My HVAC went Kaput

Our HVAC died and Cinch Home Services left us high and dry. But up until that moment when we really needed them to hold up their end, they were great.

My wife and I bought our lovely home a couple of years ago. We loved our home but we did not love all the maintenance that goes with a homeownership. Fortunately our home came with a home warranty from the previous homeowners and we were grateful. At that time the company was called Homesure of Virginia but was recently rebranded late last year to Cinch Home Services.

One of the primary revenue drivers for home warranty companies are New Homeowners Plans. After a new homeowner buys a new home they typically do not want to pay for repair or replacement costs of home appliances. Neither do they typically have the know-how or expertise to complete repairs throughout a new home. Therefore, home warranties fulfill an important and valuable need. I know in the case of my wife and myself we did not know a lot about the various appliances and equipment throughout the house so we were grateful for our home warranty.

My wife and I are both working professionals with children so we were not highly invested in learning more about our home appliances. We were grateful for the ability to just pick up the phone and call someone. And with Cinch Home Services, that’s exactly what we did. For two years, we never had any issues or concerns. We would pick up the phone when we had an electrical or plumbing issue, or whatever the problem was and within a few days, we would have a qualified service technician show up and solve the problem.

To be fair, some technicians were better than others. It became a habit of mine to sortof babysit the technicians. Not solely because there was a stranger in my home, but also because I wanted to ensure they did not cause additional damage to the appliance they were working on. I remember clearly in one instance, a technician spent almost the entire service call asking me my opinion on the job. At first, I thought it was just a joke, or a way to establish better customer service. But the technician definitely wanted my second opinion on everything throughout the entire job and I had no idea what was involved with the work. But we worked through it together and ultimately I was satisfied with completion of the job. In another instance a plumber tested the durability of my kitchen sink pieces by banging them hard enough on the granite countertop to create dings.

So, for two years there were no issues with Cinch. We paid our monthly fees and when it came time for a renewal, Cinch called us up and encouraged us to renew. We paid a little under $700/year for peace of mind. When it was time to renew Cinch sold us on an HVAC breakdown as a worst case scenario in which they covered 100%. They said we needed to have peace of mind when it came to our HVAC, which is a big ticket item when it comes time to repair. So, we did not think twice. We renewed our warranty.

This past winter was pretty rough for us. Our HVAC started making rattling noises and then started to produce a burning smell. So, we called our trusty home warranty company. They sent out a provider who tightened up a few screws and encouraged us to keep up our regular maintenance with our local HVAC provider. We then immediately contacted our local HVAC service provider who came out 3 weeks after Cinch’s provider and pretty plainly told us our HVAC was on the brink of failure and they were surprised it had not failed yet. What was surprising in this exchange was the fact that:

1) The service technician from Cinch never told us that.

2) Our local provider knew immediately we were in bad trouble.

So, we had our HVAC fixed. It was either that or get hypothermia and pneumonia during the winter months from a broken HVAC. It was an expense that we did not foresee, especially at the start of COVID-19 but we were not worried. Cinch Home Services had sold us on their plan specifically in case our HVAC failed. So we were good, right? Right?!

Right…