American Home Shield (http://www.ahswarranty.com/) provides warranties for home appliances. The service was included in the purchase of my house a little over a year ago. I did not renew the service this year. I am now getting the run-around from American Home Shield (AHS) because the assigned repairman appears to have misdiagnosed a problem with the dishwasher and it broke again (third time, same problem). AHS’s stance so far is that a recurring problem reported past 30 days is a new call and since I am no longer a client, they cannot place a new call. My stance is that I told the repairman both the first and second time that his diagnosis did not sound complete (when a fuse blows, you ought to find out why it blew) and, of course, it takes longer than 30 days for the problem to surface.
I’ll fill in the details after I get a call from whatever AHS specialist is supposed to contact me.
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June 30, 2009
About two weeks ago, the repairman arrived to see if the circuit board he previously installed had gone bad. He could not analyze that because there is no power in the dish washer since the internal fuse had blown (yes, that's the same fuse he replaced twice already). He needed more guidance from AHS. I've not heard from either the repairman or AHS since then.
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July 7, 2009
I called the repairman again a couple days ago reminding him that I am looking for a progress update. I've still not heard back from the repairman or AHS.
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July 13, 2009
I've tried repeatedly to connect with the repairman; Marvin of Brinings Appliance in Hedgesville, WV; leaving messages on both his office phone and cell phone asking him to call me with an update. He finally answered his phone today. He told me I need to call AHS, not him. At the point when I started to tell that he should have told that to me weeks ago, he hung up on me.
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July 28, 2009
Last night, I talked with Penisha who is 2 or 3 rungs up the escalation ladder at AHS. What I found out from Penisha is that Marvin reported that he inspected the circuit board and found that it was fine. Since I was standing there when he looked at the dishwasher, I know that he did not inspect the circuit board. One has to remove the inside panel to get to the circuit board. Marvin not only did not remove the inside panel, he barely opened the dishwasher door. He said that he could not inspect the board with the internal fuse blown. So, not only did he not diagnose the problem correctly, now he is lying about what work was supposed to do... unless someone at AHS is hearing/reading one thing and logging it in as something else. Either way it is just plain wrong. I'll be talking to the next level of escalation soon.
As a side note, Marvin was also working on an issue we are having with our microwave. The microwave is an over-the-stove model. The door of the microwave fills with moisture (you can see the condensation behind the window) when steam is rising from something cooking on the stove. After Marvin replaced the inside seal, and we still had the problem, he reported to AHS that "Replacing the door or microwave would not solve the problem." It seems that Marvin thinks moisture in the door is normal.
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August 10, 2009
After escalating this up about 4 levels, AHS finally came through for me. More details later.
1 comment:
My customer experience with American Home Shield (AHS) is not good and I cannot recommend them. I am NOT anti-AHS, and I am acting in good-faith trying to resolve a present dispute with AHS. If we reach a satisfactory resolution to my dispute, I will certainly tell everyone how cooperative and helpful they have been.
AHS, a ServiceMaster company, has the expectation that their customers know the precise details of their contracts. Buyer beware!
I scheduled a service request on AHS's website. There was no obvious mechanism that allowed me to check if the service I requested was a covered service. [NOTE: If I knew a service wasn't covered, I would most certainly find my own vendor]. The comfirmation notice I received online listed the service fee as $60 - but now I know that this doesn't actually mean a thing! Just to make sure, I called this morning to include multiple services in a single dispatch (truck-roll) for my $60 co-pay (only $60). I'm unemployed and unable to afford an open-ended or unwarranted dispatch. The AHS agent I spoke with by phone believed that my request for pool lighting and electrical repairs was covered by the Vendor, Blue Star Pool Care, but not by a different vendor, All-American Electrical Services. I was told that All-American Electrical Services wasn't approved for pool work, but I WASN'T informed by AHS that pool-related lighting wouldn't be a covered service under any circumstances.
When Blue Star Pool Care arrived at my home, the technician immediately informed me that AHS wouldn't pay for pool-related lighting service. I told him that I was led to believe otherwise but he assured me he was right. I said, 'In that case, you can leave'.
When I called AHS, the agent I spoke with told me that my pool lighting was covered. I said, that's what I understood from the AHS rep I spoke with earlier but the pool service technician assured me that AHS would not cover this. Who is right? The AHS agent then put me on hold to investigate further. When she returned she told me that the service vendor was correct [Note: It seems suspicious to me that Blue Star Pool Care didn't call me prior to dispatching a truck -- Guaranteed money perhaps?!] I told her that I attempted to book only warranted services earlier by web AND phone but a dispatch was made for uncovered services that I DID NOT WANT or REQUEST.
I continue reaching out to AHS to try and resolve this issue but thus far I have been ignored. If somebody can tell me how to work successfully with AHS, I'm open to your ideas. As of right now, I'm extremely dissatisfied and don't find ServiceMaster AHS a company that home owners should use. If you've have better luck than me - fantastic! I don't dispute your experiences. Mine have not been good so far but AHS can change my mind -- If They're ethical and concerned about their customers! Stay tuned...
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