American Home Shield

MilanD said:

You know, I took some marketing classes in college, many years ago. Had a great teacher and to this day I remember him telling us that companies hire psychologists and pay them serious $$ to figure out how to get people to purchase stuff they don't need, spend more $$ than necessary, all the while getting customers less pd off at companys' reps when they call with a complain, by placing you on hold by default before getting you to a live person, and then playing a particular type of hold music for a set period of time, on purpose... They use applied science and the given industry's best practices to get people to act to the best interest of the company, use research on how to get you to relax by what music to play when you are on hold, plus having them still separate you from your hard-earned dollars. Department stores and grocery stores, and any store that plays music will have more sales than ones that don't. It's quite sophisticated. You as a consumer stand little chance to control the situation or your action.



Once you remember the house always wins, you do have a chance. How does the old adage go about separating a fool from his money... All these insurance schemes I look at in that light. Like that poor man from Mr. Holohan's post being strung along for 3 months... And no recourse. I have in the past successfully used the state Attorney General's office once and a threat of reporting another time to successfully resolve issues I had with 2 major companies at 2 separate times. I was eventually made whole but it wasted a lot of my time. These guys know it and stringing you along is their profit maximizing strategy. Like health insurance and denial of coverage for services doctor prescribed as needed.



At any rate, I try to separate myself from the racket. Avoiding TV is one of the ways. Ad blocker on my web browser is the other. Not being tempted is the 3rd.

Putting me on hold with elevator music just brings my blood to a rolling boil. I know the subliminal psychology behind it to well.

MilanD said:

@Gordy - ha, you must be the outlier... Most people on this forum must be.

When my ge profile dishwasher heating element stuck on which melted all of its internal parts after the warranty was up. Putting me on hold was not in their best interest. I ended up with a new dishwasher, and they ended up with a recall.......

We work with AHS here in New Mexico and we treat their customers as out customer. After the diagnosis we issue AHS a cost break down for approval. AHS contacts the customer and us to let them know what they will cover. Then we work out the difference (if any) with the customer. There are many different levels of contracts with customers which dictates customers responsibility on repair costs. So far AHS has been up front and fair in our experience with them. We would never abandon a customer and will stay with them until issues are resolved.

And, do they pay you for the time it takes to handle all that back-and-forth?