Renew AHS Home Warranty?

C

capitalcity

100+ Posts
So my wife and I got a Home Warranty with American Home Shield when we closed last Feb. We wrote it into Special Provisions or whatever and the sellers paid for it.

SInce we've got a Homeowners policy with Allstate - is it really necessary/beneficial to renew the AHS policy?

Little help please.
 
The home warranty is for systems: plumbing, appliances, HVAC, etc. - why would I really need to drop $40 a month on that? Is their no redundancy there in regards to homeowners insurance?

Or moreover, has anybody ever worked with AHS to fix something before?
 
If your appliances are relatively new, I'd let it lapse. If you're worried about them breaking down, especially the AC, then renew.
 
Pretty much every sale these days comes with an AHS warranty. The reason being is that it isnt worth ****. If you are asking about renewing Im guessing you havent had to use it. I had about the worst experience ever with them. It involved 100 degree heat a broken A/C unit, my 90 degree house and my 4 month old son.
 
I've had similar poor experience with one of these companies. Moved in - dishwasher was not working. Paid the ~$60 for the visit, tech comes and says we need a specific part that he doesn't have, but will order for us and should be an easy fix. A few weeks pass, no response. Call the warranty company - now their story is that the specific issue is not covered under warranty and says they will fix it if we pay the $~120 for the part. They wanted another ~$60 for the new visit too (which I ultimately got them to waive, though they wouldn't budge on the part fee). Ended up buying a new dishwasher for ~$400 since there was no way I was paying $120 to repair a 30 year old dishwasher.

I have yet to hear someone report that these warranty companies came through with flying colors, aside from the shills in their company brochures.
 
I am one who has had a good experience with a home warranty company - First American back in the ATL. They were cheaper than AHS. We had our A/C break and they did about $2000 worth of work for $400 (new a/c required new duct work which wasn't part of the warranty).
 
We've used AHS 2 or 3 times in the 18 months we've owned our house. Our only complaint is that it takes them awhile to set up service, but we haven't had any problems with the services provided.

We're keeping it because our HVAC units are 12 SEER "builder grade" products, and they aren't really expected to last more than about 8 years max. We're 6 years into them now. I think $350/year up through a $10K triple HVAC replacement makes all kinds of sense.
 
The main thing is the age and quality of your A/C unit. My last house had one A/C unit replaced, dishwasher worked on several times, microwave and water heater replaced. Saved me several thousand dollars over a 3 year span.
 
I also got one tossed in on my house i bought in june....already had about 1000 work on my pool equipment that i have had to pay 120 for trips out...well worth it so far....i got them to cover everything, pool equipment, garage door opener, ac's fridge, dish washer....i will renew
 
- we've had 2 repairs on a heater $50 bucks each
- two plumbing calls = 1 disposal + a bunch of misc plumbling

had them for 2 years and then dropped them. I probably broke even when it was all said and done.
 
In my experience the warranty was largely useless so I didn't renew it. I had a couple of things go wrong and they did whatever they could to show that what I needed wasn't included under the warranty.

For the AC, we had a repair guy come out (under the warranty) and he told us that it's a common occurrence for AHS to claim that the unit hadn't been maintained as is required by the warranty so that repairs wouldn't be covered.
 
it's a scam. how could they a contractor afford to do business with them at such a discounted rate?
the answer is contractors try their asses off to either upsell you (they get everything above and beyond the "covered" repair) or they claim that your problem was due to lack of maintenance or some other b.s. thing that totally voids your warranty with AHS and the contractor gets the whole thing. AHS doesn't want to fix anything for you - they just want to sell contracts and then deny claims because of the fine print exclusions that are in those contracts.
i mean, who out there actually drains there water heater every year?
 
We bought a house a few years back and the dishwasher went out within a few months. The parts made fixing cost prohibitive. The contractor came out promplty and we got a new dishwasher. It took a couple of weeks because they had to order it, then deliver and install but it was free (existing AHS policy sold with house). When renewal time came, I debated and wasn't going to renew. However, I renewed with a policy that covers electrical, plumbing and heating/A/C for about $25 a month. My house is 40 years old and the plumbing isn't that great. I figured I'd rather spend $300 a year than risk major plumbing/heating or A/C costs. I've always had good luck with AHS.
 
So I shredded the renewal form last night before I went to bed...

Then - ready for this one - My heater stopped working sometime last night. Woke up and it was 60 degrees and falling in the house. I called AHS this morning and went through the automated service call system. I've yet to hear from the contracted service provider. I'm assuming they're gonna call before the end of the day, they better.

I would find this funny if I wasn't so damn cold.

Any suggestions on the gas furnace? There isn't a pilot light to check, I reset the circuit braker. The fan still works but it's blowing cold air, I think it's just not recognieing the current temp in the house (at the thermostat?).
 
One thing I have learned about Residential Service contracts is they can be a great investment if and when you need one..
when I list a home I put a residential service contract on the home. I currently have a home listed that has had the ac go out and heater exchanger go out. Cost my client 800.00 (some parts he had to pay for) .
One thing I learned ffrom th ac guy was to take a water hose and wash out the outside ac unit. This gives the appearance of having been maintained.
Not everyone has a good experience with residential service contracts but they can save a lot of headache.
Should the company who is to come and perform service at your home be a litttle slow in responding call the service contract provider whether it be AHS,Nations,or any other. Get them involved in getting the work done.
 
Capital, same thing just happened to me. New thermostat and viola! No more cold.

I'll bet you money your thermostat is old and most good ones (Honeywells, etc.) are designed to last about 12-15 years.
 
We got an AHS warranty when we bought our new house. Around October our GE Spacemaker microwave began intermittently powering off while cooking. I called AHS and they sent out a service tech. All he did was put a cup of water in the microwave for a couple minutes and told me he could not reproduce the problem and he left. The problem got worse the first week of January (after my experience in October, I made a video recording of the problem). I called AHS again and they sent a service tech from a different company. The new service tech takes the microwave apart and after 40 minutes reproduces the problem and tells me he needs to order a new board. Today I called AHS to find out status and they have not received any communication from the new tech. I mentioned to them that I was not happy about paying $55 in October and $55 again in January for the same problem. And that in October the service tech spent less than 10 minutes at my house and in January the service tech spent almost an hour and reproduced the problem. And if the service tech in October would have done the same amount of problem solving as the tech in January did, that the problem might have been fixed in October and saved me from having to pay another $55. The AHS representative followed her script and offered me her apologies. I enquired about financial compensation and she again offered me her apologies. AHS has asked me to renew my policy. I’m waiting to see what happens with my microwave before I renew.
 
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