Warning!!!
Danger will robinson! Danger!!!
I don't know how many suckers are actually born per minute but if you have or are considering, or you know anyone who has or is considering utilizing American Home Shield (A division of service master) to insure major home appliances and/or heating/air conditioning units... PLEASE, SAVE YOURSELF THE HASSLES AND EXPENSE! Don't be a sucker like me.
I have had "coverage" for the past year on all major appliances. The cost of $36.00 per month didn't seem that bad for buying peace of mind. Supposedly, if any appliance under my enhanced plan was in need of repair, the cost to me would only be a $45.00 fee to the service technician.
If the service technician could not repair said appliance then it would be replaced with a like kind appliance free of charge up to $1,500.00 by AHS. Well, what they fail to tell you is that they have absolutely NO intention of EVER authorizing a service technician to replace ANY appliance in your home no matter how damaged it is. They will keep sending technicians in attempts to solve the problem and cobble the appliance together. (we have had countless techs come to service our heat pump/air conditioner and it has never been fixed)
Also, it is stated in the contract that AHS is not responsible for routine maintenance. Sounds reasonable right? Of course. This leads me to believe that if I need my air filter changed or my stove cleaned they won't cover it. Made sense to me.
What they DO NOT plainly tell you in the fine print is that if your appliance is not deemed to be "properly maintained" and you don't know that it isn't "properly maintained" and you have an equipment failure on this appliance that you thought was covered, then they will not cover the repair or the replacement of your item because it was a failure "due to lack of maintenance" and not "mechanical."
I trusted this company. I had someone (my mother-in-law actually) recommend this company to us. My mother-in-law did not realize that her appliances would also not be covered if they were considered to have failed for lack of maintenance. She is going to be canceling as well. Being that stress is always prevalent in life I thought it would be quite nice to buy some peace of mind so that I didn't have to worry and stress every time some major appliance in my home pinged, ponged, or creaked. What did I get?
Well that year's worth of "peace of mind" cost me hmmmm... Let's see...$36.00 per month for 12 months ($432.00) plus about $135.00 worth of service fees... And I still have a heat pump with major malfunctions. The technicians they use have to be chosen by AHS as their own authorized technicians. I have never had a problem with any of the independent technician who AHS has sent to my home, except for of course that the problem was never resolved.
The techs have all been courteous. One technician we had sent to us in the winter even told us that our heat pump really needed to be replaced. AHS would not allow the technician to replace anything. AHS stated "it was not an option at this point." So, that being the case we were told to have our unit maintained ($300 worth of maintenance not covered by the mighty "Shield") and then see if it corrected the problem, and if not they would have another service technician come out and tinker with it.
Upon doing research of complaints for this company I ran across several people who had similar issues as mine. The customer service reps at the company are rude and snippety. The friendliest voice you hear at that company is the voice recording. The customer service representative's supervisor was attempting to tell me that everything was plainly stated in the contract that "AHS does not cover maintenance costs" and she would consistently change the issue of why I was complaining.
My complaint was NOT that they did not cover maintenance costs, but that my unit could have completely stopped working, and if they judged that it was due to improper maintenance then my appliance would never be covered. THAT situation is NOT plainly stated AT all in ANY of the fine print of the contract agreement. There is always a loophole that AHS can crawl out of, sticking the customer with a high repair bill on top of monthly insurance costs and fees. She couldn't get it through her head what my problem was with their lack of disclosure and mis-representation.
Also, we had several techs over the past year look at our unit and attempt to repair it. Not one said anything about it needing to be maintained. I brought this up to her to and she said that not all technicians are expected to come to the same conclusion. I told her that of course, I would understand that if they were all looking at a different unit but this was the same unit that has had service calls on it for 3/4 of the year.
So, I am now on a mission: I will for the rest of my life inform at least 10 people per day via e-mail, phone, or personal conversation to STAY AWAY from AMERICAN HOME SHIELD—DIVISION OF SERVICE MASTER... Unless of course you like fooling yourself into believing you are buying "peace of mind." If you have the money to burn, go ahead. If you think I am just an angry customer then I would encourage you to read a few testimonials for yourself. Go to any search engine and type in American Home Shield and then the word "complaint" or "customer" and you will find websites devoted to informing people about the hassles of doing business with this company. I only wish I had done adequate research before.
Oh, one more thing. It is extremely easy to sign up for this insurance "coverage" however it is taking an act of Congress to cancel. Figures.
Best of luck to all who are trying to go up against this cheating entity in attempts to get your money back. I wish you luck, you're gonna need it.
Chris and johniece
Huntsville, Alabama
U.S.A.
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