American Home Shield, AHS American Home Shield took over $2400 from us and provided no service. Internet

We bought a house three years ago. With the house, we bought a home warranty policy, expecting at least one thing in the twenty-year-old home to break eventually. Within months, the air conditioner broke. With a newborn baby, this becomes a serious (possibly lethal) problem, especially as temperatures within the house rise to 90 degrees Fahrenheit during the day (nights are not much relief). Along with the monthly fee AHS would charge us, there were also fees associated with having a technician come out to fix the problem.

Nothing was ever fixed. The AC unit was old and obviously needed replacement. Not only was the coil broken, but the blower motor also needed to be replaced. Both of these tidbits of information were given to us by the many technicians that came to our house. However, they were instructed to only fix the symptom and not the problem. Therefore, they would fill our AC with freon and leave. After three days, the freon would be completely depleted (after leaking from the coil). We would have to schedule another appointment (which means waiting a few days in the dead heat of summer) for another technician to come out. Instead of replacing the coil, they would simply fill the AC with more freon. This went on for three summers. Please note that it is illegal to replace freon in a leaking coil more than once by any company that knows the coil leaks. Several companies did this over the course of these three years. While this may not be the fault of AHS, the actions carried out by these companies was almost certainly AHS' recommendation.

After about the fourth visit, we began saving the work orders from each technician, accounting for both what they did (which, coincidentally, sometimes does NOT match what they put on the work order) and how much we had to pay. AHS policy states that we do not have to pay if the technician has to come back out within 30 days of service. Yet, somehow, we ended up having to pay at least three times each summer for the same problem. Their lack of customer service and payment tactics ensured this.

The last straw was when a technician came to the house to fix our air conditioner and he stated that AHS specifically instructed him to not replace the blower motor (we knew the motor had broken from an earlier visit by a technician from the same company). The technician was not supposed to tell me this, but I think he was new and not familiar with "politics". The technician replaced a capacitor (the original was fine), then left. Ten minutes later, the AC was not working. I stopped payment on the check to both the technician's company and to AHS and purchased an entirely new unit, costing around $2100. Please note that the cost of this new working AC unit and blower was less than the cost of AHS to provide absolutely no service.

I would like to reclaim some of the money lost to AHS. I am very interested in pursuing any Class Action Lawsuits against the company. We have a lot of evidence we can use in the case.

Nathan R
Norcross, Georgia
U.S.A.