Choice Home Warranty Review
If you’re finally moving out of your parents’ house and into a place of your own, you’ll learn pretty quickly that a good home warranty is really, really important. Of course, if you’re moving out of your parents’ home, you may not even know what a home warranty is, so let’s take a moment to discuss that.
A home warranty is a service agreement which covers the repair of, or, if necessary, the replacement of essential household appliances.
But how do you find the right home warranty for you? If you’ve done any research, you know that there are lots of companies offering home warranties, all claiming to have the most comprehensive coverage and unbeatable rates. Of course, some of these companies have more “unbeatable” rates than others.
Image Source: Choice Home Warranty
For example, Choice Home Warranty comes up again and again in internet searches for the best home warranty around, and if some Choice Home Warranty reviews are to be believed, it isn’t far off.
Of course, like with anything, there are unhappy Choice Home Warranty customers, and they deserve a fair hearing. For that reason, we have searched the internet and read hundreds of Choice Home Warranty reviews and complaints in order to form a fair and impartial breakdown of the company.
About Choice Home Warranty
Before looking at the reviews of Choice Home Warranty, or CHW, we should discuss the company in greater detail.
Choice Home Warranty prides itself on its record of dealing with cases swiftly and effectively. The company claims to employ only the most caring people for its call center and only the most experienced technicians to deal with repairs and replacements. This might seem like blatant self-promotion, but a large number of Choice Home Warranty reviews support the claim.
Though a great number of Choice Home Warranty reviews come from customers in southern states, Choice Home Warranty offers comprehensive coverage to people all around the United States of America and has offices in Edison, New Jersey.
What’s Covered?
Choice Home Warranty offers two plans to potential customers: a basic plan and a total plan. Some, but not all, of the items covered in both the basic and total plan are:
- Heating system
- Electrical system
- Water heater
- Dishwasher
- Garage door opener
Should you decide to spring for the total plan, the extra items you will receive coverage on are:
- Clothes dryer
- Air conditioning system
- Refrigerator
Choice Home Warranty also offers optional coverage on items such as swimming pools, well pumps, septic systems, and second refrigerators. The company website does not mention anything about third refrigerators, but really, do you need three fridges?
As some reviews for Choice Home Warranty have pointed out, the company’s coverage is similar to a television provider that offers the entertainment and sports channels in separate packages. While a number of essential household items are looked after in the basic plan, items such as refrigerators and clothes dryers are only covered in the total plan.
What Isn’t Covered?
With its basic plan and total plan, Choice Home Warranty covers close to every common household item you can think of. Even older systems and appliances are covered if they have been properly maintained.
That being said, some of your household appliances may be disqualified from coverage if they have been damaged or misused prior to your relationship with CHW. Likewise, claims may be denied if the item in question has been damaged due to negligence or abuse on the part of the homeowner. As long as you don’t take a baseball bat to your microwave—or worse, reheat something from Taco Bell—you won’t have anything to worry about.
All-in-One Change Management Tools
Top Rated Toolkit for Change Managers.
Get Your Change Management Tool Today...
Choice Home Warranty Reviews
There are plenty of spots in cyberspace where one can find reviews for Choice Home Warranty, so deciding which sites to use for this article was not an easy task. Some sites were disqualified for shady links and advertisements, while others were disqualified for just not being popular enough.
A large number of Choice Home Warranty reviews can be found on the Choice Home Warranty webpage, but they were taken out of consideration due to the site’s inevitable bias.
In the end, three sites were chosen for this article:
- Yelp – www.yelp.com
- Consumer Affairs – https://www.consumeraffairs.com
- Home Warranty Reviews – http://www.homewarrantyreviews.com
The Good
No company has ever become successful without doing something right (with the possible exception of SeaWorld). For that reason, a positive review of Choice Home Warranty is not hard to find. In fact, you could conceivably spend a half hour browsing and see nothing but four- and five-star reviews.
Many of the positive reviews for Choice Home Warranty praise the company’s quick response to claims. Though a waiting period is to be expected with any home warranty company, many reviewers claim to have had technicians visit their homes just a day or two after calling the help center. In fact, one lady who gave CHW a five-star review said the company had technicians over to her house “right away.”
Other satisfied customers were pleased with the helpfulness of those they spoke to on the phone as well as the workers sent to deal with the problems. Reviewers have described those employed by the company as “knowledgeable and efficient,” “easy to deal with,” and willing to go “above and beyond” for their customers.
In many of the positive reviews for Choice Home Warranty, reviewers describe them as being better than their last home warranty provider. That means Choice Home Warranty, for some reason, is rarely the customer’s first choice. The reason is hard to pinpoint, especially when you consider the fact that Choice Home Warranty often offers better rates than other home warranty providers.
Whatever the reason, those who have come to Choice Home Warranty after a negative experience somewhere else rarely have anything but good things to say about their new company.
The Mediocre
Although it’s tempting to go straight from the really good Choice Home Warranty reviews to the downright terrible, we have to be responsible adults and take a look at those “meh” reviews.
Because everybody on the internet likes to do things to the extreme, it’s actually pretty difficult to find a three-star review of anything. Thankfully, those few are usually pretty detailed.
One of only a few three-star Choice Home Warranty reviews was found on consumeraffairs.com. The user, who was predominantly satisfied with the service she received, said that due to the large demand for repairs and replacements on the day she made her claim, the technician assigned to her case was unavailable for the job. As a result, she was forced to use outside contractors to do the repair. However, Choice Home Warranty understood the urgency of the repair and was happy to reimburse her for any money spent on the independent company.
Another Choice Home Warranty reviewer seemed to be a little less satisfied. While the company was quick to respond to her claim and get a technician over to her house, they were not so prompt in locating the part needed to complete the repair. In fact, the customer was still waiting for delivery of the component at the time of her review. However, the positive treatment she had experienced with Choice Home Warranty up to this point was enough for her to give them the benefit of the doubt and a three -star review.
The Bad
Okay, so we’ve looked at the positive—sometimes extremely positive—Choice Home Warranty reviews. We’ve also looked at the not-so-good, yet not-so-bad ones. Now, out of basic fairness, it’s time to take a look at some of the one and two-star reviews of Choice Home Warranty.
Because Choice Home Warranty ranks so high with those who understand the insurance business or have had dealings with home warranty companies before, you won’t find many one-star reviews for the company on websites like Consumer Affairs or Home Warranty Reviews (the latter has a few; the former has practically none).
You will, however, find an overwhelming number of one-star reviews of Choice Home Warranty on Yelp, which is where the majority of reviews for this section have been taken from.
Image Source: Choice Home Warranty Reviews
One Yelp user described Choice Home Warranty as “the worst company ever!!!!” He did not elaborate, possibly because his experience with the company was just too painful to recall. Whatever they did to him, we will never know.
Another one-star review of Choice Home Warranty comes from a reviewer who is a little more level-headed. Though he was not at all happy with the service he received, he did go into detail as to why he was dissatisfied. According to this user, he attempted to make six claims with Choice Home Warranty and each time was informed that the item in question was not covered by his plan.
CHW also offers coverage to real estate professionals who wish to protect the systems and appliances in houses they are trying to sell. Though there are not many Choice Home Warranty reviews from those in the real estate industry—at least not reviews specified as such—one realtor was not happy with the service he received from the company.
When this real estate agent made a claim on one of the items in a house he was in control of, the technician assigned to the case arrived late and did not complete the job to a satisfactory level. Unhappy with his experience, he sought to cancel his policy with Choice Home Warranty, only for them to refuse to refund the money he already had spent with them.
In Conclusion
If there is one thing you can take from this collection of Choice Home Warranty reviews, it’s that you can never take one person’s word for anything. The best you can do is look to a number of different places and hope you find the information you need to make an informed decision.
There are good Choice Home Warranty reviews, and there are bad ones. That being said, there have been significantly more positive things written about the company than there have been negative, and that’s more than can be said for some home warranty companies out there.
Hopefully this article has been of some use to you. If everything has gone according to plan, you are now one step closer to choosing the right home warranty company for you. If finding the right home warranty company frustrates you so that you’re thinking of slamming your hands down on your keyboard or tossing your laptop against the wall, don’t do it just yet…Find the right coverage first.
AdvisoryHQ (AHQ) Disclaimer:
Reasonable efforts have been made by AdvisoryHQ to present accurate information, however all info is presented without warranty. Review AdvisoryHQ’s Terms for details. Also review each firm’s site for the most updated data, rates and info.
Note: Firms and products, including the one(s) reviewed above, may be AdvisoryHQ's affiliates. Click to view AdvisoryHQ's advertiser disclosures.