Home Warranty Insurance, how was your experience? (fit in, sales)

[shlove858]

I purchased a house from 1985 last fall and rented it out.
Most of appliances are expensive but very old.
The sub-zero refrigerator already broke, and I am worried same thing will happen to the other appliances.
Someone told me about the home warranty insurance. I read some company's sample contract, and I am little bit skeptical. With only $600 annual premium, will they pay thousands of dollars for repairment with only $75 deductible?

Does anyone have an experience with a home warranty insurance?
If so, would you share it with me? Is there a particular company you would recommend?

Thanks!

[Foques]

in my experience, it was most useless investment that I have ever not made. Yes, you read it right.
I just bought a house last year, and prior owner bought one for me.

I had a few issues with leaky pipes, AC/Heater, Dishwasher and few other odds and ends.
Every bit was described in the documentation as "covered", but the service people would always find a reason not to do the repairs without an extra $$ paid by yours truly. In the end, I was out ~550$ and did all repairs on my own.

So, when the company called me to get me to renew, and I outlined to them why this was not going to happen the woman got all snarky with me and told me that I "obviously don't know whats good for me", and hung up.
This was my experience with American Shield Home Insurance.

[shlove858]

Foques,

Thank you very much for your input.
The company I was considering is the company you used. I will not buy a policy.

[CompareHWQ]

If you are still trying to decide whether or not to buy a home service contract you should first find out if these contracts are regulated in your state. If your state regulates home service contract companies then MAKE SURE you don't deal with an unlicensed company. Some of the smaller companies, particularly the newest ones, will promise you they don't deny claims or charge service call fees. Many of these companies operate without proper licensing and don't have bonds or insurance to back the company up if it becomes insolvent. It also pays to read reviews. There used to only be one site that had reviews of home warranty (that's what most review sites call it) companies but now there are many to choose from including Angieslist.com, ConsumerAffairs.com and HomeWarrantyReviews.com.

[MSchemist80]

I've had AHS for years. I do most of the repairs myself anyways. In the past they were pretty bad. They'd find a way to get out of covering anything. I had a sump guy claim that it wasn't maintained properly then it wasn't installed properly. I understand that they gave bonuses to service people to deny claims and were successfully sued for it a few times. The rest of the times the people they sent out were often not competent at all. I had HVAC people out 4 times with some wiring issues with the furnace and they still did not get it right. I currently have to operate the blower fan from the furnace unit itself but I didn't find out until months later and I turned on the AC.

That said I did get a really nice new fridge from them last year after the condensor broke on my old one and they totaled it. All in all though I'd recommend just putting the money in a bank account for repair and learn how to do some of them yourself.

[Gin Gin]

We had Globe Home Warranty, purchased by the previous owner. Our experience with them was terrible. First they didn't cover the leaking dishwasher. Then when the fridge died they agreed to pay for a replacement. Come to find out they won't pay for a like appliance, they will only pay for the very cheapest top freezer fridge. Never mind that that wouldn't fit in the space, nor would the door open all the way. So in your case they wouldn't have paid for a new Sub Zero, instead you could have a low end Frigidaire!

Finally when they agreed to reimburse us for part of our new fridge, it took me 9 months of calls and emails, none of which were returned. Never would they say how much money they would give us, just that they would send a check. They never did until I finally involved the BBB. IMO, at least this company is a giant scam. In the midst of trying to get our money from them they had the nerve to mail a sales brochure trying to get us to renew. LOL not gonna happen.