Anyone use First American Home Buyers Protection?

[RoBoTeq]

I'm interested in hearing from both consumer's who may have purchase a home warranty from this company or any contractor's who do work for this company.

I am in the midst of having a very unpleasant dealing with them as a new home owner who inherited a warranty policy with
First American Home Buyers Protection.

[crmont]

In my limited experience they are difficult to work with. They want to supply the parts for the repair and then tell you what to charge. Not worth screwing with.

[jeremyhall.tech.sc]

if they are willing to pay your prices .. go

if not............... no

i have two HW companies i work for .... 10 i wont.

its free flow work but it IS "get in get out work "

i get plenty of serv. cont. from my home warranty HO's.

[RoBoTeq]

As a consumer, I have so far had nothing but heartache from having to deal with First American Home Buyers Protection. The contractor they sent to fix my oil boiler has to be one of the worst types of people in our industry. As a distributor rep, I would make any excuse to not sell anything to this company because they are so terrible to deal with and just make one excuse after another for their failing to get me heat.

First American Home Buyers Protection claims on their advertizing and call waiting loop that the pre-screen every contractor and do Internet searches about these contractors before allowing them to work for First American Home Buyers Protection. BULL! It took me all of 5 minutes to find six different complaints about this company doing pretty much what they did to me. Also, the website for this company is shut down by Yellow Pages for nonpayment. So, First American Home Buyers Protection are just flat out lying about prequalifying contractors.

[JenB]

I'm interested in hearing from both consumer's who may have purchase a home warranty from this company or any contractor's who do work for this company.

I am in the midst of having a very unpleasant dealing with them as a new home owner who inherited a warranty policy with
First American Home Buyers Protection.


Hello! Sorry to hear your having an unpleasant experience. I am giving you information from the Contractor's standpoint. I have worked with First American Home Buyers, and there are some pros and cons to the whole thing.

On the negative side, they do not cover all the charges. There is a limit to what they will cover. From my understanding the homeowner is responsible for the difference. I have also noticed that when they cannot get the company the homeowner so wishes to have out, they have you get the work done, and then they reimburse you. When done this way you are more likely to get the full amount or closest to. And sadly, you do get more from this company when you show aggression. Another negative to this is that the waiting period is ridiculous. The time it takes for them to get a contractor scheduled, and the time it takes for the contractor to receive an approval are proposterous.

On the plus side, yes, there is one. If your system turns out to need to be replaced, they will sell out the contract. They will put the remainder of it towards it or so on. They may send a bottom line system, but they will get it replaced. Even so, you may be responsible for a small portion, but in my experience, they covered there bases decently if my memory is correct. It has to be something big that is at fault in order for this to take place, but it has happened many a time before.

All in all, I personally would use it if it's something that happened to come with the house. I would never purchase one at my own expense. If I were in your shoes, I would show some aggression on the phones and demand to speak with managers and get the work done myself, and demand reimbursement due to their lack of timeliness.

Best of luck in your future and current endeavors, have a great new year!

[djp0623]

They have paid out over $3k in service for my AC and refrigerator.

They replaced my coils in the air handler, some kind of pressure switching valve device out by the compressor, electrical wiring, etc.

They also replaced a part on my refrigerator when the freezer stopped working or worked too much since it froze up.

It's a long process with a lot of phone calls. The first people to service the HVAC was a very reputable installer that will be in the running to install my new system. They got the home warranty people to cover the coils. Unfortunately after that repair I never saw them again for warranty work (since then, I use them for my biannual maintenance).

From then on it was Sears service, not quite as good because it was someone new every time they came to the house. So every time the person had to troubleshoot the system. Until finally the problem persisted and Sears sent a very knowledgeable person that fixed it the first time. My AC went out during the hottest two weeks of the summer while I had company and a 18 mo baby. I let my wife handle the phone calls. I think she could have made GOD himself appear to get something done. The warranty people got someone to come out after hours over a holiday weekend when the first fix broke.

The first year was free with purchase of home, and then I paid for two more years. Cost increased every year. After two years I felt the money was better spent saving for a new unit. (17 yo at the time) The warranty cost me $750 for two years so I came out ahead by more than $2300. I guess it was a good thing that I decided to stop buying the warranty. I got a letter stating they were not offering warranty service in my area anymore. "my area" may have just been a nice way of saying "you cost to much" and we don't want you anymore. IDK

[RoBoTeq]

Hello! Sorry to hear your having an unpleasant experience. I am giving you information from the Contractor's standpoint. I have worked with First American Home Buyers, and there are some pros and cons to the whole thing.

On the negative side, they do not cover all the charges. There is a limit to what they will cover. From my understanding the homeowner is responsible for the difference. I have also noticed that when they cannot get the company the homeowner so wishes to have out, they have you get the work done, and then they reimburse you. When done this way you are more likely to get the full amount or closest to. And sadly, you do get more from this company when you show aggression. Another negative to this is that the waiting period is ridiculous. The time it takes for them to get a contractor scheduled, and the time it takes for the contractor to receive an approval are proposterous.

On the plus side, yes, there is one. If your system turns out to need to be replaced, they will sell out the contract. They will put the remainder of it towards it or so on. They may send a bottom line system, but they will get it replaced. Even so, you may be responsible for a small portion, but in my experience, they covered there bases decently if my memory is correct. It has to be something big that is at fault in order for this to take place, but it has happened many a time before.

All in all, I personally would use it if it's something that happened to come with the house. I would never purchase one at my own expense. If I were in your shoes, I would show some aggression on the phones and demand to speak with managers and get the work done myself, and demand reimbursement due to their lack of timeliness.

Best of luck in your future and current endeavors, have a great new year!
First American Home Buyers Protection has done nothing to get me heat. Now,
First American Home Buyers Protection is not even returning my calls. I finally got through to the agent in charge of my claim and she told me that my claim has gone to another division. I spoke to her boss who told me the same thing, but that he could not find out who I could contact at that other division. To his credit, he did call back today to say that he would not be able to get the name of who I have to contact until Monday.

In the meantime this is now three weeks of no heat and First American Home Buyers Protection has refused to provide another contractor, one that hopefully isn't located 50 miles away. I live in Eastern PA. There are literally hundreds of contractors closer to me then the contractor that First American Home Buyers Protection is forcing me to have to deal with.

Sorry, but I see no up side to having a policy with First American Home Buyers Protection. What a consumer could pay in electricity alone just to try to keep warm under the circumstances I am in would be more then any savings from have a warranty with First American Home Buyers Protection.

[RoBoTeq]

Looks like I am not alone in having troubles with
First American Home Buyers Protection;
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/insurance/first_american_home_buyers_protection.html

[RoBoTeq]

In my limited experience they are difficult to work with. They want to supply the parts for the repair and then tell you what to charge. Not worth screwing with.
Maybe if First American Home Buyers Protection had provided the part for my boiler, it would have been the right part and not something that had to be hacked in by the idiot contractor who didn't even use the gasketing that came with the part.

[RoBoTeq]

They have paid out over $3k in service for my AC and refrigerator.

They replaced my coils in the air handler, some kind of pressure switching valve device out by the compressor, electrical wiring, etc.

They also replaced a part on my refrigerator when the freezer stopped working or worked too much since it froze up.

It's a long process with a lot of phone calls. The first people to service the HVAC was a very reputable installer that will be in the running to install my new system. They got the home warranty people to cover the coils. Unfortunately after that repair I never saw them again for warranty work (since then, I use them for my biannual maintenance).

From then on it was Sears service, not quite as good because it was someone new every time they came to the house. So every time the person had to troubleshoot the system. Until finally the problem persisted and Sears sent a very knowledgeable person that fixed it the first time. My AC went out during the hottest two weeks of the summer while I had company and a 18 mo baby. I let my wife handle the phone calls. I think she could have made GOD himself appear to get something done. The warranty people got someone to come out after hours over a holiday weekend when the first fix broke.

The first year was free with purchase of home, and then I paid for two more years. Cost increased every year. After two years I felt the money was better spent saving for a new unit. (17 yo at the time) The warranty cost me $750 for two years so I came out ahead by more than $2300. I guess it was a good thing that I decided to stop buying the warranty. I got a letter stating they were not offering warranty service in my area anymore. "my area" may have just been a nice way of saying "you cost to much" and we don't want you anymore. IDK
Yours is the first story I have heard that is even remotely in favor of buying a home warranty.

[Roadhouse]

RoBo, yourself being an hvac tech, why don't you fix it yourself or would that void the warranty?

I have yet to hear of any home insurance company that people are happy with their services. When I worked for an hvac company that soley worked and survived for American Home Shield, nothing would get fixed especially if an entirely new unit was needed, for two to three weeks they'd just leave the ho'er stuck with no air.

[RoBoTeq]

WOW! Here's a site completely dedicated to keeping consumers from being ripped off by First American Home Buyers Protection
http://firstamericanripoff.com/

[Stamas]

I'm tempted to come fix this for free, I think it would be in your best interest.
BT said he'd help.....





















Well, he hasn't yet.

[tipsrfine]

I'm in support of robo's campaign of putting the word out on a company who refuses to do the right thing after being given the opportunity to do so. Too many companies feel they can treat cash paying customers like dirt due to their customers taking it from them laying down. Don't get me started on the cell phone companies.
I do, however, think the major blame should be on the HWC, and not the "down-in-his-luck contractor who has to feed off of the business the HWC throwns their way. After getting reamed by the HWC enough, they have to play the game by the HWC rules.

[RoBoTeq]

I'm tempted to come fix this for free, I think it would be in your best interest.
BT said he'd help.....

Well, he hasn't yet.
The boiler is up and running. I got one of my contractors to get it up and running and just paid him out of pocket, which I am now in the process of getting reimbursed from First American Home Buyers Protection, whose agents have already told me they won't reimburse for work done by other then those wonderful contractors that they have approved after carefully checking them out for licensing and for problems showing up on the Internet. We don't have actual licensing, but I can't find this contractor listed as having regestered with the States Attorney's office for a regestration number which is required of all contractors in PA. And a very brief search for this company on the Internet yields a whole lot of complaints against them.

Now that the system is operational, there are other issues that I am not familiar enough with to resolve. As I have mentioned before, two things I am not so proficient in are oil burners and hydronic systems. I am going to start another thread about a problem I am having with the pressure valve opening and the pressure tank mounted in the joist space above the boiler. I have to keep draining that overhead tank to keep the pressure valve from opening.

[RoBoTeq]

I'm in support of robo's campaign of putting the word out on a company who refuses to do the right thing after being given the opportunity to do so. Too many companies feel they can treat cash paying customers like dirt due to their customers taking it from them laying down. Don't get me started on the cell phone companies.
I do, however, think the major blame should be on the HWC, and not the "down-in-his-luck contractor who has to feed off of the business the HWC throwns their way. After getting reamed by the HWC enough, they have to play the game by the HWC rules.
Good to have you on my side. I also agree with you about cell phone companie and communication companies in general.

I am also going after First American Home Buyers Protection with a vengence because of how they are mishandling this issue. This contractor however is not one being used by companies like First American Home Buyers Protection, this guy is one who makes out off of companies like First American Home Buyers Protection by deliberately screwing over the consumers he is sent to by First American Home Buyers Protection. None of this would have been an issue if the contractor had not told First American Home Buyers Protection lies about my boiler the got First American Home Buyers Protection to turn down my claim.

[tipsrfine]

Good to have you on my side. I also agree with you about cell phone companie and communication companies in general.

I am also going after First American Home Buyers Protection with a vengence because of how they are mishandling this issue. This contractor however is not one being used by companies like First American Home Buyers Protection, this guy is one who makes out off of companies like First American Home Buyers Protection by deliberately screwing over the consumers he is sent to by First American Home Buyers Protection. None of this would have been an issue if the contractor had not told First American Home Buyers Protection lies about my boiler the got First American Home Buyers Protection to turn down my claim.


I guess that issue is best left for the other thread, which I'm heading off to now. Based on what I've read, you had a valid claim on this warranty, despite whatever this other contractor said. Their first contractors they sent out before accepting warranty coverage said your boiler was operational, they warrantied it, you had problems, they should take care of it-end of story.

[RoBoTeq]

I guess that issue is best left for the other thread, which I'm heading off to now. Based on what I've read, you had a valid claim on this warranty, despite whatever this other contractor said. Their first contractors they sent out before accepting warranty coverage said your boiler was operational, they warrantied it, you had problems, they should take care of it-end of story.
There has only ever been one contractor. First American Home Buyers Protection refused my request for someone else because this contractor refused to respond to any of my calls and was so rude to me when I did catch them.