Home warranty company leaves Atlanta homeowner sizzling mad

ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) - Kristi Hutchinson was working from home on the day Better Call Harry visited her East Atlanta residence.

The downstairs temperature was tolerable, but it had been six days since her upstairs air conditioner broke down.

Hutchinson renewed her contract with HSA Home Warranty three months ago, so when the A/C broke, she thought a phone call would get her immediate service.

But on June 16, Atlanta experienced record temperatures, sending air conditioning services into high demand. Hutchinson said an HSA customer service representative told her she would have to wait.

“They said it’s a 24-to-48 hour wait to get somebody, and I waited 24 hours and then called back and said, ‘I’m really hot. It’s hot!’”

When she asked for emergency service, the service representative told her the heat index needed to 105 degrees.

“It got up to 104 with the heat index and I called,” Hutchinson recalled. “I said I’m literally one degree away and asked, can you send someone out? And they said, ‘No. You have to wait.’”

HSA’s policy allows for customers to hire outside vendors if, after several days, it cannot provide one, but Hutchinson didn’t have any luck.

“So, I started looking and I found three (HVAC repair companies) and nobody wanted to do the HSA thing,” she said. “They said you’ll have to pay us out of pocket.”

HSA Home Warranty’s parent company, Front Door Home Warranty, also owns American Home Shield, Landmark Home Warranty and One Guard Warranty.

After CBS46 contacted Front Door Home Warranty, its corporate office assigned a vendor to the case. After checking online reviews, Better Call Harry discovered the vendor had an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Hutchinson requested another vendor and the following day, an “A” rated vendor fixed her unit, saving her more than $2,000 in repairs.

Here is a statement sent to Better Call Harry from HSA Home Warranty’s parent company

We take great pride in providing quality service and valuable protection to our customers. If we fail to meet these expectations, we work to do the right thing and ensure the situation is properly resolved.
We have reviewed Ms. Hutchison’s service AC request, which was placed on Thursday, June 16 for one of the two units in her home.
With much of the nation experiencing a historic heatwave - including the greater Atlanta area - our network of service professionals are working diligently to ensure that they provide timely service to homeowners. In the event that appointments are not readily available through our network of providers, customers may be offered an option to choose their own contractor for diagnosis and repairs, which Ms. Hutchison accepted. As part of this process, we will evaluate the diagnosis from the customer’s contractor and communicate appropriate next steps for resolution, including reimbursement to the customer.
Upon receipt of your email on June 22, we learned that Ms. Hutchinson was unsuccessful in securing a contractor. A member of our network reached out to her that afternoon and made arrangements for yesterday’s appointment.
The technician determined that the coil and thermostat are in need of replacement and will schedule installation once the parts are in-hand. In the meantime, he added a pound of refrigerant, and reported that the unit is cooling.
We regret the frustration Ms. Hutchinson has experienced, and our team will stay in close contact throughout the remainder of the process to ensure that all is resolved.
We deeply value our relationship with Ms. Hutchinson and look forward to serving her in the future.
Front Door Home Warranty

Even after what she went through, Hutchinson said she is going to keep her home warranty.

“I realized that it might be to my advantage to just keep them, ride them out another year, and see how it goes,” she said.