I own 2 duplexes and I have had American Home Shield for years. When I first added my 2nd duplex I asked if I would get a multi-policy discount and they told me "NO" that I was already receiving a discounted rate because a duplex has double the appliances and I was not being charged as much as someone who actually had 2 (or in my case 4) different houses. I accepted this. Two months ago I noticed that the amount they auto draft from my bank account increased. They told me that they had increased their monthly charges by $5. Ok, I accepted that. I recently called for service and now I find that the $60 service charge has increased to $75! It seems unreasonable to me that they would increase their rates AND their service charge (significantly on service) in the same year. I tried talking to them and they are not willing to negotiate their rates. As soon as my garage door is fixed I want to drop both the contracts and take my business elsewhere.
Can anyone help me with suggestions of reputable companies? Tell me the horror stories too. I was doing some research and found that a particular company has a reputation of not covering the repairs and also shorting the contractors themselves.
Thanks!
I have Old Republic and it paid for itself when, the first summer after we bought the house, the a/c had to be replaced - I paid a total of $400 for a new central air unit.
We use and have loved the service from HWA (Home Warranty of America). We have them for our home and our rental. We live in an older home and have had to use them a couple of times. They are courteous, efficient and have always sent very friendly and knowledgable people. I highly recommend them. And if you know a real estate agent who can recommend you, that will give you a discount. Good luck!
The last 2 places we bought "came" with the warrenty. It was included by the realtor in the typical they're being "nice". On both occasions we kept it for the time paid for and let it expire. Each time we tried to make a claim on it for something in the house and each time it turned out not to be covered or they wanted to charge a lot more than us just hiring someone out of the phone book to do the same job. It was horrible. I do not remember the companies as it was a while ago. But, the name you listed looks very familiar and may have been one of them. I would suggest just having a savings account set aside to pay for anything that comes up and find a nice, reliable person from Yelp when you need someone to fix something.
I had American Home Shield coverage on my house in AZ. They replaced our solar hot water heater and our air conditioners (swamp and standard) for a nominal amount. I don't remember having to pay a service charge. Perhaps that's new in the last 12 years or perhaps it felt negligible to me because $75 is nothing compared to the work that was done and the equipment replaced.
BTW their costs have increased so why wouldn't they increase both? I just really noticed that the cost of clothing is nearly double what it was 10 years ago. And I'm on a fixed income. I don't like it but I accept it. It is what it is. It makes business sense to me that companies have to increase costs to pay for the increased prices for material and labor.
We used Sears for our rental property and were very pleased. They fixed our refrigerator 2x (different problems) and were responsive and reasonably priced. http://www.searshomeservices.com/
We have one with Old Republic that was purchased when we bought our house. We had to use it to pump the septic system, in which they only covered part of. We got our renewal invoice last week, and our rate had gone up significantly. I assume it was from the call we made. Anyway, we are dropping the service altogether. I can't find that it was really worth it in the long run.
We dropped AHS a few years ago and switched to BFS. They have been good. I would like to drop too, but I'm afraid AC will go out as soon as I do. They use their own people and don't contract like AHS. I'm not sure if that's good or bad?? You can get all cost info online. We've used them a few times, but nothing major.
About 5 years ago we switched from AHS to Nations Home Warranty. We liked AHS but toward the end we noticed that service calls seemed to have long wait times. We are satisfied with Nations. They offer a variety of plans so you only need to purchase the plan for the services you will use. They even have plans to cover sprinkler systems, garage doors and fire ant control. I believe we pay $65-$70 for each service, but that is well worth it for those big expenses like water heaters, A/C units and such.
My family has rentals but just pays for the work when needed because it is cheaper in the long run.
Have you sat down and done the math as to how much you would have in a account if you just put the money you are paying into an account instead of paying them? What I mean is take last year and how many repairs they had to make. Figure out how much it would have cost you to hire someone or do the repairs yourself. If that is less you need to drop them and just save the money you would be paying and make the repairs yourself as they come.
If you find you are better off with the warranty company then maybe consider raising the rent.
