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: 914 Rate this Company!
Service Timeliness
Repair/Replacement Service
Overall Rating
Total Reviews: 914 Rate this Company!
Coverage Area: USA - All States
Offers plans to cover pre-existing conditions and lack of maintenance repairs, for an additional fee.
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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. |
We do not endorse any company in particular, however you should ignore the reviews that are overly negative or positive. Such reviews are not likely to offer a balanced view and some of them could be fake reviews posted to promote or demote a company. It is always a good idea to check BBB ratings and make sure the company is licensed to do business in your State by contacting State Insurance Commission. Try to avoid paying annual premium and keep your cancellation rights
Reviews
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Pages: « 38 … 32 31 30 29 28 [27] 26 25 24 23 22 … 1 » Show All
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They will not pay claims and will send out vendors to tell you that there is nothing wrong or it is your fault. A waste of money. In the last year I had five claims and they fixed nothing! If I had saved the $600.00 premium plus the $300.00 in service call fees I could have fixed the problems.
These people are ripoff artists. Do not use them under any circumstanstances. They will void and deny coverage with all kinds of excuses. As soon as my contract ends, I am dumping these people.
Have two heat pumps in 3 level home. Both stopped working in December in mountains. One was due to bad breaker. My husband fixed it as it would be two weeks to get it fixed, and repairman wouldn’t check it out until breaker was fixed. Replaced a switch on other heat pump. Before anything would be done, repairman discovered there had not been any filters put on furnace by contractor. So, he would not work on it until the coils on both were blown out. Cost us almost $1400 plus $60 fee. Within three months of fixing it, downstairs heat pump broke again. HAd been rattling and vibrating loudly for two weeks, then broke. Said it was bad thermostat. Brought one out to replace, then said it was transformer. Put new transformer on, but said it wasn’t right one. Is to bring another one out. Before he left said it was a wire to thermostat that was touching a copper pipe that caused it to short out and burn out transformer and thermostat. Nothing from first visit was covered and had to pay another service fee of $60. He wants $800 to run new wire. AHS refused to pay as said it was faulty workmanship. House is 10 years old. None of this happened until now??? All work was inspected by State Inspector, yet AHS says it was faulty workmanship and won’t pay. Husband will wrap wire to keep off copper pipe and save $800. HEAt pump still rattles and vibrates. We have dropped this service on other two homes, and are looking for another company for this house. Seems like this is the way the contractors operate…find something that isn’t covered to get more $$$. OUrs would have amounted to $2200. IS there a protection for us consumers against this????
We have had AHS for 15 years, however the last 5 years they have been denying Repair Claims and ‘band-aid’ patching items that need replacing. While the Dispatch Time was commendable, their annual fee has risen, and deductible pay-out increased to $60. per call. It was simply NOT worth the investment; we changed to Sensible Home Warranty. Their annual fee was almost cut in half, and the deductible is only $45. per call. Please note a few quirks: 30 day wait period for any covered claim and no coverage for a Hot Water Heater over 10 years old. Do the math and calculate the covered items, you can make a logical decision. GC in M.B.
Total Rip-Off!
4 claims were denied. All for phony reasons. Don’t waste your money.
Two claims rejected twice. Once for a hot water heater…..They wanted me to pay 400 in other fees?? The other stove issue was denied because the model # could not be located.
I tried AHS service 2 times One for AC and Plumbing. Their contractors for simple work says it is not covered. When they check in they call AHS customer care and explain that the work is not covered and the bad part is that ASH do not listen to customers instead they listen to their contractors.
The contractors then see the urgency and negotiate the price for you for doing the work. Waste of annual premium and service premium.
DO not recommend AHS at all.
I am so frustrated with my AHS Warranty for several reasons. I live in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area, yet they have a very limited roster of companies to send over to get work done. The ones that come over seem poor quality — sleazy or shady at best. I have concluded from the below experiences that the “modus operandi” of the techs is twofold: The technician either says the warranty doesn’t cover the problem, then collects $60 from me for doing nothing. Or, the technician spends 10 minutes on a “repair” that doesn’t fix the problem, goes away, I have paid $60, and the appliance operates the same or worse.
Two real examples — they sent a plumber over to fix our toilet leak. The plumber found some obscure building code issue so that the warranty would not to cover the problem, collected $60, and left doing nothing. My husband and our neighbor went to the hardware store, bought $10 worth of parts, fixed the leak, total repair time 45 minutes.
Next example — my dryer is making a high pitched noise but still works. AHS sends over a tech who says he has 27 years experience. He says he fixed the problem by removing some fluff from the dryer, collects $60, and leaves. I believe him. Now, the dryer sounds worse than before so my husband won’t let me use it and he is furious that the tech didn’t bother to fix what is a problem with the ball bearings. But, it was an easy $60 for the tech, just taking out some fluff saying he was done, wasn’t it? I complained to AHS and they are sending him out again and said it may need to be replaced. I don’t want a new dryer, I just want this one to work and it is an entirely serviceable one. Here’s my question — if the tech breaks the dryer and then charges AHS for replacing it, does the tech make more $ that way?
Also, I looked at the invoice after the tech left, and he charged AHS $85 for fixing the washer too, even though I told him not to proceed because he said the washer repair wasn’t covered by the warranty. When I reported this fraud to the AHS customer service person on the phone, they essentially pretended not to hear me and ignored that there was clearly a problem for AHS with this technician.
I have tried to go the route of using a non-AHS tech for another plumbing repair. Here’s one last story — our second toilet was broken by another tech that was sent out last year, he purposely took apart the internal parts on the toilet knowing these particular parts couldn’t be put back together and causing us to have to completely replace the toilet. When I told AHS I didn’t want to use this company because of their poor work, they said they could reimburse us. When I got a quote for the repair and replacement of the toilet from a non-AHS service person, AHS said they would only pay something like 20% of the total cost. I hired my neighbor who replaced the toilet for me for $50 labor plus parts cost — none of this reimbursable by AHS because the neighbor is not a plumber.
Oh — forgot this one — a different tech came over to look at our jacuzzi tub last year. He said that the whole thing had to be replaced and it wouldn’t be covered but we could claim it on our home insurance policy (what???? that sounds crazy). We sent him away and asked AHS never to send this sleazy guy out again. My husband and the neighbor fixed this after figuring out a minor part was malfunctioning, and bought another inexpensive part at the hardware store, replaced it and boom the tub is working, it wasn’t a problem with the jets which aren’t covered or even the motor which is expensive.
I would say that we have owned our house for several years and years ago the home warranty worked great. Perhaps because of that good experience I have stuck with it this long. Maybe it’s the bad economy, but the whole thing seems to have just turned into a scam.
Here’s my bottom line: I am canceling my AHS contract today. I berate myself for staying with AHS for this long and just hoping it would get better. My husband now has a longer list of honey-dos and we are out more money than if we had never bought the AHS warranty. BEWARE using this company.
The actual plumber and contractors who came out to do the work were top notch, all pros and knew what they were doing, trustworthy. But GETTING IN TOUCH with AHS to report a problem or resolve a billing issue is a nightmare. I was on phone hold hell for 15 minutes on my cell from Hawaii, they say to go online to request service but the website is broken (not the first time) due to “technical issues”. They billed me for $120, two services which I paid direct the $60 to the workman when he came as I was supposed to. Both workmen TOLD AHS they RECEIVED the payment yet they keep billing me. I spoke to them last week, AHS said, “yes, no payment due, both contractors confirmed you paid direct” yet they did not make the change in the system so NO ONE WILL help me until I pay the fee or get in touch with the “supervisor” who is “not in at the moment”. OMG, phone hold hell! U know how that feels?! Let me say again, the workmen and contractors were first rate and all pros.
I can’t believe all the negative reviews for AHS lately. I had to employ the service twice within a period of 2 days and both issues were resolved as promised, no problem. For one issue (sewage ejector pump), AHS couldn’t find any provider who wanted to do the work here, so they let me find someone and I was fully reimbursed for all related expenses within 3 weeks. I am extremely glad I purchased this service (house is an investment property)–it’s already paid for itself twice over. (Buyers should beware of a “grace period” for coverage; you’re going to find out all the issues right after you first take a house over.)
I’m frankly suspicious of some of these negative reviews for AHS. Notice the admins on this site admit the potential for “fake positive reviews posted by a few warranty companies.” Hmmmm….
ATTENTION: Contractors and Former American Homeshield Employees, PLEASE HELP!!!
American Homeshield sent a plumber out several times to fix a leak on my hot water pipe under the house. The plumber used “duck tape” to repair the pipe. Needless to say, the duck tape didn’t fix the leak. However, Mostly all of our walls cracked and our floors buckled causing costly damages to our home. We are suing American Homeshield and the plumber for the damages to our home. While American Homeshield tries their best to get out of being responsible for the damages, they also sent us a letter saying that they are not renewing our contract. Oouuuch! Talk about insult to injury. If you are or used to be a customer or contractor I will be very grateful if I can get a statement from you sent to my email bpsashington@bellsouth.net. Or call me (251)232-5106. I am especially interested in hearing from any contactors and former American Homeshield employees that can vouch for American Homeshield’s encouragement to make cheap repairs that only puts a temporary band-aid on the problem and their deceptiveness with denying claims that should be covered. Customers that share horror stories like mine and ended up with damage to their homes, I’d love to hear from you as well. I am not looking for anyone to testify in court, only a true statement. I will also be willing to give my statement to anyone who needs it.
They respond rapidly. Repairs are not to the same response level.
My convection element burned a hole in the back wall on my oven. They did not know how to repair, so they offered me a new built in oven. Wouldn’t fit in my cabinet, Was told not their problem. Only features not size were required. So they offered me a replacement amount to do on my own – amount was a joke,. It cost me about $1500 + their $60 out of my pocket to get oven handled. Found out after the fact, that the original should have been repaired.
Fan on aircondiitoner/heater was making a noise. Husband had to explain to their repair person what was wrong. They could not find the problem. Lucky it was at a time of year that we were not dependent on that unit as it took about 2 weeks to get the part.
Was selling home with a home warranty and had 3 problems come up during the closing. Outside heating unit motor went out. Was replaced. Garbage disposal stopped working, was repaired. Timer for swimming pool stopped working.
AHS was pleasant to talk to and had service call made within 2 days. First 2 items fixed quickly with no problem. The pool equipment ended up freezing and caused some problems that we found were not covered under the warranty due to freezing. The pool company came quickly but never showed back up to repair the timer which was covered. Several calls later they never showed. AHS sent another company to do the work with no service fee since it had been paid to other company.
In all fairness it wasn’t AHS fault for the pool company other than I heard that company has a reputation for not completing the work and therefore should not be used by AHS.
They saved me a ton of money so we took it again on our new home.
American Homeshield sent a plumber out several times to fix a leak on my hot water pipe under the house. The plumber used “duck tape” to repair the pipe. Needless to say, the duck tape didn’t fix the leak. However, Mostly all of our walls cracked and our floors buckled causing costly damages to our home. We are suing American Homeshield and the plumber for the damages to our home. While American Homeshield tries their best to get out of being responsible for the damages, they also sent us a letter saying that they are not renewing our contract. Talk about insult to injury. If you are or used to be a customer or contractor I will be very grateful if I can get a statement from you sent to my email bpsashington@bellsouth.net. Or call me (251)232-5106. I read a statement that Brian Thompson from Sac, Ca left on 2-17-10. I am especially interested in hearing from him or any other contactors that can vouch for American Homeshield’s encouragement to make cheap repairs that only puts a temporary band-aid on the problem. Customers that share horror stories like mine and ended up with damage to their homes, I’d love to hear from you as well. I will also be willing to give my statement to anyone who needs it.
Our fridge has been broken over two months and it still has not repaired. The AHS switched from one repair service provider to another and we are the victim as AHS couldn’t negotiate the fees with a repair service company. All the repair service provider said our fridge compressor is broken and it also has some other mechanical issues and probably needs to be replaced with a new one. However, instead of taking responsibilities as it claimed, AHS kept switching one service provider to another. When we complained about all the hassles we have without a fridge, AHS offered a $75 compensation to purchase a cooler. They must be kidding me, how could a family of 4 would live on a cooler, we are talking about TWO MONTHS, if it is a temporary substitute for two days or even two weeks i could understand, not two months!!!!!! I am so disappointed in their service timeliness. We bought this insurance for a reason. The reason is not to go through hassles in times of troubles”. Buying this insurance is the biggest mistake i have made as a homeowner!!!
This is the worst nightmare I could;d have imagined. Nothing was as promised. Poor contractors! LIES! LIES! LIES! No one here cares at all. They tell you that they will cash you out but off you pennies to have repairs done yourself! DONT USE THIS COMPANY!!!
SAVE YOUR MONEY! I purchased a home in 2007 that included an A.H.S. warranty. Two days after we moved in, the water main broke under the middle of the driveway. I contacted AHS for service, explained in detail the problem AND location of the break, their rep. said that it was definitely covered and dispatched a plumber to my home. The plumber arrived in a timely manner, informed me that he needed a payment of $50 before he could continue. I paid the “service fee”, only because I had already been told by the AHS rep that I was covered. He saw where the water was bubbling up through the driveway, called into AHS for authorization, and was denied the claim, stating the break was not “Under the roof” of the home. My next denial of service was for my ductwork, also supposed to be covered, also payed a $60 service fee, but the list of exclusions is much longer than the list that is covered. The contract you
(the costumer) receives is VERY vague about covered items, leaving AHS much room for “WIEZELING” out of paying.
In short, save the $460 yearly premium and the $60 service fee, take that $470 and just apply it toward any repairs. Trust me you will save yourself priceless amounts of time and aggravation.
Pleasant people on the phone doesn’t make up for the fact that American Homeshield will do what they can not to pay for anything. And their technician here in Austin – ARS are incompetent scamming, lying cheats. I have a house showing a lot of new cracks in the walls. I paid out of pocket to have G&M Plumbing come in and do a static leak test. The house failed the test. I then called AHS to send a technician out to do the test again so I can move forward with identifying where the leak was and then work to get it fixed. So AHS schedules ARS Rescue Router to come out. the technician shows up – I show him that I failed the test. He says AHS won’t cover it … but he’ll call just to be sure. He sits in his trucks, smokes a cigarette and talks on he phone, comes back and tells me AHS won’t cover it AND that he still needs 60 bucks. Seriously. So I call AHS and asked what the deal was – and they tell me the technician didn’t think it needed to be done but if I wanted to pay ANOTHER $60 I could have another technician come out and “diagnose the problem” – translation, come out for $60 and not do the test. OH – and the ARS Recue Router guy – he gave me an estimate to have a static leak test done by him … BOTH AHS and ARS rescue router are terrible scamming cheating companies and I suggest you stay as far away from them as you can.
I had a problem with my heat system. They send a company who came and was on the phone for 2 1/2 hrs(United Air in VA helping one of his workers who was working in another job). Finally, I said to him “Sir: I have to go back to work”. He gave some report to the ASH and left. I complained to the ASH about his report and didn’t accept it. They send another company for 2nd opinion. They checked it and the unit needed some repair. ASH called the owner of the 2nd company. He (Tony) called me and said, “I have to come and check the unit myself and repeated all the things the 1st company reported to ASH”. I knew he is coming to give the same report as the 1st company gave to ASH, because ASH asked him to do it. Otherwise what was the reason to ask the owner of the company to come and check it when his worker already check it and reported the problem to ASH. He said exactly what the first company said about the problem This means they send him to tell exactly what the other company said in order to deny and not to fix the problem. Watch this company, don’t waste ur money. I know they had a complain a couple of months ago from a customer who hired a law firm, pls. if u have any information regarding the law firm mail it to me at nshahgol@yahoo.com. DON’T WASTE UR MONEY.
DO not waste ur money. SAVE IT. They do nothing at the time when something goes bad.
My oven has been broken for over 2 months and I found out today that they have had the pArt for over a month. Every time I call I get a different story
SAVE YOUR MONEY FIND ANOTHER COMPANY. I have had this company for 12 years and only ever used them 3 times. Each time they get worse. The last time in January my water heater went out they sent out a company twice that didn’t even work on that brand. After 4 days of no hot water finally had to replace it myself. THIS IS WHAT THEY TRY TO GET YOU TO DO by making you wait until they outlast YOU!!!!!!!!! I will be chaning companies..
American Home Shield Sucks!
Our stove did not work. An electic contractor came out and we paid the $60 fee. He said a wire was loose in the attic and that he fixed it. The stove then worked for about 1 week before it stopped working again. Another contractor came out (we paid the $60 fee) and said that the electical was out of code and improperly wired. AHS denied the claim and we had to pay $500 to fix it ourselves.
Then, the glass top to our stove cracked. We paid another service fee only to have AHS say that the crack was not due to “wear and tear”, thus denying the claim. So we again, had to pay to fix the appliance ourselves.
Save your money! This company is a bunch of hacks… they are in the “Denial” business not in the business of paying for claims when warranted and customer service.
I would suggest those with bad experiences to file a formal complaint with your respective state, as well as witih the BBB.. By law, they will have to formally respond to you. If enough complaints come in, they may be investigated for bad faith.
I first used American Home Shield about 12 years ago, and had a pleasant experience. I continued the service until this past year and saw my satisfaction slip with every experience. I can appreciate the need to make a profit, but when you accept my money for what you ask, don’t scrimp on delivering the agreed services. The repair people sent were bottom-of-the-barrel, not the better appliance services in the area (one drove a Mercedes and was totally clueless). The best repair people sent were the ones where there were only competent service reps available for them to choose from. Their instructions were to continually repair regardless of whether that was the best decision, or not. It takes a completely dead appliance for them to authorize a replacement. Each repair that lasted 30 days, resulted in another Service Call Fee to me. The repair people get aggravated if they continually get called back for work within the 30 day period as they are not paid again. One just decided to lie and say there was nothing really wrong, it was us. When we asked for a 2nd opinion, they told AHS it should have been replaced the first time and the representative sent had no idea what he was talking about. I am looking now for a new Home Warranty company that realizes why people pay them $600-700 in insurance.
We purchased an AHS warranty when we purchased our current home. We went without air conditioning off and on ALL SUMMER (in Kentucky, that’s pretty miserable) because they just kept filling the unit up with freon instead of fixing the condition at the root of the problem.
The customer service agents that we have dealt with (probably 15+ in the one year since we’ve had our home) are not familiar with what is included in the contract. Also, AHS offers several add-ons, one for improper installation which we elected to add on since you never know what you’re getting when you buy a home. We were told by the technicians sent out that it was not included in the warranty, then when we showed them the paperwork, they would not fix it because AHS would not reimburse them. We quite literally had over 5 different HVAC people look at our unit before it was finally fixed.
We did have a plumbing issue in the kitchen, and although we had to wait all weekend to get someone out (AHS’s fault, not the plumber – he came the same day he was contacted), the technician was very professional and timely. He even had the parts with him and fixed it right there.
When we had an issue with out water heater, we also had to wait several days to get someone out, and at one point when we called AHS they had not even filed the claim. This problem actually happened on a few occassions.
We have a baby due this year, and with all the issues with the house last year, we decided that even though it was a pain we would renew so that we would haven’t a new baby and have to worry about finding technicians and several thousand dollar bills if something big happened. Surprise, surprise – when we went online to renew, the system went down. When we called, we were told it was impossible to renew online. Funny, then why do they have a big “Renew online now” button??? We now are unsure as to whether or not we will renew, and are on this website to look at other alternatives.