Fidelity National Home Warranty: My experiences.

I’m not pleased with this company. Hopefully your experiences will be better. As for me, I am done dealing with this company. Take what I say with a grain of salt. As displeased as I am with Fidelity National Home Warranty, I hope that the experiences of others are better than the experiences I have encountered.

So it begins. I move into a house, and am told my warranty covers MY appliances, such as my refrigerator, my washer, my drier and other removable appliances. I quickly learn that my contract in fact, does NOT cover these items. Fortunately, nothing broke. I did have to engage in a yelling and screaming match with Fidelity and escalate this way up their corporate step ladder to be able to be allowed to pay the extra to get this extra level of coverage, which I did gladly pay. Later on I realize this was a waste of time.

Problems at the same house was the water heater, which rusted out within a week of occupying the house. Chalk it up to “stuff happens”. Sure, I’m angry, nothing better than a cold shower in January. They send out a plumber, who I must say did a very fine job of replacing the water heater, removing the old one, installing a real earthquake strap, and making me pay for the whole thing out of my pocket. They refused to reimburse me the haul-away fee since they claim I could have done that on my own. They refused to pay for the permit to install a new water heater, because, again, I could have done that on my own. They refused to pay for the earthquake strap kit since I could have gotten that on my own too. They refused to pay for the new water heater because I could have gotten one of those on my own as well. But they did pay for the plumber’s time, so I guess that makes things all good. I’m surprised they paid for the plumber, since by using Fidelity’s logic, I could have done that work on my own.$1100 and three days later, and I have hot water again. Oh yeah, my $40 service charge was well bundled into that $1100 bill. The water heater was listed in the contract.

Another problem was the garage door opener. The motor itself broke, and it required a new mainboard since everything else appeared to test fine. Odd, I work on computers all the time and without the mainboard, you can’t test too much. Garage door openers are much simpler. Takes them 3 days and $169 of my money(including service charge) and it’s fixed. No re-imbursement. I’m sure Fidelity rationalized that I could have done the work myself.

Another problem was the garbage disposal. It broke. I get someone out to repair it, only it can’t be repaired, it has to be replaced. So I get the honor of replacing it and paying for that, PLUS the replacement disposal was bad, so I had to deal with the exchange process on my own as well. Isn’t it nice when the company you pay for services isn’t there when you need it? It was listed in the contract! Now that I’ve seen that done, I’m fairly sure I could do that work myself.

Last problem was the garage door itself. OK, Fidelity is off the hook on that one, they don’t cover the garage door. Not like they would pay for it if they did. If anyone wants to know the name of the company I bought the door from, I’ll tell you, as they did a great job in a timely manner and at a great price.

While the contract covered the pool, nothing broke in regards to the pool and pool related equipment. Had several sprinkler disasters, which were not covered, but I know how to fix those sort of things. All told, all sprinkler repairs cost less than a single service fee.

OK, time to move into a bigger house. Part of the terms is to have the owners purchase a home warranty contract that COVERS THE APPLIANCES. Contract states it covers the appliances. Turns out the contract does not cover really anything useful.

My drier breaks. Turns out I cannot upgrade the policy as that is no longer allowed. I tell Fidelity that in that case, my policy is effectively useless and I consider it cancelled, so I let them off the hook. $300 later, my clothes can get dry again. Later on, the washer breaks, so I don’t even screw with Fidelity. $250 later, that is fixed. Let’s note that $379 is more than the contract would have been. Again, they’ve been let off the hook.

We had a problem with ants. OK, for $40, they called a company out to clear out that problem. Saved me a whopping $59 right there. Oh yeah! I’m saving the money now!!!

Pop a GFI, pay the $40 to learn when the GFI I could have reset is. Lesson learned. Oh well.

Now, the policy expired in October of 2005, as I intended it to as I have no use for this company. I start getting harassing calls, to which I make it clear that I am not interested and do not want to continue these business relations and to simply leave me alone. I am forced to hang up to end the call. As rude as that may sound, they refused to take “no” for an answer. They call back to get in their “zinger” so they can hang up on me. Isn’t that classy.

Today, May 15, 2006, I get a call. They are trying to get my business back. I inform them that there is no reason for their phone call and that I am not interested in their services. They remind me of how they helped with the ant problem, and I reminded them of how they didn’t help with the drier problem. They reminded me of how they helped with the GFI problem, so I reminded them how they didn’t help with the washer problem. I stated I was not interested in renewing my policy and had no intention of doing any business with them. Again, they refuse to take “no” for an answer and really unable to get a word in edgewise so I stated that I was not interested and instructed them to stop calling and then I simply hung up the phone while the lady was still yammering on and on. I’m not saying the lady didn’t make some possibly valid points, such as the claim they would cover the air conditioner and the heater, but in my experience, I refuse to take a chance of paying for a home warranty only to have to pay for any repairs out of my pocket anyways. After all, I have a contract saying they cover the washer and drier, and Fidelity tells me that the contract does NOT cover those items. Like before, they call back saying that they aren’t the ones I should be mad at, but rather my realtor and then they hang up on me. Well, let me check a few things: I am being harassed on the phone by an organization I want nothing to do with, but it’s my realtor’s fault? I was lied to by Fidelity, then screwed as a result of being lied to, yet they are not the bad guys? I am being disrupted from my work, and I’m told that they are not the bad guys? I tell them I do not want to do any business with them and they aren’t the bad guys for calling me repeatedly?

Let’s check another few things. My in-laws made the decision to get a home warranty policy. For them, it’s somewhat paid off. They’ve had to have their cooktop/oven repaired three times, the same electrical problem fixed twice, their heater fixed at least half a dozen times, their air conditioner repaired and now the persistent problem is their clothes drier is constantly breaking down, especially after repairs. The drier isn’t all that old. Seems to me there are some items in need of replacing, rather than just repaired. They have purchased a new drier as a result of such quality repair work rather than continue to deal with Fidelity and bad repair jobs. Regardless, their experiences were on the better side, as they only paid the deductible for each of heir repairs. This is how things were supposed to be. My experiences were a complete disaster. My in-laws experiences were much better than mine. Hmm, maybe it was because I referred my in-laws to Fidelity so that is why they were treated right. If someone refers me to Fidelity, I am going to tell them to go to hell.

Fidelity hasn’t been there when I needed them except to make arrangements for my money to be transferred out of my bank account and into the hands of those who can do repairs that I am unable to perform. All I ask is that Fidelity leave me alone. Is that too much to ask? No means no.

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