Let down by home warranty
I purchased a house recently and decided to pay for a home warranty. The company my wife signed us up with is National Home Protection. We paid them $400.00 for this tears coverage.
Me being the contractor and all; I told her to ask a lot of questions, particularlly about appliances that can not be fixed.
She asked them, with me present, if they replace appliances if they are deamed unreparairable, they said yes. She asked what was involved in filing a claim. There response was "If the appliance is deemed by our technicians to be unrepairable; than it will be replaced at no charge to you."
Well; two months later our AC unit goes up in flames. Literally! There was a fire. Thank God it did'nt catch the house on fire. Anyway, we called the home warranty company, they sent a tchnitian out. He said that we had an acid leak that caused the fire. He also stated on his own appraisal of the damage that the unit was well mainatained and that the compressor malfunctioned and started the fire.
Also, when we bought the plan, we never saw their contract. They send it to you in the mail after you have made the purchase. The contract says that we must provide two years of maintanance records in order to get a unit replaced. This was never told to us.
To make a long story short, we have only owned this house for one year. We have no way of retreiving any records from the previos owner; nor is it any of our business to do so.
I have met with minor legal counsel about this. Their contract is rock solid according to him. He did say that we may be able to prove fraud because National Home Protection specifically asked us when we purchased our home and made us send proof of it. He said that because they knew we had only owned the house for one year and had no way of coming up with two years worth of documentation on the appliances, that it is fraudgulent.
He said basically; "they knew from the start that they would'nt have to pay a claim for at least a year." yet they signed us up on their plan without telling us any of this.
One person has already filed against them in small claims court and lost.
I have already filed a complaint with the BBB; which they are in terrible standing with, contacted the Federal Trade Commission, the Texas and New York attorney general, and the U.S, Attorney Generals offices.
What else can I do. The repalcment cost of this unit is $2600.00. I paid out of pocket for it, but now I want reimbursment.
It has been more than two months now and I hav'nt heard anything from anyone I contacted.
I would like to go after them, but their contract is pretty solid.
PLEASE HELP
You can find this company on the BBB or if you Google them. You will find that one of the first links that pops up on Google is "National Home Protection Scam". There are many more like me who have gotten screwed by this company. I just need to know how to beat them.