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.