Home Shield Homeowner Hassles and Headaches

I have been trying to get the loan modified for the last several months. Part of the conditions of the mod was for us to get our own insurance (long story on why we didn't in the first place.) ANYWAY, so we did our part and faxed everything to everyone at Homecomings we were supposed to do in order for it to be escrowed.

A month later, we get a bill saying that they never paid. So I called Homecomings and asked why they hadn't paid yet, and they said that sometimes it will take a while and to not worry about it that they would pay for it.

Another month later, we get a cancellation BILL saying our insurance was cancelled for non-payment AND that WE owed $500 for the coverage they gave us. I called Homecomings, and they said that we were never setup for escrow!!! WHY THE HELL NOT??? WE DID OUR PART, WHY DIDN'T YOU DO YOURS?!?!?

PLUS, of all the calls I've had for the last several months, I have gotten absolutely NOWHERE with them, I've been "disconnected" (read "hung up on") countless times because apparently NONE of the idiots that work there know how to use their phones!!! And, the insurance department says I need to talk to customer service. Customer service says I need to talk to Loan Modification. Loan Modification says I need to Loss Mitigation. Loss Mitigation says I need to talk to the insurance department. And I keep going in circles with every single person I talk to there! SO I AM GETTING NOWHERE WITH EVERY SINGLE PHONE CALL!!!!

Now as far as Home Shield goes, I called them out to come fix a leak in our duct work. First off, this is a Fox & Jacobs house (aka a "Fox Box") and they don't have typical a/c ducts. Most houses have what's called "Flex Duct"...but not ours! Ours is called "Duct Board" and it's square, non-flexible duct that's completely enclosed. So 35 years later when the duct work gets leaks, how do you fix it? You can't get to it from the attic because it's built below the joists. You can't get to it from the ceiling because it's above the sheet rock. So the only thing you can do is to cut down the ceiling...this is called "getting access" in Home Shield's terms. Ok, so half the idiots they send out say that Home Shield doesn't cover "making access" that we, the home owner, is supposed to make the access for them ourselves. Well, I have verified with NUMEROUS Home Shield people to know, for a fact, that they will pay whomever to get access. I don't care who it is or how they do it, Home Shield WILL PAY FOR ACCESS!!!
So, now they have sent out FOUR DIFFERENT COMPANIES, all of which say "we don't make access." So Home Shield still hasn't sent out the right company that will make the access. I swear, I'm about to rip down my ceiling myself and then they can put it back.

On top of that, TWO of the four companies have owners that have been EXTREMELY unprofessional or flat-out RUDE. The 2nd company they sent out, no wait... the THIRD company they sent out came out to make a quote for access... They came out over 2 weeks ago on Sunday. He was supposed to call Home Shield with his quote on how much it would cost and when I called him on Wednesday (three days after they came out) he told me it would be Friday. Friday comes around and he hasn't called. I called Home Shield on Monday and they said that he hadn't called them yet. So I called him and he told me "to be honest Mr. Weatherford, I put you on the 'back burner' but I will call them today." EXCUSE ME??? YOU DID WHAT??? I DON'T THINK SO!!!!

I don't care who you are -- YOU NEVER TELL A CUSTOMER YOU "PUT THEM ON THE BACK BURNER" !!!!!! So I called HS and told them DO NOT send that company to my house... they are NOT going to do ANY work on my house EVER.

Ok, well, they didn't seem to care too much, but they sent out yet another company. That other company came out, and yet again, said "we don't do this, we have someone else that makes access." Well, no kidding!!! I told Home Shield NOT to send out another A/C tech because they all tell me the same thing!!! So then this company calls me back and said they are going to send out their lead tech to have him come out and see what needs to be done to make access. Ok, fine. You want to come see what needs to be done? Fine... come out here at 8am and SEE what you need to do.Well, around here, 8am everyone is asleep. So the guy comes out here this morning (trying to come out at 7:30, which is before 8am) and he tries to tell me that he's going to make access and see what needs to be done to fix the leak. Really? You want to go into my attic, DIRECTLY ABOVE MY BABY DAUGHTER'S BEDROOM and start banging around while she's asleep? I don't think so! Besides the fact that NO ONE said he was coming here to do any work!!! So I told him he could come back later. He said he had some work to do down the street and he would call me back around 10am or so. Not even two minutes after he walked out the door, their head guy (or the company owner) called me griping me out because "my guy told me you refused to give him access to your ducts..." I interrupted him and said "wait a minute... what did he tell you?" He said that I told him the baby was sleeping and I wouldn't let him work... then he goes off on me saying "well you made this appointment and you knew that he was going to be working, blah blah blah" to which I told him that NO ONE told me ANYTHING about him coming out to do ANY kind of work. Home Shield told me he was coming out here to "find out what he has to do to get access." That sounds to me like someone is going to LOOK at what we have and not do any bit of work as of right then and there.

So after HE got rude with me, I hung up on him and IMMEDIATELY called the Home Shield president's office (whom I've been speaking to for the last week) and ripped her a new one (on her voice mail) telling her that THAT company was not welcome at my house anymore because he got rude with me, and that they need to send someone ELSE out to my house to fix this problem....

By the way -- did I ever mention that today is the 30th of July, and I originally put this call in on July FIRST?!?!??!