We have made over 40 calls, and are looking at another weekend without air conditioning, our house is 97 degrees in the daytime and 87 at night.

There is no cross-breeze in the house, so opening the windows is pointless.

We can not open the refrigerator like normal people because every thing starts to thaw upon hitting the air.

Two of my pet rabbits have had heat stroke.

We have a window a/c unit placed in our kitchen where we all sleep now.

I'm afraid to open my electric bill since that little window unit has been running nonstop.

I DO NOT THINK WE WILL RENEW OUR
FIRST AMERICAN HOME BUYERS PROTECTION PLAN.

We have lived in our home a year come September and began receiving renewal notices from First American.
3 or 4 days later our a/c stops cooling.

Fri.7/29/05, phone call to First American.
No call back.

Mon.8/1/05 I call again, FA says they've faxed the tech, but will re-fax, they give me the number, I call, the a/c company states no fax has been received. This goes on back and forth till Tues. It is 94 degrees in my house.

Tues.8/02/05, tech comes out says there is a leak, fills the tank, fixes the leak, takes my check and leaves.

Wed.8/03/05, a/c stops cooling again, I call FA, they say they will fax a re-dispatch.

Thurs.8/04/05, no appointment is scheduled, I call the a/c tech, he says no fax received, call FA, they send the fax again, Call tech, no fax received....this goes on till the FOLLOWING THURSDAY AFTERNOON.

Thurs.8/11/05, I give up on having a working a/c for the weekend, but he shows up at 4:45 P.M. Says it's maintenance. The coils must be cleaned, we clean them.

Sat.8/13/05 call back, they say a different repair service will be contacting us.

Sun.8/14/05 The new a/c repair schedules an appointment for the next day.

Mon.8/15/05 The tech arrives at 5:00 P.M.
Says the coils are clean, unit has a leak, and fills the tank. Also states their may be another leak in the inside unit. we will see he says.

Tues.8/16/05 A/C stops cooling. Call First American who now says we have to wait on a faxed report from the second tech who came out.

Thurs.8/18/05 !!!!3 weeks have gone by!!!
No report has been received as of yet.

They say if the report isn't received by tomorrow then they will send yet another technician, which probably won't come out till Tuesday.
What are we paying for?!?

Unfortunately, this type of unacceptable nightmare seems to be the norm. For other posts (including my own) about this company, go to the following link:

http://www.epinions.com/msg/show_~threads/cat_id_~24/id_~2169/forum_id_~34/pp_~1

I also have a major ongoing fight with F/A.
This is a rental property and I am the mamanger here
the waranty was purchased wehen the property was sold on July 1,05.. Sept .1,05 My a/c unit went out.called the property owner who called F/A and they told him someone would be sent right out,monday noone had shown up so he turned matters over to me,i called them and was informed that since it was a holiday weekend i would have to wait
their technicians have 24/28 hours to respond,asked them to try to hurry i have a 3 year old here,its phoenix and its over 110 in my house.
Got the call from their contractor on Sept.7 to set up an appointment for the 9th.the tech arives is on the roof 15 minutes and informs e that theres a "leak" and tat he cannot fix it
it will be about 2 weeks before the warranty company will even authorize replacement of the unit because they want to try to find parts first.
I called F/A and informed them of the situation and was advised that it has to go through the authorization department,and n i could not speak to anyone in that department because they "don't speak with homeowners",
I called twice a week trying to get information and resolution and was blown off for 3 weeks.
FINALLY on Sept 20th the contractor installed the new heat pump,the next day the a/c went out again.
I called the company immediately and informed them of the trouble and that their "new" heat pump was not working,they have to fax the contractor that installed it at an additional 319.00 above the warranty,and have them come back to check it out,again i advised them its over 100 degrees in here and i have a small child in my home,and got blown off again with the 24/28 hours.
On Sept.32,05 the contractor sent someopne out and the man told me that there was a bed "defrosting board" and that he had spliced the wires together to make the a/c function.
i got F/A on the phone and they asked for the tech to speak with the authorization department so they could see if anything else could be done,he refused,so we are back to the faxing again.
Again i called 2 times a week to see what was going on,now i have an a/c that is functioning but have wires spliced together ,fire hazard? on my roof,and still no word back form the warranty co.they just keep telling me that they are trying to contact the contractor.
Contacted an attorney today,who advised me to call F/A back and inform them that he has advised me to file a complaint with the arizona board of insurance,which by the way they are not registered with,and that they are to fix this problem correctly immediately.
So i called them and advised them of my conversation with the attorney ,they put me on hold then when they came back on the line advised me thta the part needed was on back order anf that it will be another week possible 2 before hte contractor receives the part andd then 24/48 hours before it is installed.
Now i dont know about anyone else..but the property owner here is a first time buyer who basicaly got "stuck' with this company because it was part of the sale,and the seller was also forced into using this company by the realator in order to complete the sale.
I still have no idea when this will be resolved and i am filing with the insurance board in Az today.
here is the link for the Arizona Insurance Board for anyone who would like it.
http://www.azinsurance.gov

I know there is some negative press on 1st American Home Buyers on this board, but I have had a very positive experience...enough so that I would like to post in response so others can see that things sometimes do work out in a positive manner.

Sequence of Events:

May 2005: Purchased a home, bought 1st Am. 1 year standard policy

July 2005: Moved in. House had a Sub-Zero model 211 built-in refrigerator manufactured in 1986

September 2005: Fridge dies, call 1st Am.
a) sent out repairman, compressor determined dead. recommended to 1st Am. they replace it.
b) 1st Am. decides instead to fix it (replace compressor)
c) Weeks go by, I have trouble getting the repairman to the house -- I call 1st Am. and complain about repairman.
d) 2 days later, new repairman from different business shows up. He declares fridge dead -- tells 1st Am. that he can fix it, but it's lifecycle is over, and it will need continual repairs.
e) Week or two goes by, we keep calling 1st Am. to find out status.

At this point I am a bit worried. It is a built-in and the dimensions for the Sub-Zero are very specific, and my cabinets are built around it. If they send me a fridge with different dimensions, I would have to rebuild the cabinetry at my own cost. It could end up costing me a good deal. I read the fine print. It says they have to match the "features and capacity" but not the "manufacturer or dimensions". A quick scan on the Internet shows that only Sub-Zero makes a model that is an exact replica (model 611) of this model...the catch is: it costs ~$5,000. I am leery that 1st Am. will give us a sub-par fridge that won't fit, and I'll have to rebuild all the cabinets.

f) Call 1st Am. -- they have approved a replacement and it is the Sub-Zero model 611!
g) A check is in our mailbox within 4 days.
h) We buy the fridge..the cost covers everything including delivery, installation, and removal of the old fridge.

Sometimes things work out. I am pretty pleased with 1st Am. It wasn't a *fast* process, but it paid out, and the people on the phone were always very pleasant.

Based on this, I would definitely recommend 1st Am. for future home buyers.

Good luck!

Better choose American Home Shield if you want a real warrantee. First American is what you choose if you have money to throw around, and want to spend countless hours on the phone with a rude customer service rep.
They continue to use dishonest plumbers even though I have escalated through their organization. The plumber comes out to work on a leak, clogged drain, leaves the snake in his truck and claims that the plumbing needs to be replaced, replumbed and offers to give an estimate. Never attempts to clear the clog or fix the leak. I get estimates from other plumbers, because I took the F/A plumber's word for it and hope someone can do it for less than $700, and turns out, it is always a quick fix, something that say a "snake" was able to dislodge. The plumbing was fine. The warrantee company needs new pipes, not my house. It is disgusting. I have American Home Shield on another property and have never had an issue. I hope I can help someone else avoid this expensive nightmare.

We recieved a warranty with First American when we purchased our house this past summer. We had a problem with our heat pump this week. When I called and told them it was making a very loud noise, I was told they don't cover noises, it has to be not working for them to send a tech. So in other words, let you unit burn up, then they can claim you didn't maintain it and they won't cover it. I feel this company is a scam.

My experience with First American Home Warranty has been a nightmare. For almost three weeks now I've been calling as our oven went out a week before Thanksgiving. They sent a tech out and he looked at it and determined that the heating element was not working. Also the clock was no longer working which meant that the self-cleaning portion would not work either. He left (this was on a Wednesday) and we didn't hear anything by Friday afternoon so thought I'd call & see what was happening as I'd hoped to have the oven working for Thanksgiving the following week. I called the appliance company and they said that the warranty company was working on it. I then called the warranty company (First American) and they said that the appliance company was searching for parts. Back & forth, back & forth. They both searched until the following Monday after Thanksgiving and then the tech came back out because he needed pictures (they were going to search that way--oh, he didn't take pictures either he got the model #'s). I've made phone calls to First American continually and left messages on Supervisors phones, Managers phones and received no phone calls back. I finally have been working with one of their customer service reps who will actually call you back when you leave a voice mail...I truly believe she's even fed up with it. I told her that I am going to the Newspaper and the Better Business Bureau with this. I'm also going to search on-line for the name of the CEO of the company as I've documented all calls, including extensions of people I've left voice mails for and not received any return call and I'll be sending a letter to them. She has said that they have found someone who can rebuild the clock and has the heating element and that it will be between 10 & 15 business days to get completed...I'll be lucky if I have an oven for the holidays:( I think First American is a scam as someone else in the postings has said. First American should not get away with treating customers like this. Each year I receive renewal after renewal..as we've had them for 10 years...and not had to use them other than an air conditioner which took numerous techs repairing it before they finally gave up on it....it was a nightmare too....the old saying "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me." I've learned...I'm not giving them a 3rd chance.

I, sadly, second all of the negative opinions. I won't belabour you all with the details so here it is in a nutshell: we received a First American home warranty when we purchased our home. We had 3 issues our first year - none of them were handled to my satisfaction if they were handled at all. Twice I stopped the call after a long period of time of no respoonse and paid my own hired contractor whom I trust out of pocket. I let the policy run out but was talked into renewing with the guarantee that the company was aware of the issues that I had had and promised no repeat performance. Well, I'm 2 months into my renewal and I am going to cancel the policy at - I don't care what cost. I am currently looking for a new provider. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND FIRST AMERICAN!

First american is the absolute worst insurance provider.
They are very prompt when sending you mail to renew contract.
We wanted our A/C looked at as it was not cooling well.
They sent HousePro technician for the job. This guy wnated to scalp me for money from the first moment. After an argument about the service, this guy took his "visitation" fee and left without doing anything. He went back and reported that this condominium has mould and asbestos etc., to the insurance company. Now they refuse to send anyone for followup untile we get a certificate that theis unit is free of mould and asbestos. the management company says that there is absolutely no asbestos in this complex as it was built in 1985.
How does one take action against this atrocious behaviour by an insurance company?
It makes me sick how arrogant and disgusting their customer service reps can be.

Two days before Christmas we received a visit from a plumber sent out by First American. We knew, for some reason, when we took a shower, water was leaking onto the bathroom floor and through the wall into the carpet in another room. A week after first reporting this to First American, a plumber came. He walked in the house, "eyeballed" the bathroom and the carpet. He touched nothing. He unscrewed nothing. He fixed nothing. He declared that our drainage pipe was broken under the house. We would have to remove the wood panelling from the room with the carpet, detach and roll up the carpet, and he would be back to tear a hole in the wall and would be jackhammering the floor. The cost would be approximately $2,500 to $3,000, of which First American would pick up $500. We would be responsible for repairing the wall and relaying the carpet, although he would put cement back into the foundation. We told him we had no intention of doing this sort of thing before Christmas, so we paid him the $55 service call and told him we would follow up later. He told us our time was limited and the claim would be void if we waited very long, although he didn't specify how long it would be before our claim was nullified. We immediately called First American and asked for a second opinion. They refused a second opinion on the grounds that our claim had been "approved." If we wanted a second opinion, we would have to get it ourselves. And so we did. We called a friend who is a plumber. He came over immediately and checked out the situation. It turns out we had loose grout in a couple of place, some caulk missing, and some sort of caulk in the drain that was completely absent. He wanted to do it for free, but when pushed he said to give him $50. We wrote him a check for $100. Since yesterday, we have had 6 showers and/or baths and not a drop of water ended up where it was not supposed to be. First American, the plumbing company, and the Insurance Commission will all be getting greetings and salutations from us.

I've been a customer for 4 years (don't I look stupid) however, I've never used them for anything major so it didn't seem like they were that bad. I did get rude customer service reps on the phone, but I dealt with it. Then came this issue. This isn't even a major problem, but my ceiling fan went out. They sent out their electrical company to fix it, but when he got there, he said the fan was dead and it needed to be replaced AND he actually broke the glass around the light. (I don't blame him though, it was an accident and First American is going to replace the fan anyway, right??) WELL, the guy tells me that he has a First American fan, but it's just a basic fan. I have a 1.5 million dollar home and a basic fan is not going to make my wife happy. He said the First American will offer me a cash out for my current fan, since I didn't like the F/A Fan. Well I called F/A and after days of them saying, they need more information on the previous fan, they finally offer me their "cash out". IT WAS $100.00 (mind you I already paid $45.00 for the guy to tell me I need to replace the current fan). I almost flipped. I priced fans and the one I have is probably a $250 fan, but the one I want is probably $350.00. Now I don't expect F/A to pay for the new one I want, but I also don't expect a slap in the face offer I got. I keep getting these minimum wage "supervisors" on the phone, who have about as much power to make a decision as a infant, telling me that's all F/A can offer. Well, they are losing a customer this year and the money I would have spent on renewing, is the money I'm spending on my fan. SCREW F/A they are a RIP OFF and should NEVER BE TRUSTED!!! They ALWAYS want to replace things with "LIKE ITEMS". Well if your Lexus breaks down, a pinto has 4 wheels and an engine, F/A would make the swap!! THEY ARE A JOKE!!

P.S. They are good at one thing, sending renewal notices. I think I've received about 4 of them and I'm still a month and a half from renewing.

HORRIBLE COMPANY WHO'S BOSS' HIDE BEHIND A WALL TO NOT FACE THE PUBLIC!! NO WAY TO DO BUSINESS!!! THAT'S A SIGN RIGHT THERE!!!

Another First American victim.

This past summer, after buying our new house, we noticed a smell of gas in the kitchen. The gas co. came out right away, and it took the guy about 4 minutes to identify a faulty part on our range.

I called FA and told them what the gas co. tech had said. They sent out their guy (while I was at work, my wife was home). He tightened the connection and said everything was fine. Instead of using a "sniffer" (the machine that detects gas leaks) he verified the problem was fixed by smelling the area and declaring it "fine."

Guess what? The gas continued to leak. FA took days to send out another repairman (while GAS is LEAKING, mind you; although, we did get smart and turn it off at the wall valve). This second repairman, using the correct equipment, ascertained that, surprise! the SAME part on the range that the gas co. guy had identified was the problem. Of course, he didn't have the part, and it would take WEEKS to order it.

Thankfully, our realtor had been checking in to see how we liked the house. When we told him our story of woe, he personally obtained the part from an appliance repair shop and brought it over with someone to install it. Thus, we had paid 2 X $45 in service calls, only to have our bleeping REALTOR get the repair done!

Recently, an electrical problem occurred. When the repairman came out, he looked at the junction box for about 10 seconds and said he couldn't fix it because the wiring was done improperly (which I believe to be true.) I refused to pay another service fee for another complete lack of service. If I had paid, we'd be up to $135 for absolutely nothing!

The bill from FA arrived yesterday; when I called today they refused to remove the charge. I was told that if I dont' pay they'll put a "red flag" on my account and no further service will be provided until I paid.

As if I am EVER going to call FA again!

Overall, its just not worth the hassle they put you through if you need to make a claim. I got a First American Home Warranty with the purchase of our house last year. We made two claims last year and it took FOREVER for them to respond. If you currently have a warranty with them I suggest that you call them every half hour and right down EXACTLY what they say cause believe me they right down EVERYTHING you say.

As for my latest travesty, two days after I renewed my contract (my wife insisted) our 20 year old water heater crapped out (on a Friday afternoon). I called and called and called.. Finaly ON WEDNESDAY night a technician comes out to tell me I need a new hot water heater...

Long story short: took a week to get new heater installed and the technician dinged me $50 for a new gas valve, $60 for flexable water hookups and $50 service fee. He wanted to charge me $50 to haul away the old one but I said no thanks. I had to agree to pay the extras cause I wanted some hot water pronto..

So now I am fighting them for the fifty bucks for the gas valve and my "policy" clearly says its covered. They claim the gas valve was an "upgrade" and therefore not covered..


Am I being picky? It may sound like it but believe me, it has been incredably frustrating and I urge you not to give them your money. I will not be renewing my "policy"..

To cut a long story short, they sent out a technician to fix our free standing heater in vain....

The guy called our heater "a small gas fireplace" and then said that he doesn't deal with them plus that our contract with First American Home Buyers Protection doesn't cover small gas fire places.

So American Home Buyers Protection ended up: 1) wasting my precious time, 2) not fixing the heater and 3)having the nerve to bill me a 45$ call out fee... Do you need to need read more? They are SHAMELESS CROOKS @4%5&*!@%

Thanks for reading my posting, I hope it'll save you some trouble....

I called First american to report that I had a hot water slab leak. They sent their tech out 2 days later, and he confirmed my suspicion in about 2 minutes. Basically, I paid him $55 to tell me what I already knew. He quoted me a repair price of $1600, of which First American would pay $500. I decided to shop around and got free estimates from numerous plumbers, all of which were significantly lower than First American's contractor. When I called FA, they told me they would have to cash me out at $450 if I didn't use their contractor, $500 if I did. I chose the $450. They said a check would be mailed. I chose a contractor and had the work done. A week later I called FA because I hadn't gotten my check yet. The rep I spoke with told me the check was mailed a week ago and put me on hold. I was on hold for over 10 minutes, and then the call disconnected. I called back and spoke with someone else. This rep told me the check wasn't mailed yet, but would be mailed that day. I asked her to overnight it, but she said she couldn't, so I asked for a supervisor. She transferred me to her supervisor's voicemail, and I left a message. Several hours later, I called again and asked for a supervisor. At first, the rep wouldn't let me talk to his supervisor. I explained the whole situation and asked for a check to be overnighted. He told me that his supervisor said she wouldn't overnight the check. I then asked again to speak with his supervisor, so he finally transferred me to her. She was the rudest woman I have ever spoken with in my life! She proceeded to tell me that FA would not overnight the check because they were not at fault. They had no record of my call requesting it. She actually said it was my fault! I wondered how that could be possible, especially since one rep told me that the check had already been mailed. Assuming that information was a lie, I asked how the rep's inability to keep accurate call logs could be my fault. I even told her that I was looking at my phonebill and gave her the exact date and time of the call in which I requested the check. She responded with nothing but a rude attitude and said the only thing she would do was mail out a check. It's been over a week now, and I still don't have my check. I'll have to call them again tonight.

SCAM!!!!! These people really, really suck. Last Friday my wife came home to a flooded home, and reported this to American Home Buyers protection. Their first delaying tactics were that this would take 3 hours. After 3 hours, they "forgot" to mark this as urgent, it would take another 3 hours. After that, it was apparently too late to do anything. Saturday morning, they kind of lost things again. Saturday late afternoon they'd still not returned saturday early afternoon's call. I got hold of them late saturday, they said they couldn't help & to get a local company and then reimburse us but make sure that the company rung them for approval - but this would merely be a formality, and approval would be immediate. We FINALLY managed to find a company that would come out on Sunday (it was too late saturday). They're here now. The guy's been on the phone with these scamsters, and the "approval" is now at the point where they wont' give it, because it is above what they're allowed to approve. I asked for their supervisor, and have not been on hold for 30 minutes - they're not intending to put me through to anybody, I'm on a "forever" hold. They have to wait for "upper management" - and no one is available until an undefined date and time. This insurance is starting to stink like a serious scam, and the techniques they're using are very obvious delaying tactics. This is not the first problem we've had with them, they SUCK. DO NOT USE THIS CROWD - TRY ANYBODY ELSE FIRST.

Add me to the list too.

I just bought a nice little 5 bedroom house and within a month we started having the breaker switches trip. Even when you plug in a small appliance it will trip. I called FA and they sent out a tech who looked at both the breaker box in the basement and the one in the kitchen and said they were both bad. These were the original breaker boxes for the house. He said the breaker boxes needed replaced and the wiring was all frayed and needed fixed. FA declined the claim because they said it was bad instalation. These are the original wiring, granted the home was built in 1952, and some work on them has been done over the years (as i was told) but this wiring was not previously installed. FA sent another tech out who spent more time looking at the issue.

He concluded that it was bad but not due to previous inept installation. FA took more than a week to review it, denied it again but never called us. It took me calling to find out that they are scam artists. I immediatly cancelled and now I am being screwed on the refund money. I will never get another home warranty again. I believe them all to be scams

This company stinks! I also got the warranty when I bought my house - I have contacted them about 3 different problems and each time they send out techs that are totally unqualified - the last has to be the winner! My pool heater was giving me problems - call 1st American - tech want to trash the whole heater and sell me a new one! Have an appointment with an attorney today!

In June 04 I got FA warranty and had only a few problems over the next year.
toilet started leaking and a plumber was sent out. he fixed something that was expensive ($150-200)and left. a few days later it was still leaking so another guy came out and said the first guy lied to us and that all we had was a cracked seal that cost $15. no more problems with the toilet.
few weeks later disposol in kitchen went out. took 3 service calls to fix that one. then nothing happened for a while so when it came time to renew i did.
immediately afterwards the AC went out (this is late june 05). called that day to get it fixed. tech came out in the first few days of july and fixed it. the next day it stopped working. so we called again. a day later he came back out and fixed it again. same thing happend. that went on for all of july probably 5 visits from techs. in august it was "fixed" 5 or 6 times. september meant 7 or 8 calls with each one not working for more than a day or two.
one tech had the nerve to tell us that when it stopped working we had to crawl into the attic to throw a breaker and let it cool off for several hours then turn it back on. early october was still hot (we live in Texas) so we called a few more times and by the end of october when it started to cool off it looked like it was working (had been working for several days at that point). then we turned it off to save energy and didnt turn it back on till april.
it worked for 1 day then stopped. we called the next day and FA said that since we had paid them 7 times last year for the same problem they would just send someone to replace it. when the guy finally came over he said he didnt know anything about replacing it he was just told to service it. he told us he would call back in a day or 2 to get the details ironed out. it took over a week and a few more calls to FA to finally get things going. when the tech came out to replace the unit he said there was a problem and that the wrong type of unit had been ordered and he couldnt replace our old one with the new one. it took another several weeks to get FA to tell us what was going on. we had to see if they could find replacement parts before they could replace the whole unit because we still had a freon unit.
2 weeks later they came with our new unit and installed it. only for it to not work immediately upon being hooked up. (to his credit the guy that did the install did everything he could think of to fix it, but he was an istaller not a maintenance guy). the next day we had a guy out to fix it. he said there was a wiring problem with the inside unit and he took care of it. the next day it went out again. he has been by 2 times since then and said that we are now waiting on replacement parts for the inside unit, but that FA would never approve of getting a new inside unit.
all this time we have been plaqued with the same problems as other homeowners. faxes not being sent from FA to the service people (or the other way), FA and service companies blaming the other for not ordering parts on time, FA saying that they havent recieved paperwork from the techs eventhough it had been a week or more. our warranty is up next month and we will not be renewing. this has been a nightmare. i just want a working AC.

oh, one last thing. because i've had to make all these calls to FA and the service co. on my cell phone my phone bill is incredibly high each month. this is insane.

Ms. Jo Etta Bandy,
Vice President of Corporate Communications
corporate.communications@firstam.com

Please escalate this letter to the proper executives if I can’t find them first.

This an urgent appeal to resolve an a/c problem first reported on April 24, 2006. First AM promised to have the new coil to the contactor on Monday with an installation. Please read the updates attached and please respond with urgency.

The current status as of today, May 23rd, one month into the outage; Premier, the a/c contractor, called me at 12:13PM to schedule an installation of a coil that was mistakenly installed in my home. (See attachments for more details) They wanted to schedule the installation for Friday May 26th, but Jason of Premier will try to get me scheduled for Wednesday. Jason stated that this was not the correct coil and he doesn’t think it will work in my unit. Jason also stated that First American asked him to try it anyways. Since when does First American offer technical resolutions to certified personnel?

I called First AM and left a message for Donna T., Donna has recently gotten involved with this situation. Donna called back immediately and we decided to give her until 1PM PST to respond to me, it is now 1:49PM PST.

That time has expired and my patience has as well. I’m afraid we’re heading into another week of non-resolution. I have requested to cancel my agreement and proceed on my own. The cancellation was not acknowledged so I continued working with you guys. I am requesting my original a/c coil for warranty purposes and a full refund. I also require the $335 I paid Premier for the faulty work in which $75 was charged deceitfully.

I purchased a window unit (for $199) last Saturday that will barely cool one room (with the allowance of $225 extended from Donna). I’m in a Home Owners Association which does not allow window units; I have an 11 year old son and I can’t arm the alarm system with the window unit installed and this makes him very uncomfortable. The discomfort of my family has gone on too long. Premier is being restrained from performing a complete job – further more - I’m not sure if they are capable.

Over 30 people are traveling to my home this weekend, some from out-of-town for a weeks visit.

Is it necessary for litigation to solve this situation?

Definitely the worst customer service I have ever encountered (and I have seen many!!). If they offer you their warrantee for *free* -- DON'T TAKE IT! If it came with the house -- throw it away. You'll be glad you did. It's much cheaper in the long run to pay for everything yourself rather than have them pay for them. I already spent 4 lost days of waiting for service, 30 phone calls over a period of 2 months, faxes, unreturned calls, everything imagined. They got your money ahead of time, they have no incentive to do anything for you and they won't. I just can't believe how bad someone can be. It will take me four pages to just highlight all the troubles. I am about to pay out of my pocket to someone to destroy everything they did and redo it right. So it will cost me twice the original amount plus two months of incredible hassle. What a racket! If a lawyer reads this and is looking for a nice class action suit, I am in!

I currently work for f/a.....on the cieling fan issue...the
reasiob the cash out was only that much,is because the cash out is based on what f/a will pay for fan...it has nothing to do that we dont wanna cash you out for what you currently have

My experience with First American has been as bad as all the others. I inherited the warranty with my home purchase. Lots of promises for follow-up; none carried through. I'm sitting in Southern AZ without AC for over a week, temperatures hovering around 105. It's 98 in my house even with the windows open and fans going non-stop. The technicians don't submit required paperwork for 3 days in row, I finally ask FA to find a new technician, but they won't do it 'til they give this one another chance. This is on a Friday, which guarantees me another weekend without AC. My warranty is up in November, and I will definitely NOT renew with FA. I looked up their website to see if I could contact their CEO or other high-level manager, and find there is no such information on their website. I guess their managers know their customers are unhappy and so they don't want any contact. I can't stress enough--don't go with this company!!!

I too got a First American Home Warranty with the purchase of my condo. My warranty expires this month and I was debating on whether I should renew because every time I tried calling in a problem, none of it was covered. A few days ago my A/C went out so I called it in and this time it was covered. I decided to give it a chance, they said they sent the repair company a work order and they'd contact me within a day. Waited a day, called the company who said they never got the work order. Called First American and they said they'd fax them again. A technician came by yesterday and said I needed an electrician. Everything electrical in my house works fine so I don't understand why I need an electrician. The A/C turns on, just doesn't cool. Everywhere I've looked says it probably just needs new refrigerant. The A/C company didn't seem reputable, the guy showed up in his personal truck instead of a company truck, and I didn't get the impression that he knew what he was doing. I called First American who says they need to get status from the technician before sending out an electrician. I keep calling and It's been 5 days without A/C so far. I would go through another A/C company I trust, but I already paid the deductible. After my experience and reading the responses here and other opinion sites, I definitely won't be renewing. I just don't see the point in paying First American $500 a year to hope that what breaks down is covered, when I could set aside $500 a year on my own and go through a repair company I trust instead of just take what they give me.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PROVIDED MUCH NEEDED INFORMATION ON THIS COMPANY. EVERYONE'S PERSONAL EXPERIENCES PROVIDED USEFUL AND INSIGHTFUL INFORMATION BETTER THAN ANY BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU EVER COULD!!

We received an unsolicited "I want to list your house for sale since it didn't sale with the other realtor" mail from a Keller Williams Agent in Waxahachie, Texas. Included in the mail, was a sales brochure from First American Home. After having extensive negative experiences with American Home Shield (another company) going up to the VP of the company, I like others in this post, felt it was more cost effective to just replace whatever broke down instead of endless lies, wait time, etc ...

In response to the FA brochure received, I logged onto FA's website and to be honest I was somewhat put off by what I read. Hmm, okay maybe I am just being a little fussy but after reading the continuing negative comments regarding this company, I have decided to reduce my stress and hitch my wagon to another home buyer's company and not even consider having the realtor who sent me the solicitation or FA into my home. (Birds of a feather syndrome)

Again, thanks to everyone who took their valuable time to save another consumer some heart ache.

Perhaps a copy of this post will find its way to the VP (noted in a previous post).

Here is the information on the compnay and its officers
Philip Branson chair of First American Home Buyers Protection
Maggi Havas, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for First American Home Buyers Protection

First American Home Buyers Protection which is a division of The First American Corporation.

Parker S. Kennedy, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
Craig I. DeRoy, President
Frank V. McMahon, Vice Chairman of the Board, Chief Financial Officer

Excellent on the contact list.

I saw on another board where American Home Shield has a class action suit filed against them for the same type of practices. Perhaps this is the resolution with First American since it is obvious they do not concern themselves with customer satisfaction.

Member of First American now for 4 years.
Same experiences... ceiling fan tech shows up, says " it's a hunter, has lifetime warranty and i can remove it myself".. takes the $50.00 and runs.. I fix it myself.

2 years later, another ceiling fan.. left voicemessages w/ technican..no show, just ended up fixing it myself again.

However.. they did replace my dryer when it went out.. I had to pay 2 or 3 techs who came out a couple of times, was down about a month but finally got it replaced.. they replaced with like-quality too which I was pleased with.

Now calling for AC repair 2 years later (today).. I'm going to fax the technican's company and confirm!!! suggest you guys hound the fix-it company with faxes and phone calls and hold your $50.00 until it's fixed.. heck I'd even write a check and cancel it just to get my legal just deserts

I have actually had a completely different experience with First American. I live in OH, and just purchased a house in March that came with the warranty (an upgraded one, at that). I have already used the warranty a couple times and here are my experiences.

The first issue was plumbing - My house is older and a couple of the water shut off's were leaking. I called, they set me up with a plumbing company, the company called within the promised 24 hours, an appt. was set up and kept. I actually ended up having a bit of a crisis (water leaking in a wall - OLD house) before the plumbing co. could come out, and they were great in telling me what to do and rearranging their schedules so they could get to me earlier. So - I got the wall leak fixed, new shut-offs AND ended up with a new garbage disposal - all for the $55 appt. fee.

The second issue was my whole house fan stopped working - I called, First American set me up with a company that called back within the promised time period, and an appt was scheduled and kept. Turns out the belt on the thing had broken - a part was obtained and the thing was fixed and spinning away within an hour.

SO - perhaps people only complain when things go wrong - and I have no doubt that there are tons of shady characters out there - but I have so far had great luck and experiences.

Ms Jo Ann Bandy
Vice President of Corporate Communications

I am adding my voice to a (extremely) large legion of your current and former customers, who have found that First American is apparently not the reputable company that it claims to be.

My experience to day:

Placed a claim for service on July 20th
Never heard from contractor
Called FA on Saturday, July 22nd. Left a message for supervisor that was never returned.
Called First American on July 24th and after being on hold for almost an hour, was finally given the name and phone number of the contractor.
Called the contractor (on July 24th) and was told that service would be on Aug 3rd (certainly not within the 48 hour time frame that is in YOUR contract (under Customer Service, section #1)
When I asked the contractor when they were going to let me know, they indicated that they had called on JULY 27th, even though it was only July 24th.

We have been trying all week to reach someone else. My wife did speak with a supervisor (Sandy x2438) on Tuesday, who indicated that she would get this resolved for us. We since have left over 20 voice messages with Sandy, and have not EVER heard back from her.

Will still don't have our problem fixed, and we have been hung up on, treated rudely, and left on hold for over two hours (we finally hung up, or we would still be on hold)

According to YOUR contract (Customer Service, Section 3), you do have a provision to pay me a cash settlement for the repairs. Since we cannot get anyone at FA to assist us, we have arranged to get service from another contractor. We assume that you will reimburse us for the cost of the repairs.

Should you choose to not honor the provision in YOUR contract, you will be served with a summons for Small Claims Court, where in addition to the cost of the repairs, the court costs, and the premiums that I have already paid, you will also be liable for an additional cost as allowed in the California Legal Code for "mental suffering".

Assuming that I will not get a response from anyone at FA, I will file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and the State of California Department of Corporations.

I got first am when I boght my house. Everything was fine the first year... just a broken main board in my furnace controller. Then the next year (I re-upped because my AC unit was 18 years old and I didn't trust it), things started really going wrong with my A/C. Over three summers now I have gone without AC for almost 6 weeks. The techs they sent have been incompetent and the customer service has been abysmal. If it weren't for my sister getting ahold of somebody in corporate, I wouldn't even have gotten the crappy solution I have (which still has ongoing problems).

I now give you the contact info I have so that you may try to get the company to make amends with you.

Jamie Chisam, Sr Customer Service rep
JCHISAM@firstam.com
1-888-245-6983 x3228

Dan Weinstock, Vice President of something or other
dweinstock@firstam.com


Good luck.

We filed our claim on 7/15/06 and as of today, 8/15/06, First American Home Buyers Protection cannot tell us when our A/C unit will be repaired.

They do not deny that the unit is covered but they continually stall us with no action whatsoever to order the parts to fix my A/C. They have now sent out 2 contractors, both of which behaved in a shady manner and do not exude confidence. The contractors make criminal accusations about each other and even run down First American!

I cannot possibly detail here all the phone calls, countless hours on hold, and horrible examples of the poorest customer service. It is clear the systems and processes they have in place are deliberate efforts to frustrate people to the point of seeking repairs elsewhere out of pocket.

ZERO returned calls. No one is assigned to our issue for follow through so each time we call, (after an eternity on hold...frequently over 30 to 45 minutes)a new claims resolution specialist must start completely over by reading all the notes on file for my account (which takes another eternity) then the response is always the same, "I will speak to a supervisor and resolve this issue at once". I am then placed on hold again while the claims resolution person (read claims avoidance expert) speaks to a supervisor. Then you are told someone will contact you the next day with a resolution. Supervisors are never available to the customer and their voice mailbox is always full.

From 7/15 through 8/14, not a single promised return phone call from First American has been received.

Today, I have been told they plan to order the parts tomorrow and it may be two weeks before they arrive. But get this, they are not even sure if they know which parts to order (how am I supposed to feel confident that the correct parts will show up and be correctly installed?). Of course, they told me on 8/8 that they were ordering parts but nothing happened. They claim they really mean it this time.

Their own stable of contractors tell me that First American is counting on people like me to get frustrated and order the work done on my own and out of my pocket. In fact, one contractor told me the A/C could be fixed within 24 hours if I ordered it directly myself from the contractor. Of course, this action would void my claim and cost me big bucks. Something I hoped to avoid by buying the warranty in the first place. For you attorneys (and State Attorney Generals) out there, this is truly a juicy class action suit with an enormous complaint base. Any Attorney General who steps up to bring suit against this despicable corporation is guaranteed to be the next Governor of his state.

By the way, it reached 105 in Dallas today.

I placed a claim for service on July 10th,2006,never heard from a contractor.I called FA on Friday July 14th,after being on hold for almost an hour;I was finally given the name & phone number of the contractor.I called the contractor (Comfort Zone) & was told the service order was returned to FA the same day (July 10th) since they did not have appointments available in their schedule.

I called FA & once again after being on hold for over an hour,Omar,found All City Heating & A/C to come to our residence on July 18th 2006;certainly not within the 48 hour time frame on the contract under Customer Service, section #1.The service Tech removed the condensing unit, accepted my check, gave me a receipt & left my property. On July 25th after not hearing any progress reports from All City,I called them and spoke to Pam. Pam assured me she will research my work order & call me back within the hour. After NUMEROUS telephone calls throughout the week,Pam would run the same scenario,"I'll research your work order & call you back within the hour."

I then started calling FA and spoke to Omar (again), Nicole,Olga,Marissa,Amanda & Nicole. All employees called All City & Pam told them the parts were on order. However, ALL of them said All City had not given report to Claims Resolution & did not understand how All City could order parts without proper authorization. Nicole faxed a message to All City requesting for them to return our old parts & assigned Total Heating to continue the repairs.

On August 10th 2006, Joshua from Total Heating came to our residence; All City has not returned our parts yet. Upon first inspection, Joshua noticed the condensing unit missing & said the unit needed to be replaced since the unit is missing. Joshua called First American on his cell phone, in front of me, he gave report & was told to cancel the work order. Joshua left my residence not performing any work. On August 10th I telephone FA and spoke to Gezork & Nicole. On August 11th 2006 All City telephoned my residence, I answered, nothing was said. Although I could see their info on caller-Id, they refused to say anything.

On August 11th 2006 my wife talked to Patricia, who hung up on her. We called back & Patricia transferred our phone call to Martha(x3360) in Resolutions Dept. Martha promised to call us back on August 14th 2006,she never did. On August 15th 2006 at 12:52pm,we talked to Christy who transferred us to Desiree in Resolutions who said she would have to speak to a supervisor & returned our phone call. She never did. At 6:30pm we called FA & talked to Bell,who transferred us to Susan, who transferred us to Martha,we left a voicemail. On August 17th 2006,Martha called back. Martha used strong & demanding tones for us to accept All City to continue the repairs, we requested they assigned the work order to a reliable company & asked why Total Heating was sent, why we can't continue their service. Martha finalized our conversation by stating, the only resolution was to allow All City to finish the work or "cash out," with an estimated time of ten (10) days for our check to arrive. My wife asked Martha to allow us FIVE (5) minutes to discuss the offer.My wife called Martha less than five minutes later and her voicemail pick up, we asked Martha to"cash out."Martha did not call us back until August 25th 2006. Martha told me she had not received our voicemail until 08/25/2006 and told us it will be ten (10) days for our "cash-out" check to arrive.

We have been trying all week to reach someone else. On August 30th 2006, we talked to Alexander, who provided us with some helpful information. I wonder if Alexander is an honest employee, or someone who's leaving the company soon, or someone who's out to get his employer...hhhm!

According to YOUR contract (Customer Service, Section 3), FA has a provision to pay me a cash settlement for the repairs. Since we cannot get anyone at FA to assist us, we will not arranged service from another contractor until FA assigns another servicing company, or we receive the cash out check. We assume FA will reimburse us for the cost of the repairs that would've been paid out by the policy.

FA Management, if you’re reading, allow me to refresh your mind while you're seating in your nicely comfortable and cool office. We reside in Lake Elsinore, County of Riverside, Ca. Where summer temperatures reach up to 117 degrees, I have a three year old son, and a six year old daughter. Not to mention that my wife is a Multiple Sclerosis patient, who, by Medical Doctor orders has been told to stay out of the heat, since it could cause her symptoms to relapse. My wife has to remain inside our bedroom where the only window A/C is placed. Do understand we have documented every conversation with your employees, we ascertained records from the weather almanac proving the high temperatures during the summer heat wave recorded in the U.S. and medical records for my wife are also available with a subpoena through Kaiser Permanente.

Should you choose to not honor the provision in YOUR contract, you will be served with a summons for Small Claims Court, where in addition to the cost of the repairs, the court costs, and the premiums that I have already paid, you will also be liable for an additional cost as allowed in the California Legal Code for "mental suffering," and I'm sure any California court will have some sympathy if my wife's MS symptoms relapse.

Thank you all for your opinions on American First. I only had one experience with A/F, it was on a weekend, the central heat unit stopped heating. I diagnosed the problem and found and priced the part, just to make sure paying the service call was going to be worth it. When a found out the tech wouldn't come out until Monday and then would probably have trouble finding the part, I said forget it and fixed it myself for about $4.00 more than the service call. Driving across town to get the part took longer than installing it. Sounds like I saved myself a lot of headaches. While considering renewing my warranty, I found this site. I've shreded my renewal notice. Thank you all for taking the time to contribute your experiences.

Situations like this are unfortunate. Now, I was not the person handling your claim, so I'll try to relay what I know from my experiences with this kind of situation.

First off, the issue with the technician saying he didn't think it would not be compatible with your AC. We order parts based off that technician's report. They are our eyes and ears when at your home. We order parts they say they need, but don't have. I do not know why that technician would say otherwise, but at that point we are probably thinking: "Let's see if this works. If not, let's just order a new one."

When you call a representative and it goes straight to voice mail, it means that they are not available. It would probably be best to direct yourself to another rep. Claims Resolution reps are all qualified to handle your claim no matter how far along you are. It's quite possible Donna could have been wrapped in another claim (I once had a claim last 2 hours straight).

As for the charges...The $335 I'm not sure what the costs were for. It could be the costs to upgrade your unit to handle the coil (Note: Upgrades are not covered. While that it the case, it's still much more cost effective to go through F/A than buy your own coil). The $75 should have been made aware to you when you first placed your claim. It is the service fee everyone pays at the beginning of the claim. That money is for the contractor's services and in no way does F/A collect on it.

The temporary replacement you bought with the $225 is standard F/A policy and is only supposed to temporarily lift the burden off of the situation, not solve the problem. And I'm sorry about the complications that came with that A/C you bought. It's very unfortunate. And I hope your son is well, I remember being paranoid like that when I was his age and I know it can be mentally wearing.

With yours, and F/A's persistance I see no reason why this claim can not come to a conclusion soon.

I myself work for First American Home Buyer's Protection, and I have had a blast reading all of the "bad" experiences that you all have had while having a warranty w/ the company that I work for. I have had the awesome experience to probably talking to some of you. There really is only one piece of advice that I can give you in order to get the most out of your warranty. READ THE FINE PRINT. I cannot stress that enough. Most people that have had the bad situations are under the influence that this is an insurance company. In all reality it is a WARRANTY company. We don't cover what you want to be covered, you have to read all of your contract and know what is and is not covered. And just a small tid bit to let you know how to get things done. If things get out of hand and you want things done w/ an attorney, things will get drawn out longer. We have a department just for you who like to bring your attorney into your claims process. Unless it is a legitimate concern, not just you wanting things your way, it will be drawn out longer than you want it to.

READ THE FINE PRINT.

You are advised that when buying anything or signing a contract. Do the same with your home warranty contract. It will do you good in the long run.

One more piece of advice. As stated in your contract:

We show examples of items “not covered” to assist your understanding of the contract.(Meaning if it is not listed as COVERED it is NOT COVERED) Please review carefully the Limits of Liability section as well as the Coverage Ordered section on the front panel of this contract.

Keep this in mind when placing your next claim. It may save you alot of trouble.

When you guys say that you are supposed to have service within the 48 hrs listed in the contract. It says:

"The services contracted for will be initiated under normal circumstances by the service company within 48 hours after request is made by the holder of the contract."

This means INITIATED not completed within 48 hrs. And initated means the contracted company has called you for an appt.

Quote from isislightguard:
"I myself work for First American Home Buyer's Protection, and I have had a blast reading all of the "bad" experiences that you all have had while having a warranty w/ the company that I work for."

Your delight in your customers misery confirms the previous posts regarding the attitude of customer service representatives within your company.

The problem is not with your contracts or the "fine print". The problem is threefold.
1) Your customer service representatives do not listen to their customers. They go only from the report of service technician which in many cases is false information. The reasons for that false information I will describe in 2 and 3.
2) Some of the companies you contract with are startup businesses without any client base. They contract with you to develop a client base. Many times they lack the experience, knowledge or expertise to adequately perform the service.
3) Some of the companies you contract with are just plain unscrupulous. They are very well versed in the wording of your agreement and report the problem as something that is not covered by your agreement because they can gouge the customer for more money on the repair than what you provide in your contract with them. If they think the customer doesn't know anything about the repair they will even jack the price higher. To clarify - a service that you might pay $1300.00 for and having a market value of $1600.00 they will report as not covered to collect the extra $300.00. If they think the customer is totally ignorant of the service performed or the value of the service they may jack the price up as much as $2200.00.

These are the problems facing FA and its customers. I can say this from experience with FA and its servicing companies and as a retired construction worker.

They got me too. Lied about the reports the techs sent in from 2 different companies, and refuse to repair my ductwork. Anybody know if their are any lawsuits going, class action or otherwise against these money collectors? It would be nice to put a stop to Corps. like First Am., life has enough problems without companies like these.

Your delight in your customers misery confirms the previous posts regarding the attitude of customer service representatives within your company.

The problem is not with your contracts or the "fine print". The problem is threefold.
1) Your customer service representatives do not listen to their customers. They go only from the report of service technician which in many cases is false information. The reasons for that false information I will describe in 2 and 3.
2) Some of the companies you contract with are startup businesses without any client base. They contract with you to develop a client base. Many times they lack the experience, knowledge or expertise to adequately perform the service.
3) Some of the companies you contract with are just plain unscrupulous. They are very well versed in the wording of your agreement and report the problem as something that is not covered by your agreement because they can gouge the customer for more money on the repair than what you provide in your contract with them. If they think the customer doesn't know anything about the repair they will even jack the price higher. To clarify - a service that you might pay $1300.00 for and having a market value of $1600.00 they will report as not covered to collect the extra $300.00. If they think the customer is totally ignorant of the service performed or the value of the service they may jack the price up as much as $2200.00.

These are the problems facing FA and its customers. I can say this from experience with FA and its servicing companies and as a retired construction worker.[/quote]

I apologize for my co-workers sarcasm. After all the work we do to try to please h/o, websites like this is kind of a downer. So I'm going under the assumption he "enjoyed" it because of all the myths of home warranty that are posted on here that we know to be untrue but the h/o is simply not informed about.

Now than, you made some EXCELLENT points. You're correct, we contract a lot of start-up businesses. Mom and pop shops if you will. Some have a wealth of experience, some very little. And as to your concern over techs over pricing. F/A will send 2nd opinions out to your home for technicians we feel are over pricing you and us.

Contractors dislike us as much as people on epinions dislike us. Contractors have to go through us to do all this work for you, and they don't get paid for a couple weeks afterwards. So you know what they do to spite us? Send their most inexperienced technician to service your home to learn the ropes at the cost of his business' and F/A's reputation. Now this isn't every contractor. There are a lot of reputable contractors whom service in a timely fashion and do the work right the first time. And I love those guys as much as you!!!

"F/A will send 2nd opinions out to your home for technicians we feel are over pricing you and us."

NOT TRUE. FA declined my request for a second opinion. I hired my own contractor for the work after FA declined a second opinion and will be fileing for a cancellation of my contract and refund of my prorated fees. After checking out other home warranty companies I found that they were all basically the same. I will be researching what legislation would be necessary to close down the best scam going.

Overall we had a very poor service and support from First American home warranty as well. Warning: IF you are looking to purchase a home warranty from this company (or renew) I advise you not too.

A few of the details:

One month after moving into our home we started having water plumbing problems and a gas leak problem. These issues never came up during escrow as the gas was always on and we had a full inspection. We also were in the house for almost a month before a gas leak occurred. We called First American and they sent the first plumber to check things out. He was here for two hours and did a great job looking into the problem. He wrote the report to First American and I called them to confirm they received it. They said that it looked they would cover everything but that they wanted another opinion for price matching. They said they would have another company come check it out. They other company was VERY busy and really finally several days later came by for a 'quick visit' which was less an 10 minutes and told us we should just replace the entire system and left us his card. He then reported to First American Home Warranty that the plumbing was 'improperly installed'. This was not the case AT ALL and the area that was leaking had never been touch for years so there is no way it was improperly installed. For that matter the leak was under the house and since he didn't have time to go under the house I find it really hard to believe he gave a fair assesment. I called First American Home Warranty the next day and they told me they were denying my claim because this was improperly installed and because the gas was turned off or flagged over six months ago for issues. They said the only way they could authorize it would be if we got a letter from the gas company that stated it was working properly when we purchased the house.

After hanging up I realized that 1/2 of the claim was related to water plumbing so how could they deny the entire claim. I called back and after talking to about six different people they finally authorized the repairs to the water plumbing. I then called the gas company and found that six months before our purchase they had turned the gas off and that the previous home owners fixed a leak. The fax from the gas company stated that the repairs were completed and all line tests, gas meeter, and gas appliances were working properly at that time. I faxed this too First American Home Warranty as they had requested but now they are telling me that they would need to send A 3rd plumber to the house. Mean while, it has been over a week and 1/2 without gas. I think they will just keep sending someone to get the response that they want. They are in the business of wiggling their way out of these claims. I plan to post several responses on the web, a response to the better business bureau (which they are not part of by the way) and also you better believe I will be trigger happy any time another issue comes up with the house.

BTW - I think its useful to use First American Home Warranty in these responses. I am a web developer and it will help the rankings on google. This way if anyone is looking to purchase a warranty from them they will be able to read these glowing reviews :)

Very very disappointed in the service I have received from FA with respect to my home heating and cooling system. The system is a heat pump and was not able to cool the home the past summer. The first technician that was sent out never went into the attic and inspected the air handler, but rather added 1lb of R-22 and departed. System still did not cool. When I called to complain they sent the same technician out and I went into the attic with him. He said the squirrel cage fan was dirty and poor maintenance was not covered.
I went into my attic that weekend to clean the fan and immeditely when I removed the panel I noticed the mounting brackets on the motor were broken and the fan was barely hanging into proper position. That technician should have identified this problem immediately.....he did not know what he was doing.
F/A denied any claim due to poor maintenance. I replaced the motor for $100 and system still could not cool home below 85F.
On December 28 the heat pump compressor, condenser coil and condenser fan motor failed completely. Tech reported system needed complete replacement. It is now going on 14 days without heat in my home and outside temps in the 30's.
F/A is covering the repair, but when......no urgency from F/A.
I also underestand from contractor they ordered a non matching heat pump for the system and will not replace the air handler and evaporator coil to match the new compressor and replacement heat pump.
Every A/C estimate I have ever had matches the unit on the ground and the unit in the attic.
As an engineer and someone who is a member of ASHRAE I routinely design and spec HVAC systems. F/A response is the cheapest they can get by with and there is no time limit on their response. So if your family is in the cold for weeks.........well F/A did their part at their own sweet time.
There are dozens of HVAC contractors in the area who are more that qualified to install this system within 24 hours and if F/A's low budget contractor could not respond in a reasonable time frame (in freezing weather conditions) F/A should have contracted the installer who could make repairs in a timely manner.
We will never use this company again or renew the policy after the 1 yr. date.
By the way my wife and I are licenced R/E agents.

Home Warranty contracts are very specific about what they cover and what they don't. When the policy holder neglects to read their contract a dispute usually ensues. First American has over 90% customer satisfaction rating. I think that speaks for itself.

After reading all of your postings the common factor here is Contractors. I know when you are in the midst of a claim dispute it feels like the Company doesn't care but they do. Here are a few suggestions that I hope help you. If you don't know who your Area or Regional Manager is then you can find out when you call the 800# ask who your field rep is. That person may be able to get involved and expedite the process for you. You might also want to ask for an outside contractor. Which simply means that if the contractor we use in your area is not responding you can schedule with a contractor of your choice and the company authorizes a dollar amount for that repair. Finally, when all else fails, I usually offer my homeowners a cash out! This is not full retail value but it is always a sufficient amount.

I assure all of you that this company nor is any other warranty company a SCAM. We are regulated by the state that we operate in.

No offense but thats over 90% BS.

These guys really do suck. I had my water heater break (pretty standard), they send out this really scummy plumber. He tells me that it is covered, but he has to do over $350 is modification (FA only covers $250) Of course all the the prices are way over estimate (Install a smitty pan (a $15 pan that sits under the water heater will cost me $200)? Then he wants to charge me for "modifications" that are not covered...reconnect the vent, reconnect the recirculator add up to another $300 +$75 to hall off the old water heater. In the end this NEW water heater is going to cost me over $600 out of pocket.

I called to get a second opinion, they say I am not allowed. Only their plumbers report is valid. So I took the cash out option ($375). Found a good water heater for $400 and am paying a plumber $200 to install the whole thing. So my out of pocket is only $225 and those guy don't get my money (other than the $55).

I just got my renewal in the mail. HA HA HA.

Thank you crinop for validating my experiences and previous post regarding second opinions. I too have found it is much cheaper just to hire a reputable serviceman. So much for "truth in advertising".

I myself have worked for First American and know people whom have been there for SEVERAL years. The company sucks when it comes to customer service. They are cheap and unorganized. The structure of the management in the company is horrnedous and they lack the knowledge needed to properly run the customer service call center!

Instead of management handling your calls and concerns - they pass it off to mere reps that take incoming calls to call you back. Management at First American SUCKS!! They feel as though they are not paid to talk to homeowners and that this is not their job. They dont appreciate the employees that work for them!

Management has gotten rid of all the knowledgeable employees that made a difference.

1st lets start with the customer service department - everyone there is young and immature, they dont care about customer service at all! When you have people at work HIGH on marajuana & DRUNK at thier desks from going to the liqour store on thier breaks, what do you expect. First American doesnt pay but $8 for customer service reps and the training in which they receive is HORRIBLE!

The Claims Resolutions Dept (more like the passoff department) takes your calls and then they do nothing with them. The manager is UNKNOWLEDGEABLE and cares more about taking the calls on hold (QUANTITY) and not (QUALITY) actually handling the claims. They pass them off and dont call you back. Well COMMON SENSE should tell them that if they actually handled the claim & made the follow up calls, they wouldnt have so many on hold (angry customers calling BACK AGAIN!!)

This company is horible. The service is horrible, they dont want to pay the techs and therefore the techs try to get out of work or overcharge the customer because they get the same amount from F/A regardless of if they complete the work or not - ONE PRICE program, where they get one $ for WHATEVER they do!! Which most of the time is $99

Employees at this company can get a warranty on their home for 1/2 price. 90% of the company doesnt purchase one because they know it is a waste of money and a scam!!!

Ask the managers if they have one, they dont! I wouldnt take this product if it were FREE!!

and all that FINE PRINT - it is a way to get out of it, the only thing they cover is NORMAL WEAR & TEAR - if it happens on its own, well there is a reason for everything at F/A!!!

It seems that you are a very bitter person about FA. My thought in reading what you had written is that you were a person terminated from the company. Would that be true? If so, it would explain why you make some of the comments that you do. I have had both good and not so good experiences with FA. In the end, with a little perseverance, it paid off and my issues were fixed. I think as customers that we always want what we want right away, and that is not always possible. We must be realists. I do agree however that it can sometimes take longer than hoped. I guess we as customers must be realistic in our expectations. I will say that having been a customer of another company,(AHS), that company does not even compare to FA. FA is a much better company, and from recent contact, it appears that they are working to improve their customer service. I had to recently speak to a Supervisor and a Manager in the office in Texas I believe and they were extremely professional and knowledgeable. Where did you work?

Maybe you should read what you bought before you "assume" something! Home Warranty companies are not your personal slaves, they save many homeowners several hundres of dollars a year. FA has over 600,000 covered homeowners at this time, that says something about them as a company. They must be doing something right! It states in clear black and white, in the contracts what you are covered under, so it's not that hard to know what would or wouldn't be covered! Its as simple as reading!

First of all pathetic loosers who dont have anything better to do than talk about first american are probably still living at home with your momma. You really need to get a life and move on. You were fired for a reason. Obviously you were one of the problems with first american. They are a better company with out you. GET OVER IT AND MOVE ON!

why call from your cell? Duh, call from a land line! why would you wait 11 months without AC, that's dumb sounds like you are lazy!

Wow I didn't think that people could get more pathetic until I was shown this site. As a home owner, you are aware that things are going to go wrong, and you being the home owner with the problem turn to your warranty to fix it. If they are as bad as this site is making them seem, then why are you their paying customer? Why don't you go fix your a/c, or replace your own ductwork, oh that's right it's because your an incompotent fool. What you don't realize is that they are sending out company's in your local area, saving you time to call them and saving the amount that they would have charged you.They save you time and money, and then you go to a website to trash talk them,your really making a difference in this world.What you may not realize is that first american has a 96% customer satisfaction rating, so really all that you are doing right now is wasting your own time.

It seems like to me, no one FORCED anything upon you, you CHOSE to call First American. You could have gone outside the company and just handled things that way, so if anyone is to blame it appears you are!

oh man...
that's good.
couldn't agree with you more.
props...
mad props.

Sounds like this person was terminated. It seems to be if this person knew all this was going on, why did he/she stay employed for so long? And why did he/she sit back and do nothing? Obviously if it was so horrible for him/her and he/she disagrees so much with it, why would he/she want to work or continue to work with First American? Sounds like he/she was probably most of the problem,you know the saying guilty dog barks first! Obviously it must have not been that bad sweetheart! I know several employees who have the warranty on their home and are quite satisfied! I am a proud FAHBP home warranty owner!!!

Sounds like many of you do not read the contract in full, then you get upset when the item is not covered! Well it wouldn't happened if you read the contract, in states in black and white EXACTLY what IS and ISN"T covered. So when you get your contracts in the mail, sit down read through them and if you have any questions or concerns you do have the direct number to contact the Reps and are llowed to make changes! So instead of whinning hre on this page take the time, b/c you have time to sit here and type all this, pick up the phone and call their direct number! They are availiable 24/7, how much more convientent can they get for you? FA ROCKS!

shutup nick.
no one liked you anyways.

You can not possibly "assure" home warranty companies are a scam. if that were true how are they all still in business? you are just upset and over reacting. maybe you are a scam!

They stay in business from the thousands of homes sold every day to people who have not had any experience with home warranty companies. On the surface it seems like a good deal. If they get a raw deal on a claim they go to another home warranty company that they think will treat them more fairly, unless they've done their homework.

You sound like a very angry person. Get over it, it is just a home warranty company, they are in fact very useful and helpful. I have a warranty and I find comfort in having it and it has come in handy very often. Smile, stop wrrying so much about something you can't change. It is just a web page about home warranty!

I never said I was angry. I just stated my experiences which mirrored those of the majority of people who posted on this thread (with the obvious exception of the posts from employees of FA). The last post was in answer to the question of "how could they stay in business" if it were true. Sorry, but everything I have stated has been the truth. I'm just a little old fashioned.
You wrote, "Smile, stop wrrying so much about something you can't change". First, I'm not worried. I resolved my issue with FA. I dumped their home warranty. As far as "something I can't change", I'm hopeing that I can with these posts. If nothing else, at least someone reading these posts will take a closer look at the home warranty policy and see what is not covered. I am smiling, by the way.

If you cancelled the policy a while ago how come you still keep coming to this page? If FA was such a bad experience then why do you stay here and read all this and keep on, obvioulsy you haven't moved on man. First American Home Warranty is good company, and my wife and I have had no problems with them, I just wanted to tell everyone that it is worth it, a warranty on your home is a good idea! And First American has been really good to me, no complaints so far!!

This is some of the worst customer service I've ever experienced. When the plumbing failed in an upstairs bathroom and flooded the downstairs, the representative said they would only send rotorooter to unplug a toilet and that they would not send someone to repair the pipes that leaked and in no way would repair "secondary damage". This warranty was a complete waste of money and I will tell every real estate agent in my area and anyone planning on purchasing a home to beware of this company.

Someone had mentioned in an earlier post about a class action lawsuit against First American. Do you have the name of the law firm? I'd like to give them a call.

I am going to file a lawsuit against First American Home Buyers Protection for breach of contract and bad faith in their dealings with customers. I would like others to join with me and make this a class action lawsuit. I have a law firm that is willing to take this on. You can contact me at:

shfwilf@gmail.com

Thanks in advance.

I wish I had never wasted my money with this company. The wasted money paid is bad enough but the mental and emotional grief spent fighting with these guys is the worst. HAVE YOUR ATTORNEY EXPLAIN ALL THE FINE PRINT on their practically useless contract. I beleive they imply to cover many issues that they will, in reality, deny coverage. It seemed to me that every other sentence I heard from their rep was "It is not a covered repair".

What really angered me was how they try to "handle" you on the call. Long waits on hold with obnoxious loud music, vague answers with "I'll check on that for you and get back to you" DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH! They didn't ever call me back as promised.

I would not recommend this company to my worst enemy! Take a clue from the posts all you potential buyers.

If anyone has information on a class action law suit against First American Home Warranty Company please let me know. I'm in!!

docpierce@rock.com

I know that all of us have bad experiences now and again, but have all your experiences been bad or does it take just one to completely turn you off? I, too, inherited a first American policy with my home and upgraded it as soon as it came due.

I have had a very bad experience with FA and I am frustrated and considering not using them again, but I have to weigh that against all the good service and good contractors that I've met through them too. All of the contractors aren't bad, most of them will be honest with you and tell you what needs to be done to get around FA's double talk to get the job done and how to do it. Sometimes it takes them arguing FA and you might not get quite all of what you wanted but for $60-$75 per service call and nothing more, why scream, you're still out cheaper than doing it yourself? The only time it's cheaper than that is if it's a ceiling fan light kit or washers in your faucet or something. Think about it.

As far as bad contractors go, when you call in a claim, it gets a number, you get a rep, with an extension and if they don't offer, ask for it! Until your claim is complete, that person is the one who handles your claim. And yes, they have their fair share of bad reps there too, I've had mine and simply called, gotten someone else and told them I want them handling my claim, I'm not talking to that person again. The same goes for their contractors and I've done this on several occasions - called and said I do NOT want this contractor back, mark it in my file, DO NOT offer this contractor to me as an option again, he is not welcome in my home! Then, made sure that I marked the service order I was given, so next time I called in, if they offer that contractor, I can say no, he's not welcome here. I HAVE run into the situation where they say they have no one else and I have told them they will have to find someone because that contractor isn't coming back here. i might have to explain why AGAIN, but it's worth it. Make yourself heard, but it's not necessary to be harsh, just firm.

NOT TO MAKE EXCUSES: But how many of us have to do things that completely go against our grain? Get into a job and find out that something that goes with the job is completely against every fiber of our being? I have done this type of job most of my working career so I try to remember that it isn't their fault, they are following company procedure, they have someone listening in quite often,they can & are written up, & they have to follow the rules, as we all do on our jobs. That's what the reps are doing - following company procedures.

In all truth, is everything they've done that bad, or did one person screw up a good thing and frustrate you to the point that you've forgotten the good they've done before? I'm not their advocate, but as I sat here reading all the negatives, I've thought about all the good they have done for my family in the past and how much I appreciated them when my mother was dying and they were here in 20min to fix that a/c, when the commode broke the month before she died and they were here the next day and they replaced it. I just lost sight of that. You all helped me see it again.

Kitty, you're right, we do have the right to open our eyes and make sure that certain things are covered that otherwise would not be. Many first time home owners are very naive, as I am finding out that I am (smile) and learning from the experience. Some are frustrating, enlightening, and downright laughable. FA has been good to us except in one instance and I am coming to believe that it is more the rep not being on the ball that the company falling off it.

FA will do anything possible to avoid paying a claim and search for the absolute cheapest way out.3 different contractors who do work for them have also stated the same.

I work for a home warranty company (not First American) and have been in the real estate industry for about 15 years. Home warranties are very different from insurance - and so there is a lot of confusion around what they cover. Home warranty covers you for normal wear and tear, in other words, when things get old and worn out, your home warranty company will repair or replace that system or appliance. Home warranty companies do not cover secondary damage - but your homeowners insurance will and oftentimes the two will work very well together to provide you with maximum protection.

With that said, it certainly could be said that since HW's rely on their contractors to be their eyes and ears that there could be denials issued that shouldn't have been. If you have a good Realtor they oftentimes have connections to help you at the home warranty company - you might want to start there.

All home warranty companies are regulated by the Dept. of Insurance in the State of California and First American Home Warranty has been pretty consistent in ranking #2 in terms of paying their claims. That's a pretty high ranking. I personally wanted to work for the company that was paying out the most in claims dollars so I went to work for the company that ranks #1.

It DOES protect you as a seller from after sale liability and it will protect you as a buyer from costs associated with age and usuage - but as someone previously stated - your happiness with the product you purchase will probably be aligned with your expectations. Purchase a home warranty with a company that is a large one (yes home warranties have gone out of business leaving contract holders high and dry) and that your Realtor knows and has resources at. This is my best advice - and that's from the inside track. Best wishes to all!

I am in the middle of a claim on my A/C unit. I would love to have some advice on how to resolve this problem. On may 17, 2007 I turned a claim in that my A/C was out, they sent someone to look at the unit that day, the blower motor is bad and needs replaced (the unit is a Lennox). Here we are 28 days later, still no air. FA does not want to spend the $$$ to fix the unit. Other that legal how do I go about getting them to do what they should to fix the unit?

I am a worker at First American Home Warranty. I will state that like all warranties they are limited. First American has a policy that stated the contract. when people hear the word protection based off there assumptions they can create an idea of what will cover and not cover by there own choice. The one thing i will say ive worked in a Resolutions area to consistant problems for awhile now.

One thing about warranties:
If i have a cell phone and i throw it in the river. The Insurance would cover it but the warranty would not. Realize that the Warranty is a lot of money for the year depending on the plan. Most warranties have differnt policies for every state.

Summer and air conditioner:
But ive seen many issues in the summer especially this year. Our call volume rises to about 40 min wait holds due to the fact everyone is calling in Regarding Air conditioners. This is the reason why many workers at first american hate the summer. it causes most stress. Personally when im on the phone with our customers i see honestly what they are going to do. Some people are however a bit obstruct. When i will try to assist them they get personal and make direct insults that have nothing to do with the problem. they enjoy being upset. Ive had the most interesting threats. Ive had someone threaten to bomb me and shoot us all down.

Customer service: people tend to assume that we do not really care. Trust me the people who watch our customer service really are strict. Ive worked in other call centers and i will state First Americans Customer service guidelines are really tough. Cingular wireless allows you to hang up if you warn the person just for raising there tone. However First Americans you can never hang up except in certain circumstances. Ive had the longest call for for almost an hour and a half. This was a person who got denied over there washer for rodent issues. They found the electircal plug had chewed marks. He demanded First american send a 2nd opinion and this also the same day which was on a saturday at 5pm.
This home owner was one of the most interesting persons. but on his contract it stated (We only cover normal wear and tear..... damage from pests is not covered).

I will state we have had instances but also there are many areas and levels. When you get into a car accident and its not covered then people probably will use the internet to make the most propaganda one sided information pages about it. However when you purchase a policy whether its insurance or a service. you must accept the details of what it comes with. we are not forcing you to use it. and you automaticly agree to all the details.

Here let me give you one of my experiences with a cell phone company. I bought 3 cell phone lines with Cingular wireless and had several people on the account. I had my sister and my brother. However i didnt read the details for the internet kb data charges. After a while my line was cut off because my sister has gone ahead and charged up my bill to over $700.00 and guess what. then i didnt have enouhg to pay it since my tuition was due. eventually i went ahead and got it turned off. and had to pay for another month of service that i was not using. they canceled the plan and then charged me 3 cancelation fees of $175.00 each. be honest i didnt have the money to pay it off so this caused me to end up going to collections. after all the charges for the collections i ended up had to pay the darn company $2400.00 total.

IS it past the 30 day re-call period. Or was it denied? And so for what.

If the claim was denied meaning not covered get your own 2nd opinion and have them go ahead and diagnose the unit. if the 2nd opinion is a licenced and bonded contractor (they should have a lic#) and they state differntly get a clear invoice with an attached letter. Call first American and then request they need submit it for review. they will go ahead and do that.

If this is a deal with a replacement of the unit. and you do not want to pay the non covered costs. you can go ahead and read your contract. any modifications to the unit such as the plenum or the disposal which is required usually by city law will not be covered. any freon recovery such as disposal and such or any air handler transitions which is also a modification is not covered. the limits of liability explains this.

If you are not happy with the amount try to call the contractor and ask the details. remeber that first american works with independant contractors and they do not have control over what they charge. Infact if we did it would make our job so much easier. If you feel and refuse the pay these amounts then go ahead and then take the cash out. The cash out however is not retail price. its what we pay to have the unit replaced and we have agreements with suppliers. Take the cash out and get your own company. these are the only 2 options. Based off of the policy the modificiations are a decision i do not make. they are part of your contract which is how it will work.

August 3, 2007

First American Home Buyers Protection Corporation

I have a BA in Business Administration and I am a computer programmer.

I was contacted by Robert Half Finance & Accounting, an employment agency because of my resume posted online and their interest to work with me.
Mr Eddie Blair from Robert Half explained to me this opening in your company:

Job Description:
Home Warranty company located in the San Fernando Valley area is seeking and auditing clerk for their accounts payable department. Duties for this position will include: auditing contractor invoices for compliance, make corrections to invoice errors, and light accounts payable reconciliations. This is a great opportunity for someone looking to get into the accounting department of a large corporation. The company does provide growth opportunities and great benefits. Qualified candidates must have a high school diploma and 2+ years experience working with accounts payables or accounts receivables.

They set up a phone interview with Donna King, supervisor at First American Home Buyers Protection Corp on Tuesday 7/ 23/07 , at 3:00 PM.
The interview went well and the employment agency asked me to go for a personal interview the next day at 7833 Haskell Ave. Van Nuys, CA 91410.
I met Donna King and Geoff Williamson, Manager of Approvals.

Previous to the interview I filled all the paperwork needed to check background, application, references, etc.

Next day, July 25, 2007 the employment agency asked me to go back to First American as Donna King needed for me to fill the paperwork again. I have experience as a manager working for 27 years completing legal forms. I knew that I did it correctly the day before but I went back to your company as asked.
The employment agency told me not to ask for Donna King as she didn't need to talk to me and she was very busy.

I was seating at your company’s lobby completing AGAIN the paperwork, when Donna King walked in front of me and told me “you shouldn’t be here” and walked away. I said “I beg your pardon”. Donna answered: “I am going to the bathroom and I will be back”.
Few minutes later she came back and told me that “they had all the paperwork needed to check my references and background”

I drove 24 miles from my home to your company on 105 degrees heat and Donna King didn't say one single word of apology or explanation.

Then, the employment agency asked me to start on July 31, 2007 at 8:30 am.
Donna King works in the Approvals unit and she was my direct supervisor.

From the beginning, she ignored me totally. She asked me to seat at a station. Didn’t show me how to sign on into the system, how to set up my email, etc.
I got information asking around and from the support clerk Josue Pena.

He told me how to sign into the system and I set up the email by myself. I began to work on Monday July 30, 2007 and only on Wednesday I found out that I needed to sign into the phone to get record of my attendance.

Time card, W2 and W4 legal forms, all information gathered from my co-workers.

I was going to Donna King desk to ask for information and she was dismissing me with “sorry, I am too busy, try to do it for yourself”

Then, and for my request, she sat with me for maybe half an hour and explained to me part of the invoice approval procedures. She will interrupt the talking (because you can’t call that a “training”) for another employees walking by and making casual comme

If I was asking something “she would almost yelled to me telling me STOP!! I am a slow reader and I need to understand the invoice. Then, she will state that she didn't know how to as she didn't have any training either. I couldn’t ask anything because I was shut down.

When I asked her for when I was going to be trained Donna won’t tell me when or why I didn't get any. She stated “ I don't know” “I can’t explain nothing to you because I dont know the answer” AND THIS IS THE SUPERVISOR OF THE UNIT.

This is a very rude person with a very unprofessional attitude, performing very poor as a supervisor and showing that she is very busy when she is not.
I believe that she is overwhelmed by the position and she cannot handle it.

Today, August 3, 2007 I received a call from Mr Blair from the employment agency terminating my employment at First American and asking me to leave the company immediately. And I did as I was asked to.

I was a First American employee NOT THE EMPLOYMENT AGENCY EMPLOYEE AND THE TERMINATION WAS TOTALLY ILLEGAL.

Donna King called the agency and terminated my employment with them when this was totally inappropriate.

When I got to my home, I called First American HR to ask when my paycheck was going to be mailed and the supervisor was in odd for what I was explained to her about my termination. She asked me “who terminated my employment” and I explained that I didn't know.
I didn't do nothing wrong. For the contrary, and per Donna King statements to me and in front of my co-workers, she said “that she was blew away by my performance, knowledge and fast learning”. I worked there for 4 days. I worked very hard, professionally and efficiently without any training I approved more than 100 invoices per day.

I believe that the real reason it was that First American has a temporary employee 22 years old girl without any experience in accounting working for 2 weeks. This temporary employee is from another agency Office Works. She stated her desire to be a full time employee. She told me that her pay is $14.75 per hour.

The support clerk, Donna King and Josue Pena were training the temporary in invoice approvals. He was detailed and this temporary began to do the work.
She was informing me how to do the procedures as I was not having any training.

This morning I asked Donna how come the temporary was getting trained when I was not, AND I WAS TERMINATED BECAUSE OF MY QUESTION!

I would like to have an explanation from First American Home Buyers Protection Corporation for this bizarre situation. I will enforce the highest of my legal rights.

This is the person that approves your services.

Lets send a message that we as consumers are tired of being scammed. I have notice that First American is attempting to hide behind the fact that they have no control over what we are charged by contractors. They do have control, they could impose limits , but they have chosen to let contractors pass on huge non covered fees to consumers. Many corporations have been taken to task for cheating clients( Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia). Anyone interested in starting a class action suit to end the madness contact me at colettemai@hotmail.com We most likely will end up paying lawyers any money, but enough is enough.

We use to do alot of work for First American I will remain anonymous of for what company because I no longer work for either/or but basically First American will not pay plumbers what there worth and want unipricing meaning we get $100-125 dollars for any work done at a home and parts are deducted from that amount so if you have a clogged drain and a garbage disposal needing done $60 for garbage disposal and a couple hours of work so $40-50 is what the company makes and the plumber $10-16 is what the plumber makes for 2-3 hours of work meaning hes making less than minumum wage for 3 years of schooling and 3 years apprenticeship now what plumber in there right mind would do that? NONE thats why they hire these ripoff worthless companies that are not plumbers to do the work or they get a good one and end up either sick of paying more or the plumber realizes its not worth his time now that wraps up the whole situation in a nut shell of why and why it will always be this way as long as they continue with things the way they are, besides nothing is covered anyways hard water is the main reason of almost all plumbing failures which is not covered if you have a water softner then it breaks the water softner is not covered :) so you cant win!
N8

Find out at least two of your local real estate companies. Write a letter to the companies and ask them not to recommend First American to home buyers. Put copies of this letter outside the mail box of any home you see for sale or any home that has recently been sold. If you have a HOA send copies of this letter to them. My letters will state that " This is my personal exp. with this company. Based on my own horrible exp I would recommend that you do not recommend this company" If anyone comes up with a good form letter ,please post it on this site. I am now six days in 100 degree heat without ac, but I will hit them with logic rather than emotion.

As a plumbing contractor we do business with several home warranty companies. Most companies only cover the "builder standard" for their products unless the homeowner upgrades his/her coverage. We do not do heating or air so I cannot answer any questions to that effect. Usually there is a contract with the warranty company stating a set price based on the type of work done, ie, basic toilet install $165 for the contractor parts and labor with some exclusions such as toilet seat and haul away of the toilet.If it is a minor repair, ie. angle stop replaced maybe $80. If the contractor wants to build a good reputation with the customer, they offer reasonable rate for any upgrades or non-covered items comparable to the retail pricing in the area. I think a break down happened when some warranty companies started only offering a $100 flat rate on EVERY plumbing call, not based on the type of work completed, this can create a situation where the contractor is upside down in cost before the van even rolls off the lot.Then you run into problems where only the simple fix gets proper pricing, but the more complicated the problem, the less the plumber will actually be reimbursed for the time and money. The billing has been easier for the warranty company, but the complications from these changes has only increased.

We are a plumbing company which was asked to join and do work for First American. I did not want to sign contacts with them without researching them. What i have found out has been a bit frightful! I contacted our local bbb and they did not have positive things to say,and it seems most customers don't either! We have over 14 years experience and have built our buisness on being fair and honest. I'm very concerned on joining this company! Have you as a contractor had a positive experience?

We had had positive experiences until a warranty company only reimburses a flat fee that isn't based on the type of work performed. Why give away your knowledge and experience for promises of volume that may not materialize and contractually cannot be enforced by the contractor. Remember, you are the contractor, not the warranty company.

ok first of all first american is state regulated,
second of all you cant always get what you want every time
third of all maintance on ac's will prolong the life of
your ac and its not the warranties fault that they fail
they are there to help it get up and running and yes ok
some technichians are not all that good but its not first
americans fault that you get a lemon of a technician they
try to get good honest ones out there to service you it just dont always happen that way now even the ones that dont work for the warranties do the same thing.
there out to make a living if they have to lie to do and
take advantage of people but that is not first americans
fault they hire the owner of the contractors and there
responsible of who they send out. first american dont hire the technicians the owner of that company does and there not just repersent first american there repersent there
own name so there hurting themselves right along with
the warranty companies they work for if the technicians
would do a honest job for themselves and the warranty
companies everyone would be happy so its just as much the
contractors and the technicians fault for bad service as it is the warranty co's so look at like that and tell the
technicians that God know when there honest and when there
not and there not just giving warranty company a bad name there given themselves one too and work and money in there
pocket either way they go but more honest money if there honest to warranty co and the home owners that need there
help .

people that live in your area knows exactly what the summers are like but yet they dont want to prepare themselves for it with a back up of fans,
also a cold wet towel behind the fans do help some try that and they also help circulate the air.
also i know for a fact that f/a offers o/s/r to people to get portable units or fans to help be more bareable till they can get there unit fixed and if they dont offer it ask for it . f/a averages from 3 thousand to 6 thousand calls a day and allot of the employees there dont take there break and have to take shorter lunches to help you
h/o's out because they do care sometimes there is just not
enough time in a day or in a hr to take care of everyone but we try and we are only human just like you are like
you never upset a customer think about that.
you no more better then allot of the employees are at these warranty companies . so when you talk to a rep think of how many times they are cussed at and how rude the home
owners can get then think of if they get rude back its
probably because you got rude with them first we are not god and dont have the power to fix millions of peoples problems
at every whim of every complaint they didn't go to your house and do something to your home to make you call them for service. and it does help if you read all the contract
and sometimes read it more then once the reps dont write the contract that just have to abide by them.they are there to make a living just like you have to make a living at your job and i bet you take crap from customers that you have upset you cant set there and say you havent done something wrong or forgot a customer that you should have called back because you are so busy with your work that you let one slip by. now think of that one as well look at yourself before you go running someone else down your not perfect either.

I just had a horrible one-month-long ordeal with my FA warranty policy. I very strongly discourage anyone from working with this company, which has clearly and systematically delayed and worked to avoid providing benefits for which they received premium payment.

In a routine furnace servicing by a very reputable company, I learned my furnace's secondary heat exchangers had holes, which is a major safety hazard, making their replacement immediately necessary. I called FA. Their contracted technician eventually came. He was not knowledgeable, as later evidence clearly revealed. He did a CO test in open air for a furnace that had not been run in 6 months, observed there were not rusted puddles on the floor, and declared there was no problem. He refused to actually look at the problem exchangers. Who would pay for his time, he asked?

More than a week went by and said technician had not even sent in his report. I complained to FA (via 3 FAXes and many phone calls during this whole ordeal). They offered to send yet another technician, refusing my suggestion that the original company install the part and bill them. The other technician, when I contacted him, he refused to guarantee me that he would even look at the problem (the heat exchangers). Maybe the first company was trying to cheat me, he said (something I heard from FA and its contractors at least 5 times). Then again, "who will pay for all my time to get to the exchangers to look at them. Will you? Having already taken off hours of work, I wasn't about to spend the rest of another month doing the same over and over for no purpose. I got no response when I faxed and called FA subsequently, insisting that they either reimburse for the problem or send someone to examine the problem. I offered to have the part available, their technician could be present, etc. I received no response.

Almost a month had passed and it was growing cold at night. Night after night in the 40s, no furnace, a family, and the masters of delay at FA, who with their contractors refused to even examine my problem.

I finally had reputable company one come out and install a new part. The serviceman insisted that I should call FA and he would talk to them. What a waste of time that was. I must've been on the phone for the better part of an hour, escalating through two supervisors, getting harsher and harsher and more accusatory replies as I went. No one would speak with my serviceman. No one would come and examine my part with the holes that proved my point. I was told the part could've come from anywhere (i.e., I was trying to cheat them). I asked them to call the company and speak to the technician to prove otherwise. No, no, no from FA. There would now be no chance for coverage as I had violated the terms. The terms do not specify that I take off work many times for endless visits by contractors that do not even look at the problem, I said. The 2nd line FA supervisor, who spoke like an attorney and refused to reveal her full name, explained that this was a "continuing problem" and the company had 30 days to resolve it. There was nothing continuing other than their refusal to have someone look at the problem. There was one initial problem that was not addressed. And, the supervisor said, despite serviceman number two's refusal to agree to look at the problem, who is to say what he would or would not have done if I had permitted him to look. ... Again. Please do yourself a favor and avoid FA!

There's more than enough detail in other posts here about how bad it is to try to "work" with them so I spare the details of my ordeal (suffice it to say that the plumber actually damaged my tub more than it was when he arrived and has not been seen since despite many calls to him and to First American), but I did want to add my voice/vote here.

Avoid this company like the plague.

- No matter how patient and clear you are your call is sure to be treated as nothing but a problem to palm off on the lowest rung of the trade ladder.

- If you do get someone to come out, expect some guy in a beat up van, no company name, about as unprofessional as you could imagine.

- Then get ready to hear how it's either not covered or how they push you to "fix" the problem in the cheapest way so they are out the door with the problem not solved and sure to recur a week later.

- First American, and their "contractors" are more or less just a glorified scam. You think you have a "warranty" but all you have is a way to pay more and more to the lowest class of trade people, who have no financial incentive to fix your problem and all incentive to get your check and get out of there.

- And "customer service"? Their training program must be to push off every concern you have, tell you there's "nothing they can do" and, at best, tell you that someone will call you back - which never happens.

- If you are in San Diego and in the unfortunate situation where you are stuck with them and they send out "Almco Plumbing" or "J & M Plumbing" brace yourself for a real nightmare! You will be better off realizing it's going to be a waste of time and money and do like I had to do - get a real professional in to fix the problem - and learn a painful lesson about First American Home Warranty along the way.

First off, if anyone is organizing a class action lawsuit then I want in. 5 weeks and I'm still locked in a heated battle.

I bought a house that came with this warranty, within the first week both the fridge and the oven died. I pulled out the paperwork, double checked that both were covered by the plan and called. That was September 19th. At first I was happy, they promised to send a guy out within two days and he arrived when stated. So on the 21st he told me that he could make the fridge work temporarily while he ordered a part, there was nothing that could be done about the oven to make it work until he ordered the parts. The following week he came back and finished the fridge. He then stared at my oven for a while and said "I don't think we can get a part for that" but said he'd try. It then took over a week of me calling every day, both First AM and the Contractor. No return calls from either. When I would finally get through to someone at First Am they would start out by saying they had no record of a claim, then they would magically find my claim and say that they were waiting on the contractor. I demanded they do something so they sent out a second contractor. These 2 appeared to have been pulled out of a crack house somewhere and I was nervous even letting them in the house with only myself and my 6 year old home. Luckly the Dogs watched them closely. They looked at the stove and again stated that they would need to order a part. It has now been 2 more weeks. I cannot get a phone call returned from First American, the contractor, when called directly, states that the oven is unrepairable. However when I get the useless customer service reps on the phone, and they actually can find my claim, then they state that they are waiting on the tech. 5 weeks now and my oven STILL does not work.

Sure, I have a story. A month into this claim and no oven repair. 1st Tech said, Parts no longer available, need to replace unit." They sent for a second opinion. Second tech said no parts available, but he could retrofit from other ovens. Next day, claim denied due to pre-existing problem. I sent them a copy of the home inspection that stated that the oven worked. I called first tech., he said oven could break at any time, through normal use. First tech offered to have First Am. call him to confirm. First Am. said, denied, denied, denied. I have phone calls recorded, kinda funny when you listen and hear conflicting information from the representatives. If I get emails, I will post it on the net as a podcast or youtube for you listening pleasure.
I got an attorney and also made a complaint with BBB as described below, currently the tech is waiting for parts First American promised to send him that Hotpint/GE said, do not exist anymore.

First though and important NOTE!! First American Home Buyers Protection Corporation is not an insurance company.

They are NOT REGULATED!
They sell a warranty. You can sell a warranty too! No insurance license needed.
This means that your state's insurance division is powerless. Call them, they will tell you.

Your State's Department of Justice has a little bite but mostly they can gnaw, but have no bite.

Better Business Bureau. This will help to some degree. If you make a proper complaint, a First American representative will contact you.
IMPORTANT: You must make a complaint with the BBB in their home town. Here is a link for Better Business Bureau that they belong to: http://www.labbb.org

First American Home Buyers Protection
P.O. Box 10180
Van Nuys, CA 91410-1980
Contact: Kristin Flach
Phone: (800) 553-6699


P.S. There are 1019 complaints in the last 36 months. Thats over 306 a year, Better Business Bureau complaints. How many people have time for this?? Most will just replace or pay Sears to fix it out of their own pocket.

We bought a house and filed a claim in August 2007 but as of October 25 2007 we have not gotten satisfaction. They employ only bottom feeders, they are not cost efficient, and they are worse than any HMO. Do not walk, RUN away from this company!

There are sooo many complaints on here. Can we start a group letter t the the Better Business Bureau? I think we can only complain about UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES...

Here's my story:

My water heater broke on Saturday and was leaking all over. First this is the background information: I have a finished basement, an AC/HEATER unit directly next to the Water Heater, a newborn in the home, as well as I had recent surgery.

One rep told me that the contractor would call me and had until the end of the day

I called the contractor 5 times and he never responded back.

Another rep told me the contractor had until Tuesday to call me..I asked what should I do about HOT water..she told me I could boil water to take baths…
I explained the water was going to start pouring into the other room and that I had the AC unit next to it. I was told that THEY would NOT cover secondary damage. I told them to hurry and get someone out to fix it.

After a several phone calls to @#$ PLUMBING..I called back again…another rep stated they would try to find anther contractor and would call me back.

I waited a little longer as water continued to leak..I called back again..and found out that suddenly I was a plumber..I was told to try and turn the water off. I hung up the phone..and did so..well seeing there were more than one knob..who knows what I was doing..the water still leaked out…

I called back again..and once again the reps are trained plumbers and so am I. I was told to now try and drain the unit..and to get a hose and hook it up to it..I actually did attempt that but realized the window was over 6 feet ABOVE the unit….and THAT would cleary not work…for gravity reasons…

I called a friend of the family who told me that the gas needs to be shut off or that it was a fire hazard.the reps forgot to tell me this important information..my house could have blown up….I called First American again and told them the water was still leaking..and that I was told the gas could cause fire..I once again became a PLUMBER..I was told to turn off the gas valve. I did so and called back and told the supervisor that the knob was broken..I was sooo worried that gas was maybe leaking..his reply was “WELL DO YOU SMELL GAS?” I replied no but that I had recent sinus issues and could not smell anything.. He replied “WELL IF YOU DON’T SMELL ANYTHING IT’S PROBABLY NOT LEAKING GAS”..I guess suddenly he became an expert in GAS/ENERGY. I told him that PROBABLY was NOT good enough..I have a newborn in the house…He told me to call my local GAS company..I asked him what would happened if the water leaked into my AC/Heating unit..and he told me THEY would NOT cover it and that it was my responsibility to prevent secondary damage. I asked what happened to the 2nd contractor that was supposedly being contacted and he said NO ONE ELSE WOULD BE CALLED..that the only contact was $$% PLUMBING…and that he was CLOSED on the WEEKENDS..I asked
SEE NEXT POST

Post: 157645
my story continued
..I asked “why would you give me a contractor who is closed..this is clearly not a typical issue that could wait..especially with the continuously leaking water..a possible gas valve that may or may NOT be turned off..and the fact that I needed use of HOT water for a zillions reasons..1st because of a recent surgery..I could not take baths..and pouring water down my back was not a solution..2nd..I needed to have sterile bottles for my baby..and could not use the dishwasher…Finally the supervisor said he had AND EMERGENCY NUMBER FOR @@# PLUMBING AND WOULD CALL HIM…(hmm..very interesting since originally he told me that he was closed)..well the Supervisor stated that THE CONTRACTOR DID NOT ANSWER. In the meantime..water is continuously pouring out.. then the supervisor told me that the contractor had until TUESDAY to initiate service and I asked how long I would take to order a new water heater and was told it could take7-10 days after it was approved..I replied YOU MEAN I COULD BE WITHOUT HOT WATER FOR 2 WEEKS…and he replied yes mamm… I said is this what you call customer service..This is horrible business practice…I asked how I would be responsible for secondary damages since FIRST AMERICAN should be fixing the original problem..he said “YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO PREVENT SECONDARY DAMAGE” in the meantime as I am I busy cleaning up water to prevent secondary damage…my only solution to avoid anymore damage was the following: I had a retired plumber from the neighborhood look at the unit..he said it needed to be replaced as well as the gas valve…I had a friend’s brother( who has been in the plumbing industry for over 10 yrs) come look at it..he also said the unit needed to be replaced as well as the gas valve…he also mentioned that the plumber he works for used to be a contractor for your company and explained how many claims they deny.. Finally I went to LOWES and bought the cheapest Water Heater and had my friend’s brother install it for $300. He gave me a break since he knows me..however..he had to travel an hour to get here..Another store said they would charge $400 just to come out and look at the unit…plus labor and the cost of a new unit..I called a 2nd plumber who said it would cost $1,000 to come out and replace the unit. The reps should not be telling customers how to operate a water heater and drain it and turn off gas valves etc.. unless they are certified plumbers..that is a liability. They should also have a PLUMBER on CALL 24 hrs 7 Days a week..to at least go to a customer’s home and take care of things temporarily…or to answer questions..I mean what would happen if my friend did not tell me to shut off the gas valve? A fire may have started..how can a customer service rep have the expertise let alone liability to tell me how to fix something??

I sent this letter to the local area manager of First American. I am being reimbursed the cost of the new water heater..but NOT the $300 I paid for Labor.

We bought our house 3 months ago. Our realtor recommended First American.

First issue: A/C went out in August -- we live in Houston -- it was miserable. I called. Was on hold for 90 minutes -- yes, 90 minutes. They told me it would take 24 hours. Waited -- 25 hours later I'm on the phone with them. Again, waited, and waited and waited. They said they would dispatch another vendor and gave me that vendors phone number. I called that vendor immediately since most A/C contractors in Houston offer 24 hour service. This one told me they would call me back in the morning. I said OK. Picked up the yellow pages and called another vendor -- he was there in 30 minutes. I paid out of pocket. Also established a great relationship with a good vendor. He told me that they refused to contract with home warranty folks because the contracts tied their hands too much and they couldn't perform the service they really needed to.

Second issue: We have the upgrade to cover the pool/spa. Technician comes out to diagnose the problem. My wife describes the problem to him -- he never even looks at the system -- tells us that the relays need to be replaced. Relays are covered. What he reported to F/A was that the electronic system management unit was not functioning. Claim denied due to policy exclusions. Tech got the $60, we got nothing. Not worth fighting now, I called the equipment manufacturer and he told me how to fix the issue -- nothing to do with relays. Not worth my time to fight.

My solution: I'm cancelling the policy and getting my pro-rated dollars back. Best part is, the seller paid for it, so it's free $ for me. I'll use it in case something bad does go wrong. A home warranty is not a substitue for a contingency fund.

Beware First American Home Buyers Protection Corp.
Paying Claims does'nt bring in profit.
You are bucking a system that makes money by getting your premium without paying claims.
Over 1000 claims filed against them with better business bureau.

Check out this website http://www.ripoffreport.com
Just type in First American Home Buyers Protection Corp.

FA and their (contractors?) are scam artists to rip you off. Insure yourselves and hire your own contractors! Get the job done right!

Add me to the list of those taken by first american

My heat worked for a month, then it stopped. They sent a technician out to check on things, and sure enough, it was a pre-existing condition.

A policy from First American Home Buyers Protection Corp is any thing but home protection. You would be better off to save the money and use it to pay for the repair if something goes wrong.

I do not understand how something can work for a month and then be classified as a pre existing condition.

Is there a class action lawsuit against First American Homebuyers? I am not a litigious individual, but I can tell you that this company cost us our plumbing business. Not only do they control what they pay their contractors, but they certainly don't want anyone to know this! Much of it is designed so that you pay your annual fees, and the "Service fee" to the contractor. The company is truly hoping that the service fee that you pay to the contractor will be the end of the billing, as they don't want to pay out at all! Contractors are expected to use the cheapest parts possible. We were often called out on second opinions, following other "plumbing" companies who frankly went in, did nothing and collected a service fee. We learned that many contractors just have a "body" at minimum wage show up for the appointment. We soon learned why they did that; it keeps them in business! The good, honest contractors could never possibly win doing business with this company! First American require mountains of paperwork from the contractors for tiny invoices, and that the contractor call in status reports. Well, you can never get through to a real person (the line is always busy) and if you leave a message, it sort of "gets lost"....then they send you a letter attached to your invoice telling you that they are not going pay you because you never gave them status on the job! This happened to us on countless occasions until we literally went out of business! They just move on to another company. That's only one example of what goes on!

Dec7/08--First American-what a nightmare!
Our realtor suggested that we might want to buy this policy as the home was 15-20 yrs old. I have since called and told him that before he recommends this company again he'd better look at the documentation of their poor service record.
We lost our hot water and heating system on a Sat am-after my husband had surgery on Friday. Our hot water and heating pilot would not stay lit-without manually lighting it. My husband could not get down to light it and I could not reach where it needed to be lit. Thank God, for our son and my brother. On that Sat, we finally limited ourselves to lightiing it twice a day.
The calls to First American were too numerous on that first Sat. We explained over and over about my husnband's surgery--etc etc..to no avail. Finally, I lost my temper and threatened to call my congressman to a supervisor. We then got an authorization# for the work to be done by an outside source as the two sources that we were given did not respond nor (I learned later on) did they work on this type of system. It appeared that First American knew those facts after talking to both companies that were recommended. Remember, my authorization # was suppose to work- not so!! It appears that the outside contractor was then jerked around" to get another authorization. The whole process took two weeks and we both got ill-my husband seriously so--Imagine that!!-surgery, cold water, no heat, who'd guess!!
This is the 3rd time we have had problems with First American. I feel like a fool!! We kept the insurance because of this hydronic hot water heating system BUT I am sending in a COMPLAINT to the Dept of Insurance-Steve Poizner's office...www.insurance.ca.gov or you can use the consumer hotline 1-800-927-4357.
I was lucky to find the outside contractor who was a gem. He had worked for them before on these units and it appeared that First American knew this fact. Why they didn't just give us the right company to begin with is such a ripoff. Thank God this guy was willing to help us w/a number of tricks just to keep it working for the 2 wks..including checking out the heavy gas smells.
Please file a complaint where it will do some good. When I called the person did know of the company and suggested that I might want to wait to file the complaint until I got the problem resolved. The outside contractor also suggested the same idea as First American can pull the authorization # and stop the work!

I Just found this page about First American..mmmmmm Lets just say they do not have 90% satisfaction rating ! Were do you or they get there facts ?
Any way, I had them in 2004-2005 they were really bad.
I went with another company that was even worse..this led me back to First American.
So the choice is between terrible and bad........mmmm

They have gotten better however I still feel it's a big scam because they do not cover most expensive work that needs to be completed..
i.e They will pay for a $250 water heater but fail to pay for the up grades and all the extra cost that end up more around$700
They have very miss leading wordy contracts and make a lot more then they put out.
When we sign up and pay money to this company we are depending on them to bring only honest, trust worthy lagit companies but when the company pads all the cost and makes a list of extra things need that are not needed.
They don't protect the client they say sorry this is what we can offer.
Its not really worth it they don't care about the customer really but hay this is the America we live in..

I Just found this page about First American..mmmmmm Lets just say they do not have 90% satisfaction rating ! Were do you or they get there facts ?
Any way, I had them in 2004-2005 they were really bad.
I went with another company that was even worse..this led me back to First American.
So the choice is between terrible and bad........mmmm

They have gotten better however I still feel it's a big scam because they do not cover most expensive work that needs to be completed..
i.e They will pay for a $250 water heater but fail to pay for the up grades and all the extra cost that end up more around$700
They have very miss leading wordy contracts and make a lot more then they put out.
When we sign up and pay money to this company we are depending on them to bring only honest, trust worthy lagit companies but when the company pads all the cost and makes a list of extra things need that are not needed.
They don't protect the client they say sorry this is what we can offer.
Its not really worth it they don't care about the customer really but hay this is the America we live in..

I have been doing plumbing for FA for over 20 years even before FA it was Ticor. They used to be a great company and frankly because I am one of the few plumbers that give honest service to the customers I keep the customers even after the policy is expired.

What I am seeing now is FA gives most of the work to the cheapest contractors first, these cheap contractors keep their "cheap status" by lying to the customers and claiming "improper installation" "not normal wear and tear" so they bill out a small service call to FA and then charge the customer retail for the repairs OR if the customer disputes it they will send us as a second opinion then we find out it is covered and they pay us their cheap flat rate to make the repairs alot of the time it costs me money. I find this happeneing more and more. Some of these companies will charge 65.00 for non covered "vent modification" on a water heater that involves no more than unscrewing a screw and screwing it in again.

These contractors blatently lie, the customers complain, some of us contractors complain and FA does nothing about it.

I'm almost to the point of dropping them as a vendor BUT I do look at it as an avenue of advertising my service and we do get a large volume of repeat customers that were FA customers. I actually have some that have been using us since 1990. To this day I still dont play the game the other guys play as I would rather make less and have a good reputation than make a fortune and have a bad one. All I can say is when a FA contractor says "not covered" request a second and third opinion if needed and make them pay for what is covered.

Honest Plumber who works for FA

by the way, water heaters dont cost 250.00.....more like 500.00 now a days. This is what we charge for upgrades....vent modification (not just removing a screw) 40.00, earthquake brackets 65.00, smitty pan 80.00, haul away 50.00, gas flex and valve 65.00. FA buys most of the Wh's for the contractors and we have to pick them up at no charge to them. They pay from 90.00 to 120.00 for installation, I charge anywhere from 225.00- 300.00 for installation retail So you can see why we charge for any "non covered" costs. But you have to look at it another way, we charge 1295.00 for a 50 gallon wh installed with everything which is avg in SO. CAL with our AQMD spec expensive Wh's so if you pay 300-350 bucks you are getting a deal.

But like I said in my last post, a lot of the contractors are liars. An ex employee who rents had a WH replaced by FA at his landlords expense, The "big" company down here charged him 385.00 in "non covered" expenses, one of which was the 65.00 for removing and replacing a screw in the vent
they also said the earthquake straps were not installed properly and needed to be moved 2 inches, they left them exactly how they were previously but charged 125.00 for the "modification" They didn't know the tenant was a former home warranty plumber for 20 yrs. They also charged a T&P modification for a huge amount of money which took 5 minutes and a 50 cent part.

I dont work for free but I will never rip off a customer, when a customer refuses the extra costs, the warranty company will "cash them out" at the cheapest price they have on file even from a contractor that doesn't work for them anymore at 2-3 years ago prices and the policy holder will find they cant even buy the item for the "parts and labor" price the HW company offers them.

cancel

This company is terrible.

My wife and I spent five months (21 phone calls, four letters and countless other documents) trying to claim reimbursement on our furnace.

It wasn't until we threatened Daniel Langston, the company’s president, with litigation and a grievance with the California Department of Insurance that someone actually moved forward on processing our claim.

I would suggest anyone who has a contract with this Van Nuys, Calif.-based company to drop their contract NOW!

Langston is a member of a number of regulatory boards, but those regulations, apparently, do not pertain to First American.

If you are looking for someone to work with at the company, I would suggest Oscar Arrechea in the Claims Evaluation Department. His phone number: 888-955-4415 ext. 3651.

You may also reach Daniel Langston at 818.781.5050. I would give out his home address— he’s a graduate of California Lutheran University and resident of Ventura County— but I think that’s a bit over the line.

I am having problem with plumbing. The pipe from kitchen is being blocked some where between the disposal and the basement. I called them last Wednesday and they assigned the job to a 'company' that I had to call him on Thursday. He is an old man (>70) working alone, and not capable to get any job done. He came to my house and only use clog opener (chemical) to pour into the pipe, but this case will need to open the pipe and use electric snake or some equipment to blow the clog
I called them again and again but it seems I am going to add my name in the negative list

I'm glad I found this site, I will gladly join any class action suits out there. Talk about an efficient system of putting you off, wearing you down, and increasing the frustration level.
My wife is 7 months pregnant and we have been without AC in Houston, Tx for over a week in 90+ degree heat. Its very hard on her and is killing me! She is looking to me to handle the situation, and there is an endless loop of non-action. Do not purchase this warranty! - it is not Insurance and is not regulated.
They blantantly input false information, and delete any information that would be favorable to your claim on their records.
They have a very well formulated system of how not to get anything accomplished for their customers. If anyone recieves a call back from one of their representatives they should play the lottery immediately.
Does anyone know how to file with the BBB, - they're of course not listed.
I just want to help anyone else from suffering the frustrations of dealing with this company. Their actions border/are on criminal.

We should all report them to the BBB, I already did. It's easy, just google better business bureau, and go to the part about filing a complaint. Type in their name, your zip, and you can see that their rating is actually not that bad. So the more people on this site that submit complaints to the BBB, the higher chance that their rating will really plummet and real estate agents will stop using them. That's the other thing, go to your real estate agent and tell them your troubles with this company, they need to stop using them as well.
I could tell my story, but it's the same as everyone else's. They also use contractors that do not affiliate or report with the BBB, like the HVAC company we are dealing with now. They just yelled at me and hung up.

I am a first time customer of First American (3/17/08).I have had the most horrendous experience that a new customer should not have to encounter with the first service call request. My situation is unique in that the AC/Htg company that First American sent out (Hartford Services - Houston, Texas)damaged my unit. Hartford's service repairman accidently screwed in the wrong size screw as he was putting my AC cover back on thus puncturing my condenser coil. I immediately called Hartford's owner and he stated that the puncture would have to be welded closed. To make a long story short it is June 9th and I still have not gotten my AC unit repaired.
I am being passed from one rep to the other to no avail. I have experienced almost all of the previously stated tactics & customer complaints.
I would love to join a class action suit. Anybody out there know of one?

Pat Tyrone
pat-lewis @sbcglobal.net




Pat Tyrone
pat-lewis@sbcglobal.net

bump

I currently have an issue with FA and I'm wondering what to do about it.

Our A/C went out. I call FA, they send a contractor, who says the condensing unit needs to be replaced. He points out some damage to the coils and says this isn't normal wear and tear, and that it will therefore not be covered. Cost to replace: $2.8K.

I thought I'll get my own second opinion and/or cheaper quote, so I called another contractor. He also says it needs to be replaced, but clearly states it's because of old age (it's probably the original unit installed with the, built in '68. Either way, the model has been discontinued 20+ years ago).

So I call back FA and ask for THEM to send a second opinion. They guy comes, and also says it's because of old age. I call back several days later to see what he told them. This time I'm told it won't be covered because of improper installation. They told me something about the unit being installed without a base (it DOES have a concrete base).

Is it possible to deny a claim because of improper installation, when the unit has worked for at least 20 years? More than the average life span for such a unit?

Am I wrong? Most importantly: What can I do next?

Thanks to all!

I agree with everyone, and I now wish I had researched ratings and opinions of this company BEFORE I switched from American Home Shield to First American. I only switched because the monthly payments were a little cheaper. Well, I have learned, if something is cheaper, there is usually a reason. It is really worth less than the competitors. I have been put on hold for over an hour at times, and almost every time. I request that a specific contractor not be hired, and they hire him anyways, I wait 48 hours, and that horrible contractor calls me. I waited over 2 months to have my dishwasher repaired. I waited over a month to have my refrigerator repaired. It is now my A.C., and I called a week ago, it was looked at. I called a week later to confirm with First American that it would be replaced, and they said "we are sending a fax now". I called Thursday (today), and they say, there is no fax.

This is what I have learned when it comes to "working the system" with First American. When, you talk to a claims resolutions specialist, and they say "I will fax it." You tell them, "I will wait on hold while you fax it. When it is faxed, you can verbally tell me as so." When they confirm the fax, you ask the name of the representative. If you are told, "I will go ahead and re-dispatch this for you." Tell them, "I will wait on hold as you do that. When you find a contractor, please give me the contact information." Then, you can reassure that they give you a "GOOD" contractor. I usually get the contact information and call the contractor myself. It's quicker that way.

American Home Shield is the best. I never had any of these issues. I never had to do any work (like I mentioned above). If you do not have any current problems in your home, Cancel First American and get American Home Shield. I am cancelling myself once my A.C. finally gets repaired. Then, I am quickly goin back to American Home Shield.

With First American, you will waste A LOT of time and eventually money.

I know that some of our negative opinions regarding First American put you in the defense and forced you to write your recent posting. But, if you are trying to keep customers, your response did not do so. You made your customers out to be ignorant consumers who obviously have no clue what they are talking about. The reason we feel this way is because most of us know how other home warranty companies are running. Every home warranty should run the same, hire the best contractors, send out contractors efficiently, provide the best customer service, and resolve claims as quickly as possible. If your company is not doing that for most of your customers, then they will most likely not be happy. American Home Shield provides this quality and exceeds the expecations of a home warranty with every claim I have made through them. Your customers will slowly begin cancelling their services, and then those people that are there trying to make a living may lose their jobs, because of the lack of customers the company possesses. The quality of service has to get better, or there will be an undeniable fate for this company. Review your business, your ratings, your customer service, your efficiency with resolving claims and try to make some changes. It is the only way that there will be more positive postings regarding your company on websites such as this.

I have been working to get an AC unit function for well over 8 weeks. First technician reported the unit was beyond repair. Sales rep calls another tech to look at the unit. Second tech says the unit needs to be cleaned. The unit continues to fail. The second tech is asked to return only to install a new breaker. The unit continues to fail. Sales rep tells me she can no longer help me and refers me to another representative. I have yet to talk live with the other sales representative. The unit continues to fail. I feel that I have been scammed by group of professionals.

First American Home Buyers Protection is a complete waste of money, a scam, frauds, unethical and have no customer service. Do not sign up, or if you did cancel the contract. They are frauds and deal with unethical fraudulent contractors. Specifically, we had our a/c checked by three different contractors on three different dates. Contractor one said the air filter was dirty but fact is it wasn't but it cost us $55.00. Contractor two said compressor unit was dirty, fact is it wasn't, cost us $55.00. Miller A/C,Contractor three after feeling cold air coming from underneath the house(without inspecting anything) stated to us the duct work is probably leaking at the connections. Miller a/c did not inspect any duct work underneath the house, even stated I don't crawl in the dirt. BUT, Miller A/C filed a claim with FA that the duct work was rotted and had holes in it. Miller A/C Contractor lied to us and lied to FA, took our check and cashed it right away. What a move, no inspection, but takes the money and runs...He even quoted us $2000 to replace a $69.00 plastic duck if we wanted him to do the job wow what business practice making $1930.01 profit.When I contracted claims 4 times and stated we wanted a $55.00 refund because Miller A/C did not diagnose anything, committed fraud. FA stated no but offered to send another a/c contractor for a $55.00 fee. So in the end a total of 2-3 weeks without air in 90 plus temperature, all the while paying $55.00 service fees we cancelled. FA does not offer any significant,valuable or worthwhile financial assistance in home repairs..FA does absolutely nothing but profit from home owners contract fees...

I HAVE WORKED FOR 1ST AMERICAN 7 YEARS AND I CAN SAY THEY ALLWAYS TAKE CARE OF THERE CUSTOMERS. THE MAIN PROBLEM IS HOMEOWNERS DONT READ THE CONTRACT THEY DONT COVER PROBLEMS THAT ARE CAUSED FROM LACK OF MAINTANCE FOR EXAMPLE YOU NEED TO CLEAN YOUR CONDENSOR/DONT LET YOUR CHILDREN JUMP UP AND DOWN ON THE DISHWASHER DOOR / DONT GET MAD BECAUSE A RAT BUILT A NEST UNDER YOUR REFIGERATOR AND NOW THE COMPRESSOR IS OUT / WOULD YOU COVER SOMETHING LIKE THAT IF YOU WERE THE INSURANCE CO?? JUST DO YOUR PART AND FIRST AMERICAN WILL FIX IT--- AND PLEASE EMPTY YOUR POCKET BEFORE YOU PUT COINS IN YOUR WASHER ITS NOT A SLOT MACHINE - ALLBRAND APPLIANCE SER-

Had a pool heater problem. Had my pool guy fix it right away, before i remembered my warranty. The total was $290. They would not cover it because I did not call them first. I offered to pay the service call fee of $55 to have them confirm it was done with a new part and that I wasn't charged too much. They wouldn't do it. They get you on the fine print every time.

This is my 3rd policy and each one I have ever purchased they weasle out of paying for anything.

NEVER AGAIN!

You are full of crap and stop defending such a bad company. I have never had a good experience with F/A on any issues. I have had to fix them myself. It took my 1 month to get a fan replaced in a convection oven! A job that should take less than an hour. The customer service is so bad it's noy worth calling. So, wise guy if you want you income to coming in, you should talk to those in charge and get it fixed.

What I have found is that, not only is F/A a waist of time but you need to go after the contactors as well. F/A takes your $$ w/ a promise of good service. They then hire contractors from your area, something that you can do yourself. Once they pair you up, you never hear from them again!! So, do your research on local companies, find one you like and stick w/ them. You can get to know the owners, managers or techs. This helps resolve many of the issues.
Most of my issues were electrical so I met an appliance tech from my church. We talked and he told me a few thing about F/A. I now go directly to him for service.
If you use F/A and get stiffed, go after the contractor doing the work. They are local to you and local word of mouth and bad press will get their attention and a resolution, F/A couldn't give a crapp.

I too have gotten the run around from this poor excuse of a company.
It is not surprising to see the AF employees defending there bread and butter. But they should walk a mile in the shoes of the dissatisfied customers.
I think first American has the worst customer service that I have dealt with in a long time.
I have only filed one claim with them and received nothing but the runaround from all involved.
When I talked to my realtor about the issues she said that she had not heard of problems with first American. I gave her the link to this form and her eyes where opened. She is no longer pushing first American to her clients.
I suggest we should all forward this site and any other complaints to the realtors you know or work with. This is the only way I can think of to get the attention of this poor performing company.

I have worked for them since 1991, I'm a plumber.....one of the few honest ones they have, I would never have them as my home warranty as I work for many others and old republic and fidelity national would be my first choice.

First American and maybe American home shieild are the worst home warranties available. They give most of their work to the contractors that deny the most claims and charge them the least, I know this for a fact! They also get kick backs from those contractors, I know this for a fact too as I have had some of my office workers and plumbers worked at those companies and tell me this. The contractors have Christmas partys and the field service managers from F.A. are there.

They were never at mine........I constantly almost every day have customers tell me I never want XXXXXXXwarranty plumbing in my home again, to snip a 1/2 inch off a water heater vent they charge 50.00 which we dont charge a thing, I have seen where they blatently lie to a customer to deny a claim an quote them 1500.00 to repair the problem (not covered) yet when my company came out it was a 50 cent part (washer) and 100.00 labor to fix it and it was covered.

Its a joke and a ripoff, Lately they have another ripoff....some of us contractors are on flat rate pricing or time and material,or some of us on "uniprice" which means if we spend 5 minutes or 10 hrs on a job they pay us 105.00 no matter if we walk in and say "not covered" or spend 10 hrs and spend 500.00 on materials. They try and send all the expensive jobs to the cheapest contractors and hope they lie and cost them less, when the contractor see's a work order that will cost them money to service they will try and put you off so FA will send it to somebody else.

Its so funny, some of the First American contractors are not even in the phone book or 411, that will tell you something right there! You can find my company in every phone book, internet,411 and the BBB.

The bottom line is if your claim is denied, request a second or third opinion from your home warranty company, when you find a contractor that is good, always request that company and they may tell you they can't do that but they can and will if you complain enough.

There are some good honest contractors out there working for First American but very few so you have to really watch who they send, unfotunetly not being racist but if you get a Russian appliance man....watch out, if you get a plumber or electrician that just looks and says "improper install" or "not normal wear and tear" get another opinion, if the price is excessive on non covered repairs get another opinion.

The only reason I still work for First American is since 1991 I still have customers who had a home warranty back then calling me for service, its like free advertising but I am already in your home on a service call, you like my service, my plumbers, my prices and you call me back and maybe are a customer for life. My retail hourly rate is 125% MORE THAN FIRST AMERICAN PAYS But people call us back.

Funny thing, one of FA's customers actually works for the dept of insurance in my state, they sent out the ripoff company first and denied his claim and quoted 1978.00, then I went out for a second opinion and SURPRISE covered and fixed under the policy, billed FA 142.00 for the repair less the 55.00 deductable the homeowner had to pay.
The customer has scheduled remodel work for next week, thats the way it is supposed to be.

FA is under investigation.

I just let my policay lapse and signed up with a new Home Warranty Co. I was absolutey dumbfounded by how horrible First American's customer service and process was. I pay them for an entire year and then the very first time I need them, they are miserable to deal with. Hold times are beyond ridiculous at over 30 min and then when they get on the phone, they say it's their busy time of year. No kidding? Then staff up appropriately! I must have called 12 times to finally get reimbursement for a lot of money that I paid out to a contractor because THEIR contractor didn't know what the heck he was doing. It took over 30 days for them to reimburse an outside expense that THEY authorized. This company is HORRIBLE.

I find it truly amusing that someone has the audacity to state that First American Home Buyers Protection has a 90% customer satisfaction rating. Where is that posted and who conducted the study? I have been doing lots of research recently on home warranties and, in fact, First American Home Buyers Protection has one of, if not the WORST, customer satisfaction rating. If you are going to supply a statistic that seems so outrageous, and you want that statistic to actually be taken seriously, then you need to provide the source for that statistic and the methodology used for the study.

The person who calls themself, "htwheelz67" who posted on Jan. 26, 2009 is a fake.

I believe I know who this person is and the allegations are slanderous to say the least. He is also portraying someone who he is not and using that name which I use on other non-related sites.

I am the real contractor who he is pretending to be. I believe this is an attempt to get back at me for his termination from my company. I have worked for many home warranty companies for many years and they all have similar coverage and rates.

What I can say is read your policy carefully. A home warranty can be a great thing, but too many people think they will do preventive maintanence or replace items that are just old and not broken.

I have not found a way to contact epinions directly but I would ask that that post be removed. If not, I would advise "htwheelz67" to remove it before I take further action.

Hey I found how to get this bad excuse of a company to respond. You need to file a complaint with the Better business bureau. After trying to cancel my so called warrantee for several months, I filled a complaint with the Los Angeles BBB. First American did respond to this and finally agreed to cancel my policy. Now here is the kicker. They say that they have no record of my attempts to cancel my policy and that they will cancel it as of the complaint date. This leaves only one month left on the policy. And after the cancelation fees there is no credit left. HOW FRICKEN CONVENAINT.
So what I have decided to do is to make several hundred fliers explaining my experience with FA and put them in all of the free realtor books at the gas stations and rest stops in my area.
Maybe I can help someone else from getting scammed by first American.

We are a contractor that runs calls for this so called warrenty company. To start off with their customer service department SUCKS... I mean to hold for hours at a time to get somebody then to put you back on hold for another hour or so. Anyways we have ran many calls for this company. We have to fight tooth and nail to get this company to cover peoples issues. We have so many people calling us wanting the a/c or heating fixed but the warrenty company is the one in charge. It makes me mad that I as a company have to tell people sorry its out of my hands because the warrenty company has to athorize the work to be done before we can do it. I have spent many hours on the phone with these retards fighting with them to warrenty peoples claims. To be honest they like to take your money but don't want to fix anything and if they do fix stuff its with cheap equipment. They SUCK. And to call their self a home warrenty BS... The reason it takes so long to get your stuffed fixed is because they can't pay their contractors on time either. So no contractors will run their calls. Its sad for all of you because you have to wait for them to find someone who will be stupid enough to run calls for this company might as well say work for free. People who have this company or any other warrenty are wasting your money save your money keep in your pocket. Whats that saying if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. Fund a company on your own yes its costly but the money you save from paying these scammers will pay to fix your stuff....

I HAVE BEEN SELLING FIRST AMERICAN POLICIES FOR 15 YEARS. BUT I HAVE NOW SINCE HAVING THE POLICY ON MY OWN RENTAL I HAVE EXPERIENCED IT FOR MY SELF, I HAVE HAD THE SAME COMPLAINTS FROM MY HOME BUYERS FOR QUITE A LONG TIME. FIRST AMERICAN HAS ON THEIR "ON HOLD MESSAGE" THAT THEY CAREFULLY CHECK CONTRACTORS.

I DECIDED TO CHECK THE BBB AS FIRST AMERICAN SAYS THEY DO, TO MY SURPRISE THE CONTRACTORS THAT MY CUSTOMERS COMPLAIN ABOUT HAVE THE WORST RATINGS, D AND F RATINGS AND ARE THE MOST SENT OUT BY FIRST AMERICAN TO MY BUYERS AND HAVE THE MOST COMPLAINTS.

I AS A REALTOR AND "REP" CAN USUALLY GET THINGS WORKED OUT BUT I HAD A VERY BAD EXPERIENCE ON ONE OF MY RENTALS AND WHEN I CHECKED THEIR RATING ON THE BBB THEY HAD AN "F" RATING.

I COMPLAINED TO THEM AND STATED THAT I WAS A REALTOR AND THEN I GOT THE ROYAL TREATMENT AND THEY SENT ME A CONTRACTOR WITH A B+ RATING AND HE FIXED THE PROBLEM THE "F" CONTRACTOR SAID WAS NOT COVERED AND WOULD COST ME 1465.00 FOR AN AIR CONDITIONING PROBLEM.

THE OTHER CONTRACTOR TOLD ME THIS IS VERY COMMON, I HAVE SINCE SENT ALL MY BUYERS A NOTE TO CHECK THE BBB FOR RATINGS BEFORE ALLOWING A CONTRACTOR TO THEIR HOMES AND IF THEY HAVE LESS THAN A "B" RATING DONT ACCEPT THEM.

AFTER SPEAKING TO OTHER REALTORS AND FINDING OUT OTHER HOME WARRANTIES WILL NOT USE SOME OF THE COMPANIES FIRST AMERICAN USES AND MY OWN BAD EXPERIENCE, MADE ME REALIZE YOU NEED TO CHOOSE WISELY. FIRST AMERICAN HAS SOME VERY GOOD CONTRACTORS AS I HAVE FOUND BUT THEY WILL SEND YOU THE WORST OR CHEAPEST,DISHONEST CONTACTORS FIRST. I'VE SOLD MANY HOME AND ALWAYS SOLD A FIRST AMERICAN POLICY WITH THEM.

I HAVE DROPPED THEM AS MY HOME WARRANTY AND I HAVE NOT SOLD ANOTHER POLICY SINCE, THEY EVEN COVERED WHAT WAS NOT COVERED TO KEEP MY BUSINESS BUT I TOOK IT AND DROPPED THEM.

I AM NOW SELLING FIDELITY NATIONAL AND OLD REPUBLIC TO MY SELLERS.

I ALSO SELL AND OWN PROPERTIES IN OTHER NEARBY STATES AND WAS SURPRISED TO FIND THE SAME COMPANIES DOING BUSINESS THERE FOR FIRST AMERICAN AND THE SAME COMPLAINTS FROM MY BUYERS.

What a scam!! So my a/c stops cooling the house and I called my home warranty. That said no problem we will send someone out. A company called Pro Air (owner) comes by and tells me that I need a new a/c system. He told me that I was lucky that I had this great warranty!..lol stupied me.. A few days go by so I called my FA, and they tell me my a/c is too old and they are not going to replace it.. Back and forth, back and forth and nothing.. THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER HAD TO DEAL WITH..(they sure are nice until you have something that needs fixed)....Save yourself the Agony!!!!

I to have a had a great expereince with AHS. I had it for a month and my heat when out, they had someone the next day and I had a brand to heat exchanger put on. My dryer went out and I had a brand new timer in 2 days. My refrigerrator when out and thay send two reapair who could not fix. Not I am waiting on a brand new refrigerator. They allowed me to buy a chest freezer and would give me back a $100.00. I have no problem getting through to the customer reps and they are always nice. All this negative feed back blows me away. I live by AHS

On May 31 of 2008 we closed on our first home, which was provided with a home warranty from First American Home Buyers Protection Corp. Our first negative experience came a month into the warranty when FAHBPC sent us a bill for for $100 for service from March (before we owned or even put an offer on the home). It took 4 separate phone calls to FAHBPC @ about a 30 minute Hold EACH TIME! to deal with it. My first 2 half hour wait calls ended up with me speaking to someone for about 3 minutes who hung up on me! My 3rd call had me talking to someone that transferred me to another hold that I gave up on after 10 minutes. On the 4th call I got a lady who listened and said "no problem, we will just write it off". No more bill. Well after about 10 more months we finally needed (our first) service, on our pool - which was specifically included in the Warranty bought for this home. They sent a service tech. who came into my back yard, disconnected every part of the pump, disassembled the pump into about 20 pieces, and after about 10 minutes of being there stood up and said "we don't have the parts". He asked for his service fee, when I gave it to him... He left - with my pump in pieces and now my pool leaking from the disconnected parts. After a few days we called and were told that they had to order a part and would be back in about 2 to 3 weeks. I stated that that was unacceptable, we are in Memphis where you can Fed EX anything in the world here in 2 days! We even offered to pay for the priority shipping, also waiting 2 - 3 weeks of no pump or filtering of pool water will RUIN the POOL (we consulted 3 other companies)! Well it turns out that the 2 weeks for shipping a part is coincidentally just after our policy expires! Both the service tech. and FAHBPC basically said that it would still be 2 - 3 weeks and they would do nothing to service the pool in the meantime. We told them to Forget it and bought a new pump ourselves. THEN! it gets better. Turns out that the $100 bill that was never ours, that was "written off" is showing up as past 60 days late write off on our credit report which has lowered our near perfect credit score. Our year warranty with FAHBPC cost us countless cell minutes, wasted time, destroying our pool pump, flooding our back yard, lowering our credit score, and extreme frustration. Afterwards they asked me to pay my bill to renew the policy... No way in Hell!

I am shocked to see all these posts on FA. Mine issue is a walk in the park compared to others. I'm so glad my policy runs out next month!

Below is my letter to First American:

To Whom It May Concern,
I thought you should know that I am extremely dissatisfied with First American. Last fall we submitted a service request to fix a leaking shower head. The plumber came and then left without finishing the job. After two months and countless calls to First American and to the contracter were made finally a new contactor was sent out to complete the job.

Last week our A/C went out. We submitted a request on 6/16/09 and the next day, American Air came out to fix it. A part was needed and ordered and they said they wouldn’t be able to get it in before the weekend. They scheduled to come back out on Tues. 6/23/09. Tues. morning someone in their office called to tell me that they ordered the wrong part and that they'd have to place another order for the right part and hoped they could get it in by the next day. I waited most of the next day before they called again to say they'd have to send out a tech to "get more information" about the part because they didn't know what they needed to order. Yesterday, 6/25 the tech came to look at the unit and got the right information. It was approximately 3:40 p.m. when he said he'd order the part "tomorrow" meaning Friday which of course means we will have to go without A/C for yet another weekend. I contacted a supervisor with First American, Laura Yamaguchi, and explained my situation and told her I expected her to get someone out here to get the A/C fixed. She said she'd get in touch with American Air to assess the situation and would get back to me the next morning. I am writing this at 2:25 p.m. 6/26/09 and after leaving her 2 messages, I have heard nothing from Ms. Yamaguch nor have I heard anything from American Air. This is kind of incompetence is ridiculous and the "service" deplorable. We are having record temperatures here in Texas--104 and above and have been without A/C for 10 days and counting. There seems to be no sense of urgency anyone's part but mine.
We will not be renewing our policy with First American and just so you know, I am a realtor and have many opportunities to recommend home warranty companies to my clients. Not only will I not be recommending First American, but I will be sure to let them know how dissatisfied I've been.

Obviously you work for this crook company. FA is a total joke. They employ criminals just released from jail. One of the plumbers they sent to my house has spent 9 yrs in prison. None of the problems I have logged have been fixed.

This company should be erased from Earth surface. I am planning to contact BBB, local district attorney, CNN, 7 on your side, etc

You are a lyer. You work for them and pretend to be a satisfied customer. I have not met a cusomer that was truly helped by FA.

I had problems with my dishwasher since December 2008. I was left without a working dishwasher for 6 months. Finally, they replace it two weeks ago. FA said is a new dishwasher, it turns out to be a reconditioned one. The new dishwasher leaks and has stopped working two days ago. FA refuses to re-open the service call. Now I am stuck with a non-functional dishwasher and a crook company like FA.

We can all get united and do a class action against this company.

What good does it do that FA is available 24/7 if their CONTRACTORS are not?? It does me absolutely no good toreport my AC has broken on a Saturday if they can't get anyone to come look at it until Monday - especially whith 100+ weather!

I have had absolutely no problems with the warranty that I purchased with First American. I purchased in 8-08 and over the winter needed a baseboard heater replaced. I made a service call, spoke with a person who I could understand, and the problem was fixed promptly, professionally, and to my full satisfaction. I recently called about a water heater problem and did have to speak with a computer but then was routed to a person! Thank goodness! Again, the person on the phone was polite and professional and I expect to have no problems with the plumbing problems getting fixed.

Although my service was more than adequate, I DO NOT plan to renew my contract. My renewal information has me paying $180 more for this contract which does not cover as much as my first contract, and my "deductable" per service incident has been increased to $100.00. I do not think that I got that amount of use out of the service plan over the year that I had the insurance and do not think it is good for my circumstance in the long run.

Overall I would recommend this company based on my experience with them and am happy that I originally purchased the service.

First American Home Buyers Protection Corporation is a scam! For the FA employees so called positive responses on this website, really now do you think for one moment i buy your wonderful responses about the company you work for? Your just trying to keep this scum bag company a float so you have a job.
As for my complaint,
When i purchased my contract from the representative she reassured me that if something needed replaced or repaired that all I had to pay was 60.00.I realized that there were exceptions which I read under their clear bulleted section for each type of service which states what is covered and not covered for each type of service, like Plumbing, water heaters, electrical etc. However what is not clear is the limits and liability section bullcrap verbiage. This so called vague confusing verbiage is where they scam you. It allows them to deny, or not pay for certain things which means you could have a lot more than the so called 60.00 fee.
This verbiage allows the technician that comes out to charge any extra charges as they see fit. If you are lucky you might have a honest technician and just charge you the copay but mostly you will get the scumbug technician who is out to make up what FA is not paying them. They do not care that you are living on limited means or anything, morals and honestly are not in their job description. Please do not be fooled by how nice FA service technician are, most of them are CON ARTIST .
For me my electric water heater went out over the weekend water leaking on the floor. Do not expect FA to sent someone out that day, it will only be during the week they don’t give a crap about damage as they are fully aware they are not responsible for secondary damage, THEY WILL NOT SEND ANYONE OUT ON A WEEKEND!
Finally the technician comes out late and said it needs to be replaced and that it will cost me at least an additional 150.00 dollars and maybe more if he has to replace another part that goes to it on top of my 60.00 co-pay. He also has to order the water heater and will take several more days or so before he will be back. I called several other plumbers in the area and they said they do not charge this extra fee and all of them said they can get the water heater the same day, NO Lengthy waiting, and said that I am getting ripped off. Sure I can get a pay out and have someone else do it but their so called pay out option is beyond ridiculous under pay out amount.
As for trying to making a complaint with them, forget about it you will get no where.

It looks like many reporting here have had horrible experiences. Only a few have reported positive experiences. I am one of the few. I live in Camarillo, CA and had a 1-year policy bought for me as a gift (my realtor). last week, I had the opportunity to test it out, as my water heater's pilot light went out, and would not restart. After calling the problem in and receiving an event number, I decided to talk to a representative to get more specifics about the procedure. She ensured me that someone would call me the next morning and the problem would be fixed withing two days. The following morning, I decided not to wait for a phone call from the contractor, and initiated a call to them. After talking with a servide representative at the company, Rite-A-Way, I was told that I wouldn;t be seen for another three days, and that would only be an evaluation. This, of course got me worried. I call FA back to report this, and my claim was re-submitted as "urgent". I called Rite-A-Way back to report this, and the rep indicated that there was an opening that day in the afternoon. A repairman came out, analyzed and fixed the problem, and that was that. I paid him the $55 owed for the visit, and nothing more. Today, my hot water heater is still producing hot water.

Basically, I can't say anything bad about this company. The warranty seems to be working for me as advertised.

I ran across this post when I was looking for anyone else who has had a problem with First American Home Warrenty. I have had a terrible experience with them. I have a dryer that need repairs on Sept 1. It is now Sept 22 and it is still not fixed. Numerous calls have not helped. They listen, tell you that they will resolve the issue,give you their extention number, promise to call and never answer at their extention, never call.... I have had another home warrenty company several times (AHS) and never had a problem. The problem stems from them giving me a contracter that already has horrible reviews and record. They previously operated under the name All Elite Services and now changed their name to All About Comfort. I would not recommend First American because they have not followed through on my complaints. I sit now without a dryer and wonder why I am still trying...today is my last day. I will investigate if I have any cause for a lawsuit. Any suggestions?

My Refrigerator started having issues in Mid-July. It is now September 30th. I won't bore you with all the gory details, but two of First American's "contractors" and dozens of phone calls later - the problem is still not fixed! The latest is the part I need is back-ordered. I went on the internet this AM and found the part in stock at the first two internet parts stores I checked. I had a similar experience with my dishwasher last year. It took almost 6 weeks to get repaired and I finally discovered that the part it needed had never been ordered by the contractor. I ordered it myself from the manufacturer and had it the next day. If you don't mind waiting for weeks and weeks for service and having to make umpteen phone calls to get the work done then by all means use First American. Otherwise, I would highly suggest you avoid this company at all cost!!

Since the middle of August I have been without a working washing machine. The first contractor (All Tech Appliance - 817-986-9795) that was supposed to come missed two appointments, had to call them, call First American, and then finally they showed up. I thought my troubles were over until he left saying it was fixed, when in fact it did not work still. So I complained about the contractor to First American and they sent a second one (1st Choice - 817-657-8294) who did not show up for his first appointment either but finally made it here with several excuses. He diagnosed a new clutch assembly and then transmission. Well, that didn't solve it though he left my home saying that it was fixed, but of course when I put the laundry in to wash, it did not spin. Well, now First American sends a third contractor, who is the "Whirlpool Authorized" contractor (Allen Appliance - 469-362-3960. He comes by and it takes him 5 minutes to discover what the real problem was, but now he's got to order the parts, and it could take a week to ten days to get them. It is now October 9th and I haven't heard from them. I called and left a message for them, then I called First American. They put me on hold and called the contractor, and according to them, the parts just came in today, and I'm next on the list of people to call. Wow, that's pretty amazing! The parts arrived moments before my call. Is there any integrity with any appliance repair anywhere? Well, I shouldn't complain about this one, at least the tech was competent... but First American Home Warranty is a big disappointment. Terrible follow-up and lousy technicians until I'm finally ready to explode... what a nightmare

I opened a ticket it's now been over 6 weeks now to have my oven, dishwasher and ice-maker repaired. It took over a week with missed dates from All Tech Appliance 817-986-9795 before they made it to my house. They were there diagnosed problems in less than an hour. Said they would be back next week with the parts. I never heard back from them until about 1 1/2 week ago. I called at least 20 + times to the number above and sent e-mails to them as there voice mail on # above says when you call with no replies for over 3+ weeks. I called 1st American every other day and they called All Tech who said they would contact me to set up a time-Yea right!! WRONG. I finally received a call and the Tech said he would be at my house in 15 minutes- with no prior notice. He had an attitude with me form the start saying is anyone going to be there. I said yes but I need to let my wife know. I then called my wife and thanked me for the quick notice:(. The Tech from All Tech called me and said nobody was home because no one answered the phone. I told didn't you here me say to you my wife was home and that I would give her a call to let her know. He then says to me he can't understand why she wouldn't answer his call. I said well I guess you didn't listen to what I said but she is there. He arrives minutes later at my house, walks in, my daughter just turned on the oven, he touches the pan on top and said he burnt his hand and will have to reschedule the following week. My wife walks grabs the pan he just touched and walks to the door with it and said sir if it's that hot why am I holding it in my hand. He then says well I thought it was hot-WTH!! He calls my wife a few minutes later and says what time next week do you want to schedule the repair. Can you believe that! She told him we don't do business with liars and make excuses for not wanting to do there job. She told him that she will call 1st American and let them know of the horrible experience. She called me letting me know what happen. A few minutes latter he calls me and said did you talk with your wife and I said yes and that his business is no longer needed. He said that he called 1st American and they will just give me a cash out of 50 dollars for refusing the repair. I told him I pay 1st American and not him. I also said couldn't believe a woman could hold a hot pan but you couldn't and that your unprofessionalism cost you the job. Then he says what floored me more by saying your wife is a damn drama queen. He got an earful of colored adjectives and I hung up. There is more I could give be just wanted to give the heads up on this company. A week later 1st American calls and said they have All Tech on the line and want to know when he can come out to fix the appliances. WTH! I got here up to speed on the above issue and then asked her would you let someone like that in your house. She said she couldn't answer that. She said there was no one left in town to call. I told here to try harder since I live in one of the top 5 markets!! Still waiting a week after that call. I have been with 1st American for 10+ years and this is the worst experience I've had. It is steadily getting worse.....