First American Home Warranty

We have had First American Warranty for 1 1/2 years. We have had small repairs throughout the year and they did fine. However, recently our A/C coil was leaking and needed to be replaced. The company they sent out to do the repair was notorious for poor workmanship and dishonest dealings. This company informed us that the total cost was $1500 to replace the evaporator coil ($500 of which we would have to pay, leaving $1000 to be paid by First American). We called 3 other companies in the area to get quotes on replacing the coil and all 3 gave us a total of $1500. Because of the contracted companies reputation, we called First American to get a payout so we could go with a different company. They offered me $350!!!! This wouldn’t even cover the cost of the part. We have filed a complaint on BBB, with no resolve. I have also left messages to speak to a manager twice and never gotten a call back. All we want is our A/C fixed by a reputable company.

Worst scam ever. Terrible contractors, terrible foot dragging. The time you spend on the phone with these people trying to get something fixed, combined with the time wasted working with their many inept contractors could be better used learning how to fix it yourself or calling a contractor of your own choice. I've had a simple in wall pipe leak for over a month (claim submitted to them a month ago) and 5 visits later and STILL no diagnosis and no plan of action to fix it. NO, NO, NO. I will not ever renew with them.

Worst home warranty I've seen bottom line. I've been having an ongoing issue with my AC, first the technician they send don't know much and report its an electrical issue and it goes back and forth. To make it better they dont schedule you a follow up date till they send the report and they can get a hold of the company. Once they settled it was a compressor issue it took the company 2 weeks to send the work order and when it was “fixed”. I called because the same issue persisted, called back and requested a different tech to take a look and they said the compressor was wrong. Now they have to make the other company liable and get them to come back. Its been 2 months, $900 wasted, and lots of time off work to be at home with the tech, without AC in mid summer my house is usually at least 80 degrees and to make matters worse I had surgery. This company never calls me back and never gives you a confirmation on when matter would be fix, just a run around. This is not a company you want.

CONSUMER BEWARE!!! THEY DIDNT WANT TO PAY FOR A CLAIM THAT IS CLEARLY STATED AS COVERED SO THEY HAD THEIR PEOPLE CALL IT SOMETHING ELSE THAT IS NOT COVERED!!! My fuse box shorted out. This is clearly covered by contract under electrical. (fuses, fuse panel, junction box, wiring, circuit breakers, switches/fuses, plugs, and conduit all covered. The electrician they sent out said: "I won't even touch it because I don't want to be responsible for the fire it causes". Then said "they try not to pay for these repairs based on cost, and usually have to pay out 50/50 (about half the time"). so they call it "inadequate wiring" and claim this in not covered, however, the house was inspected by a certified electrician and an electrical inspector less than a year ago and passed with flying colors.

Not to mention multiple times throughout the years. when it was submitted, the EXTREMELY RUDE rep that only spoke very poor broken English said they refuse to pay because of the cost of repairs. First American is a fraudulent company selling a service contract they refuse to honor, Because they RUDELY refuse to help resolve this.

Total Air Care - unethical, immoral, fraudulent. Avoid at all costs. Our A/C died 24 July 2018 and we contacted First American Home Warranty (FAH) the next morning via their on-line appointment request and via telephone. Three days later (!!!) Total Air Care (TAC)'s tech came out, saw that pressure was low in our condenser, and topped it off. Two days later, the same problem happens again.

Obviously there's a leak somewhere. Second visit took FOUR days to get the technician out - he diagnosed a bad condenser coil (leaking) and told me they would replace it provided the home warranty covered it. FAH decided to replace it, and here's where it goes sideways - well. More sideways than the ridiculous waits for people to come out and take a look.

I fought FAH for THREE WEEKS to get them to order the correct equipment. Our home is equipped with a 4 ton air handler and condenser, and they ordered a 3.5 ton replacement for both. I spent over 8 hours on the phone with multiple people who all gave me different stories, provided pictures of the make and model, the manufacturer's documentation on how to decipher the model to derive capacity, and finally am assigned a claims specialist named Yvonne.

I was contacted via email only after I complained on their web-based dashboard that I wasn't being helped and that my kids were suffering in the 90+ degree, 80%+ humidity of a Florida summer. So FINALLY, at 34 days of misery, the right equipment is available for pickup by TAC. I look at the portal, and see "Awaiting customer acceptance of non-covered charges". Huh? Never disclosed. When trying to contact TAC, expect to waste 4 hours of your day in their Parts and Service queue to be told by an overflow operator w/o access to anything useful with regards to status that "someone will call you" - you never get through to a person that can help, they do NOT respond to emails, and they will NEVER call you back. Here's what TAC submitted to me as "non-covered charges" - and wouldn't tell me over the phone, I had to get this from FAH: Permit fee: $199 dollars (permit fees in my area are $95. A like-for-like replacement does not require a permit). Manual J Load Calculation: $225 (TAC never ran one. One isn't required in my county. A Manual J calculation should be performed when DESIGNING a system, and takes into account thing like floor plan, cubic footage of air to be cooled, R ratings of insulation, windows, all of it, and not required during a like for like replacement). Float switch: $100 (Available for $24.99 on-line, more than 300% markup) Condenser pad: $150 (36" x 36" x 3" pad is $78 at Home Depot, 100% markup) SUP(ply)-RET(urn) modification: $375 (Installing an air handler dimensionally identical and no listing of REQUIRED modifications. Also note TAC did not perform a site survey, cost estimating, labor estimating, or materials estimate.) Programmable Thermostat to meet code requirement: $127 (Already have one, not required). R410A reclaim/recovery fee: $144 (System is empty, it's leaking, so no refrigerant in system... if this is a legal requirement I'd want them to state the code and section that requires it. Thy did not). Disposal Fee: $100 Condenser Tie Downs: $78 (A set of four of the same make as the manufacturer of the unit to be replaced are available on Amazon for $11.75.

More than 500% markup). Locking caps: $79 ($30 bucks at Grainger, no explanation of requirements provided and more than 150% markup). Electrical Modifications: $550 (What modifications are required for an existing, code compliant installation? No site survey, cost estimating, labor estimating, or materials estimate performed. I'd want an itemized list of work to be performed with materials required as well as labor to be performed - what, to plug it in???). Drain Line modifications: $76 (Huh?) Code requirement Duct Certification: $175 (not required in my county) Total cost of non-covered items were: $2378 Total cost of replacement equipment if I purchased: $3172 Offered cash in lieu of replacement: $ ~$2000 FAH stated that they: - Do not set the charges from TAC - Do not advocate for customers with contractors - Do not release procured equipment to other contractors less predatory than TAC - Do not obtain second opinions on installation "non-covered" charges - Do not negotiate. Period. - Take the payout or pay TAC $2400 dollars, and have a nice day. If you've read this thus far, you're smart enough to figure this out...TAC unavailable for comment and FAH is useless. Avoid at all costs. Find another warranty company and NEVER let TAC work on your house. Tech was a good dude but company? Crooked as a dog's hind leg.

Terrible experience. Waited a month for a repair and guy spent 10 minutes and didn’t fix it and told me to call back for another technician to come fix it. Customer service was rude, won’t answer questions, reads from script over and over, puts me on hold 35 minutes, transfers me to another rude person and same thing again and again. Have to wait another month for another technician. Such a waste of time and money. We need our appliances to work and are stuck without them because this awful company can’t get their stuff together.

The contractor chosen by First American had trouble getting in parts for my heater. After almost two months with a heater and air conditioner malfunctioning, First American said the problem was fixed on the first visit and I was putting in a new claim. Fortunately I kept the voice mail of their selected contractor telling me he was waiting for the parts. I hope their fraud gets me around the arbitration clause, if there is an arbitration clause as mentioned in this article. My intention is to retain counsel to file a class action suit.