I paid for a American Home Shield warranty on my rental house. When the tenants complained that the house was hot and the AC wasn't working, I called AHS to report the problem. ASH sent out one of their contracted technicians, Action Heating and Cooling. The technician from Action Heating and Cooling told my tenant that they checked out the system and there were no problems with it.
My tenants called me back and stated that the air conditioning was still not working properly, that it was too hot in the house. So I went out to the house myself and saw that even though the thermostat was all the way down to 55 degrees, the house temperature did not get above 85 degrees.
So I called American Home Shield again. I asked for a different company to be sent out, but AHS said that I would have to pay another service fee if they sent out a different company. AHS assured me they would send out a supervisor to make sure the problem was diagnosed this time.
The "supervisor" came out, and also stated that there was nothing wrong with the system, and that he should charge me again because he found nothing wrong, and it was cooling properly. I asked how it could be cooling properly if it was 85 degrees in the house. He said that it was an old system, and it was the "best it could do considering the age of the system". He stated that he added freon, but it didn't need any.
The tenants were still complaining about the heat a week later, so I called another HVAC contractor in my area. After checking out the system, he told me the reason that it wasn't cooling was that the evaporator coil was clogged and was preventing the cool air from entering the house. The compressor was running 24/7 trying to pull cool air through a clogged evaporator coil, and if left unattended, the compressor motor would have eventually burned out. The technician also cleaned the condenser coil while he was there.
Now the air conditioning was working properly, but AHS refused to pay for the repair because ASH stated "it was a routine maintenance item" according to their contract. So I called the HVAC contractor and asked if cleaning the condenser and evaporator coils is considered "routine maintenance". They stated that cleaning the condenser coil is part of their regular maintenance service, but cleaning the evaporator coil is NOT considered routine maintenance. They do inspect the evaporator coil and if it needs cleaning, they will give a quote on cleaning, but it is not part of their regular maintenance service.
The HVAC company stated the above in writing, and I submitted it again to AHS for reimbursement for the evaporator coil service only, but they refused to reimburse me any part of the repair. AHS said that they still considered cleaning the evaporator coil routine maintenance too, and it did not matter that I had a letter from a reputable HVAC company stating otherwise.
It also did not matter to AHS that their contracted vendor, Action Heating and Cooling, did not find anything wrong with the system. I stated that I could not believe that this negligent service provided by their contractor was acceptable to AHS. Brandy, (BMP) at the customer service center, replied that what I was paying for was the trip cost for the contractor to drive out to the home that is under warranty, not the service I get after he arrives.
I am a real estate agent who, up to this point, has recommended AHS to my buyers. But AHS does not consider it fraudulent to knowingly continue to send incompetent vendors like Action Heating and Cooling on service calls where they merely collect the service fee, and falsely claim to check out a problem with the system under warranty. They see nothing wrong with that, and are making a lot of money ripping off a lot of unsuspecting homeowners. I intend to tell as many homeowners as possible about the inferior quality of customer service they will recieve from both AHS and their repair contractors if they buy an AHS home warranty.
Julie
Charlotte, North Carolina
U.S.A.
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