First American Home Warranty
Uses Substandard Contractors to Weasle out of Claims

I called 1stAmerican on Tuesday, April 11 for air conditioner repair. The contractor called and scheduled an appointment for Thursday. The tech called me Thursday morning and asked for directions because he couldn't find my address on the Key Map. That was the first clue that there was a problem. He went up into the attic and clumped around for about an hour and a half. Then he came down and said he had to go to the auto parts store for a part and asked where the nearest one was. He was gone about half an hour, then returned. Within a few minutes, he came back down and said that he had to replace the circuit board (it had recently been replaced, so I thought that was odd).

The part would have to be ordered and the office would schedule an appointment. After asking me where the attic was, he then went upstairs for the model number of the unit. It took him approximately 45 minutes to find it. I thought that was a VERY BAD SIGN.

I called the contractor on Tuesday to check the status. They said the part "should be in today" and scheduled an appointment for Wednesday. The tech arrived and spent 3 hours banging around the attic and not fixing the AC.in fact, he made it worse. It was only blowing warm air and I could not turn it off. I called 1stAm, and called the contractor. 1st Am said they would call the contractor as well. I spend all day on Thursday trying to get the contractor to send out a different tech and fix the problem, but they kept telling me they would "check the schedule and call me back." It never happened. Then 1st AM then called to say they would not pay the claim because the tech reported rodent damage to the AC unit wiring.

I called ARS and they sent a tech out right away. He was there within an hour and it only took him 2 hours to find the original problem and fix the "repairs" done by the first tech. First tech had damaged the circuit board by installing it improperly. This also destroyed the transformer. Then he did some wonky wiring with the fan so that it was on constantly. Work by this company is supposed to be warrantied for 30 days, but they refused to honor it.

I called 1stAm and they said to send the documentation from the competent tech and they would review the claim. The competent tech also said there was no evidence of any rodent damage. It has been over a week since I faxed it to them and the agent is always in a meeting or gone to lunch or whatever and will not return phone calls.
I don't know if 1stAM tries to save money by sending out cut-rate contractors, or if there is some collusion going on.

Company: First American Home Warranty
Country: USA
State: California
City: Van Nuys
Address: P.O. Box 10180
Phone: 8009923400

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