I used to do most of the work on my home by myself or with a helper. But now I am getting older and no longer have the desire to do those things, so I started looking for a home warranty company. A home warranty is different than your homeowner’s insurance policy. That policy is good for things like floods, fires, roofs caving in. Stuff like that. A home warranty covers things like your air conditioner, simple plumbing problems, your appliances, electrical problems, like bad breakers, and so on. For around $700 a year I found a national company which I won't name, at least not on this round. The first claim I put in was for my roof air conditioners. There are two of them up there that are as old as dirt and it amazes me that they lasted so long. Last summer both of them failed within a week of each other. I was thinking about replacing them, but I had purchased the home warranty about a year earlier and decided to call them to see if they could be fixed. The company that came out did fix them, but there were some costs I didn't expect. One of the units had a bad compressor and some coils had to be replaced or mended, I'm not sure. There was an out-of-pocket payment of $350 to acid wash the existing coils and replace the bad ones. They also tagged on another $75 service fee which I wasn't too happy about. However, depending on how much longer these old units last, even if I get a couple of more years out of them I will still be ahead of the game. Let's talk about the service fee. The service fee is the one place where they try and bleed you dry. Anytime you put a claim in, and a technician comes out, you have to pony up a service fee. Sometimes it's $70. sometimes it's $90. It all depends on the company you are dealing with. You would think that the service fee would be absorbed into the cost of the job, but that is not the case. The vendor wants to make money even if he stands in your doorway and smells the place. So, even if a guy comes out and sniffs around for five minutes and does absolutely nothing to solve your problems, you are going to get hit with a service fee. The other place where they get you is on the exclusions, and I guess that goes for any warranty. I went over those exclusions line by line several times, trying to figure out what was covered, what wasn't covered. After a lot of eyestrain and brain twitching, I thought I had it figured out, but I didn't. There are grey areas in these warranties that I don't completely understand, and I become furious when they try to explain them to me because it never makes any sense. 'We don't replace this part because they no longer make it.' 'We don't fix that type of refrigerator because it came from the wrong part of the world and is now discontinued. They have a thousand ways of getting out of fixing things by using the grey area that is never spelled out on paper, But of course, they have all the answers, I don't believe a word that comes out of their mouths, and when I believe I'm right about problems with exclusions, I will fight with them tooth and nail, but normally it doesn't really matter. They had their game plan down long before I ever came along. Overall I would have to say that home warranties are worth the money, especially if you have an older home, which I do. My advice, if you purchase one in the near future, make sure to go over all the exclusions with the salesperson while you have him on the phone. Get their name and write down the important things they say. Before you give them, a dime has them send you a copy of the warranty so you can read through it on your own time before making the purchase. If they won't give you a copy of the warranty beforehand do not do business with them.
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