American Home Shield (AHS) Review
Comprehensive plans. 24/7 service online or by phone. Online portal for discounts and account management. Coverage in 49 states.
Overview
American Home Shield was founded in 1971. They are the largest and one of the most popular home warranty providers. They were established to help customers protect their assets and their budgets from repair costs they couldn’t afford.
Today, American Home Shield offers comprehensive, custom coverage for home systems and appliances that commonly break down. They have a nationwide network of over 14,000 professionals who can help day or night, whenever you need.
Coverage Features
American Home Shield offers many ways to protect your investment by covering common home repairs to help keep your house safe and sound. The following are some of our favorite American Home Shield home warranty coverage features.
Unbiased Coverage: Do you have an older home? No problem. You still qualify for coverage from American Home Shield because they don’t restrict your coverage to a certain age, make, or model. Your home and all of the systems and appliances inside can enjoy the same great repair or replacement parts for covered items.
Choose Your Service Fee: With the pick your own service fee feature from American Home Shield, you get to choose how much you pay when you need someone to come out and fix your problem. If an unexpected expense like a service call fee hits your budget hard, choose a smaller amount and pay more in your monthly premium. If you’d rather lower your monthly premium because you don’t expect your brand new appliances to break anytime soon, pick a higher service call fee. It’s your choice.
Upfront Contracts: Sample contracts are available online at American Home Shield’s website, so you know exactly what to expect. You can see what they offer and make an educated decision when shopping for a home warranty. They don’t require a home inspection to qualify for coverage and they don’t limit your coverage based on the age, make, or model of your home.
Coverage in 49 States: Most home warranty companies don’t cover all 50 states, but many don’t have coverage in as many as 49. This wide coverage is impressive, and with the ability to build your own plan and customize your coverage, you get exactly what you need at an affordable price, no matter where you live. And with 24/7 availability online and by phone, you’ll always get the help you need, when you need it from American Home Shield.
Warranty Plans
American Home Shield offers multiple extended home warranty coverage plans. To help you decide if it’s the right home warranty provider for you, American Home Shield offers you a free quote and comes with a custom plan that works for you.
System Plan: This American Home Shield home warranty plan covers the major systems in your home. That includes air conditioning and ductwork, heating and ductwork, electrical, smoke detectors, doorbells, ceiling fans, water heaters, plumbing, garbage disposals, instant hot/cold water dispensers, central vacuums, and re-keying. You can add on pools and spas, well pumps, septic pumps, guest units, and an electronics extended warranty for an additional cost.
Appliance Plan: This plan covers major appliances like refrigerators, ranges, ovens, cooktops, washers, dryers, dishwashers, built-in microwaves, trash compactors, garage door openers, free-standing ice makers, and built-in food centers. You can also add on the same options as the System Plan for an additional cost.
Build Your Own Plan: This plan allows you to choose 10 or more systems and appliances from the American Home Shield list of 21 major systems and appliances for customized coverage that fits your life.
Please Note: Every plan comes with your choice of a $75, $100, or $125 service call fee. The more you pay for a service call, the lower your monthly premium. For more accurate pricing in your area, contact American Home Shield for a free quote.
The Good
As with all of our editor reviews, we put American Home Shield through its paces, so you don’t have to waste your time or money. Let’s take a look at some of our favorite American Home Shield warranty benefits…
Refer a Friend
American Home Shield is so thankful for your business that they’ll give you a $25 Amazon gift card for every friend you refer who signs up. All you have to do is enter your friend’s contact information in the simple form online and then sit back and wait for the money to roll in. Plus, if you tell your friends about the great coverage you get from American Home Shield, they’ll get the same great peace of mind you do.
Additional Property Discounts
If you own more than one property, American Home Shield will offer you a discount on a home warranty for your second property. You can save up to $50 on your plan when you sign up for coverage on a second home.
Discounts on Appliances
American Home Shield has a wide network of friends who are appliance manufacturers and retailers. That means that all you have to do is log in to your American Home Shield online account (where you can also manage your preferences, file a claim, and track the status), and click on the Appliance Discount Program to get started.
Discounts on Air Filters
The American Home Shield online portal comes to your rescue again with access to discounts on air filters. It’s important that you change the air filters in your home often, and it can get expensive. But with American Home Shield, you just have to log in, click, and save.
The Bad
It’s tough to know if American Home Shield is right for you without knowing how much it costs. They don’t provide upfront pricing online, so you have to call to get a quote. However, quotes are free, there’s no obligation, and you’ll get the custom coverage you need, meaning you don’t pay for extras you won’t use.
As with any home warranty product, there are going to be some unhappy customers. We found some less than positive reviews online from people who didn’t feel like their claim was handled correctly and the service they received wasn’t the best. We still feel like the good far outweighs the bad. With 45 years of experience, 24/7 service, and over 14,000 certified technicians nationwide, you’re getting the best coverage money can buy with American Home Shield.
The Bottom Line
With options to customize your coverage with build-your-own plans, we feel like the rest doesn’t really matter. It’s easy to get a free quote and you’ll never pay for more than you need. Plus, you can set your own service call fee, so you’re always prepared and your budget is protected.
We can’t think of anything else to say to convince you that you should give American Home Shield a shot. Maybe we should mention again that you can customize your own plans. Or choose your own service fee. Seriously, so cool.
Get the customized coverage and helpful service you deserve with American Home Shield!
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Katherine B.
I wasn’t really sure about getting a home warranty but our realtor made some good points so we thought we would. After a few weeks our downstairs A/C unit went out. We gave AHS a call and they sent out a repairman. Then a few weeks later our upstairs A/C went out and again they took care of us. Thank you AHS
Joel B.
We have been AHS clients for over 10 years now and it is incredible to see how a company of this size has simply forgotten that its most important asset is its clients and not its shareholders or its bottom line; without clients and there is no business. On July the 10th we called AHS to get our A/C fixed, a technician came to our house and fixed it on July the 12th, then again on July the 15th the same machine broke again so the technician came bak to our house at which time we were informed that a part needed to be ordered and that he could not fix the A/C right away. A week went by and on Tuesday, July 23rd we called AHS to see about the status of our repair, at that time we were informed that our claim was on hold because we had to approve some extra charges for the Freon and that without our approval, AHS was not allowed to even place the order for the missing part … this is one week after the technician actually visited our home, by the way, we live in Miami and the current temperature is above 95 degrees, so one week without A/C is not a small thing. So, on the 23rd we approved the estimated $550 extra charges for the Freon (a gas that needed to be added at the time of installation) so that they can go ahead and order the part. Another week went by and after another follow up call on the 30th, we learned that the part had not been order yet and that it would take between 5 to 7 weeks to get it. I searched online for the part as I was talking to the customer service person, and in less than 5 seconds I was able to locate it from a distributor who could have it in Miami between 1 to 2 weeks; when I asked the person about this she informed me that AHS can only purchase parts directly from the manufacturer, not a distributor, even if that takes 5 to 7 weeks as opposed to 1 to 2 weeks, because it was cheaper … in other words, it is completely irrelevant that we the clients have been without A/C for over two weeks now because of their incompetence and their supplier’s, but we now have to wait another 5 to 7 weeks to get the part just because AHS wants to save some bucks? The incompetence of the personnel working on the procurement side, summed with the fact that the customer support personnel barely speaks english and are simply reading from a script (I’m Hispanic and my English may not be at 100% so I can truly understand and accept some “English with an accent” but this was simply ridiculous and inefficient) and on top of this, the complete and utter disregard and lack of empathy for the client’s needs is simply preposterous, we are not talking about a toaster or a washing machine that broke, not even the fridge, we are talking about the A/C in Miami, Florida; there should be some “rules of engagement” or special policy for critical appliances like an A/C in Miami or maybe a heater in Colorado during the winter. What happened to AHS’ marketing promise “If we can’t repair it we’ll replace it”? I guess that they forgot to add that the will replace it whenever they feel comfortable with and only if the price is within their reach or is in line with their bottom line … I don’t think that this policy makes anyone “be sure with the shield”. We are glad to inform that after another follow up call earlier today, we finally got a clear ETA for the A/C coil that we need, which will be arriving on or before September 30th, only 12 weeks since our A/C broke down for the second time … AHS expects us to be without A/C for 12 weeks in order to save some $300 bucks which I would have paid happily to pay if they would have given me the option. #AmericanHomeShield, #AHS_Warranty
Azalie H.
I am/was a 9 year member. However, when my ice maker stopped working, there was a contract loophole. I had to seek another company. When my AC broke, there was a loopholes and they wanted me to pay an additional 2500.00. The repair company called and offered to do it at a much cheaper price. Shady characters. Too many loopholes. They need to be honest and say what they will replace or repair. I’m currently waiting for a payment for my AC that I was able to repair for a cheaper price. 50+ dollars a month in payment plus a 75.00 service fee and no service is not affordable for a loophole riddled service.
Bobbin B.
I have had AHS for years. Not because I found them worthy, but simply because I did not know there were other options. They always have very long wait times for service calls and repairs. They use very shady vendors who ALWAYS try and get out of the work stating its a non-covered item or there are code violations – I always have to fight and they always concede that it IS covered etc but NOT until I have spent hours on the phone & social media – I will not EVER buy an American Home Shield policy again
N G.
American Home Sheild has sent 3 vendors, 7 different men to my home to fix the central air since 4/23. The first and the third told me the unit needs to be replaced. American Home Sheild choose to try to fix the unit. This caused for ordering parts that took days to come in then only fixing the problem temporarily. Now they tell me it is going to cost $1500 out of my pocket for the repairs. I have a long voicemail message detailing out all the cost which include a permit fee. I just had a brand new unit put in 2 years ago. There was not a permit fee then why is it now. At this point I do not recommend American Home Sheild. The company is a repetition of hiring vendors that destroy your equipment and you wind up paying a higher cost for repairs. It is a scam. They are fine taking your monthly payment and terrible at giving you the service you paid for.
Ann G.
Because I liked your service and want to renew my contract. Just found out it expired!
Sherman G.
Horrible! I’ve had this company for years, and am now canceling my contract on both homes. They have outsourced their call center to overseas, and it takes multiple calls to get anything resolved. It took over a month to replace a water heater, and has been 3 weeks and counting to get my microwave fixed. Do NOT use this company! 5 years ago they would have been a 4 or 5 star. Now, they deserve a 0.
Ramona S.
AHS has been there every time I called them! Fixed what needed fixed no problem!
Georgie C.
This Company Rocks Big Time….We Have Had AHS For Many Years now And they have Helped our family out tremendous….We could not Imagine living in any home without AHS….We will stay with Company as long as they are in business….For All Of You That needs to have Great Insurance as Home Owners, I would Highly Recommend You giving American Home Shield A Call !!!!
H
The worst warranty company you can possibly have. They do not cover anything, but take your hard earned money in seconds.
Phillipa Z.
I have appliance insurance with American Home Shield. On July 31 I paid an additional $106 for a technician to go out to check the dryer because it was leaving orange marks on the tenant’s clothes. I was advised that a part was being ordered, however it never arrived. I called on August 19 to find out what was going on. Apparently the home warranty company declined the purchase of the part. The drum of the dryer is rusting which is causing the orange stains. Due to some small print in my contract, apparently this falls under “cleaning of an appliance” and is not covered under our warranty. I spoke to a supervisor and then a supervisor’s supervisor, to no avail. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with them trying to resolve the matter. Then I tried to cancel the insurance because of the lack of service. I have to now pay a $59 cancellation fee too. I am very frustrated and disappointed with American Home Shield.
carmen o.
Really bad customer service, still trying to get my washer fix after a month of phone calls
Lisa R.
My conversation with someone obviously not in the US with a dog barking in the background:
Call 1: Me: “I have an outstanding request for my refrigerator. The part that it needs is backordered and Sears estimates that it will take around three weeks to get the part. I have already gone a week without a refrigerator and I can not be without one for another three. What are my options?”
Rep: “So I see you had an appointment scheduled for last week and you say that the servicer did not show up.”
Me: “WHAT? When did you hear me say that? Repeat to me what I said!” She couldn’t so she hung up on me.
Calls 2, &3: AHS blamed Sears and Sears blamed AHS for the lack of information in AHS’ data systems. It was a ridiculous circus act to witness, and neither of them seemed to care that I would be without a refrigerator for a month. I was told three times that I would receive a call back. I protested and asked to be put on hold. Twice the call dropped immediately, and the third dropped after a minute or so. I did not receive a call back from anyone.
Call #4: I called back and, after waiting 45 minutes for a person to answer. “Jane” answered. I requested to speak to a supervisor. Request denied. I asked again. Request denied. Jane says I need to tell her about the problem before she can transfer me to a supervisor. After I told her the problem, she says, “Well, actually, I don’t have a supervisor.”
What was I to do at this point? So I gave her the background and she responded with, “Oh, I am so sorry. I will take care of this.” After an hour of back and forth and being put on hold, she says she needs to call me back. I protested based on my previous three calls. She PROMISED over and over that she would call me back within an hour. I said I preferred to hold (and knew that I would actually be dropped) but she insisted that she would call me back. I asked for a direct line to call her back in an hour; she claimed she didn’t have one. Then she gave me a number and said it was her department’s direct line. She said she was calling Sears and the cash out department at AHS and would call me back with options. She did not.
After waiting an hour and a half, I called the number “Jane” gave me, which was *not* directly to her department. It was just another line to the main line and I was once again in voice mail jail.
My refrigerator is still broken and there’s no telling how long it will be until it is repaired. As a safety and convenience measure, I rented a refrigerator to lessen the pain and need to deal with AHS incompetent phone reps.
I am sharing my story everywhere I can and writing to their corporate office.
jack d.
Jan 2021, I found water heater leaking.
3 times AHS authorized plumber Northwest Sundance came out and tried to fix our hot water heater leak. Water is still leaking. After 3 tries the Technician went to his car and got an OK from AHS to replace the entire water heater.
For days, no one called us and let us know the status of the replacement. Finally, after many tries, we got an Ok from AHS. At that time, CSR said that there would be a $200 co-pay. We agreed to pay for the permit and so forth which are not cover by the home warranty.
The AHS CSR put me on hold and advised me of their decision to replace the gas water heater. She said that Northwest Sundance Plumber will contact us to set up a schedule to replace.
Waited another week, didn’t hear from anyone, called and left a message with Northwest Sundance. No one called back.
So we kept calling and finally setup an appointment for Feb 16, 2021 to replace the water heater. We then found out that our out of pocket amount is not $200 but $900. When asked for an estimate, both AHS and Northwest Sundance said that they do not have it.
How do they come up with a $900 co pay besides the $100 deductible?
I am frustrated, the same plumber came out 3 times and was not able to fix the water leak so I asked AHS, can we hire a different plumber. They agreed offered to give us $540 cash offer.
So we will be paying $1,000+ and AHS will pay for $540 or most likely less.
Both companies are a Rip off, rip off, rip off.
Both companies are lying and say that they do not have the estimate or a bill. If that is the case, how do they come up with a $900 for our portion?
Problem: Apparent Dishonesty, unconfident, untrustworthy, do not return calls promptly.
Both companies do not leave paper trails.
Water heater still not replace yet.
Marcus H.
Customer for over 10 years
I was with them for over 10 years. The quality of work is excellent. The speed of response for service calls is excellent. The coverage is wide and I never had any problem with them saying an item is not covered in over 10 years. Those are the positives.
The negatives are:
– They will keep patching up an equipment till the very end to ensure they don’t have to pay to replace.
– When they do have to replace the ceiling will get you a replacement but usually not a quality replacement. On my AC unit for example that finally failed, I ended up paying for a quality system totally out of pocket with no credit.
– If you don’t pay attention you will sign up for a package that covers a number of items that are not in your home and as a result you are paying a higher premium because of that. Better to go with another company that covers just what you need for a much lower premium at a lower deductible (service call fee).
– If you ever decide to cancel, they will charge you a fee (approx $75) and they don’t tell you this until they have completed the cancelation process and you are out the system. They really should disclose this up front. This is with 10+ years of payments.
– The plans auto renew with price increase each year and no advance notice of price increase. I literally did not know the price was increasing until this year. This was the reason for my cancelation.
Dr. C.
We have requested a refund of our annual membership initially on January 18, 2021 for $516.27 because we have moved from Virginia to Florida. A customer service agent said it would take 17-21 days to receive the refund. We then call February 18, 2021 and then March 19,2021 and then March 29, 2021 and then April 6,2021 and then April 8,2021 and April 12, 2021. One agent said they would call us back in one hour, which never happened, another agent said he would call in a day, again it never happened.
In an Online American Home Shield Review: “Customer Complaints Make This Home Warranty a Bad Idea. American Home Shield is poorly rated for its customer service, but weak competition means it’s still among the better home repair insurance companies. Jan 4, 2021.” Fourteen reviews of AHS online of the 14, 10 rated AHS as a 1 and 4 rated AHS 5. The online source reviewed four warranty companies, the highest complaint generator by far was Memphis, Tennessee-based American Home Shield, with 4,660 complaints as of mid-June. Of the 44 reviews customers posted on the BBB website, 41 reported negative experiences with the company. Another online review of 7,773 customers found AHS to have a 2.6 average rating on a 5 scale and a rating from BBB of B (Nov. 2017).
At this time, I would be unable to recommend American Home Shield or subscript to this warranty service.
If I was the CEO, this would be a high priority to get corrected.
Eduardo
You guys are terrible! Worst customer service process I have ever seen! Managers are afraid to talk to customers or deal with escalations.
Agents are left on their own to handle customer issues with a very precarious process. Terrible company. In addition to not renewing the contract once it ends, I also don’t recommend AHS to friends or family. In fact, I wouldn’t even recommend it to enemies.
Also, when you give the option to rate your business with a stars via survey, I strongly recommend that you allow us to rate your company with ZERO star. One Star is too too many starts for this crap service. Also, instead of just giving us the option to choose ONE reason of why we would give ZERO star, please add the option “all the above”. The overall AHS experience is terrible punctuality, poor coverage, poor problem solving and professionalism? This option is a joke! In a company where managers are afraid to talk to customers when there is an escalation and leave agents alone with a bad workflow, there is no Professionalism.
I hope my comments help this company get a little better and respect their customers. Today, this company couldn’t be worse. Please stay away from AHS.
William J.
A horrible company now. I was with AHS off and on for 20 years. It is a horrible company now. Please do not buy this warranty. Had horrible experiences with their unwillingness to do repairs. I cancelled my contract a few weeks ago. Will give specifics if needed.
Alex L.
First, I want to cancel my plan effective immediately after this month. The customer service has been horrendous since I’ve been dealing with AHS. It was something I just dealt with due to the fact I needed service requests, but I have reached my last straw with them.
I have called repeatedly since Saturday, and have not got any help at all. My house has been 88 degrees upstairs and 85 degrees downstairs, and I placed a work order online on Sunday and even after they advertise 24/7 emergency help A-USA air conditioning was not available. I called about 10 times today to schedule service/get a recall done from my LAST SERVICE THAT WAS NEVER REPAIRED, just to be told that my 30 day period was up on the 20th yesterday so I would have to pay another $75 even though the issue was never fixed. How can that be fair if I scheduled yesterday AND called just to be hung up on yesterday. Today, I tried to escalate the call today twice just to be hung up on the first time, and still charged the service fee the 2nd time.
Also, the vendors suggested are not available until July 1st, so they are basically asking me to burn up until then. Does nobody understand the urgency of an emergency? Either way I am completely sick of AHS, the crappy vendors you assign, and the extremely insensitive and unhelpful customer service. I will be much more happy to go spend my money with a company that actually cares to take care of their customer in a timely manner, and doesn’t charge for issues that were never fixed.