Homeowner Warranty Recommendations

[superminnie]

I am working on getting my budget balanced and all debt paid off and putting away money in a savings account so that I have money to pay for repairs when needed. In the meantime until I get the account to where I feel comfortable I would feel better if I had a homeowners warranty plan to cover my ac/ heater/ and other major appliances in case something were to happen to them in the next year or so. Can someone recommend a good company to me, I know there are quite a few but I just don't know which ones are good companies to deal with.

 

[blt2010]

For ac/heat try your local gas company. I am not familiar for other applicances. Sears does repairs though. Hope it helps.

 

[riley2008]

First advice - check lists of providers for your area and reviews for those providers.

We had American Home Shield. We had issues with our AC units a couple of times. They sent someone 2 hours away from us to do the service and they only serviced our city (70,000+ people) on Tuesdays. Fine except that in the middle of July and on a Wednesday, we'd have to wait or pay out of pocket. (Didn't matter if you complained it was an emergency at temps were in the 100's and kids lived at home.)

I understand that limitation and dealt with it.

My problem came with plumbing. We had a plumbing leak in the kitchen. Called in the request and no one called back. I had to contact them for everything. They finally, after three days had me contact someone. By this time, I had more than a faucet drip. I purchased a faucet on my own to install. When the plumber came, he followed their rules, but they would only allow him to install a replacement of their choice. (Mind you mine was purchased, wasn't going to cost them anything, etc). The plumber cleaned everything up and left it for my husband to be able to easily install the newer and better faucet. As it turned out, American Home Shield wouldn't pay the plumber as he happened to be on their list for our area and in order to paid, he had to be contacted directly through them.

Our AC went out again (same unit - 3rd time in less than 1 year), on a Wednesday and I called a local person. He reported lots of shotty work and showed us what really needed to be done - coils cleaned or replaced, leak in outside copper pipe. We decided on a new unit, but had AHS send out their guy, just to see what he would say. He filled the unit with freon, saying it was just a leak and "have a nice day". (So, not AHS's fault, but that was their only provider for our area.)

Home warranty was nice to have when we first got our home, but it was a bit of a hassle. I'm glad we didn't pay for it (well, not directly anyway).

We now have a warranty on our new AC unit and the same company has an annual service plan for our other unit. ($150/year if anything goes wrong and 2 checks a year). Wish we could find something locally for other things, like hot water heaters.

ETA: Don't go solely on reviews online. No one posts about the continued decent service they have been getting. It's going to mostly be negative and there's a LOT of negatives out there about home warranties.

 

[Friendly Frog]

I think you have the right idea to use them only for a year or so until you can get a reserve account going, then drop them fast. LOL

I've had them for many years ( two different homes) but I don't think they are a great value. Best benefit is if something goes out real soon after getting them. Otherwise, I think you are might be better off to put the money away in a savings account.

I would advise you to do some Google research of the company before you choose them.
Any company will have problems listed, but you can tell a lot by the type of complaint and can pretty much determine if the complaint sounds reasonable or not.

The major name company I had did not replace the equipment with the same quality as you have. For instance my trash compactor with build in wood panels would only be replaced with a very basic model. It would not accommodate a wood panel so it would stand out in my kitchen was was not the quality I had.

Shortly after I moved into my home, my furnace went out. It was finally (after an argument and my realtor threatening to pull his business from them) replaced with a new one (with a brand I had never heard of even though our furnace was a high quality brand of furnace.) The new furnace had problems the very next season. Then when the new furnace went out for the same part for the third time my husband repaired it himself. The cost was the same as the AHS co pay but we did not have to wait in the cold of winter for someone to show up.

We had a problem with the ac unit. They guys who came out did replace (part of?) the unit but charged us a bunch of "mandatory code requirement upgrade" charges, and modification charges... I think it was something around two thousand dollars. When we finally got a hold of our code enforcement people we found out that we did not have to do any of the code upgrades! We filed a complaint with the home warranty company but of course nothing came of it.

Another time the plumber came out for a simple repair, did not have the part with him and told us that we would have to pay an additional trip charge co-pay to come back.

I really don't like using their people, dealing with the "up charges" that seem to occure when you have an expensive repair, or the quality of replacement products that they allow when they do replace something.

 

[Gina]

I hate home warranty companies... truly hate all of them, but one major repair would decimate my savings so for me it's the lesser of two evils. I had AHS for years, and they were awful... I had the same sort of problems with them as mentioned above, and they really couldn't care less. I switched a couple of years ago to Allied Home warranty, and while I have still had issues (not enough vendors to service their clients, because vendors hate working with home warranty companies) I have been a lot happier with their customer service.

My condensing unit went out last year, and it ended up costing me about a grand out of pocket. Since in our area the same size and efficiency would run closer to 3 grand with installation, I was grateful to have the home warranty service at that point. Plus, Allied's plan is a lot better than AHS's -- covers way more, even things like ceiling fans and the garage door opener motor & track, and professional appliances (not builder grade) with the plan I have.

They only serve Texas, though. And while I would love to just be independently wealthy and be able to go out and buy a new fridge with a smile if mine went out, that's not realistic for me at this point. So I'm semi-happy to have a home warranty plan I semi-like.

 

[Lees3rwe]

Took 2 years of fighting with ours to get them to pay for foudation repairs in our brand new house. Even then, it didn't cover the hotel, storage units, uhaul, time off of work and cosmetic repairs.

I hate them too.

 

[ceecee]

We got one when we bought our new house. The garbage disposal didn't work and one burner was out...no benefits. There are tons of restrictions, it would be better to put $ aside for your own emergency fund.

 

[maleficentmom]

We love AHS(American Home Shield), we have it on a payment plan and we have had to get our heat pump(we have 2) fixed almost every season..The only problem has been that the service is slower than if you called direct,as the contracted people have to wait for parts approved by AHS to come in to fix some things....I think it probably only pays off if you have a lot of issues with your heat pump(we have) or plumbing. I have had a toilet replaced,water heater replaced,oven glass replaced,leaky pipe fixed, and they have been out here a lot with my heat pumps. You have to call AHS and they will give you the name and number of the repair people,just so you have it, but the service order must be sent in by AHS.It is $450 per year and I think my call fee is $60