American Home Shield
Furnace with cracked heat exchanger denied as pre-existing for three weeks

We bought a house in Feb and had a home warranty provided to us by the previous home owners. The week after we moved in, we did the appropriate thing by having the oil furnace serviced prior to getting service & oil deliveries. The oil company came out and we were told that the heat exchanger was cracked and thus the furnace was deemed inoperable. A second tech guy came out and confirmed the first guy but this time he disabled the thermostat inside of the furnace as well as shutting off the circuit breaker and oil line to the furnace to prevent usage as the furnace was now blowing carbon monoxide throughout the house ~ obviously a serious issue.

Please keep in mind that this was the first week in March and it was freezing outside. We called AHS and we paid the $45 fee to have their contractor come out to confirm what the first 2 guys stated. At this time, we got a call a week or two later telling us that it was a pre-existing issue and they were not liable. Everyone that I spoke with at AHS was rude, ignorant and down right nasty to me on the phone. We, at one point, had actually considered paying for it ourselves but after the downpayment on the house, closing and moving expenses, we were completely tapped out for cash. Besides that, we were entitled to the warranty that was included in the purchase of our home.

We fought with them for 3 weeks on the phone and it was down right mentally exhausting and quite frankly, was a horrible experience. In the end, it worked out in our favor as we did finally get a new furnace BUT the 3 weeks we spent in our new home was without the proper heat that you would normally use. The danger of using portable space heaters was always on our mind as well as the fact that if we didn't have any heat at all, there was the potential of pipes breaking due to the cold. Luckily, our house has a pellet stove but after a week of using that constantly, that shut down on us so we were out of heat all together.

I was, at this point, completely on the edge mentally and mind you, I had to have these horrible conversations with AHS and their horrible contractor while I was at work. After numerous yelling matches with AHS & contractor, many of which I ended up in tears of anguish and frustration, I completely lost my mind and threatened everyone ~ previous homeowners, home inspector, both realtors, AHS and their contractors with lawsuits. Only after I used the phrase "lawsuit" did we get our way and had them install a new furnace.

While we did get what we needed, we in no way should have had to gone through all that to get what we were entitled to in the first place. I don't know if we are entitled to be a part of this class action lawsuit but no one should have to go through that kind of stress, anguish and aggravation, EVER. If there are any folks or lawyers interested in speaking with us then please contact us through this website and we would be glad to provide anything and everything that is needed to help.

Company: American Home Shield
Country: USA
State: Pennsylvania
City: Horsham
Address: 421 Avenue C
Phone: 2152724210

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