Complaint Review: FIRST AMERICAN HOME BUYERS PROTECTION - VAN NUYS California

in regards to michelles report, as contract does state that it is at the companies discresion to repair or replace an item or system. when the tech wanted to repair your trane unit first american can not "down grade" you from what you have. however it also states in the contract that the company only matches function for function, not brand. so when the tech wanted to install a goodman unit, it had to have been compatable to what you had. first american will replace with whatever is the same function for function. for example on an ac unit: tonnage, SEER rating and closest btu, taking consideration most older units are not as efficient as newer ones. just because the unit is not a Trane doesnt mean it is not adequate to heat/cool your home. if the technitian reports that the goodman unit will work we will replace the unit with that. In regards to the pool pump issue, again first american cannot down grade so if you had a different hp pump they have to replace it with the same. i do not know the reason why the tech would have replaced with the wrong size pump, but no one "intentionally" replaced it with the wrong one. i am a current employee of first american

I did not want a home warranty as I have read they are ripoffs. The buyer of my home wanted one, and chose First American Home Warranty. Well, as luck would have it, my AC went out and one of the burners in my gas stove would not light. It took 4 days after the original report for my AC to be fixed. For the range, well, they came and inspected it. Told me they would contact me when the part arrived to fix it. Now First American tells me they will not cover it because it was due to poor maintenance (grease had caused it), however, the bigger problem is that while checking it, the repairman did something to the stove and broke the other 3 burners that WERE working. I have contacted First American over 10 times in the last 3 days and they will not come and fix the other 3 burners that their repairman obviously broke. I did not touch the stove all weekend because I didn't want to take the risk of them later saying I had tampered with it...and now I have to call someone else and get all burners fixed because First American will not even listen to us or speak to us on the phone. I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and hope that once I get my issues resolved, I have time to ensure that this does not happen to others.

Especially First American. We too acquired this when buying our house 3 years ago. We used it after a couple of months because our pool pump motor went out. It took a couple of days but it was done fairly timely. We did renew (allbeit at doulbe the price paid the first year - we were informed that the first year is offered at a discount rate . . whatever) and wouldn't you know it that brand new pool pump motor went out again. Also, about the same time our air conditioner started having problems. We have a VERY expensive Trane system (we didn't pay for it but thank goodness the previous owner did). First American sent out a "tech" (I use that term so incredibly loosely) who said they WHOLE unit had to be replaced. Getting a weird feeling, I actually paid to have a LICENSED Trane repairman give me a second opinion. It was the coil that needed to be replaced (at a cost of about $1,400 - the rest of the system was ok). The Trane guy suggested that we ask FA what brand of a/c equipment our current system was gonna be replaced with. The "tech" informed us that they would be ripping out our Trane system and putting in a "Genair/Goodman" system which is a much lower quality system (compared to what we have) BUT doing that would cost FA 1/2 as much as buying the Trane coil. So here's what we've discovered after a lot more research - in the contract you SIGNED with FA, they have the right to repair or replace at THEIR discretion. Even though they COULD have repaired our system, it was MUCH cheaper to just pull it out and put a lower-quality system in. This benefits them 2 ways (and they DO know it). Not only did they save about $700 but they KNOW it'll be less reliable, thus causing us to have more "service" calls - kinda like job security for them. We paid for the Trane coil out of our pockets (admittedly, FA did write us a check for what the replacement system would have cost them which was $450), FIRED First American (yearly premium was $750 - in the 2 years that we paid premiums, we COULD have paid for the PROPER repair of our a/c. If ANYONE out there reading this is considering the "security" of buying a homeowner's warranty - DON'T DO IT - you'll regret it for the rest of your life (and btw, the pool pump motors they put in were 1/2 the horsepower as the original pump - that was also done purposefully so that we would have to replace it every year - nothing in your contract states that FA has to replace with "like quality", etc).