American Home Shield: Class Action Law Suit
My Nightmare Continues with This Company...
Maybe it was because it was just recently after losing my husband that they called me, but I fell for the sales pitch, hook, line and sinker. The rep was so nice and chatty, that we talked like old friends. (Or maybe I was just vulnerable.) I did explain to her that I had recently lost my husband, and wasn't sure what I wanted to do about anything.
She offered her sincere condolences, and then went on to tell me that this American Home Shield Home Warranty was exactly what I needed, especially now. Since I no longer had a husband to look into these matters, and keep things fixed, American Home Shield Home Warranty would take a lot of stress of off me.
If something broke, all I had to do was call them and a service man would be right out to take care of it for me. Wouldn't that take a load of off my mind? Yeah, right Lady! To be fair, my husband and I had discussed the usefulness of a home warranty some time back, but had never researched any of them or decided if they were worth it. I think AHS decided for me.
The ever so nice lady rep convinced me and I gave her my credit card information and was signed up just like that. What a bargain for just a few dollars a month policy; all of my household appliances, furnace, air conditioner, dishwasher and a host of other things was now covered incase they decided to break down. It did ease some of my stress at the time and I thought I had made a good decision.
My first problem with them came during the hottest part of the summer. My central air unit decided it was too hot to work. Instead of getting upset, I got out my policy and phone numbers. I called American Home Shield and explained my problem. I also told them that I have a chronic lung disease and am under doctors orders to be in air conditioning in the hot weather.
I was told that fell under emergency repairs and they would have me a service man in less than two hours. Then the young man added, "incase you haven't heard anything in two hours, please call back." Well guess what? Two hours turned into 3 and my house was getting hot. I called back, was put on hold forever, and then told they could not find any service men in my area. Okay, what am I supposed to do now?
He explained that "under the circumstances" I was being authorized to call my own service man, have it repaired, pay the bill, and have my service guy contact them. The service man I called was the owner of a company I had used for years. He had installed a new furnace and air unit in the home we had before. He was here within the hour and got the air unit going for me. We also discussed that he had inspected the furnace when we bought this old house and had worked on it several times to keep it going.
My husband had also tinkered with it to keep it going, so I was well aware that it needed replaced. I certainly couldn't "tinker" it through another winter. I trusted this service guy, so I told him I would talk to American Home Shield about getting a new furnace too. He even gladly told me he would have his office call AHS for me, after all that is what they told me to do.
To make a long story short, we never got anywhere with getting a refund. Oh in many of the trillion phone calls I have made to American Home Shield they told me a reimbursement was being authorized. I even discussed my furnace replacement with them. Oh sure, that was covered, but they had to send their own service man out to evaluate it. Oh, wait remember, they didn't have anyone in my area!
Again, it was have my guy do the work, pay the bill then send them the invoice...blah, blah, blah. Winter was approaching and I already knew that chances weren't good at the old furnace surviving another winter. My trusted service man came right over and had me a new furnace installed within a few hours. I paid him and sent the invoice to American Home Shield, just like I was told to do.
Here I sit, with a brand new furnace to keep me warm, paid for out of my own pocket, yet I am still paying a monthly fee to American Home Shield. I have tried repeatedly to call and cancel my account. The first few times they told me that my paperwork for reimbursement was nearly complete and I would have a check soon.
Well, I paid a lot of out of pocket money for the central air repair and the new furnace. I figured I'd wait another month, since they already took the money directly out of my bank account. I had hopes of getting at least some of it back. I have given up all hope of that, but still can not cancel the account. Calls are transferred from here to there and back again; I am put on hold for nearly an hour, than am "mysteriously" cut off.
Yeah, you betcha I am in favor of this class action law suit against American Home Shield. It couldn't happen to a more deserving company! This is just my nightmare with them. Click on the links at the bottom of this article and read what others have to say. I hope the couple that brought the suit gets a ton of money from them. All I want is the money I paid out of my own pocket, all the monthly premiums I am still continuing to pay, and for the account to be cancelled!
Sources: Personal experience, and check these links out!
http://www.sheller.com/Practice.asp?PracticeID=223
http://www.faughtclassaction.com/
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Search/Company/American-Home-Shield.aspx
Published by Donna Thacker - Featured Contributor in Lifestyle
Donna is an award- winning fiction author, recently published with Twin Trinity Media. While she enjoys writing fiction, Donna also has a knack for writing informative articles that show her knowledge and p... View profile
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19 Comments
Post a Commentwe had proablems wiht out commode..the young guy did NOT want to go uner jsus the edge of ourhouse to clean outt he drainage pipe..he came came inside and took the commode completely out and ran the "snake thing down the pipe and then reset the commode..well In a couple of days I noticed seepage on the floor all aroudn the commode..then left said everything was ok..in a couple of days we noticed that water was seeping (and other things) around the bottom of our commode--we ended up calling our local plumber and he charged us a fee(big time) I don't know If I can find my reciept ---anyway he had to put put in a new seal and to this day it still doesn't work.I didn't know about being re-imibursed---Good luck to anyone who can recover costs!!
Laurie-12/29/12- I wish I had read about AHS sooner. I have been paying them for 12 years. HVAC had a problem 4 years ago. They sent some one who barely spoke English. I was informed that I needed a new compressor for the heat pump system. He said my coils were dirty, and therefore showed lack of proper maintenance and was denied coverage. Fortunately he was an idiot. I called a professional HVAC company (out of my pocket) only to find out I did not need a new one. Since then, I have had a regular serivce on the unit, to avoid the response "lack of proper maintenance" Now, 4 years later, my compressor finally went. I called AHS for service. They sent out a different company from the previous time. After his inspection and him talking to AHS for authorization, the response was, you guessed it, "lack of proper maintenance caused it to fail, therefore coverage is denied. I asked if it being 30 years old, not dirty coils, might be the real reason for it needing replacement.
They have offered to have some else come out for a 2nd opinion. I am extremely doubtful, after reading everybody's experience, that I will be rewarded with a favorable outcome. I will let you know.
I would certainly want to go for a class action suit.
They are one of the worst companies that I have dealt with in my life. Dealing with them (AHS) was an extremely stressful process (and I'm a guy). Originally when I had called AHS, they told me that my entire furnace will be covered and I wouldn't have to pay anything out of my pocket and then the next 4 weeks, they gave me the run around while the outside temperature was close to zero degree.
Then they used a sub-contractor (Climate Control in Edison NJ) who cannot be googled, nor be found in yellow pages with no address and only can be contacted via voice mail. And, they hardly returned your calls and when you do meet them, they are bunch of crooks themselves, typical Gambino family type lookalike and actalike.
I ended up getting my work to be done by PSEG and now claiming full refund from them. Lets see how far it goes.
d
just won a small claims court case against AHS...they were a no show..won default judgement..AHS sent us the court ordered payment within 30 days of judgement. Filed case on line..spent 1 hour in court..received $6,060.00...very easy to do...dont let them get away with it...file lawsuits..they never show..you win automatically...
I have honestly only even written 2 complaints about a company and this is my second. I am going through the same issues. I just purchased a condo 6 weeks ago and the seller had purchased this warranty for me. I thought it was a great idea and figured that it would help me get through my first year of home ownership without having to worry about dishing out any additional money. Since I moved in I have had problems with my HVAC unit, 1 burner on my glass top stove, dishwasher, and garbage disposal. My first claim was for the HVAC. They had sent out a repair man who was very very nice, but he was a plumber and said the unit was working. As far as I knew he was the expert they sent out so how could I argue. 3 days later the same heating unit was not working. In the meantime I had my own technician that I paid out of pocket to come and clean my 2 units. When he was out here he said the bedrooms unit system sensors need to be replaced. I then contacted AHS again and they told me
American Home Shield sent out dryer repairperson. They said nothing wrong with your dryer you need to have duct vent in wall cleaned. I did that and reconnected dryer. 3 days later I had a dryer fire and another technician came out and said dryer was full of lint and that is what caused fire. Why didn't first technician see this. The first technician never even looked at dryer. He complained he was in a hurry and had more customers. Now American Home Shield says sorry we do not cover anything because lint is considered maintenance item. I told them I would have not had fire if the first technican would have diagnosed it right. American Home Shield sucks and does not cover their technician's crew ups. I guess my whole house could have burned down and they do not care
I feel your pain. In 2006 I had a similar and little more crazy story regarding AHS. My HVAC unit went down as well in the midst of 100 degree temperatures. They told me that the only repair service they could send out to my home had to be certified by AHS. There are literally hundreds of HVAC services in my city. They claimed they only had 4 that could repair mine. After letting them have it over the phone, they said they "would mail me a fan." True story. I'm not a huge fan of our new litigous society but in this instance AHS deserves to hang and I hope I am compensated the $5,000 I had to spend to have it replaced. Does anyone have any updates on the status of the class action suit?
Go to your bank and tell them to stop withdrawls for AHS from your account immediately. It's like stoping a bad check. You gave authorization for autom,atic withdrawl by AHS. You have complet authority to request your Bank to stop the automatic withdrawls because you cancelled the service. The Bank has no authority to honor AHS withdrawls from you account.
Thanks for the warning, I hope the class action suit helps :)
I've heard similar stories. I hope you can recover your expenses.