I've been a deluxe-class customer of HMS Home Warranty Insurance (aka Long & Foster Home Warranty Insurance, aka Cross Country Home Services) for six years.
In November, I put in a claim on a poorly performing furnace. HMS sent a company to our house (All-Star Appliance / HVAC) for service.
The tech accepted our $100 deductible, looked at the furnace, and said that we needed coil cleaning, which wasn't covered by our home warranty insurance. The owner of the company estimated that it would require:
* Another round of diagnostics using a scope ($100)
* Coil cleaning ($250)
* Cutting a hole in the side of our furnace to install a panel for future service ($150)
Altogether, $500 - on top of the $100 we'd already paid. See attached record of the service report.
I called in another handyman, who came out and fixed the problem in five minutes for $2.00 in parts... by swapping in a different, generic-brand furnace filter. We'd been using the wrong type of furnace filter. The coils were fine, and the $2 swap completely fixed our problem.
I asked the handyman why All-Star hadn't caught that and wanted to charge us $600. "No idea. The furnace filter is ALWAYS the first thing you check because lots of customers make that mistake."
HMS National, Inc. Reviews
I've been a deluxe-class customer of HMS Home Warranty Insurance (aka Long & Foster Home Warranty Insurance, aka Cross Country Home Services) for six years.
In November, I put in a claim on a poorly performing furnace. HMS sent a company to our house (All-Star Appliance / HVAC) for service.
The tech accepted our $100 deductible, looked at the furnace, and said that we needed coil cleaning, which wasn't covered by our home warranty insurance. The owner of the company estimated that it would require:
* Another round of diagnostics using a scope ($100)
* Coil cleaning ($250)
* Cutting a hole in the side of our furnace to install a panel for future service ($150)
Altogether, $500 - on top of the $100 we'd already paid. See attached record of the service report.
I called in another handyman, who came out and fixed the problem in five minutes for $2.00 in parts... by swapping in a different, generic-brand furnace filter. We'd been using the wrong type of furnace filter. The coils were fine, and the $2 swap completely fixed our problem.
I asked the handyman why All-Star hadn't caught that and wanted to charge us $600. "No idea. The furnace filter is ALWAYS the first thing you check because lots of customers make that mistake."