Anyone here has experience with Home Warranty Companies?

Any good/bad stories to share?

www.reviews.com/home-warranty/

From What I have read if you can get them to make a service call it’s not as quick as it should be to provide timely repair for a tenant. Most have a deductible and many try to get out of making a repair by any means possible or a quick fix that will require a return visit and more inconvenience for a tenant.

As you know, central heating and air is pretty expensive to replace. Yes, they can repair, repair and repair multi times, collecting a service charge each time, and the unit still malfunctions.

For me it was a big mistake, a monthly waste of money. When a kitchen designer faucet had an issue, their plumber didn't know how to fix it and the Home Warranty Company would only provide a Chrome Contractor Grade Faucet, worth $60. My old faucet was cost $400.

Then when my dishwasher had a design flaw, instead of replacing it, they fixed it, six times. Each time I had to pay a $60 service call. I could have purchased a new one that worked for years, not $360 in service calls.

I once bought a house and the seller provided a 1 year American Shield warranty. At that time, home warranty was a new concept for me.

The house had a very old natural gas water heater, and sure enough, it stopped working after 3 or 4 months.

I called American Shield, they sent a repairman. I told him: don't repair this WH, replace it. He said: that's not how it works with American Shield, they only pay me to fix.

So he fixed it, American charged me $50, and gave me a 30 day warranty. On the 31st day, it stopped working again.

I called American and complained, but they would not replace the unit, just asked if I wanted the repairman back.

I said no, because at $50 a visit, and let's say he has to come here 5 times, I still have an old WH which barely works, after sinking $250 into it. For $400 I could buy a new WH.

And that's exactly what I did.

I would like to hear from people who managed to get a new $5000 A/C unit under a home warranty plan.

I have a good friend that borrowed my loaner window shakers for most of the summer. He bought a home warranty 3 years ago, 2 years ago they paid their repairman to replace the compressor and a-coil. This summer, not working again. First repairman came, $75 and he told them the filter was dirty. I had seen it before he came and it was not causing a blockage. Next heat wave, next call, they replaced a switch. Next heat wave, next call, they replaced another part. Next heat wave, next call, they send a different guy to repair. He tells my friend the compressor wasn't installed to code and he wouldn't work on it. The warranty company told my friend that it was now his problem. This is where it stands now, my friend arguing that their repairman didn't install it to code them saying it is his problem. Honestly, I don't know that he won't end up paying to have this mess fixed properly.

He will end up paying more in the long run than if he had just set aside some money for repairs.

"I want to hear from someone who got a $5000 HVAC system replaced..."

Sorry, all you're going to hear is crickets.

Those companies would go broke if you paid a $500 policy and they were on the hook for $5000. They have to pay overhead, sales commission, the cost of labor and parts, and they have to have a profit margin. Ergo...they will NOT be replacing your system. They will limp it along, hitting you up for a service call each time, until it finally dies and your upset tenant leaves...then they'll tell you the system was too old or something and that the claim is excluded.

My freshman year of undergrad was longer ago than I care to think, but I still remember a lecture from my logic class. (I had thought it was going to be a semester of brain teasers! But a significant chunk of it was actually statistics.)

To start off the discussion of statistics, he traced the history of the field. It's actually a relatively young field-- and the two driving forces that helped it develop were the Gambling and Insurance industries.

I have not personally had an HVAC replaced, but a former boss of mine did. So, I did hear the whole story. They tried to fix it first (of course) and the fix didn't work. The a/c repair man basically told the warranty company he was done working on this unit unless they authorized a replacement because it simply wasn't fixable. The unit was too old (over 20 years) and parts didn't exist for it anymore. It was cheaper to replace the unit. I guess it took some more fighting with the warranty company, but they finally authorized a replacement. He was without an a/c for approx 2 weeks as a result however.

Doogie[KS]

Deanna[TX],

I took Statistics in Univ. The professor was a self admitted gambler, who "was thrown out of a few major hotel casinos in Las Vegas". According to him, and we as students had no way to disprove him, he found a way to legally cheat the houses, cashed out until they got on his trail and chased him out of town.

To me, the insurance industry has nothing to do with insurance, and everything to do with:

1. Loaning. If they approve your claim, they will advance you the money, then raise your rates to recover their "investment" and when you pay them back...they will not lower your rate to where it was before the claim.

2. Investing - real estate, mortgages and Wall Street.