Home Warranty Companies

[robav8r]

Wondering if anyone has had any good or bad experiences with an extended home warranty company. Looking for some major appliance & A/C coverage on my rental home in Jacksonville. I've heard some horror stories lately, but not a lot of "best ever" stories. Thanks . . . . .

 

[insanebikerboy]

I have American Home Shield for my house I'm renting in Jax and so far it's worked out well. I'm not using a property manager so it makes it easy and convenient if something breaks. I've had a few things I had to call about and (knock on wood) it's worked out.

I view it as a form of insurance and I correspondingly increase my deductible for my home insurance. Some people say that if you took the money and saved it that it would basically be the same thing. They are replacing the furnace in my house that would cost about $2,000 and all it's costing me is $60, so I would've had to have saved for quite awhile to match the cost of that replacement.

Plus, like any expense associated with the rental, you can deduct it on the income tax at the end of the year.

 

[phrogpilot73]

We've got American Home Shield as well for our rental in Maryland, and our home in Virginia Beach. It's about $500/year - and it works out pretty well. No complaints.

 

[Brett327]

Ditto. Haven't had to make a claim yet, but I use them as well and everyone I know who rents their house likes AHS.

 

[robav8r]

I did a cursory check of "customer satisfaction" online and AHS didn't fare so well. But to be fair, it seems all of the Home Warranty companies I checked out had more than their share of disgruntled customers. Question: any known gouge about filing a claim and the subsequent level of satisfaction afterwards? I am obviously most concerned about my A/C units.

 

[Catmando]

Some of AHS reviews aren't very great.

 

[usmarinemike]

I find that the majority of online reviews for almost anything are abysmal. Just look at almost anything on Amazon, which has a very robust rating system. Any book, kitchen appliance, and toy has a bunch of 5 star ratings, but also a pile of highly negative rating narratives. I'm willing to bet that the pile of negative reviews in this case stem from a widespread misunderstanding of terms and conditions of the insurance agreement. Not that AHS doesn't probably work to make it difficult. Just use due diligence and know what you're buying, and you will probably be happy.

 

[Jim123]

Concur about online reviews... I try to read between the lines on those things to figure out which ones might be misunderstandings by angry customers, which ones are "astroturf" reviews, and which ones are fanboi reviews. Sometimes there remain a few sensible, well-written, middle-of-the-road, and actually helpful writeups.

 

[insanebikerboy]

I did a cursory check of "customer satisfaction" online and AHS didn't fare so well. But to be fair, it seems all of the Home Warranty companies I checked out had more than their share of disgruntled customers. Question: any known gouge about filing a claim and the subsequent level of satisfaction afterwards? I am obviously most concerned about my A/C units.

I've filed several claims for some issues at my house in Jax. Had a wiring issue, called on a Sunday, AHS went through the process and the contractor was out Monday mid-day to fix the problem.

Had a plumbing issue and they came out in two days and fixed it. In the process of fixing it they stripped the faucet strainer and it popped loose about a week later. Called AHS and they got the same plumber out. The problem was, the plumber had to order the part and didn't tell anyone so about 8 days later my tenant calls me asking WTF. Called the plumber and they had the part, came out and fixed it.

I've had four service calls with my house in Florida and three here at the place in San Diego. All have been fixed, to include replacing my furnace and ac.. The only problem I've had so far was two of the contractor themselves, not with AHS. AHS has always been very fast at getting the claim out to the contractor but it's been hit or miss on how fast they've responded. There are time limits set by AHS but two of the contractors I've worked with so far have pushed the limits of those time constraints.

 

[helo_wifey]

We have a rental in Jax and had AHS for the home warranty when we first bought it. We had it 2 years then cancelled.

The company AHS uses for A/C repair was incompetent and at $60 a service call, it started to add up fast. We ended up calling another A/C company on our own after having AHS's company out 3 times with no solution. We called Thigpen and the guy fixed the problem in 15 min.

We know enough people who own businesses in Jax to fair pretty good when it comes to repairs. The money we would have been putting toward the home warranty we now put into a savings account just for the house.

We weren't fans of AHS and like to be in control of who comes to do work at the house. We manage it ourselves, even being overseas.

 

[insanebikerboy]

We have a rental in Jax and had AHS for the home warranty when we first bought it. We had it 2 years then cancelled.

The company AHS uses for A/C repair was incompetent and at $60 a service call, it started to add up fast. We ended up calling another A/C company on our own after having AHS's company out 3 times with no solution. We called Thigpen and the guy fixed the problem in 15 min.

We know enough people who own businesses in Jax to fair pretty good when it comes to repairs. The money we would have been putting toward the home warranty we now put into a savings account just for the house.

We weren't fans of AHS and like to be in control of who comes to do work at the house. We manage it ourselves, even being overseas.

My experience, you can request a different contractor if the one they send initially is not quite hacking it. Also, if you were getting charged $60 for a service call on the same system you were getting had by the contractor.

The savings thing was something I debated for a long time. It's possible you could save money and come out ahead or it's possible you could have a huge expense and end up in the red. Risk versus reward in that regard I suppose.

 

[HooverPilot]

I have BPG Home Warrant right now. Since April, I've had several thousand dollars of roofing and AC work done with little difficulty. The only complaint is their approval process for a repair takes longer than I would like. Overall, very happy. I've also had good luck with AHS in the past.