Choice Home Warranty Deceptive Trading Practices, Lame excuses to deny claims, Profit trumps customer sat! Edison, NJ New Jersey

A couple of months ago I foolishly overrode my wife’s intuition and bought a home warranty policy from Choice Home Warranty (CHW). I did so because I was responsible for all house maintenance activities and having suffered a severe stroke in 2012 I knew that my maintenance schedule would likely be negatively impacted and I likely had a higher exposure to failures of various home components. I thought I was doing the right thing by purchasing ‘peace of mind’.

On Friday June 17 in Austin, TX our home AC unit failed to operate. I contacted CHW and was provided the number of a local refrigeration specialist to arrange a service call the following day.

The technician arrived and after explaining the problem his experience allowed him to quickly presume that our problem was likely to be a leaking evaporator coil. An inspection of the unit confirmed his assessment. He topped up the system and cooling of the house begun. Unfortunately after the weekend I was informed by CHW that a ‘leak detection’ test had to be undertaken at a cost of an additional $225 to go on top of the $300 cost for the weekend service call. I complained to CHW claiming that the leak detection test was unnecessary given that the experienced technician diagnosed the problem without even seeing the unit and after examining the unit was able to confirm the earlier diagnosis. It appeared that CHW were not prepared to accept the diagnosis and recommendations from their own service contractors. What I failed to recognize throughout this part of the ordeal was CHW’s insistence of photo’s taken during the ‘leak test’. The technician commented to me that my photo’s showed very little signs of early corrosion on the coil which was a good thing because the tiniest presence of corrosion would likely be used as an excuse to not accept coverage on the coil.

Coincidentally when CHW contacted me AFTER receiving the photo’s they immediately denied coverage on the coil on the basis of corrosion!

An evaporator coil is a vital part of any heating or cooling system. It is particularly good at absorbing heat when air is passed through it normally resulting in the production of condensation(moisture). So here we have it, a metal-based component that is subjected to a wide range of temperatures in a moisture-laden environment and CHW denies EACH and EVERY claim made by their customers if there is the slightest signs of the presence of corrosion! Its analogous to my auto insurance policy being made null and void by taking the car out on the road!!

I would recommend that you avoid my mistake and redirect the funds that you were  intending to use for warranty insurance and save it for preventative maintenance services. The home warranty insurance industry are dominated by scoundrels who happily accept your money and are unlikely to provide the coverage that they insist is their top priority.