American Home Shield (AHS)
Home Warranty Plan Details and Reviews for American Home Shield (AHS)
Premium: $360
Deductible: $60
Effective: Immediately after payment
Web: ahswarranty.com
Deductible: $60
Effective: Immediately after payment
Web: ahswarranty.com
Customer Service 
Service Timeliness
Repair/Replacement Service
Overall Rating
Total Reviews: 626 Rate this Company!
Service Timeliness
Repair/Replacement Service
Overall Rating
Total Reviews: 626 Rate this Company!
Coverage Area: USA - All States
Offers plans to cover pre-existing conditions and lack of maintenance repairs, for an additional fee.
| Home warranty is a complex insurance product. Unlike home insurance, it does not provide blanket coverage for all appliances. Pre-existing conditions and problems resulting from lack of maintenance of appliance are are generally not covered by home warranty companies. Home warranty sellers may not state these factors clearly, and this will create dissatisfaction among customers. Due to these factors, you will see many negative reviews here. Don't be intimidated by some negative reviews here. If you have maintained your appliances in good condition and go with a reputed home warranty provider, your coverage will be fine. |
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Reviews
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Pages: « 26 … 24 23 22 21 20 [19] 18 17 16 15 14 … 1 » Show All
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I have had AHS for 4 years and am currently seeking another home warranty company. I used them several times each year. Sometimes I get a good technician; sometimes I get a poor one. I would expect this with any warranty company. The reason I am seeking another company is due to a recent event that I had with them in which I learned that their customer service is really poor if the repair doesn’t go well the first time. I had to file a claim with the better business bureau before they would assign a new technician after the one assigned didn’t show for two appointments and stated that they couldn’t get parts so it would be 2 months without a working dishwasher and a part for my microwave (same serv. call). I had to call AHS every day literally and each time received a different response from the agents. I attempted to speak with a supervisor and a manager but was told I should write a letter to them. The technician that they originally sent had an F rating with the BBB and AHS did not seem to care. After they finally assigned a new technician (after BBB complaint) the part was found within one day. When I asked the new tech about the part, he stated that it was a common part. Two months of fighting with AHS to assign a new technician to find out that the issue could have been resolved in a day. For this reason, I am very concerned if my AC goes and they refuse to find a qualified technician. They are good if all goes well but I don’t feel that I could count on them if I had a complicated repair.
I have had to call Home Shield on five occasions in the last year. Each visit has been a hassle. The repair authorizations have never been easy and I have had to place multiple calls for each issue. They look for any possible reason to deny the claim rather than work with you to help resolve the problem. They use poorly qualified technicians who, on two distinct occasions, have misreported their findings – knowing that the company will deny the claim and then approach me to fix the problem for a ‘cash’ price. Further investigation revealed that the technicians get paid more if the customer pays out of pocket as the reimbursement from Home Shield is much less. Will not renew for the next year.
Every Contractor they send out is terrible —- the last three have not kept the service appointment, or called to reschedule —- I had to do it.
I have been without the use of my stove/oven for a month — the “Supervisor” refuses to intervene, saying that I have to give the company a chance to get the parts.
I have paid 2 service call fees, taken 2 days off, made at least 50 phone calls, and I still can’t boil water.
I WILL NOT renew this “coverage”.
I had AHS aND I dropped them like a bad habit. They refused to replace the glass in my oven when it broke. That was went i knew i had to get rid of them. Now i am with 2-10 they seam to be better for NOW.
Very timely about responding to emergency calls,
Very poor about replacing items needing replacement.
Repaired my stove twice and never replaced it even after it caught on fire (I replaced it). Would not replace the heat pump (claimed it was my fault) costing me over $5K to AC company in emergency situation in the middle of winter as my 85 yr old mother lives with me.
Would not recommend this company to anyone.
I have used AHS since 1988 in TX & MA & will continue to renew my policy. Their web site doesn’t always work (whose does), their technicians are not always the quickest and I’ve had them return to correct a problem that should have been done in the first place. BUT, every year, in several homes, I’ve had something replaced that would have cost more than the price of the warranty. My new clothes dryer was delivered last week, a new pool pump was installed in July and I’ve had work done on my air conditioner, some electrical work and some plumbing. Every time a repair is made I ask the tech what the cost would be without AHS – sometimes it is less but that’s the chance you take with any insurance. I am so far ahead of the cost of the warranty that I will continue to renew.
having had been a service provider for AHS for 5 years I understand the fustration of some customers, but what I found was that when you tried to do a good job for the customer AHS would be on you for your job cost avarage above what they say you shoulb be at. After years of fighting with them for doing a above par job for there customers they droped us as a prefered vendor because of our costs. I would suggest that you check out companys befor you sign and pay for contract.
dont use this company crooks
I absolutely hate this company. I’ve never had a service issue that didn’t cost me additional out of pocket. Over time I have started calling other contractors to get estimates and I’ve personally noticed that the typical out of pocket for me on the supposed warranty service was nearly equal (ie, within $10-$25) of what I would have paid licensed contractors for the same service outside of the warranty.
I contacted AHS and asked them how I could have warranty service that equals nearly the indentical price of paying my own contractor and their response was they “don’t have any input on other fees of the contractors outside of the warrnty”. Seems hokey, too many cases now where my out of pocket was about the same as hiring my own contractor and not having a warranty.
Enough for me, I’m done with them. Their coverage did exactly zero for me – waste of money.
I have been a AHS customer since 2004. Overall, my experience with them has been very good. My home is 20 years old with 3 A/C units, which is the main reason I chose to purchase a home warranty. I have never had a claim denied by this company and I have had my share of claims! Every year I count on at least one of the A/C units going out but AHS is always there to fix them. I change my filters religously and I truly believe that’s the key to getting a service requests approved. Once I had a circuit board go bad in my front-load washer and again, the claim was approved with no issues whatsoever. AHS even replaced one of my A/C condensors which saved my about $1500!
Oh, and for those that bash the contractors that AHS uses consider this: AHS enforces very stringent contractor liabilty insurance requirments and most of your “mom and pop” appliance shops are not up to AHS standards. I am scepticle when I read the contractors were “shady” or “con men”.
Bottom line, if you keep your covered item clean (i.e. dirt and dust free) you will have success with this company. If you don’t, you will be one of the many angry peolpe venting in this column!
I am currently looking for a new home warranty company after 4 years with AHS. I did not generally have a problem with the contractors (except one or two), but AHS’s customer service is not good. Almost every repair became an issue (taking two months to find a part for our a/c; not wanting to cover another a/c for an “improper repair”, which was repaired by one of their own contractors and paid for by AHS in the first place; refusing over and over to re-assign a repair to a new contractor when the one that was originally assigned did not call or show up on two occassions, causing the repair to take two weeks instead of two days; etc., etc., etc.) I could have dealt with these problems better if their customer service reps had been just the tiniest bit sympathetic. But, what I generally got was defensiveness, rudeness, and a general sense of “who really gives a —-” attitude. On a number of occasions, someone would say they would check into something and call back, but I would never receive a call back. Each time you called them, you would start from scratch with a new person. Managers were either not available or not more capable than their employees. It just went on an on. Dealing with them has been so stressful, that I would almost rather pay for my repairs out of pocket. If I can’t find someone else who treats their customers better, that is what I will have to do. It is just not worth it.
AHS — depending on your area and contractor is very much improved and improving. Most the complaints I read rake the anger out on AHS when in fact you got a bad contractor or bad contracting company. If you read your contract, maintain your systems, then YES…AHS will indeed honor the claim to fix your failure with you appliance. If you use them as a Service company to try to get away from doing your required maintenance, then you deserve a DENIAL. Think of all that money you saved by not draining that water heater, not changing that filter, not having any preventative maintenance…….hey if you would have pulled that refrigerator out to clean the condenser just think of all the stuff you migt have found under it and behind it.
I been in a lot of you complainers homes and the worse “piggy stinky home” alwasy complain the loudest…….geesh get some disinfectant and soap
The following is an email I just sent to AHS’ customer service people following almost a month of getting the run around. Im disgusted with these folks…
“Maybe you can help me out since I’ve already recieved a response from this email address. I know someone checks it. I have been trying to renew my AHS contract for almost a month now. Somehow, someway, your folks either don’t want my money or business, or they have no clue of what they are supposed to be doing on your “customer service” line. Those are some of the rudest people I have ever spoken to when calling a place of business. And I don’t mean rude like Im high-falutin’ or something, I mean rude like they have ZERO people skills. Don’t believe me? Have someone call your own number like they have a problem. Anyway, after the below string of emails went back and forth, I again had to call your folks to see why my initial payment back in the last week of July never went through to renew my AHS warranty. I gave up my credit card info again, a week and a half or so ago, and the payment still hasn’t been ran…. AGAIN. The first time the payment wasn’t run by your folks caused my home warranty to lapse. Now, I have tenants sitting in my house with no A/C because I can’t get anyone out there to fix it because why? MY WARRANTY HAS LAPSED… Most of the negative reviews about your company on home warranty comparison web sites gripe about this type of thing. Amazingly, the gripes come from people who have been long time customers. I’ve personally used your company for the last three years and have never had a problem until now. Is that how this scheme works: Hold on to customers for the first few years and then drive them out just to maintain some “cost of repairs to payments recieved” ratio in your favor? That sounds kind of illegal to me if true. Maybe, just like all of the bad reviews, it’s time for me to move on too… Can someone please help me out? This is crazy!! A company that doesn’t want your money…”
I’ll post their response also… If I get one that is..
I bought a foreclosure last year and although it was in pretty good shape and five yrs old, I also purchased a home warranty. Unfortunately it was with AHS. With all the contractors in the Fredericksburg area, why did AHS see the need to contract with a company in Lorton, well over an hour away? Could it be because the closer you get to DC, the less scrupulous the people. I’m just saying. There are some very good contractors closer to me. I have had four service calls on my AC unit in the past year and three different contractors with three different diagnosis and solutions. The company I do not trust is with AHS and the company I do trust is not. Go figure. Not a surprise there is a class action lawsuit with AHS. Buyer Beware indeed.
This company is rated low but should be at the bottom. I have been with them for seven years and the service and coverage have gotten progressively worse to the point that they are useless, unless you have too much money laying around the house and want to throw it away. AHS contracts with the least competent contractors that they can and then cut deals with them such that they say the item was not properly maintained. They collect a quick 60 service fee and run for the hills. This information comes from a contractor who used to do work from them. ALERT : PREPARED TO BE RIPPED OFF! I would rather work with an HMO than deal with this company. Good luck to anyone who chooses to use this company after seeing all the horrible reviews on this website. Thank you for providing this forum to alert others.
I have three properties covered by AHS. Biggest problem was getting anything done over the weekends including fridays. I had AC repaired three times in one week because they send some one to provide bad aid service. In the end I personally made phone call to licensed service provider for that particular brand and had it fixed. Total time 14 days in sweltering florida heat!! . Go figure! I am serious about switching
Up until this year, we had always received quality repair service for AHS. This is no longer the case. Our “high-end” refrigerator stopped working in March of this year and it has yet to be repaired….it is now August. The repair person that was sent to our house was the only technician that was vendored to repair our brand in the city. The technician arrived and diagnosed the problem in a timely manner but after that things went downhill. We had work done on it before to replace the seal around the door so we knew that getting the parts would take a while. However, after a month and a half of not hearing from anyone, we decided to call and check on the delay. We called the tech for a week and a half with no response. Finally we called the AHS and they placed a call on our behalf. It was discovered that the technician had ordered two computer boards from the company, two weeks after the initial call, but only one had arrived. At this point, we were puzzled. Why had it taken so long to place the order for the parts and why hadn’t he checked on the delay? He knew that the refrig needed two computers to run! Finally, three weeks later, the other part arrives. YEAH, right? No! To our disgust, only one part was the correct part. The other had been misboxed from where ever they ordered it from. In the meantime, it has been almost three months that we have gone without a refrigerator. When we called to complain, at first the representative from customer relations was very nice and understanding. This soon changed. We were told that we could purchase a dorm sized refrigerator to use until our was repaired. Are you kidding me? A dorm sized refrigerator to hold items to feed a family of four???!!! A month later, the second computer arrived. Finally, we would be able to use our appliance. Wrong again!!! For the second time, the wrong part had been sent. With the owner’s manual in hand, he attempted to figure out the problem. Had he looked at the picture of the different models, he would have been able to tell that the part he installed didn’t fit our model. But we guessed that by this time, he was as disgusted as we were and he high tailed it out as fast as he could, stating that he would contact AHS as soon as he got to his truck to tell them about the part. Not 10 minutes after he left our home, we realized what the problem and called him. After, explaining that he installed the wrong part, it was agreed that we would fax him the picture from the manual so that he could see for himself that the part he installed was not the correct one for our model. We immediately called AHS. The customer relations representative unempathetically stated “we ordered the part according to the serial number”. We told her of the previous conversation with the tech and was told that there was nothing that could be done until he called the parts department. We again asked what we were suppose to do for a refrigerator seeing how it had now been four months since we made the first call. “You can purchase a dorm size refrigerator and we will reimburse you $75″. Again a dorm size refrig to feed a family of four? “It’s better than nothing”. Infuriated, we hung up. Now here it is a month later, and we are finally told that because our refrigerator is considered “high-end”, we would have to find someone to repair it and then we would be reimbursed by the company. If this is case, why are we paying AHS?!? We have reservations about going this route, but what else is there for us to do? After reading many of the reviews, we are sure this ordeal is far from over. Needless to say, we will not be renewing our contract!!!!!
I’ve been with AHS for 2 years and the one and only time I used them I was way less than satisfied. The contractor they sent to my home to repair my washing machine arrived hours late and the temporary repair that was conducted so I could supposedly use the machine while a part was being ordered did not work. I had to contact the contractor on my own to determine if the part had arrived, and the repairman was late once again on the second and final visit. I attempted to lodge a complaint with AHS and left a CBR TN, but they left a voice mail msg on my home phone while I was at work. When I attempted to call them back, they were not available and never returned my call. Their warranty service is too expensive to WARRANT this type of customer service. I am currently searching other warranty companies due to the unacceptable service I have received from AHS. AHS should pay the customer for the grief they put us through!
I have been with this company for five years ,during this five years I had a few claims which all of them were minor repairs .Out of all my claims most of them were AC related and what AHS did every summer when I called and made a claim ,they sent a company and the technician just charged the AC .after a couple of weeks I had the same problem with the AC and again somebody came and charge the AC again .When I was trying to convince them that my AC my have a leak they didn’t want to accept it .Within the last five years about 10 times or more they charge my AC and every single time I paid the deductible .Until few days ago that as usual my AC broke again and they sent a company .the technecian said I need a new compressor .after a few hours we got a call from AHS saying that our claim has been denied and they pay nothing .Now after a few days that my family is living in the house with 95 digree tempreture I have to pay $4000 to fix my AC .By the way until now I havn’t be able to cancel my agreement with them.Please don’t throw your money away and find a better company .
AHS willfully failed to fulfil its contractual obligations to provide a 13 SEER upgrade to my AC when parts were no longer available for my old (probably 7 SEER) AC system. Talking to customer service was like a “Who’s On First?” routine as I read them my contract word for word and they ignored what I said.
I filed a complaint with the NC Atty General’s office. The staff there told me on the phone “people shouldn’t expect to keep their ACs running with a $470 warranty contract.” But they did tell me how to file my complaint. AHS responded to the Atty General’s office with lies about what repairs they had previously authorized, and quoted non-existant clauses they only claimed existed within my warranty contract that limited their liability.
Writing flames on the Internet won’t help you get what you need.
I took AHS to small claims court in Wake County NC and WON. You can in your state too!
I had AC problem in whole summer. My house temperture could not be cooled down below 80. The contractor they sent out keep telling me that my AC is OK and tried all excuse but fix it. Very bad service. First they said my AC is old and 80F is normal. I do not think 80F is norm. And they said you need clean your duct by paying $100 which is not covered. I told them I just did the duct clean last year. Usually duct cleaning only need to be done very 3 years.
They do not want to work for you and just talk for whole summer.
An update to comment 449; today is 17 August 2009 and I have yet to get my central AC repaired by this company. I called today and was once again told that the FAX was having problems…this will number three on the fax. Bottom line to all that read this comment; if there are better companies out there try them. Do not, I repeat, do not get a contract with American Home Shield. Better know as http://www.ahsservice.com. This is a buyers beware warning.
And customer service will speak kindly to you. Why not – their homes are probably well cooled and they are getting paid. Basic contract running at about $460.00 plus yearly put quite a bit of change in their pockets (at least thats what I’m paying).
On Thursday, Aug. 13th, we placed a call to AHS about our A/C not working at all. We were told by the customer service rep. that someone would be out to service our call on the morning of Friday, Aug 14th. We waited patiently all day and no one called nor came. I called the rep. again and was given the direct number to the service provider. We were told by the service provider that it would be Saturday, Aug. 15th before he could come out. Saturday came and no call no show again. Again, we called AHS and explained that we still have not been serviced since the initial call on Thursday. We also explained that we had a one year old child with Asthma and the heat was almost unbearable. We ask if there were any other accomodations they could make for us. The customer service rep was very rude and said all she could do is refer a different company out to us. AHS only offered to reimburse us $100 for an air conditioning unit and fans. To make a long story short, after many many calls and two different service providers we finally got air on Monday, Aug. 17th. We dropped this coverage immediately, and would not refer them to anyone!!! The home warranty service is a great service to have, but there are many out there that are more accomadating and treat their customers with respect. The service from the company and the customer service reps was HORRIBLE!!! If you have them DROP them immediately before you have an encounter similar or worse than ours.
We have had AHS for our home and a rental property and they have NEVER been prompt, repaired the appliance without having to return to repair the same appliance. And when the refrigerator needed to be replaced because of their inabiity to repair it (GE Profile) they turned on us saying that “we cut wires” for whatever reason. After calling a Sears repairman (Sears make the profile brand) Sears told us that the circuit board was worked on due to a recirc. fan failure, having nothing to do with us. I would not recommend them, we have never had any savings.
I am a Realtor and have recommended AHS to clients. They WERE my home warranty company…we have cancelled recently. They have just gotten horrible. They don’t call you back, they wanted me to wait 4 days to send someone out when BOTH of my A/C’s quit!!! Four days is a long time in AZ in the summer. NEVER will I recommend them again!!!!