Home Warranty Of America
Home Warranty Plan Details and Reviews for Home Warranty Of America
Premium: $405
Deductible: $50
Effective: 30 days after enrollment
Web: hwahomewarranty.com
Deductible: $50
Effective: 30 days after enrollment
Web: hwahomewarranty.com
| 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: « 14 … 11 10 9 8 7 [6] 5 4 3 2 1 » Show All
Horrible service. Been a client for 4 years and have never filed a claim. Filed a plumbing request today and was declined coverage due to a 10 day lapse in my service (I was out of town at the time of renewal). I had originally had this plumbing problem last year, but was able to provide a temporary fix. Well, it came back and since my coverage “lapsed” for 10 days back in February, they are calling it a preexisting condition and will not cover. I cancelled service immediately. I was also hung up on.
I reviewed in depth the coverages and terms and conditions provided by HWA and spoke directly to an HWA representative before purchasing their home warranty. I was concerned with the older age of my appliances at the time I purchased my home. I was specifically told that age was not an issue as long as everything was in good working order when the policy was purchased. I specifically read and re-read the exclusions, terms and conditions and every other part of the policy, website and initial information I was given from my realtor who had recommended the service.
I purchased the policy, moved into the home and was there for well over 30 days when the hot water started turning black out of my faucet. As I’ve had some experience with water heater issues in my lifetime, I decided to flush and dissenfect the unit to see if that fixed the problem. Didn’t help, so I called in the claim. HWA did respond quickly to arrange for a serviceman to come out to the home. The serviceman checked my water and saw the problem was only with hot water usage and believed the problem to be sediment in the bottom of the tank. He had misgivings about warranty companies to begin with and I insured him that I had the best Diamond plan they had to offer along with the “Green Plus” endorsement that covers replacement of the appliance in the event that it couldn’t be repaired. This policy specifically states under the Water Heater coverage paragraph, that “Premium Coverage Includes: Problems caused by sediment”. I was informed by HWA that after discussing the sediment issue with the serviceman, that I was denied the claim. I then phoned the serviceman who confirmed he tried his hardest to reason with HWA but as usual to no avail. I spent weeks trying to resolve this issue with HWA, reading the policy conditions to them verbatim, even the main coverage statement to “repair or replace any system and component mentioned as included in the contract that may become inoperatative due to normal wear and tear as long as they are in place and working properly on the effective date of the policy”. None of this mattered. They could not give me any reason for the denial that was in the actual policy terms and conditions or exclusions. I tried no less than 10 times to contact the supervisor of customer service, who never answers her phone and simply refused to call the work number I left on messages to reach me during business hours. The only reason I was ever given by the customer service reps was that “the life of the hot water heater was over previous to my purchase of the home and the policy”. They also told me that they don’t need to follow their written policy, they can deny a claim for whatever reason they feel justified. Next, my realtor tried to deal with them. Asked why they were advertising that this coverage type was meant for older but working appliances in newly purchased homes. He did not get any different answer than I got. My only recourse was to cancel the remainder of the policy (with a cancellation charge, no less!). In my opinion, they are well aware that you won’t hire an attorney to force them to honor their own terms and conditions, so it’s less expensive for them to return a portion of the policy than pay $500 for a new hot water heater or the repair cost. Also, had to pay the $75 charge for the service call as well. BUYER BEWARE, you will spend more personal time, money and aggrevation that the full cost of the policy that you could have used to pay for all or most of your needed repair or replacement. THIS PLACE SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN!
i think its funny how this contractor comes on and defends a home warranty that is just a scam. he must do shady work in Houston tx. because quality work does NT get appreciated by this company at all. jb weld and tape are your tools and forcing denials as much as possible because its not worth the hassle to fix any customers hvac equipment. he knows its all about numbers at the end of the day ! keeps your numbers as low as $100.00 average and you will receive work if not you will be terminated from the contractor list. all home warranties work this way.
If you are looking for a home warranty, pay close attention to all the awful reviews of Home Warranty of America. This company makes sure to make it so difficult for you to use their service, that you cannot possible wait them out.
In 97-degree heat our AC went out. They didn’t seem to be able to find a repair person in our area (the 4th largest metropolitan area in the US!)and estimated that it would take a week to find someone. Meanwhile, our house was over 95 degrees inside. We finally located a repair person who would honor the warranty. We had the work done and HWA refused to pay because we had not gotten “approval” for the work.
A year later, our garage door opener stopped working. They sent someone out and repaired it. Bad sensors. Seems sensors are not covered, even though they are in integral part of the opener and it will not operate without them.
If you do make the mistake of buying a home warranty from HWA, make sure to read every word of your policy. It seems that HWA has an “out” for any repair you might want to have done. We have canceled our policy and will look elsewhere for a home warranty company. For what we have paid HWA, we could have paid for our repairs many times over.
I wanted to post this to all home owners that complain about this company. I came across this site by accident.(looking up hwa the web site) I started to laugh at some of the complaints (at one for sure, I will elaborate later)
I am a air conditioning contractor down here in the Houston, Tx area. I have been working with HWA for a lot of years. I can honestly say they do not look for reasons to deny your claim. If it happens, there is a legitimate reason why. At no way or form, are we coached by them. We just report our diagnostics and in return get autho to do the work. I have handled many claims for this company. On a monthly basis I might get denied authorization for a homeowner that did not take care of his equipment. (maintenance, etc…)(seldom do) Its funny how the homeowner runs to this site and complains asap!! But where are all the customers that are satisfied, they never post there reviews?
Theres a Mr.Garcia that posted about 4-5 reviews below. I was the second opinion out at his house regarding his a/c unit not working. Long story short, we had his a/c fixed before he finished moving into his house. (But posted negative prior to our arrival) I noticed no retraction or positive feedback after being taken care of? His claim was in review at the time, but before the review came in his favor, he posted neg feedback. Probably not fair to Hwa, but it is what it is.
Rule of thumb, take of your maintenance on a yearly basis.Change filters, get spring cleaning svc on a/c, etc…This ensures in most cases you dot get denied.( speaking for the a/c side)
I wish there was an option of rating them less than 1. This is a horrible company and I just put in my request to refund a prorated balance of my premium. We had a clog in the only bathroom in the house 2 nights ago. I actually got an emergency technician through HWA and they opened the clog. However, he told us to be careful using as they needed to come back the following morning to diagnose the sewage during the daylight. Sure enough, full crew with 2 vans was at my door trying to explain me that damage was to the sewage pipes due to the roots and that is not covered by the warranty so I better pay them $1200 otherwise there might be more issues. That sounded really fantastic, especially that we don’t have a single tree on the lawn, just couple of small bushes and these guys NEVER used a camera to diagnose. I asked them for some time and started calling plumbers around. One of the very first ones to arrive used a camera immediately and said there are no roots in the pipe, however, it has a crack and a shift and that’s where the clog happened. So I called HWA and let this guy explain what’s going on even though he was not on their vendor list. The story I got from HWA the pipe shift is not a normal wear and tear and will not be covered. My question was – it is obviously due to a wear because pipes are in the ground, so we couldn’t break it, this is not a new construction so no soil shifting and there was no earthquake as far as I can recall. I got tired of arguing with them, especially that they still didn’t have the official diagnosis from the company they sent after 2 days. This is ridiculous and I wasted money on their most premium coverage for 2 years and when finally the need came up – nothing is covered. Shame on you, HWA for cheating your customers!!!
this company is horrible. they love when i deny claims. they don’t pay for anything so when i go out to calls for this company i just try to get the service fee and push denials. they don’t want to pay anything for quality work ! they want you to patch everything up ! they treat the service techs and contractors like crap . they tell us not to fix anything basically. beware this company is a scam i do work for them !
My hot water heater began a slow leak and was dripping in my garage. HWA had a plumber over within 24 hours, and the hot water heater was replaced, and my only cost was the service fee. My brother had an AC condensor replaced. Granted he suffered through 3 miserable days, but his new condensor was cost free other than the service fee.
Now I don’t think it is fair that a claim is often denied if you call in the issue during the first 30 days. HWA advertises coverage that lasts 13 months, but that isn’t really true if they won’t cover items within the first month of homeownership. I haven’t had this experience before, but it sounds like many on this site have…I would still reccomend them and rate them well based on my experiences.
I’ve read through the reviews and probably should just post “what they said”. Before purchasing a policy, I checked the BBB and saw three companies had an A rating. I just picked the one that had the best website and sounded like they covered the most stuff. Boy was that a mistake.
My AC went out 29 days after I moved into my new house. I hadn’t even received a copy of my HWA policy and couldn’t immediately file a claim, so I just called an AC guy on my own. I was told I needed a new condenser (big $$$), so I contacted my realtor and title company to try to get the info to file a warranty claim.
I finally got enough info to file a claim with HWA online. I was first told it was going to be 4-5 days before anyone could come (mind you, this is TX and it gets hot!), but after some heavy complaining, they got someone to come out more quickly.
The AC technician was very knowledgeable. He said that the problem was both the air handler and the condenser and said that most warranty companies would cover it and not to worry. (I’ve even hired him for other work at a different house and he solved a problem for $50 that many other people have tried to fix.)
Then I got a call from HWA to tell me the AC claim was denied as it was within the first 30 days and it was therefore a preexisting condition.
After many phone calls and my inspector confirming he’d inspected the AC thoroughly before purchase, HWA then decided it was denied because it was too cold outside when I bought the house to adequately test the AC. After many more calls and threats to call the BBB, TX RE Comm, etc, they said … okay, it’s covered BUT we’re only covering the air handler and we’re putting in an air handler that’s not compatible with your condenser, and you have to buy a new condenser that costs $2000, and we choose the condenser, you have no choice.
They finally offered me a buyout to put in a compatible air handler, but warned me that if my condenser went out (which it likely will, since 2 different AC guys have said it’s defective), it wouldn’t be covered. Of course, none of this would be put in writing. And it would take 6 weeks to get the buyout check. Nice.
Bottom line — this home warranty was a complete waste of money. I would have been better off using the warranty fee towards new appliances.
I have several friends that purchased new homes around the same time. Different ones had different problems come up, and their home warranty companies didn’t give them any kind of grief. The companies they used were Old Republic and First American.
I’ve read the negative reviews and now have talked to a lot of contractors and from what I can tell, HWA is worse than a number of the other warranty companies. All the warranty companies have their means of denying valid claims, but at least I have the impression some of the other companies are trying to find a way to work things out with their customers. In my opinion, HWA is not trying to pay legitimate claims; it seems to be deny, deny, deny until you threaten legal action, and even then, that only makes them meet you halfway. If I could roll back the clock, I’d definitely switch to a different warranty company.
I just don’t get how a company that acts this way can manage to pull off an A rating with the BBB. Normally that’s a decent indicator of quality, but not in this case.
Worst company out of all the home warranlty providers! Buyer beware.
Fighting with them now RE a refrigerator. Recalling past experience….
AC stopped blowing cold after a year of owning the house. HWA sent out serviceman. Serviceman wrote to HWA that the unit was not properly maintained (he said it was the worst he had ever seen in 15 years of work- likely the line he uses on everyone). Serviceman said need to replace the whole unit- 2-3k job (would TRY to fix mine but said it wouldn;t last longer than a few weeks) and HWA would not cover it. Blah Blah Blah with HWA to no avail. Called my guy (who doesn’t work with HWA) and he fixed it for about $200 bucks. Works fine for over a year now.
Past vendors: do they coach you in what words to write or say for them to deny coverage in exchange for the referrals? Do they ask trick questions. They know you are going to get it fixed anyway so you pretty much got the same (except me who paid for my own second opinion and got a honest repair).
HWA is an absolute waste of money. If you have a policy – get a prorated rebate as soon as you can. It is the only money you will ever get from this fraudulent outfit. They don’t cover the contractor fee to come look at the problem. They don’t cover the sheet rock work associated with the problem and then they contradict the policy and say the problem is not covered. I’m not gay or been to prison, but now I know what it feels like to get bent over.
So, first call that I made to HWA, actually, I posted the service request online which was great! Here is the problem. My shower leaks. It started to drip a few days ago, and as I tightened the acrylic ball in the shower, it broke, literally in my hand in about 5 pieces. I didn’t think much of it and I tossed it and figured I would just replace it. I went to Home Depot and realized that it was a specific model so prior to buying something that wasn’t going to fit, I decided to get the exact information on it. I used a set of pliers and I tightended the valve in the shower to stop the drip, but it still drips. I decided not to tighten too hard to avoid breaking the valve, which would open a whole new set of problems.
I decided to just put a claim with HWA, I figured, they’d charge me about $50 for the deductible and fix the leak. The process for the claim online was easy, I got a call the next day, which was today. The plumber wanted to come out today and I thought “Sweet! this is going to be quick and easy.” So the guy comes out, looks around, I told him that I had tossed the acrylic handle away because it was broken in pieces, but it was identical to the other shower, which he looked at, made notes, said he was going to open a claim, get the supplies and fix it. I give him the $50 deductible and he leaves.
Now the fun part. Someone called me from HWA. They said they were following up on my claim. They said that, according to the plumber, someone had attempted to fix the leak, and left it like that. The parts were missing and the plumber was unable to diagnose the problem. I don’t know what wack-job of a plumber they sent out, I don’t know what diagnosis was really required. We got in an argument for a while. I told them that I had used a set of pliers to turn the valve off to shut the water off and that I had thrown out the handle because it was broken. Apparently, I was supposed to save the damn thing. After a while of debating back and forth, I realized that the policy was going to be BS. They were likely going to do anything possible to avoid actually making repairs, which I suppose is expected. I’m out $50 and still have a leak in the shower.
I have a second claim opened with them. I’ll have to post something later on that one. I haven’t “tamperred” with that problem so we’ll see if they wiggle their way out of that one.
I’ve had three appliances break and two water pipe issues in the first year of owning my new home. The home warranty covered none of these. I’ve had to repair everything on my own including purchasing the parts. If they send someone out for an inspection and it is not covered you are still charged for the visit. I will continue to fix things on my own as I have always done. What a waste of money!
This company seems to be showing the same tendencies that I’ve seen in Home Warranty companies that have failed. I have no idea the financial stability of this company but here’s what I do know. They refused to dispatch my claim for plumbing service and said they would transfer me to a supervisor. Well, the supervisor’s voicemail said the person was gone for the day. When I called back they assured me I would receive a call back from the supervisor by 9:00am central time the next day. No call. I called again and was told I could leave another voicemail for a supervisor. My 2 cents is that if you’re buying a home warranty I would stay away from them just in case….
I wish that I would have found this website before I purchased this (non) policy. I told my Realtor that I had read that Home Warranty Policies always tried to get of paying for repairs. The Realtor assured me that Home Warranty of America was a reputable company and were highly rated. I bought the Marquis Program on 7/31/10, they highlighted on their brochure, “Unknown Pre-existing Conditions now included for all programs. Marquise Program offers best value in the industry!” What a croc! Before moving in, I was having the kitchen remodeled and I noticed that the A/C was blowing out hot air! I called HWA and a technician was sent out and I was told that the coil and condenser needed to be replaced. Home Warranty of America denied the claim, stating that the A/C was not properly maintained. Too bad, sooo sad! I reported this company to the BBB of Illinois but I’m sure I’ll be in the back of the line with everyone else who has complaint’s against them. They are worthless and useless but they have no problems taking your money!
As you see, most reviews are bad. I usually post more good reviews than bad. DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON HWA. I have been 21 days no a/c more than 20 phone calls to a/c company and hwa. They make excuses and nerver show up. My hardwood floors are ruined and my house almost burned down due to faulty install of a/c from company hwa recommended.
My garage door wasnt working (the motor was running but the door wouldnt open). I placed a service request online, within 1 day a local garage company came and repaired the door (it was an expensive service fee $75 but it would have cost me 175 to fix it according to the service company).
HWA was very quick to respond and friendly when they did a follow-up to ensure i was satisfied with the work.
i use to do work for this company as a contractor. it was a horrible experience every time i had to call these people. they are rude to the contractors and want us to do the cheapest work possible. walk in your home with our head down and not to say anything and keep on moving. if we void your claim its because they make us do it or they force it upon you. they literally scold us contractors on the phone. you say the slightest thing wrong and they want to make your life miserable. this company is a scam ! watch out home owners BEWARE ! BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY !
I just finished reading all 124 reviews of HWA and it occurred to me that people only report problems. Well, I didn’t have any problems with my claim to HWA. The duct work for my A/C that runs in the crawl space under my house just fell apart after 15 years of use. I reported it to HWA on the website, late Saturday afternoon, and they had an HVAC contracter contact me the following Monday morning. He’ll be here tomorrow to repair it. Once I got off of the phone with Linda of HWA, I received an immediate email with my claim number and all the information about the contractor who will be doing the repairs.
It’s simple– quality contractors won’t work for them; those that do take the service fee after doing virtually nothing; and the HWA people disappear when the heat (ie, repeated requests for service or adjustments) is on.
Our central air didn’t work in the home we just purchased. They sent a person who missed the first appointment and showed up the next day an hour and a half late because he wasn’t from the area and couldn’t find my home. When he inspected everything he determined that he had fixed it because a flu on the filter had been closed and he had opened it and everything was fine. Interestingly, he had no tools. He borrowed a screwdriver.
We paid him 50 dollars and waited for the air conditioner to do its job. It did nothing except blow hot air. When I looked at the repair, all the technician had done was turn a screw on the filter assembly which wasn’t to any flu, it was the door to the filter which had since simply fallen to the floor since he turned the screw and released it. Some fix.
I complained and a new company was enlisted– HWA said, “yeah we’ve had complaints about that other company– we’ll put them on the do not use list.” You’ve had complaints? How many does it take before they go on “Do Not Use?”
The second company found the place, looked at the inside unit and the outside compressor and without opening anything (he did hose down the compressor) determined that the compressor didn’t have good air flow because it was just under the porch (a tall, open porch.) His solution– he advised me to cut a hole in the porch!
He took $100 and left.
So, $150 spent on what should have been a $100 deductible.
HWA then said since the second guy said the porch was the problem, it was a pre-existing condition and there was nothing they could do.
I called them back and asked if I could cancel the policy– sure, pro-rated– just fax or email a request. I did, that was a month ago, nothing.
I tried to involve the agent, who had been a very, very good agent. She seemed to be shocked there was a problem and promised to call her contact there. Suddenly, her contact wasn’t taking her calls. Finally, there was a discussion, and the agent said HWA would call me to follow up.
Nothing.
We called a real contractor on our own; the problem was bad coils and an underpowered compressor; a day later we had a new system which of course we had to pay for.
The contractor laughed at the other contractor’s “fixes”. They also took an hour to do their initial diagnosis, as opposed to the 5 minute quickies by the HWA “APPROVED” CONTRACTORS. Oh, and they brought real diagnostics, coolant, everything necessary. The didn;t borrow any tools.
Well, you get what you pay for… maybe $405 bucks for a warranty isn’t a lot and the only way to make that business work is to not satisfy any claims at all.
Whatever you do; make sure your home warranty company is not Home Warranty of America.
Terrible company..always an excuse! DO NOT PURCHASE THEIR PRODUCT!!
I wish I would have read this before I listened to my realtor. This company is a scam! I used AHS for years and had no problems but I took the advice of a professional and find myself fighting to get my 485 dollars refunded. Liz is the only person who answers the phone for any inquiry. I asked if she and her husband owned this business because no other person answers. I purchased my coverage today; contract states it is effective right away so I called because I notice my thermostat was not the same as my temp setting….Liz told me she could not send any one out because this was a preexisting problem. Now she can read minds too. I asked for a full refund so that I could go back to AHS and she state I needed to write a letter in to the company….People don’t deal with these crooks!! I am so disappointed; I feel mugged! Next stop is the BBB to report these scammers.
I use to do work for this warranty company as a pool contractor. I stopped working for this company because they do everything possible to not cover things for the home owner. Then when they do cover things they will not pay. I have placed liens on the propertys i did work for. DONT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE LEGAL SCAM ARTIST. BAD BAD BAD!!!!! I wish there could be a negitive number. I am in Houston TX
I filed a claim with them regarding a roof leak. They gave me nothing but a run around. The contractor they sent failed to return calls; fax docs to the warranty company or the warranty company claimed they never got them. I had to follow up with the warranty company and the contractor several times. Meanwhile dealing with rain coming into my living room and doing damage to my ceiling.
Finally – They denied my claim saying they only cover leaks due to things like nail pops. I asked what category my issue fell under, first told “missing/broken shingles”. I said the shingles are not missing nor are there any broken shingles. To which they then claimed that it was under “wood and underlayment”.
No matter what they weren’t going to cover it; though if you read the report from the roofers and the contract I have from the warranty company showing what is included/excluded, I still believe it should have fallen under the warranty.