I signed up with them two years ago for my property. I was promised courteous and attentive customer care with fast service from good, licensed contractors. Also I was told I would be allowed to choose my own contractor and they would reimburse me the funds I was out of pocket in excess of the $45 deductible in a ‘timely’ manner.
After two years, Let's see how well that has worked out:
1) Attentive customer care - Non Existent
NONE of their customer service personnel speak English as a primary language. That, in and of itself, is not a problem. But when they haven't learned the language well enough to understand a simple explanation of the problem or to be understood by someone who is multilingual. That IS a problem especially when there is no one there to whom they can transfer the call to get the help required. Moreover, the 'customer care' center, while polite, is totally useless. They can't get anything done especially when there is an actual problem with customer care and attention.
You can’t call in a claim. If you do, you are directed to submit it online. They have no answer to “What happens if the problem precludes your ability to use your computer?!” Then they call you back in a day or two for 'more information'.
There is no place or way for you to check your account(s) or claims online to see the status and calling in, as I’ve said before, is useless. All you get is transferred multiple times until you reach someone in ‘existing claims’ who, essentially, gives you the party line of “We are processing it. You should be contacted in a day or two.”
2) Fast service – I’m STILL waiting for a return call on a claim I filed two weeks ago!
First is to note the fact that once you submit a claim, it takes them a day or two to call you back for ‘more information’ which amounts to your name and address and type of claim - all information which you already provided to them online. Then it takes them another “24 to 48 hours” for “Claims to assign a contractor.” who you have to call to set up an appointment. So, even under perfect circumstances, you're already at a week before the contractor gets to your property.
Well, the first plumbing problem I had was spraying water all over the downstairs. I had to turn the water off and called in a claim. After a week during which there was ZERO running water at the property, and multiple calls to the 'claims' center, they STILL hadn't assigned a contractor so I chose my own and got it fixed.
That ‘fix’ caused problems up the lines. The company was notified this might happen prior to the first repair. But, when I called in the second claim for a leak up the line, I was refused service on the basis that I had ‘signed a release’ (see below) which, apparently, was in tiny print on the check they sent me and prevents me filing a claim on that water line in perpetuity. So after one claim, I can no longer use the service for my water intake pipes - EVER! What sort of insurance is that?
The second claim I put in involved a broken sewer pipe inside the house which was dumping sewer water into my downstairs. AGAIN, No assignment after 48 hours so I called again. I was promised assignment in 48 hours. That didn't happen. I called again and got the name of the contractor they had assigned. The contractor was in a DIFFERENT STATE and didn't work my state. So I called back AGAIN! After much teeth gnashing and threats, finally got to speak to a manager who promised me immediate assignment and a call back that afternoon with the name and number. Didn't happen. After more than a month with sewer water running inside the house and their failure to respond in anything vaguely resembling a 'fast' or 'courteous' manner, I finally paid someone to fix it for which I have yet to receive any reimbursement.
3) Good-Licensed Contractors – Possibly, but not necessarily licensed in your state or servicing your area
I made a claim for a plumbing issue created by a cast iron sewer pipe cracking and dumping sewer water into my guest bedroom. After filing the claim online, I called every other day for two weeks before I finally got someone ‘assigned’ to the matter. I called the assigned plumber who doesn’t live or work in my state, isn’t licensed in my state and does not service my town. I called several times and was promised that they would ‘fix the matter’. After weeks of waiting, and payment for a half-dozen ‘estimates’ from a variety of contractors, I finally found someone licensed and competent to fix it within the $500 plumbing reimbursement limitation in the contract (the average estimate was over $1,000). That was four months ago and I’m still waiting for my reimbursement check.
4) Timely reimbursement – I guess ‘within my lifetime’ is their idea of ‘timely
It took them 2 months to get me a reimbursement check for one claim and, as stated above, I’m still waiting for the second one! How is that timely?! I submitted the paid receipt the very day it was paid. It took them a WEEK to get me the 'appropriate claim forms' and another 6 weeks to get the check after that was submitted back to them. I'm elderly and on a fixed income. That $250 was my food money for the month. I had to sponge off my friends and family to eat thanks to their 'timely reimbursement' policy.
5) Claim approval – “We approve over 90% of claims submitted” according to the sales department
However, MY personal experience is that they approve 25% of claims submitted.
In two years, I submitted four claims – Two separate plumbing leaks, my all-in-one washer/dryer stopped drying (immediately after the first plumbing leak was fixed), and my refrigerator icemaker stopped making ice. FOUR claims and only 1 was approved and serviced at all.
• The washer-dryer claim was denied on the basis of ‘inadequate maintenance’ and on the release letter (see below) in spite of the fact that the damage to the machine was directly caused by the plumber manhandling the machine and not any lack of maintenance.
• The ice-maker wasn’t a covered part of the refrigerator. In spite of the fact that the policy says “all components” under Refrigerator, apparently the Ice Maker is a special rider which no one mentioned when I was purchasing the policy.
• The second plumbing claim was simply ‘lost’, I guess. I’ve never been able to get any response on that particular claim.
6) Release letter – This is the icing on the “not customer friendly” cake
Once a claim has been serviced and you have paid the contractor, in order to get your ‘reimbursement’ you have to sign a release document identifying you as “RELEASOR” and Select Home Warrantee as “RELEASEE” and says in exact verbiage that “RELEASOR … releases and discharges the RELEASEE, RELEASEE’s heirs, executors administrators, successors and assigns from all actions, causes of action, suits, debts, dues, sums of money, accounts, reckonings, bonds, bills …….damages, judgments, …. Claims and demands whatsoever, in law, admiralty … which RELEASOR, RELEASOR’s Heirs, executors … ever had, now have or hereinafter can, shall, or may have for, upon, or by reason of any matter, cause … from the beginning of the world to the day of the date of this RELEASE.”
Seriously?! So if the contractor they recommend and you pay for the service ends up doing additional damage (which is what occurred in the one plumbing claim they DID approve and – eventually - pay) the company will not pay to fix the damage – EVER! Once something is fixed, they will NEVER fix it or anything related to it. What sort of service is that?
I have found another company and fired this one. And – get this! – when I called to cancel, I had to spend 45 minutes ARGUING with the representative who kept insisting that he could ‘help to address your problem’.
After all they put me through in two years, I couldn’t even cancel the services without a fight!
Bottom line – they aren’t worth the money or the frustration. Find someone with a better track record.
PS: Look at all the negative reviews in just the last couple of months and then look at the canned, and probably automatic, reply. There is nothing sincere in the reply. Merely an attempt to NOT look like the cold and greedy company that it is.