Home Warranty Customer Service

2,319 Views | 17 Replies | Last: 8 yr ago by AggiePlaya
Bulldog73
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We've owned our home for about 4 years now, and got the warranty "included" the first year and have renewed the next three years. I know, dumb. I've finally gotten fed up and decided not to renew.

Each year, I've had to call them out for an A/C recharge of ~1-1.5 pounds. It's clearly got a leak somewhere, but it's minute and of course the home warranty company isn't keen on paying for a leak test on such a small problem.

Our coverage was set to expire at the end of June, so I called them up early June to do the annual fill and a couple other things, again with the goal of getting a leak test approved. The newest and cheapest local company comes out, takes forever to decide it needed to be recharged, but puts the same 1.5 pounds in. We talk through the continued problems, and I show him the previous year's work orders showing adding refrigerant each year. He says "man that sounds like you need a leak check done, you need to call in and request that."

In the end, bozo writes his report saying it doesn't need a leak check, but that I want it anyway, so of course warranty company says no. I write them a review of this company's incompetence, and inform them I won't be renewing because of this and similar crap.

Today get a call from them about that review. The guy I talked to noted that I'm now out of contract with them. I explained how it's not worth $500 a year to not get it fixed, and he agreed. Then he said "Well, I'm not sure what to do, because I can't provide customer service to someone who isn't a customer anymore." I said "it wasn't provided while I was a customer, why would you provide it now." He said "Good point."

Tldr: home warranty is a rip off, even their customer service agent admits it.
Long Live Sully
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Gigantic waste of money. All those guys are con artists.
OnlyForNow
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We actually got use out of ours on our second home, but the person who called my wife and asked about renewing was a complete and utter Ahole.

If the conversation went like my wife says and I have no reason to believe it didn't, they are really lucky they didn't call me.
Kenneth_2003
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How much of a kick back are the realtor getting for pushing these things?
AgResearch
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Kenneth_2003 said:

How much of a kick back are the realtor getting for pushing these things?
They claim none....
__________________________

Agronomist/Weed Scientist, Ph.D.
aezmvp
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Buying a house with a 16 year old AC, got the seller to buy a year. Really hoping it fails under the coverage.
Kenneth_2003
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They'll locate parts that are close enough and make that 16 yr old unit limp along.
p_bubel
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Kenneth_2003 said:

How much of a kick back are the realtor getting for pushing these things?
Used to be around $50 to $75, IIRC. Now, they're not supposed to. I see them in contracts 95% of the time though. It's become standard.

MrJonMan
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I'm in the minority

I got a new DE pool filter, spa heater fixed twice and a new AC unit out of them.

They denied me coverage when it came time to renew.....
AggiePlaya
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Kenneth_2003 said:

How much of a kick back are the realtor getting for pushing these things?
My wife has never received nor been offered a dime from any home warranty company.

BTW, I personally don't believe in using the bloodsucker warranty companies. However, if I'm buying a home and my realtor is able to get the seller to pay for one, I would of course not turn that down. If a realtor getting you something for free is bad in your mind I don't know what to tell you
Whitetail
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p_bubel said:

Kenneth_2003 said:

How much of a kick back are the realtor getting for pushing these things?
Used to be around $50 to $75, IIRC. Now, they're not supposed to. I see them in contracts 95% of the time though. It's become standard.


Put an offer on a house less than a month ago...realtor added a ~$900 one in. During negotiations, I pulled it out. Realtor lady got fairly butt-hurt about it and appealed to my wife.

Realtor -"Think about what would happen if something goes wrong, yada yada"...dammit, that really resonates with my wife.

Me - "Honey, they don't fix the issue, they are in business to make money on deductibles"

Wife - "Yeah, but we aren't paying for it"

Me - "Uh, yes we are".

AggiePlaya
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Did you drop offer price by $900 also? If your offer price remained unchanged, then you just removed the benefit of a warranty and still "paid" the same amount for house...therefore you did not "pay" for the warranty since price didn't go down either way
Whitetail
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AggiePlaya said:

Did you drop offer price by $900 also? If your offer price remained unchanged, then you just removed the benefit of a warranty and still "paid" the same amount for house...therefore you did not "pay" for the warranty since price didn't go down either way
Not true.

Offer-concessions = total offer

Most sellers are intelligent enough to understand the difference in two competing offers after including the concessions. There is only one person "paying" for the house and all the fees/concessions, and that is they buyer. If you include stuff, you are just lowering the offer.
PlanoAg98
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My first year home warranty cancelled on me after the first year. I claimed about $5K in repairs. I just picked another company for the 2nd year. My home is 40 years old and the previous owners didn't upkeep jack. I'm going to continue you it through year 3 just to make sure I've found everything that is going out due to the previous owners.
AggiePlaya
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Whitetail said:

AggiePlaya said:

Did you drop offer price by $900 also? If your offer price remained unchanged, then you just removed the benefit of a warranty and still "paid" the same amount for house...therefore you did not "pay" for the warranty since price didn't go down either way
Not true.

Offer-concessions = total offer

Most sellers are intelligent enough to understand the difference in two competing offers after including the concessions. There is only one person "paying" for the house and all the fees/concessions, and that is they buyer. If you include stuff, you are just lowering the offer.
That $900 comes out of seller proceeds...so that is a benefit to buyer, not a cost to buyer.

So like I said, your obligation remained the same and you just allowed the seller to keep $900 more dollars by turning it down
Diggity
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That's possibly true in competing offer situations, but certainly not always the case.

TREC wrote this things into the contract years ago to reduce the number of lawsuits after the sale.

In any case, $900 sounds like excessive unless it was a huge home. Should be about half that in most cases.
Whitetail
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AggiePlaya said:

Whitetail said:

AggiePlaya said:

Did you drop offer price by $900 also? If your offer price remained unchanged, then you just removed the benefit of a warranty and still "paid" the same amount for house...therefore you did not "pay" for the warranty since price didn't go down either way
Not true.

Offer-concessions = total offer

Most sellers are intelligent enough to understand the difference in two competing offers after including the concessions. There is only one person "paying" for the house and all the fees/concessions, and that is they buyer. If you include stuff, you are just lowering the offer.
That $900 comes out of seller proceeds...so that is a benefit to buyer, not a cost to buyer.
Which most sophisticated sellers takes into account during negotiations as a $900 reduction in price. May not be as apparent in a buyers market, but it does in a sellers market where there are multiple offers. Clever accounting by the realtors. Money comes from the buyer.

Assume you are a realtor, can you confirm what the kickback is on a $900 home warranty?
Diggity
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I've never received a "kickback" for a home warranty but some companies offer small referral bonuses if that's what you mean. I don't participate in those either.

If an agent is getting compensated in any way by the 3rd party, they're obligated to disclose that to their client in an addendum.
AggiePlaya
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Whitetail said:

AggiePlaya said:

Whitetail said:

AggiePlaya said:

Did you drop offer price by $900 also? If your offer price remained unchanged, then you just removed the benefit of a warranty and still "paid" the same amount for house...therefore you did not "pay" for the warranty since price didn't go down either way
Not true.

Offer-concessions = total offer

Most sellers are intelligent enough to understand the difference in two competing offers after including the concessions. There is only one person "paying" for the house and all the fees/concessions, and that is they buyer. If you include stuff, you are just lowering the offer.
That $900 comes out of seller proceeds...so that is a benefit to buyer, not a cost to buyer.
Which most sophisticated sellers takes into account during negotiations as a $900 reduction in price. May not be as apparent in a buyers market, but it does in a sellers market where there are multiple offers. Clever accounting by the realtors. Money comes from the buyer.

Assume you are a realtor, can you confirm what the kickback is on a $900 home warranty?
$0 and they are illegal, but keep spreading misinformation
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