That due to the nature of our particular electrical box that the exact cause would probably not be apparent.
We called HSA back and they sent their contractor back out. He knocked on the door and when I told him what Ameren had said, he told me that he would check into what Home Security of America would pay for, but that I shouldn't get my hopes up. He then turned and left without even coming in the home.
To make a long story short, HSA then denied my claim. They said that they "believed" their contractor and that they thought that Ameren/UE was lying.
When I pushed to have this decision over-turned, I was again denied. When I looked up the president of the company's name and called and asked for him direct, I was put into his voice mail and he never returned my call. After several additional calls, I finally was able to talk with a senior vice-president who only offered somewhat of a compromise. He said that if I paid $150.00 up front, that they would send another contractor out of their choice to reexamine the system.
I didn't like the sound of them picking the contractor at this point, so I countered by saying that I wanted an independent electrical contractor to do the inspection. They said no, that they would only accept an inspection by one of the contractors that worked for them.
When I didn't agree to this, the gentleman became rude and basically hung up on me.
Two days later I got a bill in the mail from HSA's electrical contractor for $125.00. When I called them to see why I had gotten this bill (I had already paid the $50.00 deductible on the warranty) he told me that Home Security of America had denied my original claim.
When I told him what the Ameren/UE technician had said, he told me that the tech was probably right, but that he had never seen Home Security of America pay for a new box.
I have filed a complaint with the Missouri Attorney General's office and since the flicker is still happening, will probably pay to have a new system put in as soon as I can afford it. Contingent upon what the Missouri Attorney General's office can work out, I will probably end up suing Home Security of America.
If you're real estate agent offers a seller's protection plan, make sure that it's not from this company... They didn't honor their warranty in our case! If you're a buyer and the agent suggests that you buy one of these warranties, pick a different company!
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