Edina Realty

Be Aware of their HSA Warranties - Otherwise, a very pleasant experience. If you're working with Edina, don't let them sell you on one of their home Warranties. Otherwise, the experience was a good one, but when a critical variable in the equation turns out to be toxic it infects the entire experience. The HSA Home-Warranty they provided is trash and was a MAJOR selling point for us. We were closing on our very first home and knew that there was a high potential for major fixes during the first year, and didn't have a ton of cash saved to address them (which Edina knew). We should've done the research on the company they provide their warranties through, but we were overwhelmed with everything and legitimately trusted that our realtor wouldn't sell us an awful 3rd party product. If we'd have simply googled HSA home warranties, we would've quickly discerned that what we were being provided through Edina was trash. We're seven months into living in the home, and have encountered the first major problem (the furnace needing replacing, in Minnesota, in January during -20'F). As I write this, I'm well into hour two of being on hold with the warranty folks. Here's what you can expect from the warranty experience that Edina provides through HSA (as of 02/2016 at least): First, I would like to acknowledge the few positives of our experience: (a) when you can actually get someone on the phone, they're usually professional and courteous (if sometimes clueless about what's going on with the claim). (b) Again, when you can actually get them on the phone, they're quick to provide you with a list of vendors to contact. Now for what's made working with them a nightmare: (1) without exception, every vendor we've worked with (or even contacted) has refused to call HSA from the site of the fix to discuss the problem. This is a 'policy' that HSA has, before they'll approve a fix - but on average, you spend over an hour on hold when you call HSA (that's from having tried to call them well over a dozen times). Vendors aren't willing to spend over an hour waiting on hold, to tell HSA that a broken, red-tagged furnace, needs to be replaced in Minnesota, in January, when the windchill is -20'F. I'm pretty sure that HSA has this 'policy', because they know it'll make it difficult for customers to get approval for claims (more on what I believe to be an established and systematic process for screwing clients later). (2) reluctance to approve fixes quickly - they just feel like they're trying to cut cost at the expense of their clients whenever faced with a situation where they're expected to make good on their promises. (3) Gross lack of available customer service - forget about the mediocrity of the service when you can actually access it. I'd have an easier time getting the President of the United States on the phone. (4) I sincerely believe that HSA has systems and processes in place, which make reaching them to file or follow-up on a verbally approved claim unbearably frustrating, with the hope that it'll minimize the number of claims they have to pay on. I honestly, sincerely, without doubt believe that their business model goes something like this: "Dangle a product that seems like a great value to customers; make it next to impossible for customers to actually contact us to realize the benefits of the product when they need it, minimizing the amount of service we have to provide to clients and losses on our end." They're intentionally giving you the run around in a systematic way so that you'll just give up and incur the costs that they're supposed to be responsible for. Even the pre-recorded message gets progressively more annoying. It's despicable, because they're supposed to be helping us protect our first home and they KNOW that most important home fixes are time sensitive...so the longer they keep us on hold, the more likely it is that we'll have to bite-the-bullet and, in doing so, save them money.
3 9 years ago (24-02-2016)