1. Middletown couple: Larry and Teresa Tufts never missed a monthly payment on their home warranty. But when their furnace broke down in December, getting the company to fix it became “nothing but a headache,” Larry Tufts said.
2. Not alone: Bryn found similar stories from other area residents. A Dayton man reported that his HVAC system shut down in December 2024 and still wasn’t fixed by the end of March 2025. A Fairborn man said after months of filing claims, his boiler wasn’t fixed.
3. Home warranty: These area residents were all using American Home Shield. Our investigation found AHS has been the subject of 116 complaints to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office consumer complaints division since the beginning of 2024.
- The Better Business Bureau has tracked more than 16,000 complaints against AHS over the last three years nationwide, we found.
4. Consumer advocate: AHS is the nation’s largest home warranty company, according to consumer advocate Clark Howard, but it’s not unique in customer frustration. He said home warranty companies often face complaints.
- “It sounds so wonderful,” he said in a 2025 post on his blog, Clark.com. “You pay five or six hundred bucks, and supposedly you are buying peace of mind for repairs and replacement of appliances and major mechanical in the house. But when something goes wrong, the warranty company is like, ‘Who are you? You want us to do what?’”
5. Oversight: Home warranty companies aren’t regulated by the Ohio Department of Insurance, and the Ohio AG’s office won’t comment on whether they are taking action against any company. Neither AHS nor the local contractor sent to work on the Tufts’ furnace responded to request for comment.
Full story: Go here for the full story, including what happened with the Tufts, a breakdown of the types of complaints against AHS and more comment from Clark Howard.
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