Choice Home Warranty review: Refrigerator replacement

In July 2023, after many problems with our refrigerator ice maker leaking and damaging our wooden floors (floors turned black from the leak), the ice maker part was no longer available and the refrigerator needed to be replaced. The policy provided for non-depreciated replacement cost, which was over $3500, but CHW's allowance was less than $1000! After many exchanges of comments about our claim, including having an attorney send a letter on our behalf, I discovered buried deep in the contract there was a $1500 limit per claim.

I then started asking for the reimbursement to be increased to the $1500 limit, but the best I could get was for an allowance from Lowe's for $1199. In the meantime, I was continuing to pay CHW $195/month since the attorney said I should keep the contract in force until it was settled. Finally, in March 2024 I received an e-mail from Lowe's providing for the $1199 funds being made available. So for 8 months I continued to pay CHW another $1560 so I could settle my claim for $1199. This doesn't include previously made payments to CHW so I could file the claim when the problem required buying another $3500 refrigerator to "replace" the broken icemaker.

As I write this negative review of CHW's handling of our legitimate claim, I increasingly become aware of how ludicrous it seems. And none of this includes the time it has taken me to pursue a resolution, or of the hardship it has brought my wife and me. The only reason I bought a home warranty in the first place was to avoid the issues and expense of a unexpected failure of some of the home ownership issues, just as most "insuring" products do across a larger group of people. In this case, it's just caused more headaches, time, and cost than self-insuring. It almost seems to me, the resolution taking so long just provided CHW with additional revenue to cover their cost.