Fidelity National Home Warranty
Home Warranty Plan Details and Reviews for Fidelity National Home Warranty
Premium: $350-445
Deductible: $55
Effective: upon payment receipt
Web: homewarranty.com
Deductible: $55
Effective: upon payment receipt
Web: homewarranty.com
Customer Service 
Service Timeliness
Repair/Replacement Service
Overall Rating
Total Reviews: 80 Rate this Company!
Service Timeliness
Repair/Replacement Service
Overall Rating
Total Reviews: 80 Rate this Company!
Coverage Area: Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Texas
| 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
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I was very impressed by the service provided by FNHW. I was a customer of AHS and First American before and then i switched to FNHW 2 weeks back. Couple of days back there was some small noise coming from the A/c unit situated outside and i created a service request. They assigned a contractor straight away and they called me imm* to set up an appointment for today. Licensed technician came and he was on target to find out what happened. No game.. just mentioned some bug insie the contactor making noise.. As he couldnt clean it up, just changed .. some thing around $75+small labor for the insurance company.. my problem fixed..
I am very impressed. I am sure people have different expectations when you subscribe to home warranty, but I am always clear on what I am expecting from these companies. I want very honest genuine support person coming to my house, without cheating me, i want to get the work done. it is not about paying an amount, but we should pay only thing we deserve. Through a home warranty company, we are assured, at least we dont end up cheated.
Ever since I’ve owned my house in 2006, I’ve had nothing but problems with Fidelity and their contractors. Their contractors always had to come back to do the job correctly. Unlike, AHS, their contractors are very much experienced and knew what they were doing. Also, one thing I didn’t really like much about Fidelity contractors is that they have been rude. I haven’t contacted this company for a repair that it only took one time to fix the problem. They always had to come back and had to pay $50 and repair the same problem at least 2-3 times a year. Then, if you complain to Fidelity about paying another $50, the timeframe allowed to waive the $50 is already over. I’m not very happy with this company. Every three months I had to call Fidelity for the same problems over and over again. I am so dissatisfied that I am transferring my coverage with AHS, even if I have to pay a little higher but the hassle my family and I have been through with the Fidelity contractors are not worth my time and money. The worst experience is that we did not have air condition last year for 3 months because it took Fidelity this long to fix our air condition. The entire family had to sleep in the living room for three months during summer of 2008. One Plumbing contractor had indicated that there was a foreign material stuck in the sink, although I was behind his back watching him fix it and didn’t see a foreign material. However, I’m thinking that he didn’t want to come back and fix the problem and so had to report this to Fidelity so Fidelity had advised me that they will not cover our sink anymore because of this foreign material, which was not even true.
Bought the house a couple of months ago. Inspection said all appliances worked fine. A month later A/C stopped working. Fidelity refused to cover it (after charging me $55.00 to look at it) because someone (before I bought the house) fiddled with the wiring. Absolutely worthless.
Very bad customer services. They do their best to avoid the payment, don’t buy policy from them.
I have had Fidelity for 2 years and will not be using them again. The first year nothing broke but this last year I have called them out on three different occasions for A/C and pool issues and all three times I’ve been told they won’t pay because the issue was due to negligence. Today it was because I had the wrong size a/c filter installed. It is a rent house so that may be true but I don’t think that caused the freon to leak. They didn’t fix my pool because the filter basket broke and that’s what caused the damage but because the basket isn’t covered they aren’t liable for the other damage. As long as nothing breaks they are great!
Fidelity National Home Warranty will do everything possible to get out of paying a claim. DO NOT use this company if at all possible. Every single time we have to call them it is a battle.
Here’s something crazy – with them you pay by the trade, not by the incident. So if your dryer goes out and that causes an electrical problem, here is what happens: they send a dryer repair person who will tell you that he can only make repairs up to $150, after which they may or may not cover you. But the repairman can’t fix the electrical problem so he tells you that you need to call an electrician. So you call Fidelity to get an electrician and they tell you that because it is a separate trade you need to pay ANOTHER service charge (deductible), and then you have to go through the same thing all over again with the electrician.
There is a special place in hell for the people who approve claims in insurance companies, and the people at Fidelity national home warranty are at the front of the line.
When the heater in my home broke in the middle of two winters back, a call to these guys had the service man out the next day and the problem fixed the day after that. No problems/issues. That was the only reason I have had to call them though (luckily).
Put in claims for the water heater, 2 bathrooms and the AC. After paying out $220 in deductibles only the 2nd bathroom was repaired. Even though PG&E said certain things needed to be fixed on the water heater, the tech they sent out said everything was fine and refused to do anything, of course we still had to pay the $55 deductible. When our AC unit wouldn’t cool, the tech they sent out said it should be repaired and paid for by Fidelity National, that it should not be a problem, yet Fidelity National again denied the claim! We strongly feel that something should be done about this company. They shouldn’t be allowed to continue doing business. We rarely had problems with Old Republic Home Warranty. They were flexible in who was sent out and rarely denied a claim.
We changed to Fidelity from American Home Shield after having very costly problems related to their very poor service. American Home Shield doesn’t even know if the contractor’s they send out are currently licensed. One very hot August our central air went out. We were given the names of the worst service reps in the area. One of them came out long enough to collect the service fee and when the air went out 15 minutes later he was no where to be found. When I checked his name with the Registrar of Contractors his license had lapsed several months prior. The most costly damage to us was when they kept sending out the same clueless plumbing company to find out why it seemed the water in the toilet kept running. Almost a week later and finally calling our homeowners insurance company did we find out one of the pipes behind our washer broke. Since this wasn’t fixed right away as it should have been it required tearing out walls, our shower, parts of our bathroom for mold remediation and testing. We live in the desert and the testing was required because the size of the water pooled in our laundry area was over 18″. All because American Home Shield sends out the bottom of the barrel companies to your home. They gave us a few vouchers of $100 each for the delays but that only covered part of our $500 deductible with USAA. The total cost of repairs was $9000!! I don’t know why real estate companies are pushing them since they are the worst company we’ve had the misfortune of dealing with. When we sell our home we will have to disclose this of course and since it involved mold remediation it may very well have a negative effect on the price we can get for our home. AHS should be sued out of existence. We’ve had Fidelity for almost three years and are very happy with the quality of the people they’ve sent out and the professional customer service reps.
Imagine how much money this company makes with charging everyone $50. for sending people to your home and doing absulutely nothing!! I think the person who chose this company (the seller in my case) knew about the plumbing problem and was allowed to pass it off on me. The bank should have to pay since they are the ones who chose this company.
They hide behind some fine print that they failed to inform you of when they sold you the policy. They are very difficut to work with and it seems as if that “everything is covered” is really not that much.
I inherited my policy from the seller of my condo. My dishwasher broke and was leakign water into my bedroom, on my carpet. They sent a plumber who spent a total of FIVE minutes looking at the dishwasher, determined that was the problem but he was not an “appliance specialisT”, so he left. Didn’t bother to turn off the water to the dishwasher or ANYTHING.
Fidelity called an “appliance specialist” next day who could not come for another TWO days. Meanwhile, carpet is getting soaked-I had no idea how to turn off water. I call Fidelity back, frustrated, say I need someone sooner. Nope! Can’t get anyone sooner. Woman at Customer Service tells me ot turn off the valve.
Well, there is more than 1 valve.
Next day, my carpet is drenched and water is leaking outside when I come home from work.
I call Fidelity. No, they can’t send a plumber tonight-there are none available. I had to express to them that my carpet was getting drenched and this is an EMERGENCY. They finally agreed to let me go “out of the plan.” But the plumber had to call them at all times, which was a pain-they kept us on hold for forever. They gave me AND the plumber a hard time for pulling out the dishwasher but he had no other way of making sure that was REALLY the propblem. This plumber, since I picked him, was good.
He actually turned off the water!
“Appliance specialist” came the next day (Today). He told me a seal is broken. Apparently they don’t even make that seal anymore but Fidelity has told me they’re gonna take the next 2-3 days to “search for the part.” I can’t wait til they come back and tell me a bunch of BS to get out of having to replace my dishwasher. I will sue them so fast their heads will spin.
Oh, and I’ll make them pay for damage mitigation on my carpet and drywall, even tho they told me these are “secondary damages” and NOT COVERED.
BTW, THERE IS A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST THIS COMPANY.
Just google “Fidelity National Home Warranty” and lawsuit.
Very unprofessional and often rude answering service. Company also contructs incompitent service technicians.
We are currently living the nightmare that everyone else has been through.
We had our heater on our spa go out and would not work. We called Fid. they said a spa repairman would come out but he is only in our area (he wan’t even in Orange County!) 1-2x week. so, he finally came out a week later and we paid our $50 (rip off right there). He says, “Yep, I know what the problem is, BUT, you don’t have a GFCI installed according to code. (Evidentally the original owner of the house AND the owner before us AND the 3 inspectors of each home sale failed to realize this major code violation.) And fid. would not authorize him to fix the spa until we put in a GFCI box.
So, I go down to Home Depot, buy the $100 GFCI and, with the help of my buddy who’s an electrician put in the GFCI. And I pay my buddy for his help $100. So, $250 just to get the OK to come out and fix it.
So, stay with me, I call Fidelity to tell them I put in the GFCI and they say they will send out the spa guy.
He comes out, I have to take off work, and he repairs the problem with the heater component.So, I thought, “Well, at least it’s fixed and done.”
not so fast, he calls today and tells me Fidelity is now NOT authorizing it. He says we either have to pay him $300 for the part or he has to come take the part he installed back.
So, I call Fidelity, and of course the rep is clueless and I’m sent to a “que” to leave a message for a supervisor and they will “call me back”.
WHY did you give the spa guy authorization to fix something that isn’t covered? And why wasn’t I told what was being replaced and if it was or was not covered??
Let’s just say, regardless of what this outcome is, we will not review our coverage. for the amount of times you might need it it isn’t worth the payments.
FNHW has done a wonderful job for us the last 10 years!
I have Fidelity Home Warranty for my rental property in San Diego. I have had this policy for over two years and am thrilled with the excellent service I receive. Not one of my repairs has every been turned down. I have had another company for my primary home and they are not nearly as good. I am switching my primary home to Fidelity when it renews this fall. Fidelity is by far the best warranty company in my book! P.S. This is a totally sincere and legitimate compliment.
Thank you
This company is in the business of denying all claims to refuse from paying . They are always looking for ways to not pay for a coverage item saying it was installed incorrectly. By coincedence they installed it and later after failing to work I called and said it wasn’t covered since it was installed wrong. BUNCH OF JERKS
Very hesitant to pay anything, it’s like throwing your money into a garbage bin! Horrible!
Have Fidelity Home Warranty coverage on several rental houses that I own. Most of the Fidelity staff have been very courteous. A few service suppliers have sent out incompetent people who couldn’t or wouldn’t complete the work in an effective manner. I’ve reported each case of poor service, in writing, to Fidelity. If after that the same service company was scheduled to come out to a house, I request an alternate provider and explain why. Most of the incompetent companies disappear after a short while. They do have some problem providers like the pool service company that ALWAYS reports that the “malfunction was due to lack of maintenance”, or the plumber who installed a water heater incorrectly and the wires to the unit shorted out a couple of days after installation. I haven’t been offered their names for quite a while, which tells me that if you keep them posted, they try to weed out the bad apples.
On the other hand if an air conditioner fails on a Saturday afternoon when it’s 110 in Phoenix, they will authorize me to find an outside contractor who can give same day service. My tenants have been very appreciative.
Then there was the time that a built in microwave oven died. The tech who came out to work on it said that it needed to be replaced. Fidelity arranged for a replacement unit. The new microwave failed two weeks after it was installed. Unfortunately the microwave seller and manufacturer got corsswise with one another and neither would take care of the unit. The seller wanted me to uninstall the built in microwave and deliver it to the store for service. Finally I was able to have Fidelity direct the merchant to replace the unit. That merchant, a national chain, no longer is an approved appliance provider to Fidelity.
Are they perfect? No. But they do try to make things work out OK, if you call and explain the problem, in a calm and courteous manner. Also their service provider notification system doesn’t always work properly. The worst part being that occasionally they have failed to notify the service provider that I have paid the $50 service fee in advance. As a result the service man has demanded the $50 from our tenant. But all it takes is a few phone calls to get something like that sorted out.
Over the years the cost of the Fidelity policies has been quite a bit more than what we would have saved had we not had the coverage. However the policy allows us to not have to worry about finding a service contractor, when an emergency occurs at one of our houses.
Just bought a home and on the first day, we had an issue with the toilets clogging up and water backing into the shower. We called Fidelity thinking they’ll fix it. Well, They sent out a plumber at 7pm. So he shows up in the dark with a flashlight saying that we only have a 1 way clean out and the clog is inside the house, so Fidelity doesn’t cover it. We spoke to the “authorization dept” and they said “sorry too bad, we can’t help you, you need a 2 way clean out before we can help you.” The service guy (AJ Bono) then says he’ll charge us $750 to install a 2way. (Highway robbery!) And if we wanted to be able to take a shower anytime soon we would have to pay him $350 to flush the vent, but it wouldn’t be warrantied. So now we have to pay someone else to do the job in order for Fidelity to ever come back and unclog any stoppage. But after reading these reviews, I think they’ll come up with an excuse every time regardless if we spend $400 or $750 for this 2 way clean out. What a joke!!
they change the policy every year they have changed it so that they do not cover what they did in 2004. Now they say all is excluded. They won’t go on roof for clean out when they did 5 years before, they find any excuse like alleged faulty sink installation not up to code when the sink was inspected by my tough city inspectors. Times are tough but I would say the premiums match the cost and you can get a contractor. During boom times the contractors are not happy to be there but now it is slower they are there johnny on the spot. I don’t like how they try to get out of things on technicality. One time they fixed my garage and another time they said it was excluded so it depends who you get and if they have a pulse or not. Some people may be rewarded for denying claims. If you report them to your Department of Insurance in your state, they seem to reconsider because they are always in trouble with the state for some violation and since they are insurers they need that certification or they will be put out of business. Bottom line, usually it covers the premium maybe and you can get people during boom times that normally would not show up unless big buck jobs are involved. In a bad economy they are hit by housing and selling policies so expect them to decline more on first go around and appeal to the Department of Insurance. I don’t have much respect for them but after all they are an insurance company and better than nothing like all insurance, you have to fight them and try to get to their jugular or they will screw you over.
I switched to Fidelity in 2008 because their service charge was lower than my last home warranty company. Service call were prompt, technicians were courteous and professional and completed all repairs. This year, 2009, they increased their rates by $80 and increased the service fee bt $5. I am shopping for a new home warranty company.
I understand what everyone here is saying. Unfortunately I am one of their service providers and I will openly say…this is a game. Your Service provider (the repair man) is the one who must explain what the problem is and why Fidelity should cover it. He sets the price to Fidelity. Basically this is the smart service providers game. As a provider – it is way more beneficial to me to help you, than to help Fidelity. Unfortunately, many of these guys are just some service guy for a large company with only a salary in mind – not your best interest. Ask for a small independent operator.He’s hungry and making deals. Only the impossible can not be overcome.
Good Luck all
Had a leak under kitchen sink, figured it would be easy, so I got the parts and tried to do it myself, took off the hoses and could not get the on and off valve to come off, so I just called for service, was told by plumber that since I started the process they would not cover it. I was not very happy about this, it only took him 10 min and charged me 130.00. Advised I would complain to Fidelity and he just said they will not cover it. Next time don’t touch the piping. I advised him that they did not say this would be a problem. I feel fidelity should have stated this to me on the phone, I would have tried harder to fix issue if I had known this.
FIdelity are thieves i wish i would have read these reviews before i joined. We had water heater go out and they say it was pre existing and of course it is not. If theres a class action suit against these thieves please count me in.