First American Home Buyers Protection Corporation

Negative experience.
While they seem to cover a lot, there's a lot of "fine print" that delegates risk and responsibilities to you, the owner. My washer was obvious the cause of major washer damage. When ask to service, they said my contract requires me to hook up the faulty unit to start with. My insurance already took care of me since I wasn't in negligence initially. But hooking up a faulty unit (at same premise) again would make me negligent. First American would not take liable for future damages, so it's all at risk to you. You can't get help with these folks.
Additionally, emergency plumbing was required, but their queuing system sent an already overbooked plumber. My HOA ended up taking care of me. Their newly assigned plumber ended up showing up the next day, to which no further work was required. I'm still expected to pay a service fee for no service rendered. When called to discuss the issue, you pay the service fee regardless of resolution or denied or etc.
If you take a step back, this warranty contract pretty much does nothing for you with the exception of minor non-emergencies; might as well YouTube as save your money and learn something. I'd recommend going anywhere else but here, as I intend to take my money elsewhere.

Get ready to sit on hold for over an hour.

I called to complain about a service repairman that came to fix our dishwasher and left with it not functioning properly (would not heat the wash water) but claimed that it was not supposed to (a blatant lie regarding our model). Sure enough the fault tripped again when the wash load finished and it is back in to its failed state since it would not detect the water heater working.

I spent 30 minutes on hold just to have the first person tell me he has to transfer me to a claim specialist, which took another 30 minutes. When the 2nd person asked what he could do I requested a new repairman since the firs one blatantly lied and left us with a broken washer. He said that they could not send a different repairman. Now I am on hold for the 3rd time... currently 60 minutes on the phone, 5 of which were talking to a person and the rest has been on hold.

Don't do business with this company - Waste of time and money - Running an orchestrated scam - "shakedown" of policy holders

The AC went out in a new house we purchased. The unit was running fine then suddenly stopped working. It was clearly an electrical problem of some type because the fan would not turn on. There was plenty of Freon in the unit as it was ice cold just before it stopped turning and the pipes from the condenser were cold.

The ONE technician First American had in the area could not come out for 6 days. We were not able to be home, so he came out while we were away. The tech would not do anything until we paid the $65 service fee via credit card over the phone. As soon as we had paid that, the technician demanded we pay an additional $150 "cleaning" fee before he would even look for the electrical problem. When we refused to pay the "cleaning" fee, because the problem was electrical, the technician left. He made a quick $65 for doing absolutely nothing.

Interestingly enough, the technician also stated the unit was "completely out of Freon", which I knew could not be possible as it was cooling fine before the electrical problem began. I did however find similar consumer complaints online about First American AC technicians trying to bill upwards of $300 to policy owners for replacing Freon that supposedly had somehow disappeared. You see Freon was another of those "uncovered" item the techs could add on at their whim and home owners would not be able to dispute.

So after we dismissed the tech, we called First American. Amazingly, First American also demanded we pay their technician a "cleaning" fee before they would honor their contract to fix the AC. We were caught in "no-mans-land". First American refused to do anything further until we had either paid their technician $150 to clean the outside coil, or we paid another AC technician to "clean" the outside coil. Either way they demanded we send them a receipt showing we had paid someone the extra $150 to clean the outside coil before they would do anything further. The trouble was the coil did not need cleaning and I told First American this, saying again the problem was electrical. They stated that I would need a technician to document that.

So we were left in the heat of a Texas summer, and First American was through. They had no intentions of doing anything further about our non-working AC. Blackmail / ransom... whatever you want to call it, we were literally being extorted into having un-necessary, uncovered work done in order to get our AC back working!

We called in a separate technician, who diagnosed the problem as a faulty relay switch. This tech also documented on his work order that he had visually inspected both the condenser and evaporative coils and neither was dirty. First American still refused to honor the claim and kept insisting we needed to produce a receipt for "cleaning" the outside coil.

Then they began saying we had not "followed the process" and that they could not do anything because we had not "followed the process". The "PROCESS" was to have their tech come out and charge hundreds of dollars in additional "uncovered" work before they would even begin to diagnose the electrical problem with the AC unit. Unbelievably, First American admitted that yes their techs often "upsell" when they are on calls and add on "uncovered" services.

Then First American changed their position yet again and started saying that their contract called for AC units to be cleaned before any other work was performed if the tech they sent out said the unit needed to be cleaned. Period.. case closed. Even though the tech I called said the coils did not need cleaning. I reviewed my contract. There was nothing in my contract anywhere about requiring the unit to be cleaned under any situation. In fact the words "clean", cleaned" or "cleaning" were not even mentioned in the section on Air Conditioning.

While researching this situation, I've read hundreds and hundreds of consumer complaints against First American. I discovered this is not an uncommon practice with First American and their technicians to run up the bill with uncovered charges before fixing the covered portions. I believe we used to call this con job "Bait and Switch". Their technicians demand additional uncovered work be paid for before they begin the "covered" work.

Some of the things I have read online suggest this occurs because the technicians take a financial loss on the warranty work with First American and have to make up for that loss doing additional "uncovered" work. Apparently a symbiotic relationship that First American seems to have with their technicians.

Regardless, in the end we have wasted a lot of time and money and we have nothing to show for it except frustration. Take my advice, get a different warranty company. You will only waste your money, and raise your blood pressure dealing with First American.

I have never written a review on any company before. First American is sadly my first. We have owned multiple homes over the years and currently own two, including one we use as a rental home. We have had experience with multiple home warranty companies over the years. They all have their limitations. They are never as good as they purport to be in TV and radio advertising, but they do serve a purpose to limit the costs you incur for damage to your home and have saved us thousands of dollars over the years. That said, First American is the worst customer service company I have ever encountered. They make it a game to limit what they can do to help you. Several of their customer service agents, including most importantly a supervisor with whom I spoke, were rude and condescending. They made it as difficult as possible to get a contractor out to our property and when that contractor came and charged us $400 to modify pipes because First American would not authorize the replacement of my same water heater, but instead authorized the replacement of a different water heater, First American offered me a cash out if I wanted to wait a couple more days because the office was closed at 3:30pm on a Monday. If your realtor suggests First American, RUN. Find another home warranty company.

I have been paying for first American home warranty for 3 years faithfully thinking that someday I will be thankful that I have coverage. Wel the day came and my water heater broke down and has been leaking a lot. Call them on Friday afternoon and the could not get anyone to my house till Monday.!!!!! Water everywhere! Then we waited for the plumber and he was a no show. Even though this was an emergency we still don't have anyone to our home. I will terminate my coverage and go with someone else at the soonest possible. First I need to get the water heater fixed. I would never recommend this company because they have a limited list of plumbers that they use. If they can't find one of theirs to fix your problem then too bad, they really are not too concerned.

My family and I moved into a new home less than a year ago. We have attempted to use the warranty on two occasions. The most recent occasion, our Hot Water Heater malfunctioned. We called and set up a claim because our pilot light would not stay on. They sent out a contractor and after 2 minutes he determined that oxygen was not getting to the pilot and the reason was because the unit was dirty and not maintained. The company did not even attempt to look at the parts to see if anything may have gone bad. I was so dissatisfied with the situation I called back to request a second opinion. After an hour of waiting on hold I was told NO. I requested to speak to a supervisor and after explaining the situation, he then allowed a second opinion but the second company wouldn't be able to make the stop for 4 days. They had no sense of urgency for us AT ALL.
I finally got so sick and tired of waiting I called a plumber and in 10 minutes they identified that the Heat Link melted and needed to be replaced. In 20 minutes they were out of there.
It had NOTHING to do with the unit being dirty or not maintained. They wanted to find any reason to not service, repair, or replace the item.
After it was repaired and fixed, I called back to cancel the second opinion and let them know how unhappy I was with the service and customer service and they said OK, Thanks.....Is there anything else I can do for you today?
I DO NOT RECCOMMEND THIS COMPANY TO ANYONE!!!!!

First American Home Warranty was purchased for us when we bought a new home. I had been hopeful that we wouldn't need it but there are always those getting "settled in" needs. I don't feel that their documentation and communication are very clear and this ends up being an expense to the customer ($65 a pop!). For example, we had a leak that was coming from behind our washer. We out in the request and a plumbing company was called out. When the plumber arrived he said he wasn't able to move the washer (per First American) so couldn't help us. I was explicit in our request that it was BEHIND the washer. They charged us $65 for a service we never got. On top of that, they are impossible to communicate with and email communications are often poorly written and rude. I asked for a supervisor to call me with no response. In the end we paid because they threatened to send us to a collection company and I have a credit score over 800. Very disappointed and would not recommend them at all.

You will get a different rep with every call, and every one will tell you a different story. They hire contractors that are unreasonable distances from the property (2.5hrs). If there is an issue, no one is watching for progress, and no one is held accountable. You have to be on the phone constantly prodding to get results. The customer service center is dramatically understaffed, and call wait times are always more than 45 min. There is no care or attempt at customer satisfaction, they offer no solutions, but do remind that they are a business first. They will offer a potential solution one day then take it off the table the next and deny it was an option b/c no one put it in the notes. I have never had such a horrid customer service experience in my life and will no longer pay for it!

I have been a customer with First American for several years after leaving my previous home warranty company. Along with other home warranty companies, their contract has lmiitations and you will have out of pocket expenses. The difference is with First American, they care. They care about you as a person, as a homeowner and as a customer.

My refrigerator broke last Thursday and 5 days later, still broken due to technician inefficiency. Technician went on Friday to look at it and said he would order a part. Called him Tuesday and said he was doing "research" and we don't need the part. Just to unplug the refrigerator for 48 hours and it should work. Why did the "research" take so long to be done?! Why were we not told about this sooner? Yet to see if his "research" is correct.

I purchased a policy from First American Home Warranty less than a month ago before closing on our home. Last week, the refrigerator stopped working so I called to file a claim (Some South American country) After holding for almost 45 minutes, I finally got someone. First they said it wasn't covered, but then agreed it was. They said a contractor would contact me within 48 hours. As of this email, no contact at all. I called back this morning (South America again) and they told me the file was closed per my request. This is an absolute joke, and in reading other complaints, it seems this is what they do in the hopes you go away. I emailed the CEO Jeff [redacted] and encourage others to do the same [redacted]@firstam.com

This company feels like a complete and utter scam! Absolutely nothing is covered, NOTHING and you spend so long on the phone and their system disconnects you. Don't let their mailings trick you. There's always a clause or fine print with everything they claim to cover. ALWAYS. For example, electrical work they tried to say they won't cover because rodents were involved. How can anyone be sure of that??? We bought a new home and had a ton of work we had to do and NOTHING was covered. I had written them off months and months ago.

Then they sent me a mailing trying to entice me to renew and listed all the things they claim to cover. I decided to give it one more chance as the dishwasher had been leaking. Having given up on them some time ago I had already called [redacted] myself to see about prices for a technician and knew the prices they had for a technician. I then call First American and to my surprise they said it would be $75 to come look at it! $75 is more expensive than to work through [redacted] directly. I am not 100% not looking back convinced that this company is a total scam. My realtor gave me this "gift" and I have since alerted her to all the issues and she now uses other insurance for her customers. Be warned! If you want any peace of mind. Look elsewhere. You're better off putting the money you'd pay this company in an account and paying out of pocket for anything that may come up. Total waste of time and I will tell everyone that will listen to STEER CLEAR!

My garage door stopped working, I called First American Home Buyers, reported the problem, like normal they informed me that someone would contact me from a company of their choosing (normal practice), and they would set up a time, two days later, I received a call from a [redacted] overhead doors, and they scheduled an appointment for two days out. When the technician came, he said "The door is too heavy," and the "Door needs to be balanced." I can understand the balancing which it clearly states in my contract is NOT covered, but the "door too heavy," bothered me. Why after years of working properly all of a sudden, the door becomes heavy? I could not get a further detailed explanation, but the technician did offer to balance the door for $125 on top of the $65 service call fee, I did not take him up on this offer, I did however, call a friend of mines who is a Handyman to come look at it, and he instantly saw that my "gear shaft" was mangled, he was able to fix it after buying the replacement part from sears for $30.
My issue is not that every time I call for a claim, nothing is covered, my issue is that I am never told what the actual problem is! My door did not become too heavy overnight, a gear in the motor became worn out over time from general use, and needed to be replaced, but that could not be said because that would have been covered, but balancing and adjusting are specifically not covered.
I have only had one other need to call home warranty, and that was because half of the electricity went out in my house. Again, I went through the same steps as above (showering in the dark for 1.5 weeks) and once the contractor got their he said the problem was "inadequate wiring capacity." Again I asked a friend who knew a certified electrician, called him, and he fixed the problem in a couple hours. FYI it says in my contract that "Inadequate wiring capacity" is not covered, which is not a great explanation, but that was not the problem, it was what was told to me because the contractor either did not know or really look into the problem, or they work for the home warranty company, and don't want to cover anything.
I have researched a lot, and I will no longer pay $50 for any home warranty that never covers anything.

Extremely frusterated with them! EVERY time I have had to call them, there is a minimum wait of 30 minutes--no matter what time of day or day of the week I called. Our A/C unit has been in a state of disrepair since July 1 and still is not working! The first repair technician they dispatched on July 9 had to come back two additional times and the issue is still not resolved as they installed something that ran at too high RPM and burnt out the electrical system. Total incompetence. This particular company tells you their call time is between 9am - 5pm (really?!?) and has a very poor rating on YELP. When our unit broke for a third time, I told FA that I would NOT work with that company again as I do not trust them. We have a new technician who identified the "new" problem three weeks ago but no word from FA. I called this morning and spent over an hour on the phone and was told the part is in, yay! Unfortunately FA ordered the wrong part! I called FA back, spend another 30 mins. on hold, explained the problem and they guy tells me he has to call me back as his computer just froze. Hmmmm. I waited 30 mins., called back to his extension waited 29 mins. for someone to pick up and got someone completely new. Explained problem AGAIN, got put on hold and now waiting again (timer shows 56 mins and counting). Their recording when holding says to be prepared to state the system that has failed. Well, FA - that system would be YOURS.

Horrible horrible company to get service done. My fridge died and I submitted service request on March 11. Contractor came after couple of days and he mentioned that It requires a new motor. After unlimited number of phone calls, hearing back that part is back ordered, contractor called us that part has arrived and we would like to schedule installation. I took a day off to have my fridge fixed because they gave me appointment in the after noon. The technician brought the non-functional motor. It looks like they got from some used/dead refrigerator. Now the part is back ordered again. Everytime I call them they keep moving the date. I have been hearing false promises. Thats it. Oh they also offered me pennies if I can buy refrigertor with my own money. I asked how this is going to help me. He said its not his problem. Stay away from these guys. I am just waiting if I can full reimbursement for new fridge. I am so ready to file formal complain with Revdex.com or anywhere else.

BE AWAY.This is the first and the worst home warranty company. After they agreed that my microwave is covered and they gonna fix it, the technician showed up after a week and he said that he is going to order some parts to fiximy microwave and he charged me $60. The day after that they called me and told me that my microwave part is not covered by the warranty and they cant fix t,but the funny thing is they said they can not give me back my $60. Be away of this company.BE AWAY

PLEASE D) NOT BUY A HOME WARRANTY FROM FIRST AMERICAN HOME WARRANTY, this is from a customer that
has used them for 10 years. In the last year they have sent out three incompetent Contractors and then refused to fix the problems of fraud and poor workmanship with out a few equal to the cost of the work performed. This include a week or two of delays.
Incompetent Techs put a 2 and 1/2 ton compressor for a 4 ton unit. This caused the AC to run constantly at an additional cost of $100. A month at First American suggestion another company was sent out who validated this. They would not fix the problem with out additional fees after paying the first contractor $400 for so called adjustments.
PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY..THEY SENT TECHS
THAT EITHER CAN NOT OR DO NOT DO THE WORK ! AND OFTEN PUT In
SUB-STANDARD PARTS AFTER LONG DELAYS.. THEY DO NOT BACK THEIR WORK OR WORKMEN.

I've dealt with First American a few times now. This last time I've been on hold for over 2 hours and have been disconnected. I can't keep anyone on the line long enough to finish my claim and will file Revdex.com report as soon as the service is completed. There is no reason to be on hold for that long or be disconnected without being immediately contacted back. I asked to speak to supervisors but they just transferred me. This service is extremely expensive for what you get and I expected much better service. You contact the sales department they answer quickly but you call claims and it takes HOURS.

First American provides below average service and does little to actually protect someone from the pitfalls of buying a home. I had a leak in my home and the plumber they had contact me took over a week to actually diagnose the problem. First American's response when I told them that I had water leaking in my house and that I needed a new plumber that could be at my house when promised was to tell me that I needed to wait for the contracted plumber. The end result was far more water damage and the reliance on our insurance coverage to resolve the issue.

Buyer beware! Unless the seller of a house pays, do not purchase a home warranty. This company makes deals with contractors to suit their "reasonable" service fee. However, the contractors I have been provided with were not Revdex.com accredited and had a list of complaints.
A few months back, I had no water pressure. I called to make a claim and was informed it would be the next day or two before the contractor would contact me to schedule an appointment. I'm sorry, but running water is high up on my list of necessities. So I canceled the work order and hired my own contractor that was able to come out that day to make needed repairs. Of course this was at my own expense.
More recently, my a/c unit stopped working and during a week of 100+ heat index. I called to make a claim over the weekend and was told again the contractor would have 48 hours to contact me to schedule an appointment. Again, air conditioning is a requirement while it is sweltering hot outside. I waited until Monday morning and contacted the contractor myself, with no answer or reply. During which time I googled the contractor and found no Revdex.com accreditation, but I did find a list of complaints from what looked like other home warranty customers. That afternoon, I called First American to say I could not reach the contractor. They were nice enough to call on my behalf and miraculously got through. When the customer service person returned, she informed me the contractor was working on their schedule and would be able to service sometime Wednesday. I preceded to cancel this claim and contacted my own hvac company, one that came out that day.
The last claim could not have come at a better time, right when I kept receiving emails and letters to renew my warranty. I now know the worth of a home warranty and will never obtain one with my own money. They might be useful for non emergent situations, such as an appliance not working(though you have to pay extra to have appliance coverage). However, I feel the items generally covered under a home warranty are pretty necessary for daily life and should be considered for immediate repairs, not allowed 48 hours to schedule a time to make repairs.
I will say the call center employees are very friendly and it is not their fault that this company has this type of set up that takes days to get a repair. I have never actually used my policy, as you can see why. However, I read some complaints on the last contractor about waiting days on end for repairs while the home warranty company decided if they would cover.