American Home Shield Warrenty
 

Does anyone have anything good or bad to say about this company. I am trying to decide if their warrenty is worth getting. Only one person I spoke to said it was worth it, even though it is a battle with them on every claim.

My home is 10 years old, and I just replaced the refrigerator.

Yet, when googled, I have found nothing but negatives and complaints.

Thanks

Hehe! I used to work for the owner of one of their competitors and I can tell you to carefully read the contract and the various degrees of coverage.

Do your homework. Find out maximum service response times and watch the "Exclusions" for pre-existing conditions. It's been a few years, but they will often try to get out of replacing appliances by calling the problem pre-existing, or corroded, etc.

I don't want to scare you off because they're great when your heating or a/c isn't working, but do be aware of the stuff they don't mention. Good luck!

EDIT: Here's a link I found which, although I didn't read, a quick scanning indicates pros and cons...

http://www99.epinions.com/finc-topics-Homewarranties

Our real estate agent had us get that when we bought our house a couple of years ago. Made several claims for ac, water heater, etc. Almost every time they claimed the problem was due to "improper installation" and would refuse to pay.

I see lots of complaints about them online. I'd just put some cash to the side for emergency repairs and avoid them.

I don't know about American Shield, but I've never been anything but happy with my 2-10 home warranty. On years worth of it came with my house, and I've re-upped at every opportunity. When you buy a 118-year-old house, it's worth $400 a year to have your ass covered.

We had American Homeshield in our last home, and I'm glad we did. There were a few times when the service was slow to respond, but after a call to American Homeshield to complain all was okay. We were living in an older home and throughout the seven years we had many repairs, and all we paid was a small fee. We also got a new A/C system out of it. A big help to us were the service people. They would check out the problem, and then they told us what to say to American Homeshield in order to get the most repairs for next to nothing. Sometimes it took several service calls with repairs to the same item to get a replacement, but we eventually did. They saved us a lot of money. But things are different in different areas, so go with the experience of people who have used AH where you live.

It's catch and go with American Home Shield. If you sweet talk the inspector then there is a good chance you'll receive payment :)

AHS is one of the ServiceMaster "brands" and your experience is likely to be influenced by the area manager or franchise owner. Like any insurance company there will be the incentive to not pay a claim, but the headquarter's management would frown upon a large number of customer complaints. If you have some reason to anticipate problems and you're willing to fight for claims payment, it might be worth getting the insurance. Otherwise, I wonder if any extended warrenty program is worth the premiums.

Insurance companies entire business model revolves around taking your money and not giving it back. Never let this thought leave your mind for a minute when dealing with any of them.