I am writing this post to give an indication to others what my
experience has been with my home warranty company, First American Home
Buyers Protection Organization.
http://homewarranty.firstam.com/ This
is not a statement of complaint or praise, merely facts.
I bought a brick rancher built in 1967. As part of the deal I insisted
upon a home warranty coverage. The seller provided this company which
my realtor told me has a decent reputation as home warranty companies
go. I had no choice in the matter anyway since I wasn't paying for it.
I made my first call a week after moving in. The old Maytag
side-by-side refrigerator was occassionally leaking water out of the
freezer compartment onto the floor in front and the old Jenn-Air
downdraft drop-in stove had a fan switch which only worked on low and
the two heating elements which came as a unit wouldn't get hot enough
to pop popcorn on the stovetop. A service call was scheduled and the
technician came to fix those items. A $100 deductible was paid by me
for the service call.
The refrigerator had a frozen drain pipe which was cleared with hot
water. The stove was another matter. The elements got up to 730
degrees with nothing on them which qualified as serviceable. The fan
switch was ordered and an oven seal was ordered. To make a long story
short, numerous visits by technicians and innumerable calls to the home
warranty company which caused much weeping and gnashing of teeth
finally resulted in the analysis that proper parts could not be ordered
and a new stove would be purchased for us.
The company called us back and offered a brand new Jenn-Air electric
slide-in stove
http://www.jennair.com/catalog/produ...t=69&prod=1464 to replace
our drop-in. I warned them that cabinet modifications would most
probably be required and was informed they would not pay for such. I
asked for a drop-in model instead and waited for the call that never
came. Eventually my wife was sick of waiting and we agreed to the
slide-in model, knowing full well cabinet modifications may be
necessary.
In the meantime a termite inspection revealed a water pipe underneath
the house spraying water. A new call to the home warranty company
brought a plumber out that day which I paid $100 deductible to replace
two copper fittings underneath the house with bad solder joints.
A few days later a call from an appliance technician was made to
schedule install of the new stove. Upon discovering the change from a
drop-in to a slide-in stove the technician backed out and refused to do
the job.
The stove was delivered a week later and I got busy taking the old one
out that night. Several hours of cussing & fussing and sawing finally
forced me to admit defeat and a carpenter was called in to modify the
opening in order to get the stove in as far as it would go for the
faceplate to clear the drawer perpendicular to it. That cost me $150.
Yesterday I took the stainless steel rod oven handle off and handed
over to a friend with machining skills to cut off a couple inches from
both sides so the drawer will clear it also.
Today I got a call from the home warranty company asking how the stove
installation went. I bit my tongue and very nicely informed them the
new stove did not come with a griddle which the old one had and asked
for the installation payment normally given to the technician be
reimbursed to me. The agent promised to look into both items and call
me back. Stay tuned...