American Home Shield Consistently fails to provide qualified vendors to repair anything covered by their warranty plan. Carroll, Iowa Nationwide

 As a new customer of American Home Shield (AHS), I am extremely disappointed in the quality of service I have received from my very first claim. I own two properties and have contracts for both with AHS. My first repair was a dishwasher which required three visits from two different vendors and was finally repaired after I contacted AHS and complained that it had not been repaired satisfactorily the first time. More recently, I have experienced an air conditioning malfunction which the technician indicated was only a need to clear the line and then who actually failed to clear it which resulted in the unit overflowing and severely damaging the ceiling below the unit which I then had to pay to replace. This deficiency was reported to AHS who indicated that they would report it to their vendor relations office. Sadly, service has only gotten worse. On 31 May I initiated a service request for a refrigerator that had stopped cooling.

The dispatched vendor (A Superior Appliance) was not able to come look at it until five days later, which was disappointing. The technician inspected the refrigerator and indicated that the automatic defroster needed replacing and that it was a simple repair which required ordering a part but that the repair should be completed in 5 to 10 days max. After 3 weeks passed, we started attempting to contact the vendor. After leaving numerous messages which were never responded to, we finally actually got someone on the phone who indicated the part was on back order and we would be contacted when the part came in. We never heard back and after numerous additional calls, they finally returned with the part to complete the repair. The technician stayed 5 minutes and indicated that the wrong part had been ordered.

We once again contacted AHS and expressed our concern at the length of time it was taking and the difficulty we were experiencing contacting the vendor. We received a message from AHS indicating the part was due in in no more than 7 business days and that if we didn’t hear from the vender we should contact them directly. Again we heard nothing by that date, we attempted to contact the vender and got a message that the number was not taking calls. At this point I called AHS and spent 56 minutes waiting to talk to a customer service representative. She also attempted to contact the vendor and was unable to contact them or leave a message for them.

Within an hour, I received a call from a different repair company to schedule a service call to look at the refrigerator and determine what repairs needed to be done. Note that by the time they come, more than 7 weeks will have passed for a non-functioning refrigerator! On 16 June I contacted AHS requesting a plumber to clear a shower drain that was draining slowly. The vendor (Milburn Plumbing) was dispatched on 18 June and when they arrived they put chemicals into the drain and waited. Once it became clear that the drain was still draining slowly, they indicated that they needed to access the roof to clear the drain and that they were not qualified or equipped to do that and also that AHS did not cover that work. Because I am not a plumber, I accepted that and contacted another plumber who came by with in an hour and snaked the drain. Note that they did not need to access the roof and indicated that there was no need to do so, and completed the work in less than 15 minutes.

Clearly, I paid a qualified plumber to do work that a vendor sent by AHS was either unqualified or simply unwilling to do. The Milburn technician indicated no need for a service fee since they had not completed the necessary drain clearing and perhaps that is because they were aware that it was work they should have easily been able to complete. I am most certainly displeased to on numerous occasions have paid other contractors for work that should be covered under my AHS Home Warranty plan and was surprised to receive an invoice for $125.00 marked as past due for Milburn Plumbing. Especially since the Milburn representative had indicated that there would be no charge and gave us no paperwork and obtained no signature from us.

It has become obvious that AHS is not a very reputable company in that they have vendors who are not qualified to do the work covered under the warranty plans and yet customers are expected to pay them even when they are unable to do the work. Please note that because I desire to limit contact with AHS until my current contract expires and which I will most certainly not be renewing, I have paid the invoice in the amount of $125.00. Additionally, on 1 July I requested a plumber to repair a shower that was running full blast and could not be shut off. The vender (ASAP PLUMBING SERVICE #2) did not contact me, so I contacted them to find out when the earliest they could come by would be. They indicated that it would be at least four days! So much for ASAP. Once again, I had to contact and pay for another plumber who responded within hours, not several days.

I am now wondering if I am going to end up getting an invoice even though ASAP never contacted me and never actually scheduled an appointment. Also on Friday, 17 July (morning) I completed a service request via the AHS website to have someone come and look at my air conditioning which had stopped cooling. I received a message that the request had been dispatched and that I would hear from the vendor within normal business hours. I assumed that I would not hear from them until Monday and waited until Monday afternoon to contact them since I didn’t hear from them.

They verified my address and indicated that they would send a technician out on Wednesday and would contact me Tuesday to let me know a time window. I did not hear back from them so once again called them Wednesday morning to verify that they were, as promised, planning on sending someone out that day. I was informed that one of their technicians had a family emergency and that we had been rescheduled for Thursday. They also informed me that the technician would contact me Thursday morning and let me know the approximate time. Once again, the morning passed and we heard nothing. We again contacted them and were told the same technician family emergency story and that they might be sending someone out tomorrow.

Here it is, a week later and the vendor has not contacted me a single time and there is currently no confirmed time-frame which I can expect to, IAW the warranty I am paying for, actually have someone come and fix my air conditioning. This is Texas in July and I am a senior citizen and the temperature is between 95-100 degrees. Before I made the mistake of signing up with AHS, I could have paid a technician to come by the same day! My experience with this company has been frustrating and completely unsatisfactory. The only exception has been the customer service representatives who while clearly working at a disadvantage of trying to provide service to customers for a company that appears to care little for the quality of work they perform, but also for their reputation as a company, have consistency been friendly and courteous.