The Advoc8te LOVES her readers and wants to give them a sound piece of advice. If you own real estate and are looking for a home warranty company, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT USE AMERICAN HOME SHIELD!

I’ve had this service for nearly a year and the only thing they have done consistently is take my monthly premiums, lie and provide no service or service so bad it borders on criminal negligence.

I would do a full recap here but I would get mad all over again. Let’s just say, American Home Shield has a habit of employing subpar contractors — all three off the contractors assigned to my work tickets were extremely deficient and/or unethical. Two of the three had reviews so poor I expressed my concern in writing to American Home Shield before they came out, the third is probably poorly reviewed as well but I decided to save myself the aggravation of checking. And guess what, they did not do the job properly either. The appliances I called them out for are in worse condition now than before I called!

And if you do decide to cancel your AHS service, be prepared for AHS to bill you anyway. Not only will they keep charging you, AHS will even sign you up for a renewal! After canceling my service in November 2018 I was billed for two more months and when I called AHS today (Christmas Day) to inquire about the charges, I was told that my original contract was cancelled but AHS signed me up for a renewal “at my request.” When I asked for the date that this renewal was allegedly requested, I was told it was on January 23rd, 2019.

Yes, that is not a typo. I was told today that I requested a contract renewal for the future, after I had been very vocal about cancelling the service. AHS even sent me a confirmation letter on December 6th confirming the canceled service. And if you were wondering if AHS ever offered to refund any of my premiums or service fees for this crappy service, the answer would be “no.” I was told I would have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting a refund.

I know at least four other Ward 8 homeowners who have American Home Shield and we are all very dissatisfied. I finally got my HVAC system fixed after calling AHS over 35 times and begging with tears for the customer service rep to help and then I called around and found my own part — the part that had been sitting on a shelf waiting for pickup by the AHS vendor for nearly a month.

One would almost think that AHS has a policy against hiring competent vendors because all of the AHS vendors I’ve had come out were subpar.

I know that the DC Attorney General’s office subscribes to my posts, I hope they see this one and look into filing a class-action lawsuit against American Home Shield on behalf of District residents. AHS has to stop taking our premiums and not providing quality and/or timely service. It’s a hustle, it’s a scam and it should be illegal!

So If you want my advice, take the $60/month you were going to pay American Home Shield in premiums and just save it in an emergency fund. When something breaks you can use the money to hire a reputable company to fix the problem. It will save you so much trouble, time and money.

Take my word for it, you are NOT better with the shield!

See below for tweets by other AHS unsatisfied customers.