My review so far of AHS (Home warranty)
Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2017 3:40 pm
Soooooo I typed this whole thing out, realized I just went into way too much detail. So I'm gonna condense it to quick statements. I know it might seem long winded, but it's the context I'm trying to relay.
TL:DR: Got American Home Shield warranty for my Ac, managed to get a new coil and water heater for $125 each, and only came out of pocket for a new compressor ($3K).
Started having ac problems. Call out local company. Low on freon. Fill it up, cost me about $350.
They installed the current ac and had records for it. Coil was new and installed in 1992, condensor was installed in fucking '89!
Get told it's likely gonna needa get replaced so they'll quote it out.
Quote comes in. Coil replacement around $3,500. Condensor + coil is about $6,500.
I decide to start saving cash and seeing how long the freon fill lasts.
Lasts 3-4 months. Tell a friend of mine and he says to call his buddy who's got properties and an AC guy, and has freon cheaper per pound.
Call guy out, fills it with another 2 pounds... Costs me about $100. I think this is great, I can keep doing it on the cheap with this guy and save money in the mean time.
Every 3-4 months I need 2-3 gallons put in.
Different friend who owns his own properties suggests I sign up with American Home Shield for a home warranty. Anytime something goes wrong at his properties, he makes a call, and they come fix it with little drama or hassle. He thinks they'll eventually come and replace the whole damn thing and cover it. I think it's too good to be true, but it's relatively cheap so I decide to take the chance.
I sign up, 1 month until you can make a claim. I get the combo plan, which covers EVERYTHING UNDER THE FUCKING SUN. Ac unit, washer, dryer, oven, microwave, garage door opener, water heater, electrical, plumbing..... DOOR BELL.
I pay about $60/month, and the service fee is $125. You can get a service fee of $75 or $100, but your monthly price goes up. I opted for the higher priced one since I can always manage to swing a Benji and a Jackson.
The idea with the warranty is that my Ac currently works. So I'm just going to call them up for a service call when it struggles to work again, and develop a paper trail to where they're like... "Oh this isn't fixing it, we should just replace it". The service doesn't cover freon, so I'm gonna have to front the cost of the freon fill when they do top it off.
Couple months into my plan, ac struggles. Fill out the online form. $125 fee. 3rd party company comes out and looks at it. Low on freon, gets filled up. Costs me about $300. More than I want to spend since I know I can get freon cheaper from guy #1, but I need this for my paper trail.
Ac works great for the time being.
Couple of weeks goes by, water heater starts to blast out water. Fill out a thing online, pay the $125, 3rd party plumber gets assigned the job and is supposed to get back with me to set up an appointment. 4 days go by with me trying to get in touch with this cat and nothing. I finally get another company out.
Dude looks at it "Yup, that's a leak. Let me call AHS and let em know and then we'll replace it."
Makes call, comes back with "Ok we're ordering it and will install it tomorrow".
Comes back next day and BAM. INSTALLED. No charges or anything. "Here's your paperwork, call us if there's any issues and AHS will handle it"
Couple weeks later the ac struggles again.
I fill out another service call thinking I'd have to pay the $125 again but it's actually waved due to being within 90 days of the original service call.
Tech comes out (after it's scheduled). "Your coil is bad, AHS will cover that with a new one. The down side is the compressor isn't compatible with the new coil, so you'll need to replace it out of pocket".
I've been saving up, so this wasn't a big deal. The compressor was $3K and I'd saved $5K at the time.... and was planning on having to spend upwards of $7K. So $3K is a dream to me if it covers virtually a whole new ac.
4 days wait for the appointment and for the coil/condensor to come in. HOT FUCKING DAYS that I'm sure you guys are aware of from my previous posts.
I get a call from AHS saying that I'm going to have to pay an extra $400 for duct work that needs to be done for the new coil. I say sure, fine... since I'm still way below my original pricing. Turns out I'm never actually charged for this work so
A few days later, the ac company calls to schedule a code check with the city.
City guy comes in, finds 4 issues.
1) fuses are too big for the coil we installed
2) coil drain line needs to be insulated
3) Heater venting needs to have a 1" clearance all the way around where it exits the roof
4) heater vent needs to be updated (they don't allow that previous style anymore)
Items 2-4 had nothing to do with the AC company because all he did was remove and replace the coil. The insulated drain was actually caught by the home inspector before I bought the house 4 years ago, so it really isn't in their scope to fix it.
Ac company schedules a date to come in and make the changes. Guy comes in, does the work, says there's nothing to pay and AHS covers that
So overall, total yearly of what I'm spending/spent.
12 months of AHS coverage @ $60/mo: $720
New water heater: $125
New Compressor: $3,000
New Coil: $125
So basically I've spent about $3,970 for a whole new ac unit and a new water heater that I estimate was worth about $400-500.
These 3rd parties could give a fuck less about ripping you off because they get paid by the job. The down side to this is you might occasionally get shitty work done, but if it was more than a simple "Remove and Replace" job you can bet your ass that I'm going to bitch if things aren't 100%. The plumber that I got assigned to has bad Google reviews about not getting back with customers. I gave that dude multiple chances but he didn't even attempt to get in touch with me until the day that I called AHS directly and requested someone else. So you're still dealing with local companies and some of them may be small operations. But my AC guy was great and was straight up with what AHS would cover. I tried to get them to cover the compressor outside since I was required to change it to match the new R410 freon but they said it was basically an upgrade. I could of gotten an adapter or some shit for it but then I'd have to pay for about 10 gallons of freon which would of cost me nearly $750. Getting a new compressor CAME with the freon so it's included in the cost so it was a no brainer to just do it. Plus the damn thing was almost 30 years old.
So yeah, this is my long winded rant. And this is the short version. Just to let you guys know what happened with the whole Ac thing and me being
It's basically paid off so far. I'm curious if my oven will go out soon. That would be awesome.
TL:DR: Got American Home Shield warranty for my Ac, managed to get a new coil and water heater for $125 each, and only came out of pocket for a new compressor ($3K).
Started having ac problems. Call out local company. Low on freon. Fill it up, cost me about $350.
They installed the current ac and had records for it. Coil was new and installed in 1992, condensor was installed in fucking '89!
Get told it's likely gonna needa get replaced so they'll quote it out.
Quote comes in. Coil replacement around $3,500. Condensor + coil is about $6,500.
I decide to start saving cash and seeing how long the freon fill lasts.
Lasts 3-4 months. Tell a friend of mine and he says to call his buddy who's got properties and an AC guy, and has freon cheaper per pound.
Call guy out, fills it with another 2 pounds... Costs me about $100. I think this is great, I can keep doing it on the cheap with this guy and save money in the mean time.
Every 3-4 months I need 2-3 gallons put in.
Different friend who owns his own properties suggests I sign up with American Home Shield for a home warranty. Anytime something goes wrong at his properties, he makes a call, and they come fix it with little drama or hassle. He thinks they'll eventually come and replace the whole damn thing and cover it. I think it's too good to be true, but it's relatively cheap so I decide to take the chance.
I sign up, 1 month until you can make a claim. I get the combo plan, which covers EVERYTHING UNDER THE FUCKING SUN. Ac unit, washer, dryer, oven, microwave, garage door opener, water heater, electrical, plumbing..... DOOR BELL.
I pay about $60/month, and the service fee is $125. You can get a service fee of $75 or $100, but your monthly price goes up. I opted for the higher priced one since I can always manage to swing a Benji and a Jackson.
The idea with the warranty is that my Ac currently works. So I'm just going to call them up for a service call when it struggles to work again, and develop a paper trail to where they're like... "Oh this isn't fixing it, we should just replace it". The service doesn't cover freon, so I'm gonna have to front the cost of the freon fill when they do top it off.
Couple months into my plan, ac struggles. Fill out the online form. $125 fee. 3rd party company comes out and looks at it. Low on freon, gets filled up. Costs me about $300. More than I want to spend since I know I can get freon cheaper from guy #1, but I need this for my paper trail.
Ac works great for the time being.
Couple of weeks goes by, water heater starts to blast out water. Fill out a thing online, pay the $125, 3rd party plumber gets assigned the job and is supposed to get back with me to set up an appointment. 4 days go by with me trying to get in touch with this cat and nothing. I finally get another company out.
Dude looks at it "Yup, that's a leak. Let me call AHS and let em know and then we'll replace it."
Makes call, comes back with "Ok we're ordering it and will install it tomorrow".
Comes back next day and BAM. INSTALLED. No charges or anything. "Here's your paperwork, call us if there's any issues and AHS will handle it"
Couple weeks later the ac struggles again.
I fill out another service call thinking I'd have to pay the $125 again but it's actually waved due to being within 90 days of the original service call.
Tech comes out (after it's scheduled). "Your coil is bad, AHS will cover that with a new one. The down side is the compressor isn't compatible with the new coil, so you'll need to replace it out of pocket".
I've been saving up, so this wasn't a big deal. The compressor was $3K and I'd saved $5K at the time.... and was planning on having to spend upwards of $7K. So $3K is a dream to me if it covers virtually a whole new ac.
4 days wait for the appointment and for the coil/condensor to come in. HOT FUCKING DAYS that I'm sure you guys are aware of from my previous posts.
I get a call from AHS saying that I'm going to have to pay an extra $400 for duct work that needs to be done for the new coil. I say sure, fine... since I'm still way below my original pricing. Turns out I'm never actually charged for this work so
A few days later, the ac company calls to schedule a code check with the city.
City guy comes in, finds 4 issues.
1) fuses are too big for the coil we installed
2) coil drain line needs to be insulated
3) Heater venting needs to have a 1" clearance all the way around where it exits the roof
4) heater vent needs to be updated (they don't allow that previous style anymore)
Items 2-4 had nothing to do with the AC company because all he did was remove and replace the coil. The insulated drain was actually caught by the home inspector before I bought the house 4 years ago, so it really isn't in their scope to fix it.
Ac company schedules a date to come in and make the changes. Guy comes in, does the work, says there's nothing to pay and AHS covers that
So overall, total yearly of what I'm spending/spent.
12 months of AHS coverage @ $60/mo: $720
New water heater: $125
New Compressor: $3,000
New Coil: $125
So basically I've spent about $3,970 for a whole new ac unit and a new water heater that I estimate was worth about $400-500.
These 3rd parties could give a fuck less about ripping you off because they get paid by the job. The down side to this is you might occasionally get shitty work done, but if it was more than a simple "Remove and Replace" job you can bet your ass that I'm going to bitch if things aren't 100%. The plumber that I got assigned to has bad Google reviews about not getting back with customers. I gave that dude multiple chances but he didn't even attempt to get in touch with me until the day that I called AHS directly and requested someone else. So you're still dealing with local companies and some of them may be small operations. But my AC guy was great and was straight up with what AHS would cover. I tried to get them to cover the compressor outside since I was required to change it to match the new R410 freon but they said it was basically an upgrade. I could of gotten an adapter or some shit for it but then I'd have to pay for about 10 gallons of freon which would of cost me nearly $750. Getting a new compressor CAME with the freon so it's included in the cost so it was a no brainer to just do it. Plus the damn thing was almost 30 years old.
So yeah, this is my long winded rant. And this is the short version. Just to let you guys know what happened with the whole Ac thing and me being
It's basically paid off so far. I'm curious if my oven will go out soon. That would be awesome.