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I thought it was great that the seller provided a home warranty. Except that the company stinks. $60 service call, and like CheyDee, it took a few days before the a/c place they sent over was able to come out - and it was 90degrees out. I would never use the company they sent out - the guy actually had me help him in order to do the repairs. He did fix the a/c - which had chewed outside wires, a blown fuse, and needed a new thermostat, so it was worth the $60. But the cheap thermostat he installed was not much better than the old, mercury-based thermostat he replaced.
In a few months we have to decide whether to extend the warranty on our own. Since the sellers did not take very good care of the house, I am tempted to extend it, since who knows what's going to go next. I just would shop around for another company if we do.
Our kitchen appliances are all circa 1999, with the dishwasher ready to die any day. My washer and dryer were 22 years old, and the home warranty has replaced both of those.
Yeah but how long did you pay for he warranty?
If you've had it for a certain amount of time, and had no repair with the money you paid the warranty every year you could have bought new appliances anyway without a warranty. Dare I say after 22 years it was time.
I never had a house warranty, but that's why I dropped my APPLIANCE warranty. I was paying a major retailer known for its home appliance service 450.00 a year for all appliances: W/D (at the time 2 years old) and new microwave, frig, DW, and stove. Every year friends would say drop it. I finally got wise and did....after paying them 450 a year for FOUR years. I could have more than paid for NEW appliances with that very same money. No more appliance warranties for me.
I'd dropped it///and SIX years later finally needed a washer repair. I called a utility service's home appliance repair division and got the washer fixed for 150.00...compared to $2,700 of paying for an appliance warranty I had used in the meantime.
I thought it was great that the seller provided a home warranty. Except that the company stinks. $60 service call, and like CheyDee, it took a few days before the a/c place they sent over was able to come out - and it was 90degrees out. I would never use the company they sent out - the guy actually had me help him in order to do the repairs. He did fix the a/c - which had chewed outside wires, a blown fuse, and needed a new thermostat, so it was worth the $60. But the cheap thermostat he installed was not much better than the old, mercury-based thermostat he replaced.
In a few months we have to decide whether to extend the warranty on our own. Since the sellers did not take very good care of the house, I am tempted to extend it, since who knows what's going to go next. I just would shop around for another company if we do.
I thought it was great too. As my previous post in this thread says, I got a water heater out of it. But, I had to pay the $60 service fee. I also was on the hook for the additional materials to bring the water heater up to code (expansion tank). The warranty only covered replacement of the failed component, not installation of additional components. But, I would have NEVER picked this plumber if I was doing it on my own.
I let the warranty lapse now that the first year was up. It wasn't worth it to me to pay $400. My house has a newer roof, and newer dual heat pumps. The kitchen appliances are all brand new, and the washer/dryer are a high-end frontloader set that we brought with us from our old house. I just don't foresee any imminent failures on the horizon.
Home repair warranties are a joke. I rather get 10k off the price and ill deal with the repairs. I have real tradesmen working on my house if I need something I can't do. And I know the work being done and by whom.
I had a seller-bought warranty on a recently purchased house. The AC went out. Couldn't get the warranty company on the phone on the weekend. I paid for the repair myself and didn't renew the warranty.
If you have the ability to do some diagnostics/ repair (many appliance failures are easy fixes with parts bought on the web) AND have some reserve cash for emergency repairs- then warranties are a bad deal. On average, that is.
Of course there will always be some people who get their money back and more. This also happens in Vegas- just not very often. I play the averages.
As a general unwritten rule home warranties are crap-
But they make a somewhat shiny gloss-over for buying a house. In other words, it helps to sell the house. But, some of the crap that companies do for these warranty companies is so laughable it's pathetic!
The only reason contractors will work with warranty companies is they hope to generate "more" work, or get a service contract- because they certainly aren't making any money on an initial call.
^^^This. The sellers already had purchased a home warranty when we bought our house. I would have rather had the 500 bucks they paid for it. When we sold previous homes, the realtors would always push for the home warranty. I refused (some get a kick back on it).
We did get a dishwasher repair out of the deal but had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get it done. The repair guy was nice and professional and admitted dealing with the warranty company was a hassle. He put them on speaker phone while he was here so I could listen. They asked if I had abused the dishwasher and seemed really hesitant on wanting to approve the repair. The repair guy was great and I kept his card if we ever need him again. So that is good for his business.
We also had some other things break within that first year. The stove and our water pump. The deductible on the water pump was a 100 dollars. The repair was 99, so we just paid out of pocket. The stove I was told was a "pre-existing condition". That made me laugh. We ended up replacing all the appliances within the first 3 yrs anyway. I didnt bother to extend the warranty.
As a general unwritten rule home warranties are crap-
But they make a somewhat shiny gloss-over for buying a house. In other words, it helps to sell the house. But, some of the crap that companies do for these warranty companies is so laughable it's pathetic!
The only reason contractors will work with warranty companies is they hope to generate "more" work, or get a service contract- because they certainly aren't making any money on an initial call.
True words. Most "standard" home warranties don't cover things like the refrigerator, it is usually optional.
Home warranties also do not provide for upgraded replacements and if you think about it, most of what will fail can be fixed so rarely do you get something new.
If the home has lots of upgraded appliances and equipment, check the warranty coverage very carefully, you'll probably see lots of things are not covered.
We've had American Home Sheild for a while. In the past we've had issues with the quality and sleeziness of the repairmen they sent over. One needs to watch out as many of the companies pay a bonus if the repairman can make a case that the homeowner was negligent and therefore the insurance doesn't cover it. I had that when two sump-pumps failed a few years ago and they weaseled out and they tried that when our 18 year old fridge died. The first repair man tried to make a case we should have oppened up the panels of the fridge and cleaned all the mechanics with a vacuum to remove the dust and because we didn't we did not do proper maintenance and thus were not covered. We kicked that @hole out and had it transfered to another company this time and they did replace the entire fridge because the compressor was no longer available. I thinks AHS got sued over that scam and lost which is why they were a bit more reasonable this time.
We had a plumbing issue where we had to call three times and the plumber never showed up either time and then stopped taking calls from American Home Sheild. They gave us a $75 service call credit and found another plumber. It was a good thing it was not a real emergency.
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