"The Warranty Stud" wrote in message
news

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





I was one of the "lucky" ones,
I got a home warranty when I moved in from the seller, I discovered a leaky
pipe, the first plumbing company that was sent out to look at it and
decided not to fix it because they though it would involve tearing out
hardwood floor. They had the insurance company send me a check to buy out
the issue, and leave me with the problem. I got sent 400 bucks and told,
sorry, can't help you. Now, here is where the lucky part comes in. The
first company to look at the leak did bother realizing that they could
access the leak thru the wall in the sunken den on the other side of the
wall.
I fixed the leak with some pvc joint compound and a $2 elbow fitting. Took
me 1 1/2 hrs to put everything back together including the drywall.

I think I made out okay.

But really the home warranties are crap, if you get anything out of them
its the lowest quality stuff, and the contractors that work for them only do
so because they can't develop a reputation of quality on their own to
continue to find work. Case in point the plumbing guy that came to my house.

Dave