I used to work for a home warranty company and it was amazing the
amount of complaints that would come in, as if homeowners were
expecting their $400 premium investment to turn into a pot of gold
somehow.

Never mind that a disturbing proportion of homeowners are too busy to
read and understand the terms and conditions of the policy, or they
get sucked into dealing with dishonest real estate agents who are too
busy to explain that "Well, you have to pay additional amount for the
well pump coverage".

Of course, some of the contractors are bottom-feeders as well, but I
don't think the sampling of contractors affiliated with any warranty
company is significantly different from a typical sampling of
contractors from the Yellow Pages.

Now home warranty plans are greatly helped by the wave of McMansion
Developments in which the HVAC goes out within 5-6 months of each
other on the whole entire block (say, 10 years after building). Wow,
what whopping good equipment that was installed in the first place,
probably some crap like Janitrol or Carrier.

And then even a few (thankfully not a majority) homeowners expect
their bottom-of-the-barrel Caloric range to be replaced with Viking
equipment! Or a Maytag refrigerator with a Subzero!

And then I loved the H/O's who shell out $800,000 for some 2K square
foot disaster-waiting-to-happen and then get all ancy because they
can't afford a new furnace. WELL IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD A NEW FURNACE
THEN YOU CAN'T AFFORD AN $800,000 McMoneypit to begin with.

But then I also dug the occasional homeowner who had a Renewal policy
(!) and then asks some really ignorant questions that he/she should
have figured out 15 months ago when he/she first closed and got the
warranty policy, and then mouths off, "Oh these home warranties are
****, I don't even know why I renewed." Well, DUH, why DID you renew?



Cheers,
The Warranty Stud