First American Home Buyers Protection Corp.

The Woodlands, Texas

COMPLAINT: 6 year old Kitchen Aid Superba Refrig/Freezer was not cooling.

Day 1: Called First American, explained problem.

Day 2: Dispatched 1st Service Technician - He called me enroute, and asked what model. When I told him, he said he couldn't work on it. He told me that First American had not conveyed any of that information to him. He notified First American.

Day 3: First American dispatched 2nd technician, and called me with his name and number.

Day 4: Second technician called me to schedule a time...he couldn't make it that day

Day 5: Food is beginning to spoil as unit ceases to cool. Second technician come out, inspects the refrig, says it is the "sealed unit". Said he would locate parts, and fix next day.

Day 6: Received no word from 2nd technician all day, left several messages. Called Kitchen Aid (manufacturer) - "Sealed Unit" still under warranty, but they only cover parts.

Day 7: Sunday, no word from anyone

Day 8: I call First American - they tell me 2nd service technician cannot work on "sealed unit", dispatch 3rd technician. Called Kitchen Aid again - thought if they covered parts, would First American cover labor? Best to fix with certified mfg rep, since first 2 technicians were not qualified to work on it...

Day 9: Called First American > Angelique tells me, if parts covered under warranty, they will pay labor, if not. they will pay labor only. I schedule Kitchen Aid rep, and cancel First American's 3rd technician, thinking the parts are covered under warranty, based on 2nd technician's diagnosis...

Day 10: Kitchen Aid rep comes out - tells me it is the fan unit, not sealed unit. I tell him fine, I will have to pay for the parts, but First American will pay for the labor - just get it fixed, but now food is spoiled.

Day 11: Kitchen Aid rep comes out and installs new fan - unit is working again. I fax receipt to Angelique ($400+) and she calls me to say First American will NOT reimburse me anything for the service since the part/problem was not under warranty. Her explanation was I should have called her back to tell her that it was the fan, not the sealed unit. She also denied telling me that if the part was not covered under warranty that they would still cover the labor. Now why would I have it fixed, lose my $60 service call fee, plus the $400 repair bill if I thought the labor was not going to be reimbursed? I escalate to her supervisor, who 2 days later still has not called me back

Day 12: I faxed a cancellation notice > This was my 3rd year with First American. They made multiple errors and exhibited a poor customer service process, miscommunicated multiple times with me, kept me on hold for a 10- 20 minutes each time I called, failed to accept any responsibility for the mis-diagnosis of the problem, which led to the peculiar circumstance between Kitchen Aid and their 3rd technician, failed to retain a multi-year customer over a couple of hundred dollars of labor charges (I had already accepted that I would have to pay for the fan). Angelique falsified the claim report to cover herself, and then multiple supervisors lined up behind her account, and refused to make any attempt to retain my business. Not to mention, I had to discard about $200 worth of food because of how long it took to resolve all of this - and in the end, I was the one who got a competent, qualified technician to my house to fix the unit, not First American. Their response to that was, " Well the third guy would have been able to do the job, and had you allowed him to do it, we would have covered it, but because you called the Kitchen Aid technician, and that part was not under warranty, we're not paying any of it."

This experience is one of the worst I've had with a customer service driven organization. I find their belligerent phone tactics, lack of integrity, lack of access to higher levels of authority in their organization and inflexibility in trying to reconcile customer claim issues to be totally unacceptable in today's market. I will never do business with First American again, and I will actively spread negative opinions about their program, their people, and their poor customer service to everyone I know. I intend to see that the failure to pay on this $400 repair, will cost them at least 10 - 20 times that. I urge all who read this to cancel their contracts and go with another provider, and to steer your real estate clients away from First American.