American Home Shield
Water Heater Reimbursement Denied After Father's Death Despite Authorized Installer

My parents have had AHS for a long time and paid their monthly premiums without question and on time.
Back on Feb. 20th or '07 my father passed away; obviously at the age of 85 my mother was devastated. My father always took care of everything and she was just a good homemaker. Well on the 21st the day after his death, we gathered at the house to make funeral arrangements. When I arrived Mom told me that her Hot Water Heater went out. Not knowing that they had AHS because Dad had always paid everything, I replaced the water heater at my expense. Two days later while going thru her paper work and all we found that she had AHS as a service. I called to file for re-imbursement, they told me to send in the receipts and invoices and they would decide. They denied the claim. Said it was not done by their authorized installers.

Well, it happened to be that the company that installed it was one of their authorized installers. I did a 3-way call with AHS and the plumbers on the phone and AHS still denied the claim. The only fault made by my mother was not knowing Dad contracted with AHS. But, since it was inspected and installed by their authorized installers (the company I hired would have been the company they would have sent out to install the hot water heater anyway if we has called for prior authorization); and knowing this AHS stilled denied reimbursement. Even though the company we hired worked for them and explained to AHS, that everything was done the same as if they were authorized first by AHS prior to the job (only in the stress of the situation-the customer didn't know at the time her husband had this service) but, still with proper inspection... installed by one of their qualified installation companies... An explanation by their plumber that is was just an oversight. AHS, still refused to re-imburse my Mother. She pays her premiums and everything short of prior authorization was done exactly as it the company AHS had ordered the repairs and yet... AHS used every loophole available to them to get out of paying for what was obviously just an accident, being overlooked due to the stress of the present situation.

I think this company is a scam operating bunch of thieves that make money however they can, but operate without any morals or fairness. Nothing in the above explained situation was done with intent or malice to defraud AHS. It was unfortunate oversight caused by extreme stress due to the death of a spouse. I feel once it was explained and all the documents and receipts were provided that a reputable company would have made this right under this situation.

Think about this if you have AHS! You may want to choose a company with integrity and morals. Or call them and let them know that this and the many other 100's or maybe 1000's of customers that have been cheated in similar manners deserve better.

Actually, I am not saying that everything AHS does is criminal or wrong (I am sure that they have treated people fair in their history) but, they should not just treat people fair when it's profitable to them... They should treat all their customers fair on every transaction, or the government or the people should close them down. No one wants to be ripped off and no company should be able to do this without some sort of consequences being levied against them. I understand that we can speak out here at usacomplaints.com, but there should be means that these people can be held accountable.

Company: American Home Shield
Country: USA
Site: americanhomeshield.com

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