Complaint Review: American Home Shield - Memphis Tennessee

Although American Home Shield--a division of ServiceMaster--does not perform repairs as stated in its contracts, that's not the reason for this report.

Rather, American Home Shield turns properly cancelled and fully-paid accounts over to collection agencies. That happened twice to me, so it's not an exception; it's the rule. Here's my story.

I own my home. I also have a rental property nearby. I had both covered by American Home Shield policies, stretching back years. Although they'd failed to cover some legitimate smaller claims, I kept the policies (at +$40 each per month) for "catastrophic" coverage. The fees were automatically billed to and paid from my credit card. My credit card company (for security reasons) recently issued me a new card with a different number. The next billing cycle, American Home Shield tried to debit the old card, but those didn't go through.

American Home Shield then issued me two bills for what it claimed were remaining future amounts on the contracts--about $450 and $550. Well, that was enough to get my attention and call American Home Shield. I asked that they cancel my policies and they agreed. No problem so far. AHS generates a letter confirming cancellations. I called up on October 16. I had paid one policy through November 12, so the cancellation was set for November 12. The other was paid through and cancelled as of late October. As I mentioned, I have both cancellation letters sent by American Home Shield.

However, part of that same process involved turning my accounts over to collection agencies upon cancellation. The first cancellation brought a collection letter from Transworld Systems Inc., 507 Prudential Rd., Horsham, PA 19044 on November 6 demanding payment of $476.66. I called AHS and spoke to Service Representative Dana on November 12 who confirmed the confirmation of the first policy. Oddly, the second policy (despite my earlier phone call) hadn't yet been cancelled; I confirmed I wanted that one cancelled, too. Dana said everything would be OK. I spoke to Pam at AHS as well and she instructed me to "disregard the collection letter."

On November 23, I received a notice from Transworld Systems, Inc., seeking to collect $476.66 on the second contract. I called American Home Shield on November 25 and spoke to a very obnoxious Service Rep named Jessica. She said she'd notify Transworld by e-mail that everything was paid. However, she refused to send me written confirmation of that. She also refused to let me speak to her supervisor. When I insisted, she hung up on me.

Later on November 23, I again called American Home Shield and spoke to another Service Rep named Camille. She was much more pleasant. She, too, said she'd notify Transworld Systems to discontinue its efforts to collect money from me.

Obviously, though--with my two policies, both fully paid and correctly cancelled--American Home Shield appears to routinely forward policy cancellations to a collection agency. So: Be careful when cancelling (better advice: don't get a policy in the first place) and make sure you hold onto those cancellation letters. Otherwise, AHS will attempt to collect hundreds of additional dollars for a policy you've cancelled.