First of all, the technician didn't even arrive during the call window of 10 to 1pm, it was closer to 2pm when he arrived, calling at 1:30 to let me know he was on his way. Not a terribly big deal, but something worth noting. (Interesting to note, I had an electrician coming during the 1pm to 5pm window, and he actually called to ask to come nearly, and had every single requested repair (about 7 of them) finished and out the food (with a tip by 2:00)
The plumbing provider came to do an American Home Field warrantee repair for a number of items found in need of repair resulting from a presales home inspection. American Home Shield sells warrantee repair services to new homeowners to provide piece of mind for such items, but in this case the technician was lazy and did everything he could to get AHS to reject the repairs.
HE enters the house and asks to see all the items AHS prescreened to have repaired. He immediately started taking pictures. At the end, he asked to collect the $75.00 deductible, and then went out to sit in his truck.
Atone point I came out and heard him talking with AHS, seemingly making a case for one item as to being ineligible (later to find out I could have that item repaired if I paid him $360.
One item he declared ineligible was a turnoff valve. He said not normal wear and tear, yet when the inspector inspected it, he want to test close it and it snapped off with minimal pressure (and this is so stated in the report) . How is it want a required turn off valve is inspected, and breaks in the hands of a qualified inspector (at least 20 year veteran) its considered non normal wear and tear.
In another instance, w here a toilet was loose from the base, rather ten secure it, he said the tile floor he claimed was not level (I do not think he used a level, he was using his flashlight). I later took a level up there, and found both directions to be level within the bubble indicators.
Still the solution was to tighten the screws, and worst case use a piece of woof shim to adjust for any possible out of levelness.
In the sase of the kitchen sink, it was noted in the report the drain was leaking. I made the mistake earlier in the day to remove the drain and took it to Lowes for their plumbing dept to match up a replacement. I was originally going to do this myself till I realized this too should be covered. My mistake was attempting to help, and it voided he spending the 10 mins to install the new part. But no worried, I put it in myself during one fo his reveal breaks in his truck.
I was most frustrated by the nest rounds of calls he made getting the powder room toilet leak denied. HE claimed the toiler flange was cracked at the bold tie down. He claimed it was not standard wear and tear, yet could provide no explanation on how it was not, and said flanges typically last a lifetime. But despite the fact that an installed spacer rendered the bold hole unnecessary, and there si now not bold used in this location, he still said the damage must be non-standard wear and tear, yet said the fix could be as simple as replacing he spacer with one he has in his trick, and adding a couple extra screws. This si apparently want he wanted to do, but rather then get a few bucks doing it as an authorized repair, he got to denied hoping to charge me $387 to repair. (perhaps unsuspecting that this mechanical engineer would challenge his diagnosis).
The house is 25 years old, thins wear and break, this may have been broken a long time for all I know. But the fact of the matter is, AHS would not have paid him nearly that much from what he described to me as a few min repair, so that's the ony way them make these warrantee service calls work. They are like the auto shop that does the $15.99 oil change with 25 point inspection. They lose money on the old change, but make it up for items they can charge full price for while they are there.