First American Home Warranty

I had a lock changed through First American. I went online and put in the request for a lock change. Not too long after, I got a dispatcher email and a text saying they were going to schedule a certain company. The next day, they had set up a date and time.

Then the vendor came out and completed the work. It was good. The next day, I paid the fee. Everything was good. They were quick. They came within the time window, which was great and it was a simple job. First American is a pretty good warranty. My experience with using them has been good.

The latest experience I had with First American was not really good because the service tech that they had set up with us came out after a week of making a claim just to diagnose our dryer. He said it needed a new igniter.

He never called us back. He never would return phone calls or emails from us or from First American. This went on for several more weeks.

First American finally assigned it to somebody else who called us and came out within a week and fixed it at the same time they came out. They diagnosed the problem as something totally different than what the other guy said it was. It was the problem I thought it was because I checked it out on YouTube.

I didn't want to fiddle with it myself, but it would have been something easy to do. I didn't have a voltage meter to check it with. You should check it with a voltage meter and that'll tell you right away if the fuse is blown.

The guy that came out the second time was from Sears, and he did a fine job. He told me why it overheated and that I should change the vent pipe going to the outside because that was probably clogged because it had not have enough air to move through there. So, I replaced that myself and everything is dandy.

As far as First American, they could try and keep the rates down. They hire these one-man shops and they're getting a full price from their regular customers. But when they get one from the home warranty company, they're probably giving the home warranty company a better price.

They don't have anybody else to send out but themselves. So, they're going to take their regular customers first who are paying full price as opposed to the home warranty customer.

Now, when they call a company like Sears or A&E, they have a lot of people so they can send somebody out quicker. I'd appreciate it if they would do that more often.

We had a plumber with them also who is a one-man job guy. But the first time we had him on a plumbing problem, it took a while for him to get it taken care of. One of the problems was we had a big snow and ice storm during the time and he was from north county. So, that delayed him some. But he fixed the problem fine.

Then the next time we had him, we had a much larger thing, and he was excellent and very helpful. I really appreciate him. He's worth the wait.

He had removed a water heater to get to a water problem we were having with the main shutoff valve in the house. He couldn't get to it because of the stupid place they put it when they built the house.

It's right between the water heater and the furnace down by the floor, and we couldn't shut it off. It kept dripping like crazy. It was going underneath our walls in the utility room into our family room.

He had to be able to get through it. He had to remove the water heater. He couldn't drain the water heater because the valve on that was stuck. So, he had to get a dolly underneath the water heater and move it away. It was one problem after another. But he's a professional and a champion.

He just said, "Well, it's what we got to do, we got to do." He was the one that got the approval from the warranty company to pay for that additional labor removing that hot water heater, which we greatly appreciated.

We also got a microwave out of First American. That took a while because a lot of appliances are just not in stock because of manufacturing problems, but what we got was a good trade for what we had. So, I was happy with that.

We actually got an extra thing for having the furnace cleaned twice a year. First American added only a few bucks to the monthly thing. We have two furnaces. So, when the guy came out to clean the two furnaces, it was only one charge which is like a deductible. I got two furnaces cleaned for 85 bucks, which I think is a good deal. I'm pleased when they do that.

We're just supposed to get a $25 Amazon card for signing up. My brother was supposed to get one for recommending us. Neither one of us got it. We called several times and still never got it. Still overall, I'm pleased with them.

First American's customer service has been good. When I placed claims, they were very efficient. I had a claim on the garage door that just dropped on me. I called and a tech came within the next day and fixed it that same day. He was a younger person, but he was very knowledgeable and efficient and explained the whole process.

For the most part, First American is really good. I've used it for four of our houses. Last month, I tried to get an electrician out for one of our rentals because the master light in the master bedroom wasn't working.

It was something where it just needed to be looked at but unfortunately, First American only had two electricians on their Santa Cruz County squad, and both of them were two weeks out. So, I ended up just vetting and hiring a private electrician to fix it.

So, for those little episodes, First American could get more people they can have on hand to send out. With the plumbing, their guys are pretty responsive and there is a pretty quick turnaround, which is important with a rental. The process is pretty smooth, too.

Another one that came up recently is I'd done three payments. I'd been refunded one. Then there was a fourth. It was the one where they had canceled the electrician because he was too far out. They refunded that but there was another one that had to have been paid that wasn't paid yet.

The rep was very helpful, but she sent me the work order number that doesn't match any of the numbers that I can see on the website.

She called me back and left me the numbers that match up so I can reconcile which one had been paid and which one hadn't been paid, which I would think would be easier to have online somehow. But that's probably a process thing.

There was one guy who I thought was awesome because he was fixing the dryer, but he had ordered the part he needed to fix it, and I called First American because I didn't have a time frame on it online. They told me it was gonna be anywhere from two to four weeks.

In the meantime, the guy who was in charge was from Appliance Doctor and he was great. On his own, he went out, found the part, bought it, and fixed the dryer within three days. Then when First American finally called me, it was like a week and a half later. I said, "It's already been fixed."

I asked them about the process and said, "Did he get reimbursed for that part?" I told them the whole thing. They said, "Oh, yeah. He'll get reimbursed."

I'm thinking there's got to be a better way for them internally to order a part from one of their other suppliers when it's available and not from the other one. But he solved it, so they have good people working for them.

There were just a lot of phone calls. Luckily, I had the time to do it. There are some times when I don't have the time to do that. So, it would be nice if it was streamlined where we'd just do it without having to work the system.

Terrible experience, claim was open for almost 3 months, 3 contractors assigned, 2 of which didn't even work on my type of ac/heat unit. Couldn't get a hold of my contractor, neither could First American.

Took way too long for nothing to get done. I lost my service fee and opted for a cash-out which is a fraction of the price for a new unit alone.

First American uses third-party contractors. One of the plumbing claims I had was really good. We got a good contractor. The most recent one, the guy never showed up. So, I called First American when I hadn't heard from them after the 24-hour window. They got me set up with another contractor that came out a little bit later as well.

Other than that, doing the claims is pretty easy. You go on their website, you say what you need, and then you pay the $95 for the fee for them to come out. They set you up with somebody at some point. Then if they don't contact you in 24 hours, you call the contractor. If the contractor doesn't reply, then you call First American and they'll set you up with somebody else.

Submitting a claim to First American has been really easy. I've just gone online to their website and logged in. Then I filled out the submit a claim form, and they got back to me within a few hours typically, unless it was late at night. Usually, the service people come out within the week.

We had a claim recently on plumbing. It was like two weeks before Christmas. Then with COVID and everything, it ended up taking five weeks before someone was able to come out. But that seemed like an unusual circumstance compared to everything else we've had.

A service guy through First American came out today and fixed the microwave. That's working fine. I got some people coming out to do the lights, too. My biggest issue is the heating and air. That's been over a month, and it seems like they're giving me the runaround. I call their guy, and I don't get any answer.

First American's service was fine until this issue with the heating and air unit. They do what they say. The techs have been good. If they see something is not right, the guy would always come back and make sure it was all right. I told a lot of people about the First American.

Our claims experience with First American has been excellent. It's good peace of mind because we've had the air conditioner have a problem that they sent out a team. Some of the vendors that they've used aren't as responsive as others.

Unfortunately, we have had to use it a couple of times, but the issue has always gotten resolved. We're very happy with the warranty product.

First American did a couple of jobs for me, and they did a good job. Doing service requests to First American is easy, but the problem is when some of the third party vendors make a schedule, and it takes time. It's about three days.

If my heating system is the problem and I need to wait three days, it's impossible. In an emergency case, they need to come by within 24 hours. Then it would be better.