When we bought our home last Summer we also got a Home Warranty for 1 year. The main reason we got it was because the house had older Heating/Cooling units. So one month before our warranty runs out - our Air Conditioning stopped working. The outside unit was not turning - just humming and smelled like something burning in there.
After digging around we found the paperwork with the HMS warranty info on it. We called late at night since it said to call 24hrs with any claim. After getting through the automated system I talked to a nice lady and explained my issue. She gave me a claim number and assigned a local heating and air company that would used to service the problem. She put me on hold and called and left a voice message for the repairman.
The next morning I got a call from the repair service and we setup a appointment for the next afternoon. So thats 2 full summer nights with no air conditioning.
The repairman came out at 2pm and found that the problem was the defrost part had gone bad. This is a heat pump system - so the outside unit even runs in the winter. He said I know it sounds silly, but this part is causing your AC not to work. He said I can actually bypass this part and get your air working and bring the part back in about a week. I was happy the AC was working again and I was asking him about the HMS Warranty company.
He gave me some serious information about HMS. First I had to pay him $100.00 for his visit. He was honest and said that for this fix it would have been around $75.00 plus $12.00 for the part. HMS will not allow him to use his own vendors for parts. He has to call them and tell him what parts or unit he needs to fix or replace the problem. HMS then uses their vendor and ships the part or unit to him. He said that I could have been without AC for weeks waiting for certain parts.
Here is the best part. If it had been a entire outside unit replacement I would have to pay him for removing the unit and disposing of the freon. How much is that you ask? $300.00! No you can't use your own guy or do it yourself. It is written in the contract that you signed at closing on your house as well as paid $350.00 or so for the Scam Warranty.
***UPDATE*** It is over a week later and still no part from the Warranty company. Our AC stopped working 3 Days ago and lucky for us it hasn't be overly hot. This is a terrible scam they are running. I found out they didn't even ship the part until 1 week after my service call. I guess they wait until you call back to make sure you still want it....TERRIBLE.. We will be reporting this to BBB.
***UPDATE*** After 2 weeks after my first call to HMS and no contact from the service company to come install the part - HMS told me to call someone and they would reimburse me for it. I couldn't believe my ears... They are asking me to pay out of my pocket for the warranty they are to provide? Unbelievable. So lucky for me I have a friend that runs his own AC company and he fixed it the same day. The funny part is the service company called me while my friend was installing the new circuit board in the unit. I faxed the invoice in to HMS for the reimbursement check that they say will take 2-4 weeks. Stay tuned...
***UPDATE*** I received the check, but for $100.00 less than my cost for the repair on the invoice. They said it was because above their pay scale for service done. Oh well - lesson learned and lesson past on. I'm not going to fight it - $100.00 isn't worth the time and effort it would take to get it out of them if at all. I'm sure somewhere in that 10 page contract it protects them on this front/scam.... Movin' On and letting this be.
So eager Home buyer - Don't Waste Your Money on Home Warranties...
