American Home Shield AHS Replaced AC with Lesser Quality Unit fraudulent ripoff business the business that doesn't give a dam carroll Iowa

We recently had a bad experience with American Home Shield with regard to replacement of an air conditioner condenser (outside portion of the air conditioning unit). We learned a few things about AHS that probably applies to all warranty companies that we would like to share:

1.Read the contract!!! And pay attention to the exclusions.they are all there.and read from THEIR perspective.just imagine that your Ebenizer Scrooge and you own AHS and you want to pay the smallest amount out to any customer.

2.These companies are in business to make a profit.this is pretty obvious.but way they do that is by betting that you end up paying them more in premiums than they will need to pay in repair and/or replacement of your appliances. Of course, your betting the other way.

3.In order for them to make this profit, they need to perform their service repair or replacement at the least possible cost. This means the low bidder repair company and the low end appliances are chosen BY THEM.you have NO voice in who performs your repairs or what brand, make, model of replacement they provide for you as long as it meets the general design specification of the original (capacity, SEER, tonnage, cu. Ft. etc). If you have top of the line Jennair cooktop, they will replace it with a name brand Sears cooktop.

4.The service repairman that comes to your house is working for AHSNOT YOU. They have very clear guidelines as to what they can and cannot do and your satisfaction is really a secondary factor.your not paying them, AHS is.as long as they make AHS happy, their happy.your happiness does not really come into the equation. Just consider this.if the service company has a bunch of complaints from customers to AHS, but AHS is making pretty good money from them (ie, low bidder for service), what is AHS's incentive to change????

5.AHS can afford to provide a bunch of service calls since you pay the bulk of the service call at $45 per call. But they take a very conservative stance on any work that takes more than an hour and replacement of any appliance and that is why the contract has so many exclusions.

If you can live with this arrangement..then it is the way to go. $450/year is not a bad cost if you end up having $2,000 worth of repairs and/or appliance replacements that may come up in the next year or two. But if you go five years and only replace a water heater which is what their betting on your probably better putting the money in the bank.

If your pretty discriminating regarding your appliances then this is not the deal for you.after several years your executive home is filled with appliances better suited for a middle income home.not trying to be s****.> In any case, here is our story:

When we purchased our home about two years ago, it came with an AHS policy that the homeowners provided for the first year. About the only thing we had cause to call them about the first year was the air conditioner in the fall of 2001. It turned out to be low on freon and the repairman that was called out filled it up and advised that there was probably a small leak in the system and that next summer if it needed another recharge next summer, that I would need to report the leak.

Sometime during the winter, the water heater went out and they replaced it pretty quickly with an equivalent unit.

In the spring of 2002 the one year contract was up and we went ahead and paid around $450 for the next year contract. About mid-summer, we noticed that the air-conditioning was not keeping up.we could not get the temp below 80F in the house. We reported this to AHS, who sent out the same repairman from the same company (Alpine Mechanical Inc AMI). This repairman (Tom) filled the system and stated that it did indeed appear there may be a leak.he looked around the unit and used snoop to see if he could find itwhich he could not. I figured the next time I needed a charge, I would pursue the issue of finding the leak with AHS.

The air conditioner worked pretty good all summer but in August, it looked like it was out of charge again. I called AHS and told them that it appeared there was a leak and would like someone to come out and find the leak to find the root cause of having to have someone come out every six months (and the resultant $45 charge). They agreed and three days later a different repairman came out from AMI.but arrived at 4:00 pm.he looked around and stated it was too hot to find the leak and it would take longer than he had that afternoon. This was frustrating since we tried our best that it would take some detective work to find the leak.

Anyhow, about three days later the same repairman came back out and spent about three and half hours looking for the leakbut did not find it. He stated he would research the issue and get back with us. We waited a day, and they never got back. We called, and they sent out Tom again.and within 10 minutes, he found the leak. He took the cover off the condenser unit (as had the previous repairman) and found the leak almost immediately. He reported the leak to AHS and they authorized a replacement. A couple days later, they come and replace the unit. Since the old unit was working sort of - waiting a couple days was not a big deal.

The original condenser unit is a 5 ton SEER 10 Trane. It was replaced with a 5 ton SEER 10 Payne. Kind of replacing a BMW with a Yugo. We complained about this but AHS stated that their policy is very clear that the replace based on SEER and capacity and whether or not it matches the A-coils or the rest of the system is not their concern.they are living up to the contract. After reading the contract, it appears this is the case.

n addition, the new unit had a lot more noise than the original. We complained to the repairman and he stated that they all sound that way. We argued but knew talking to him would get us nowhere. We called AMI immediately (while the repairman was still there) and complained about the sound. AHS wanted to talk to the repairman and he stated that the air conditioner was no louder than our refrigerator.all we could do was hold our tongue since that was a baldface lie. Anyhow, given his report to AHS, they offered no help.

That evening we purchased a sound level meter did some research on the web. The Payne had a noise level of 92 dB noise level. Its design level is 82 dB. The sound level of the refrigerator was around 53!!! We also found out that there was a cover you could put on the scroll compressor to dampen the noise and that Payne suggested this be installed if the unit is within 15' of a bedroom which it is.

We called AMI the next day and told them this outside of being surprised we had a noise level meter they offered no help.they would not even provide the sound dampening cover. We then contacted AHS and they were also no help..they stated that if the noise level was above design, it was a warranty issue and we would need to take that up with Payne (ie, the runaround).

Fortunately, we have a friend that designs and installs industrial air conditions. He adjusted the freon level (added a little) and the noise level came back down into specification..still a little noisy for our liking, so we will have him purchase and install the sound dampening cover.

In general, our experience with AHS had been pretty good until the air conditioner issue.but, in retrospect and after reading the contract a bit more closely, we should not have been surprised. They are in this business to make a profit and they do that by betting that you pay more in premiums than they pay out in repairs and replacements..which means they need to provide the last two items (repairs and replacements) at the le

Kaos
Westminster, California

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