Choice Home Warranty
reviews and complaints

I started the contract with Choice Home Warranty (choicehomewarranty.com ) on 10/27/2008 covering HVAC and making onetime payment of $344 for the contract lasting one year. On 12/02/2008 2 units (furnaces) stopped working. I contacted Choice with repair request. The technician was sent on 12/03/2008 to do the diagnosis - control boards needed to be replaced. Choice refused a repair without additional documentation. The following documents were submitted:

- home inspection report done upon purchasing the property
- diagnosis/checkup of the HVAC systems done on 07/27/2007
- repair and checkup of the HVAC systems done on 06/26/2008

After many phone calls and 14 days with no heat, the customer representative from Choice: Ron Stillwater stated that the repair could not be cover because:

- it is odd that two of the systems fail in the same time
- there is no date on the document from 6/26/2008 - even though it is printed
- there is no signatures on the receipt from 06/26/2008 - even though is states on the receipt that it is a electronic invoice and the authenticity can be proven by contacting the company that did the repair/checkup service on 6/26/2008. Ron Stillwater stated that no company will be contacted.
- there are many inconsistencies in provided documentation - with no additional comments provided.

I need to add that dealing with this guy (company) was the worst customer service experience. Imagine rep. screaming, inventing stories that do not add - the management needs to review your files - and than 5 sec. later - it just popped up on my screen that your claim was denied. I asked for the manager many times but never no one was available. He was accusing me of taking long time sending the documentation where in fact they (or he) were not replying to my faxes, emails and phone calls. The faxes were being lost and I had to resend the documentation. I felt like it was really immature, irresponsible, unprofessional, sneaky thief one person shop.

STAY AWAY FROM CHOICEHOMEWARRANTY.COM

Please do NOT choose Choice Home Warranty for your home. They are a huge scam and do not live up to ANY of their contract obligations. Ron Stillwater is the primary focus of our dispute.

Our hot water heater broke after only 3 months in the house. Ron explained that they required 5 years of proof that we had drained the heater bi-yearly. Of course, we just bought the house - how could we have that.

Ron would not return our phone calls for three days. When we did get a hold of him, he was rude, swore at me, lied blatently to me and never covered the water heater.

I dealt with numerous people at Choice Home Warranty, but ultimately, they always put me to Ron Stillman - and I cannot convey this strongly enough - could care less about our situation or the contract they were supposed to honor. As my finished basement was flooding, he told the plumbers to leave as 'it will be days before we can approve or deny the work'. The plumbers were so amazed - they stopped working with Choice. Then my realtor heard about this - they no longer work with Choice. Thanks for reading and please heed my advice - you will pay for absolutely nothing and get insulted by the management when you attempt a claim. Also, their website says 24/7. Unless24/7 means M-F from 9:30 - 5:00pm, they sure - the rest of the time is an answering service which simply sends your message the next working business day (so bless you if you have any problems after 5 on a friday).

My refrigerator broke down one month into the contract and Choice Home Warranty (CHW) assigned me a service company in my area. I called them out and they determined that the freezer coils and compressor needed to be replaced due to normal wear & tear (restriction in the line due most likely to the presence of air in the line).

The service company lady who turned the report in to CHW at first told me that it looked like I would be getting a new refrigerator but that didn't happen. Instead, after a few days went by, CHW called to tell me that the refrigerator coils were dirty per the report they received and so the repair was not covered due to paragraph 9.1.2 of the contract which spells out the exceptions for refrigerator repair coverage.

I first spoke with the lady at the repair company who then called CHW to find out what was going on. She called me back and told me they changed their mind about covering the repair for some unkown reason. I spoke with a manager at CHW that got me nowhere and also had a three-way conversation with him and the service company lady that also got me nowhere. The service company lady said that she deals with 11 home warranty companies and that they all record her phone reports to them and suggested that CHW see if they have a recording of her phone report to them. I checked back with CHW's service manager who was not able to find any report recording, and that my repair was not covered. The end.

September 2008 I purchased a home warranty from Choice home warranty and I had a package that allowed me and many home owners purchase and payoff in 3months for a year contract which was paid off Deember 18th, 2008.
The contract was supposed to be mailed to my home and they said they could not email their contract which I know would have sent a Red flagged if I was able to view before purchasing.
Till this day I have not viewed my contract which I regret buying before reading their contract.
The week of December 22nd my husband made a call in for service due to our water heater bursting which had inpacted a water fllod in our basement.
They sent a service contractor in day after and he indicated to them that we had a rust in our home wareanty which was due to the age of the water heater and knows we needed a new one.
They company told him and my husband they could not cover because the contract states they do not cover a Rust.
When I spoke to the manager on December 23-24th, they told me to read my contract that they do not cover rust that a rust indicate a non mentained water heater.
I called the contractor and spoke to the contractor who was surprsie at the action of the home warranty, he said he tried to explain to them that we had no actions that prevented the rust that the water heater was placed 1971 and that it is a common thing he had seen.
He said when he tried to explain to Hoem Warranty they told him it was between them and the customer.
Till this day they would not fix my water heater and have taken our money.
My husband then concluded we were at a loss to exit the contract even though we had paid for the service because he could not deal with a Scam.
Please do not buy from this company and check out their contract before purchasing, it is a lesson learned and will not happen again!

I started the contract with Choice Home Warranty (choicehomewarranty.com ) on 10/27/2008 covering HVAC and making onetime payment of $344 for the contract lasting one year. On 12/02/2008 2 units (furnaces) stopped working. I contacted Choice with repair request. The technician was sent on 12/03/2008 to do the diagnosis – control boards needed to be replaced. Choice refused a repair without additional documentation. The following documents were submitted:
• home inspection report done upon purchasing the property
• diagnosis/checkup of the HVAC systems done on 07/27/2007
• repair and checkup of the HVAC systems done on 06/26/2008
After many phone calls and 14 days with no heat, the customer representative from Choice: Ron Stillwater stated that the repair could not be cover because:
• “it is odd that two of the systems fail in the same time”
• “there is no date on the document from 6/26/2008” even though it is printed
• “there is no signatures on the receipt from 06/26/2008” even though is states on the receipt that it is a electronic invoice and the authenticity can be proven by contacting the company that did the repair/checkup service on 6/26/2008. Ron Stillwater stated that “no company will be contacted”.
• “there are many inconsistencies in provided documentation”… with no additional comments provided.
I need to add that dealing with this guy (company) was the worst customer service experience. Imagine rep. screaming, inventing stories that do not add up…. “the management needs to review your files…” and than 5 sec. later ”oh….it just popped up on my screen that your claim was denied…”. I asked for the manager many times but never no one was available. He was accusing me of taking long time sending the documentation where in fact they (or he) were not replying to my faxes, emails and phone calls. The faxes were being lost and I had to resend the documentation. I felt like it was really immature, irresponsible, unprofessional, ripoff one person shop.

A week ago my furnace started making loud noises and I called my home warranty company National Home Protection (NHP) to have someone come out and fix the noise. NHP sent out a Furance Technician who looked at the issue and decided that the bearings were going bad within the Furnace motor/blower and the motor/blower had to be replaced. The technician called NHP and after discussing the issue with NHP came in and said that they would need maintenance records for the furnace before approving the repairs.

I just bought the house 2 months before and have had no maintenance on the house utilities; so, as a substitute they said I should send in the Home Inspection documents to include everything regarding the furnace and the page before and after. I faxed in the documents, called to ensure they recieved them and was told I would hear back in 24-48 hours. After 1 week I called them to find out the status as they did not call me as promised, only to find out that they had denied the claim because 1) there was not proper maintenance records and 2) the furance was not inoperable, they only repair things which are inoperable and not things which are broken, but yet working in a reduced capacity.

This is my second claim with NHP the first took 1 month to fix a water heater which the thermostat was broken after going through about 4 contractors.

This company has terrible service and makes it a practice to make repairs difficult or impossible to discourage payouts. Fortunately spring is here and I don't have to worry about my family freezing from the furnace issues, but will now have to pay $500 out of my own pocket to get the repairs - not to mention the $45 I had to pay for the initial contractor to review the issue.

Please stay away from this company and find a Home Warranty company which is more reputable.

Common Policies and Practices Used Against Consumers:

With the exception of Advantage Home Warranty, the inner workings and structure of the home warranty industry is stacked against the policy holder.

With loopholes large enough to drive a Mac truck through, they need NEVER pay out any claim...and you the policy holder can do little about it.

This article describes how the home warranty industry builds convenient loopholes into the system to avoid paying claims and how it should work.

TARNISHED REPUTATION

A lot of Realtors offer home warranties to their clients, But many may not know that the credibility of the home warranty industry is tarnished in the eye of the public. And for GOOD REASON. The whole business model is intentionally flawed in their favour. But first, a little background...for full article go to:

http://www.squidoo.com/homewarrantysecretsexposed