Colorado Home Warranty Inc

In our experience, Colorado Home Warranty is a fraudulent company. We called them when our A/C unit stopped working and they sent out their contractor (Randy's Heating & A/C Inc, also reviewed on this site) who recommended that the compressor be replaced and freon added (a $1500 replacement). No surprise, CHW denied our claim stating it was a "preexisting condition" and outside of coverage. We submitted a rebuttal, which included our inspection invoice where an A/C company evaluated our system, replaced a furnace blower, and declared the system to be in working order. Pat Defeo, the apparent VP and General Manager of this "business" denied us again and actually accused US of writing on the invoice that the system was in good working order! Her slanderous accusation blew me away! I denied it, of course, and she called me a liar! Pat was proven wrong when the A/C Company verified that their tech wrote that statement. Pat never apologized even when I asked for one?she was indignant. Throughout weeks of this back and forth, Pat Defeo and her surly crew of admins cussed at us, hung up on us, and went as far as to ignore us after we filed a claim with the BBB. Because of our BBB claim, Pat did FINALLY agree to *repair* the cracked compressor, which was not recommended by their own contractor, who said to us "In my 49 years of A/C work, I've never successfully repaired a compressor like this." The recommended $1500 replacement had now turned into a $175 REPAIR job, which probably wouldn't hold. Pat's only focus was on money "lost" on a claim---she disregarded what her own contractor recommended (in writing) just to save her own profit. I am sure she bullied Randy into conducting this repair, because when we talked to him, Randy was not supportive of this approach at all from a technical perspective. With rising temperatures, we wanted to move ahead with this repair, despite its poor probability of success; however, Randy went on vacation and Pat made us wait an entire week while temperatures rose! One of her admins said that they had other contractors, but Pat refused to bring another person in Randy's place. I'm sure it's because she didn't want to lose any more $ on this claim. Finally, Randy came out here. Randy, during this whole process had been flighty, confused, and getting more and more surly like Pat and her crew, probably because his $1500 replacement job had been reduced to a $175 repair job. Randy came out, fixed the crack in the compressor and charged the freon. The line froze, and Randy stated it was because we had poor ventilation and that we had to consult a ventilation specialist. So, the next day, we called Quality West and Rob came out. Rob diagnosed the problem as TOO MUCH FREON, which was freezing the lines, reducing cold air output. While our ventilation could be improved, Rob drained **5 pounds** of freon, which Randy charged us for, and now the house is cool. Rob noted that the compressor was testy and fluctuating in output, which means it's definitely on its last legs. We called Rob for ventilation advice, but he ended up correctly diagnosing and fixing our freon issue that Randy created. Overall, Colorado Home Warranty is not interested in caring for customers or conducting the most appropriate replacements/repairs. They are an unprofessional small business who is only interested in taking your money and keeping it. They will go to all lengths to deny claims and make the claims process very difficult, not to mention insulting. They have 12 BBB claims against them, and I KNOW WHY.

The issue that prompted me to review them, however, has to do with our air-conditioner. We purchased this warranty specifically for our a/c, since no inspector would turn it on and check it at the time we bought our house (too cold outside). We paid an extra $75 for the a/c warranty, on top of the $325 warranty. When we realized our a/c wasn't blowing cold air, we called CHW. They sent one of their contractors out (we had to wait over a week for an appointment), who said our system was low on coolent, but he didn't have any (our systems uses the most common - R410), and he couldn't get back out with any for at least 3 or 4 days. I had specifically asked Kristy at Colorado Home Warranty if the company they were sending would be able to fix any problems they diagnosed. In my opinion, when you wait a week to have someone come out and check your a/c, they need to be able to fix the problem when they come or within the next day or two. I called CHW to complain, and Kristy told me the a/c contractor told her we had a very old unit that used an obscure type of coolant that was hard to find. We have a 7 year old, 5 ton Bryant that uses R410, the newest type of coolant readily available anywhere. Kristy agreed to send another contractor, and waive the $55 fee that we already paid the first one. The next guy said we did not need coolant, and that our system wasn't adequate for our house size (again - we have a 5 TON unit for a 4 bedroom house, perfectly adequate) and that was why it couldn't cool properly. Since both of these contractors told us different things, and neither seemed to understand how our dual-zoned system even worked (the 2nd guy started to take it apart telling my husband he needed to figure out how it worked), and neither could I find a website for and they both drove their own vehicles with no company logos, I decided to call a 3rd company at my expense. I paid $100 out of pocket to Parker Heating and Air, a very reputable company with a website and reviews. That technician explained that our TXV valve was not functioning properly, causing a split of 10 rather than 20, and not allowing the system to supply an adequate amount of coolant to cool. This fix = $1,200. Guess what CHW said when I approached them about covering it.....NO. No, because it was not one of their contractors that diagnosed the problem.