What should you know about buying a home warranty?

Acquilla Acosta says she and her family found out the hard way that a house can get pretty hot.  "This thermostat was all the way up to 90 degrees," she tells me.  "It seemed cooler outside than in here."

Acosta says she and her husband bought a home last year and then bought a monthly home warranty, which she says she was assured would pay for major repairs.  However, Acosta says her experience with her warranty company, American Home Shield, was less than satisfactory.  "So the battle between the warranty company and ourselves has been a very tough one," she says

Acosta says because they were first time home buyers and because they were buying an older home, they thought a warranty was definitely important.  She says in April, the air conditioner wasn't working very well.  "So, we called the warranty company and they sent a vendor out and we paid the 60 dollar fee which we're required to do," Acosta told me.

Acosta thought the fact a repairmen came pretty quickly was a good sign, a sign the warranty company was willing to do what it promised.  "The first man put in a new part in the upstairs unit and then told us to clean the coils on the outside unit, which we did right away," she says.

By May however, the air conditioner acted up again.  "A second repairman came and he replaced the exact part the first one had just the month before," Acosta told me.  "And he told us to clean the upstairs unit so we did that."

By mid-July however, the air conditioner simply stopped working.  A third man came according to Acosta and told them it was the motor blower upstairs, not the other parts that the other two men had replaced. "And he went back to the warranty company and told them what the issue was," Acosta says.  "but the warranty company still denied the claim, even though this was their vendor."

Acosta says she was told by American Home Shield representatives that their claim was being denied because they had not performed proper maintenance on the air conditioning unit.  "Which really isn't accurate, because we performed the maintenance both repairmen recommended immediately," Acosta says.

She says it was so hot in their home that she and her husband packed up their two children and moved in with his parents for three weeks.  "All the while, we were on the phone with American Home Shield, trying to get them to pay for this repair, which I don't even think was all that expensive," Acosta tells me.

She says finally, she and her husband paid for the repair themselves.  "We just came back home two days ago," Acosta says.

She's still hoping the warranty company will reimburse them.

Ross Howard from the local Better Business Bureau says he looked up the company on the BBB website.  "They are accredited by the Better Business Bureau and they do have an A plus rating," Howard says.  "They do have 3 thousand complaints, but you have to put that into perspective."

Howard says he found 3090 complaints over a three year period filed with the BBB in Memphis, where the company's corporate headquarters is located.  "That's about one thousand a year, but keep in mind they have millions of customers," Howard says.  

Howard also say that more than 75 percent of the complaints had been resolved by the company which he says "shows a willingness on the company's part to deal with customer concerns."

Howard also says a home owner needs to read the fine print "ahead of time to understand what a warranty truly covers."  He also told me that not all home warranties or home warranty companies are created equal and consumers need to do their homework ahead of time.

Heather Wilson from American Home Shield's media relations department in Memphis returned a call I made to the company headquarters.  She told me that someone would "contact Acosta to get more information and see what can be resolved for the customer."

Wilson also told me that the company has about 1.3 million customers and that last year, they had 2.7 million service requests.  "Most customers have at least two service calls per year," Wilson told me.

Wilson also says the company's A plus rating with the BBB indicates they "promptly resolve customer concerns."

Wilson told me that in recent years, more home owners have been buying home warranties.  "I think they understand that a warranty can be a great benefit," she told me.  "And in today's real estate market, some sellers are actually using warranties as a selling point."

Again, Wilson promised to look into Acosta's complaint.

Meanwhile, Acosta's home is finally cool again.  But now she's cool to the idea of continuing her home warranty coverage.  "They send people out to  out get second opinions and in the end it's the consumer who's out of luck," she told me.