Quick Summary: Started a claim for a broken water heater, plumber was unavailable and rude. Then, during a video appt. I talked them into coming out anyway (nearest plumber was 5 hours away, that says a lot on its own). On the day they were to arrive, they decided they didn't want to do it so the plumber made up a story he called me halfway out and said that I wish to close the claim because I fixed it myself. This enabled them to get paid, for doing nothing. Complete liars. Nobody wanted to do a thing about it, neither the plumber nor AHS since their record said the claim was closed. Even after explaining that this was not true, none of this happened, AHS chose to do nothing. $100 copay for nothing, no service no repair no appeal no nothing. Here's the long story: 10 years ago we purchased a second home and of course AHS Warranty was what was included for the first year, even though we knew it to be a problematic company to deal with according to all of the neighbors. At first, we were feeling lucky (and reminding the neighbors of this) with the applicance coverage part of the warranty as we had a company within an hour that was quick and great with diagnosis and repairs. Bill's Appliance in Bishop, tremendous company. But when it came to plumbing calls or other services, AHS had the worst of the worst available. Dr. Drain. A loopy old guy who was a gambling addict and spends most of his time at the casino. If he showed up, it would be a miracle. Nice guy though dealing with appointments was a challenge. He didn't do much to help us out but he tried in his own way, but for days. Eventually we hired another plumber on our own to find the problem, and it was found within 15 minutes and fixed within 10. Fortunately AHS covered the bill. Points to them. So again, neighbors, AHS came through.
Well, here's where it gets super ugly. This is where any and all points they had won previously with us, were deleted in our minds and counting backwards by the minute. We had a water heater problem, no hot water. Obviously that's a problem. Well, they didn't have anybody close but they set us up with a contractor about 5 hour drive away. OK, well, however it has to be handled, I'm ok with that. I pushed the guy on the phone to get an appointment sooner than the original 2 weeks and he was able to pull through with a video appt that afternoon. Sure enough, we had a video conference with the actual plumber, though he was condescending. He complained that he would lose $ to complete this claim and I basically said, I'm sure you can figure out how to make $ from this. He got real cocky and said I was being rude. Ok, he didn't get my intent, but I asked him to come out asap and I'll make sure he gets the review of reviews. So he said he can get a guy out on Sunday (this was a Friday I think) and he would call me Monday morning. Maybe he'll even text on Sunday if he gets in early. So, I am making sure I don't have plans on Sunday or Monday. Ok. I never heard a word, either day. Finally, I called Monday afternoon, trying my best to give them the benefit of the doubt, and the plumber's operator said that I had talked to their guy and I told him that I fixed it myself. Wow and huh? I fixed it myself? First of all, I offered to send my call log to him to show him that nobody called other than my wife those 2 days. No texts, no emails, etc. So they said they were all done and claim is closed. Of course I questioned this, but the guy just hung up on me. So I called AHS, after 25 minutes on hold, I talked to a nice operator who also said that I had closed the claim. Huh? Again? How is this happening? So I call both again, to ask what is going on. Nobody wanted to discuss it. I am doing my best to keep calm and though that's my style, it was tempting to get angry but that doesn't help anything. So I finally get AHS back on the phone and I asked for a supervisor, nobody available. Call back? Not available. Open up another claim just to get this taken care of properly (start over), not an option. So I took the evening to calm down and consider other options. This is so weird and nobody is interested in helping get our water heater fixed. I tried other plumbers in town, maintaining my previous experience that I could just get reimbursed. Nobody is available for 3 weeks, it is crazy time in town. Plus nobody will work for AHS since every single one of them will not ever work for AHS again, explaining their own horrible experiences with AHS. So it's back to AHS I go, on the phone. Nice gal, doesn't know what to do since the claim is closed. Reads to me that I "fixed it myself and that the plumber will be paid for their time for driving all of the way out here and had to turn around without any work done". I call the plumber again, nope, no change in their story, they are sticking to it. So I look them up on Yelp, Google, FB. Their reviews are pretty awful and it seems they have done stuff like this before, so I brought this up to AHS. No interest. Can I make an appeal? At least get my $100 copay back? Nope. "Somebody from up high here at AHS will give you a call to follow up in a few weeks and you can explain it to them if you are so inclined". No call ever received, no follow up ever made. So I cancelled the plan (was paying annually and it was up for renewal in a month or so). I then get so many phone calls to renew. Nope, I explain why, no interest. I get so many emails to renew. Nope, I respond the same and I even fill out an online survey with a shortened version of this story. No interest, no reply, no follow up. So they have my $100, the plumber got paid even though they completely lied about everything. So I left a review on the plumber's FB page telling a shorter version of this story. The Admin of their page followed up with a personal attack on my own FB page with incredibly rude comments about me and how awful I was and that I was a liar and they did everything to get my hot water fixed and then I waited until they were halfway here to let them know I fixed it." Geez, well that didn't happen and my hot water is still on the blink. So, what would you do? I eventually paid somebody out of pocket to fix it and got hot water. The plumber who showed up in 3 weeks (had to wait, no choice) was quick and nice. Relatively easy fix for them as well. Here's my thought - DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO AHS. IT IS A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY. THEY GET HORRIBLE REVIEWS AND THIS IS WHY. IT'S A BIG CORPORATION WITHOUT ANY LEADERSHIP OR INTERESTED PARTIES TO IMPROVE THEIR SERVICES. Also, do not ever use PLYMWR Plumbing in Victorville, CA. OMG what a bunch of liars.

I'm gonna keep this very simple. My water heater went out. I opened a claim with American Home Shield. They could not get a contractor out for several days so they granted me the rights to hire my own contractor, with the condition that they technician call in before completing the work. I hired a locally plumbing company with good reviews. I advised the technician to called AHS before making the repair. The technician called me back stating that he had to add a second hand to help him remove and replace the water heater from my attic. I asked if he had spoken with AHS. He said yes, everything is good. This was on March 10th.
On March 11, I got the photos of the damaged Water Heater, along with the invoice that included the diagnoses of the appliance. I immediately forwarded to AHS. A week goes by and I call on March 18th to confirm receipt. The agent can't confirm ad advises me to resend. No problem, I resent, after verifying the correct email address. On March 23rd I call back to confirm receipt the second time. The agent first tries to advise me to resend, again. So I pushed to get the answer they they did have the invoice, but had reached out to the contractor for more detail, but had not had a response. So, I called the contractor and requested a more detailed invoice. I had to call twice, but finally got it on March 24th. I immediately forwarded to AHS. On March 29th, I called to once again confirm receipt and see if they needed anything else. The agent advise that it was being taken care of because they are currently working on invoices received on March 26th. I again pushed for a more definitive answer. I finally got to a supervisor who proceeded to tell me that the contractor didn't follow the procedures correctly. She said that he called after the work was complete to "help me get reimbursed." So they were denying the claim. 1. The invoice and pictures were very clear as to the diagnoses, which is covered. 2. They had made effort to get a more detailed invoice after the original submission on March 11th, which implies coverage. After I went to the process of getting what they needed, they are now denying the claim because the contractor didn't get prior authorization. I asked to speak to someone above her because she continued to have the same "conflict resolution" response, followed by "I am the supervisor." Finally I said I would hold for her supervisor. She put me on hold, came back to check on me and hung up in the middle of telling me she was trying to get her supervisor on the line.