Experience with home warranties?

[oregonpachey]

A home warranty was included with our house purchase.  It's through a company called Landmark.  We have already had to call them for two different issues:  our garbage disposal kicked the bucket, the fix is in progress.  And now our dishwasher has kicked the bucket.

What has your experience been?  Am I going to hate every step of this process? So far it's been okay save for some bickering about pricing with the service company and the warranty company.

[sacattack]

I had it on a house I bought year ago - I can't remember the company but it worked well for us. We knew the heating system was going and sure enough it went that first winter. While they didn't replace the whole thing, they did give us money towards a new one. I can't remember the details but I think it was like $5000.

[wambam]

It was such a disaster.

Our AC went out three months after we moved in. We called the home warranty people and they said it would TWO WEEKS (in July) to get it fixed. My H raised hell over it and they said they could send someone out in two days. Fine. When the mechanic got there, they took one look at the AC and said "It's a Trane. I don't work on Tranes." Fuck. So the home warranty sent someone else out, three days later. THE SAME THING HAPPENED AGAIN. Finally, my H called a company that serviced Tranes and they came out the same day and fixed the damn AC in 2 hours. The home warranty people declined to pay because they didn't send the person out.

Basically, fuck home warranties.

[mcmel]

Our A/C crapped out during the first year and they paid for the repair. I had to set up the repair through the home warranty company, but it went smoothly. We did owe them the flat rate of $65, but the repair would have been more. We went ahead and bought it again just in case. Not sure if we'll buy it for year 3.

[twilightmv]

You may want to see if your HO insurance company offers equipment breakdown coverage. It's typically much cheaper than a warranty, pretty low hassle, and covers a lot of the same problems. Depending on your company, putting in a claim on equipment breakdown often does not raise your rates or lead to nonrenewal.

[icedcoffee]

Our realtor bought us a one year warranty as a thank you. Our water heater broke 1 week after moving in. It was a nightmare getting it replaced and they seriously sent out the most incompetent workers ever who not only sucked in general but left us without hot water for 2 days and tracked tons of dirt onto our BRAND NEW carpeting. It was stressful and annoying. The only bright side was a brand new water heater for $85 (the cost of the deductible).

[thatgirl2478]

Essentially, I think they're a waste of money unless you have everything new at the start of the warranty. Ours would only pay a couple hundred dollars to replace our hvac unit when it broke because it was already 20 years old and we could only use one of THEIR approved contractors to purchase a new one if we decided to go that route.

They also don't cover the actual house (roof, walls, floors, windows) - only the systems/appliances inside the house.

[thatgirl2478]

Jun 15, 2017 15:02:16 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Our realtor bought us a one year warranty as a thank you. Our water heater broke 1 week after moving in. It was a nightmare getting it replaced and they seriously sent out the most incompetent workers ever who not only sucked in general but left us without hot water for 2 days and tracked tons of dirt onto our BRAND NEW carpeting. It was stressful and annoying. The only bright side was a brand new water heater for $85 (the cost of the deductible).

There's no reason it should take 2 days to replace a water heater.  It took my guys 4 hours because they had some other plumbing thing to fix.
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[icedcoffee]

Jun 15, 2017 15:12:35 GMT -5 thatgirl2478 said:

Jun 15, 2017 15:02:16 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Our realtor bought us a one year warranty as a thank you. Our water heater broke 1 week after moving in. It was a nightmare getting it replaced and they seriously sent out the most incompetent workers ever who not only sucked in general but left us without hot water for 2 days and tracked tons of dirt onto our BRAND NEW carpeting. It was stressful and annoying. The only bright side was a brand new water heater for $85 (the cost of the deductible).

There's no reason it should take 2 days to replace a water heater.  It took my guys 4 hours because they had some other plumbing thing to fix.
Save

I know! This guy literally spent 2 full days replacing the damn thing.  It was a disaster.  He did need to fix the way it was venting to the outside (or something like that...it was 3 years ago), but it still should not have taken that long.   (wilted)

ETA:  My understanding is that these warranty company's subcontract out and reimburse them very little so the guys that do warranty work general suck and don't have much other business.

[jigsy]

It must really vary by company because I had a great experience...first 3 months, our pool pump/heater system went out and they replaced. Then the AC unit broke and they repaired. No hassle. I believe ours was through First American.

[AHappierHour]

Jun 15, 2017 15:18:36 GMT -5 jigsy said:

It must really vary by company because I had a great experience...first 3 months, our pool pump/heater system went out and they replaced. Then the AC unit broke and they repaired. No hassle. I believe ours was through First American.

We do roof repair for this company and on our side it's not that bad. We do the estimate and submit it and it gets approved pretty quickly.

[imojoebunny]

We have had policies on some of our houses at different times. I was not impressed. because their options for the replacement units were pathetic + their "charges" for upgrades to something normal and code where ridiculous. For example, it was $400 to "upgrade" to a normal brand dishwasher, with regular features, which was the same price it cost to buy it at Home Depot, and they wanted to charge another $100 to "upgrade to code" the water line, which Home Depot installers did for $20. (I do not remember the actual numbers, but you get the idea).

[mrs.jacinthe]

It depends on the company. I typically use and only recommend First American to my clients, and I always let them know that if they have any trouble with their service to call me, because I have a direct line to someone at their company who can move things along (which is why I use and recommend them).

Check with your realtor if you *do* have trouble, perhaps they have someone like that.

[lostrn]

Our realtor got us a home warranty when we bought our house this year and it's been quite handy and they haven't been that bad to work with. DH tells me the company is HWA. We've had to have deal with them for a water leak/drywall repair, broken refrigerator and HVAC replacement. Our deductible is $100, we might have paid less for the refrigerator repair? I'm not 100% sure on that. Each time they've gotten someone out to us promptly (for the a/c someone came out on a Sunday!) and have been easy to work with. The HVAC replacement was a but confusing as to what they would cover, but they were very patient on the phone explaining everything. I'm definitely voting to renew our coverage when this year is up.

[puppyluv]

We got lucky and had a good experience. For our first house, when out heater went out in the middle of winter, they sent someone out the next day. Their solution was a cheap model unit but we went with a nicer one and they gave us the cost of the cheaper model. So we paid a couple hundred dollars for a brand new upgraded unit.

[panicfoot]

We had great experiences with our first home for everything, including electrical, hot water heater, garbage disposal and garage but when it came to a/c, it was shit. They said they would only pay x amount for their contracted workers, which was only one company, and they were charging 2x the rate of every other contractor we called. They refused to reimburse the same amount to another contractor so we cancelled and used a different contractor.