American Home Shield Home Warranty Plan Review

AHS should stand for American Home SCAM -- this company exists ONLY to make money for its private investors, NOT to provide quality home insurance service to its customers.

We gave AHS thousands of dollars in premium payments over the years, but whenever something breaks down and we call them, it's ALWAYS a major hassle to deal with their rude and uncaring customer "service" reps, who AGGRESSIVELY enforce AHS's apparent policy of ALWAYS trying to deny or minimize claims.

And the contractors hired by AHS are just as bad if not worse than AHS, apparently colluding with AHS to cheat customers.

Recently, an electrical fixture broke and we called AHS. The tech came and said he needed to get a part for the unit. We had to pay the tech a $55 "service" fee just to come out and look at the problem. He didn't do any work, and didn't bring a ladder so he had use ours !!!

Three weeks passed and neither the contractor nor AHS called us back, so we called AHS to find out what was taking so long. AHS said the contractor was still waiting for the part.

Another three weeks passed and still no call from the contractor or from AHS, so we called AHS again and we got the same response, that AHS would call the contractor to get details.

On top of that, during the second call AHS said that the unit was covered by the original manufacturer's warranty. Poppycock. The unit was installed years ago and the original manufacturer warranty expired years ago, and we told this to the contractor !!!

It appears that AHS is trying to weasel out of paying for this repair by claiming that the unit is covered by the original warranty.

After reading the other reviews here it appears that AHS ALWAYS claims that the original warranty still covers the broken unit. This appears to be a DELIBERATE tactic used by AHS to avoid paying claims that otherwise it must pay under the contract.

Another AHS war story: One of our major appliances broke down long after the original warranty expired. AHS tried to replace the unit with one that was far cheaper than the original. This is known as "low balling" a claim.

We had to do long hard battle with AHS customer "service" supervisors, and had to provide them with comp data for new units to support our argument that AHS was trying to low ball our claim.

After weeks of hassles AHS finally agreed to increase our settlement and replace the unit with a comparable one, but we had to fight tooth and nail to make this happen !!!

This also appears to be a DELIBERATE tactic of AHS. In other words, AHS apparently low balls EVERY claim. Then, if the customer wants a fair settlement of the claim, such as more money, or a better unit than the one AHS wants to provide, AHS forces him to fight hard for his rights under the contract.

This tactic obviously works in favor of AHS, because a certain percentage of customers will NOT fight for their rights due to poor health, lack of time, and ignorance of their rights.

Therefore, this tactic apparently MAKES LOTS of MONEY for AHS, at the EXPENSE OF THEIR CUSTOMERS.

If you are thinking of AHS for your home warranty, THINK AGAIN !!!

Entering into a contract with AHS is asking for problems. You are better off keeping the money you would have paid AHS, put it in a high yield bank account, then draw from it when you need repairs.

Keep in mind that AHS is one of several business units of a larger company called ServiceMaster, a private company. We've had dealings with other ServiceMaster business units, such as Terminex, AmeriSpec, and MerryMaids, and they all follow the same pattern as AHS: high cost and horrible customer "service".

In addition, after you deal with one of these businesses and cancel the contract (as we've done), they never stop hassling you to sign up again. The junk mail, junk email, and marketing phone calls apparently will continue to annoy us until the end of our days.

As an aside, if you find yourself in a fight with AHS over a significant claim, ($500 to $7500), and it's obvious that AHS is trying to low ball you or outright deny a claim that they should pay under the contract, you can file a small claims action against AHS in most states and very likely win a judgment in your favor.

In other words, when you win the small claims action, AHS would have to pay you the amount awarded by the court ($500 to $7500), plus your costs for filing the claim.

The cost for a small claim is less than $50 to file the claim and serve it, and neither you nor AHS are allowed lawyers in court, so it's you against an AHS rep. All you need is proof that the settlement offered by AHS is low, such as appliance brochures with prices, photos of your appliance, etc. To find out how to file a claim in your state, do a Google search for "small claims" plus the name of your state.

Better yet, STAY AWAY from AHS, and all ServiceMaster companies.