authorization specialist

supervisor

customer service representative

police dispatcher

internet sales

American Home Shield

My terrible time at american home shield did not start out terrible at all actually, training was 4 weeks long and we had a reputable trainer (phoenix back in october) however even with the best trainer we still did not learn as much as we should have. At first we were working at the office where we could expect to get maybe a call every 10 or so minutes which was nice as you get some time to mingle with coworkers which by the way the atmosphere was lively and somewhat chill. The calls were smooth and problems could easily be handled as techs would be (now used to be) held accountable for any wrong doing as well as being reachable.  NOW lets skip to the part where covid happened this company handled it terribly there is NO COVID POLICY AND STILL ISN'T ONE to start, and you can ONLY take a day off if you have the pto to do so even if you got a day approved by a manager if you did not have the pto for it you will get a point for an approved day off. You also only get four sick days and they have a year before they drop off your attendance. 

They monitor you heavily and are always about their metrics however no one is meeting the metrics because NO ONE IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR JOBS. For example every single agent tells a homeowner they will call them back and follow up on a job that has not even been completed since january. You cry every single day because everybody you talk to is angry now there is not one person that is happy they are all angry. 

Heres just an example of one of the amazing calls I HAD. 
A homeowner called in from phoenix in the summer where they are located it is currently 115 degrees plus and their ac has been out for a WEEK. Tech was out for an expedited order and he did go out there in a timely manner HOWEVER our rules is tech has 48 hours to turn in the diagnosis and he still has not and he also has not been answering calls according to the short terrible notes the outsource and insource agents left behind. The homeowners were both in their 70s and they also have a senior animal who was dying literally because of the heat however because we do not have the diagnosis there is nothing anyone can do. I tell homeowner that there is no diagnosis still (per notes everyone has mentioned calling homeowners back after emailing contractor relations which is SUPPOSED TO HOLD THE TECHS ACCOUNTABLE BUT DO NOT DO THEIR JOBS). The homeowners are upset asks if there is anything I can do I have exhausted all options at this point I called the tech emailed contractor relations just because it seems they did not get the other 7 emails about these claims , I talk to my supervisor (which now because of work from home you have to ask permission for ANYTHING now which causes long calls (which they literally then yell at you for it) She says we can only offer them a one night hotel stay I make them aware but sadly the hotels in their area do not accomodate pets the homeowners already searched so I had to give them the same old speech as the last guy did and hear the homeowners just go from somewhat hopeful to sad and stressed just ruined it for me.

So with that being said in conclusion,
This is literally what your job will consist of in customer service. Being helpless, Unsupported, Stressed,Tired,Depressed,Always being yelled at, Having a list of 20 people you always have to find a way to call back if you even can, cry and have panic attacks, Finally Never meeting your metrics because of manager incompetence and literally being blamed for it.
And ya that about sums it up thank you for coming to my ted talk.

AHS has the distinction of being the worst company I have ever worked for.  Whenever I see their advertisement for employment -- and they have such a high turnover rate that they advertise frequently -- I want to sound the warning to all job seekers, "Don't apply!  You'll regret it!"  

AHS's training is mediocre at best, the company's motto to "Honor God in All We Do" is a complete joke, and CSA's are not  appreciated for providing excellent customer service.  Your co-workers will tell you to stop listening to the customers" and to "stop caring" if you want to remain at AHS -- and they're right -- because you will spend your day being cussed out and yelled at by ANGRY homeowners who have had their fill of AHS's shoddy contractors and repeat service calls that still don't fix the problem.  If you're like me, you won't even have time to take your breaks because you care about the customers who are begging you for help.  On the other hand, if you're a cold, heartless person who doesn't care about others, this may be the job for you!  As one co-worker said to me, "This guy on the phone told me, 'Your customer service skills suck,' and I told him, 'Yea, well your attitude sucks!'"  This is your typical AHS Customer Service Associate's attitude.  They will lie to the homeowners in order to avoid confrontation and will get them off the phone as quickly as possible in order to keep their call volume high and their talk time low, i.e., they have learned how to "pass the buck."     

If you do decide to take the job, and you're a woman, try not to use the restroom, or you may be like me and find one stall with urine on the floor, a second stall with feces in the toilet, and a third stall with menstrual blood all over.  The woman who sat next to me at work admitted she never washed her hands after using the restroom, and she had a mouth to complement her personal hygiene.   With few exceptions, these are the types of people who stay on at AHS, so if you're that type too, you may fit in very nicely. 

However, if you're a person of quality and compassion, avoid this company like the plague because management does not care about employees or the irate homeowners who feel they've been scammed.  (I personally wouldn't accept an AHS home warranty if someone gifted me with one.)  If you don't believe me, READ THE CUSTOMER REVIEWS OF AHS ALL OVER THE INTERNET, THE MAJORITY OF WHICH ARE EXTREMELY NEGATIVE.

They work you to death. If it's busy and not enough people volunteer for overtime, they force you to do so. May weeks I was working 45-50 hours, which is great for the money, but when it's that busy, you have customers holding for HOURS at a time and they're ANGRY and chances are they're in the wrong department and need to be transferred, some customers refuse to let you do this, they cuss at you, degrade you, and you have to take it. They pile more on your plate, even if you're doing overtime, they will give you a new spreadsheet to complete each day, a new email form that must be done after certain calls, new tracking measures to keep up with, change your QA requirements, and still expect you to take call after call while maintaining 100% adherence to your schedule and no wrap-up time between calls. Occasional pizza parties for good work, but during other employees parties you'd be in queue suffering with massive hold times and angry customers. They bragged about chances for advancement, but myself and other coworkers applied for supervisor positions after being with the company for 10+ years, and someone who had been there for 2 years would get it who didn't even know how other departments functioned, management knows who they want to hire and seem to go by personality. Extremely hard to get a 8am-4:30pm day shift, those shifts typically go to a center in another state because that center opened 20 years before ours did so they had seniority. Constantly having to audit your own calls and sales because the company system wouldn't track it, you'd have to go back over every single call or chat, look up info, backtrack to find if the customer paid, create your own spreadsheet, and submit this info to admin to be paid... otherwise you wouldn't be paid for sales you made. All this tracking has to be done while keeping up with an impossible QA requirements, impossible adherence requirements, and keeping your sanity while being beaten up by the customers and a supervisor breathing down your back because management is breathing down theirs. If you need money, yes go for it. If you don't want the verbal abuse from customers and extremely high stress levels caused by being very overworked, I'd say avoid it. I made great friends there, but we all felt the same way, it was like bonding over trauma. 

Easily the worst and most stressful job I have ever had. They have you believe you will be working the basic office hours during the interview and hiring process, but neglect to tell you that there is mandatory overtime almost every single day. So forget 9 hour shifts, you'll be working 9-11 hour shifts daily. 

They claim to have a good work/life balance, but they are far from it. Not only do they not allow unpaid time off (meaning you cannot request time off without using PTO) but they also only offer 40 hours of PTO a year. Meaning you have literally 5 days you can take off for the entire year. Whether it's for a vacation, doctors appointment, or you contracted Covid-19, you are 100% expected to use your PTO. (Yes, I did get covid while working here, and yes, they required me to continue working the entire time because I didn't have enough PTO to cover time off.) 

It doesn't end there either. Yes, they'll allow you to work from home, but be prepared to be judged on more statistics than you ever have been before. At American Home Shield you're tracked for anywhere between 100-500 different stats each call, that they expect you to get basically perfect scores on. You are required to go over more information than what can fit on two pages during every single call, but are also expected not to take any longer than 10-15 minutes a call, as you must get at least 3 calls an hour (which you have no control over by the way, most callers will tell you 20 minute long stories that you're not allowed to interrupt them during, causing one call to take up almost the entire hour.) 

They do not care that most of the statistics tracked are uncontrollable, they simply blame you for it and tell you to do better. 

All the while being paid basic minimum wage. Definitely not worth it, find somewhere that won't turn your life into a never-ending, stress inducing mess. 

American Home Shield as an employer: The pay is excellent, but then again, that is probably why most of it's loyal employee's stick around. The job is very stressful. It's a call center that receives TONS of calls all day every day. There are some slow days in certain months, but for the most part you will stay pretty busy. You have to deal with so many irate customers, too. Remaining calm and professional isn't always easy when someone is screaming and cursing at you over the phone. I, personally, was screwed by Human Resources and ended up getting fired because of some issues with my FMLA. (Department of Labor investigated and determined I was not at fault so I did receive unemployment.) One good thing is you have set schedules, and you receive your schedule 2 weeks in advance, so you will always know when you are working. New employees do start out on later shifts, but you move up fairly quickly based on seniority when they have openings for earlier shifts. You do have to work SOME overtime and holidays, but when you do, the pay definitely makes it worth your while. I usually volunteered to work as much as I could. It's also pretty easy to advance in your department. There are different levels of associates. Overall, this is a good employer with excellent pay (starts out at $12 per hour) as long as you can deal with angry customers pretty regular. Just watch your back with Human Resources (the same thing that happened to me has happened to at least 4-5 other people that I know of).

The pay is better than any other job in the area including manufacturing plants, the company understands that even after training everything is still a learning experience virtually the only way you get fired is poor attendance (which they give 10 hours ATO for training and your first 90 days and after 30 days you accumulate sick time 4 hours the first of every month and after 4 months you accumulate personal and vacation hours) or to repeat the same mistake you had been corrected on multiple times after coaching on subject. Everyone is so nice and always extend a helping hand if you need assistance with a troublesome issue. There are a couple of associates that are rather rude when you try to transfer, but they are very far and few in between all the associates and supervisors that do help you.  My supervisor is great and I'm able to contact her directly with any issues I may not be able to resolve on my own. I'm moving to a different department right around my 90th day so the fact that I can quickly move within the company is the biggest reason I embrace this job with excitement.

American Home Shield is a home warranty company that has several departments (customer service, Authorizations, Purchasing, sales etc). A typical work day is 8 hours at varying shifts. They do offer  4x10 as well as 12 hour shifts with shift bids. Lunches are unpaid and you get breaks. The company has went through several changes and has a high turnover rate in every department including management. People sometimes quit in 2 weeks of being employed because it is very stressful every call is a problem call and supervisors prefer not to take the call unless you jump through several hoops. Although there are several departments you can move to, more than likely you will not unless you kiss butt. The people who come to work and do their job will get looked over and the people who kiss butt with the sups and managers move up. The sups huddle up and have pointless conversations while reps are stressed on the phone needing assistance. The company has hired an entire team from the Philippines which customers call in and are irate and request people who can speak English. The enjoyable part of the job is if you love helping people and solving problems  this would be a great fit for you they also have great benefits. Room for advancement is slim but overall  the company needs work.

Any claims environment has the tendency to be stressful but when homeowners have your cell phone number and can access you at all hours of the day, night, and weekend it takes someone with very strong boundaries to not always answer the phone.  This was not something I was great at.  I wanted to fix everyone's problems but by me answering my phone at all hours of the day and night I did eventually get burnt out.   I take full responsibility in that happening as others in my role were better at letting the calls go to voicemail.  I really loved so many of my co-workers, clients, and job responsibilities with AHS.  It was a fun time in my life but the constant phone calls from angry customers did eventually take a toll.  I chose to leave AHS for reasons I prefer not to share here.  However, in my time at AHS I would say overall I was very blessed to have an amazing team, manager, and clients.  I prefer to not let the negative experiences taint my overall experience as I gained so many great experiences and friendships due to this role.     

The paychecks are always wrong then they take it out of the next paycheck so you never know when your paycheck is going to be correct . For example leus day your paycheck is supposed to be $1000 but they pay you $2000 their going to give you that $2000 and take the $1000 off your next check . The problem is your next check may not be but $800 so you’re in a financial hole just from working at this job . 

The hours aren’t flexible at all you have to work a 2 to 11 for a year before it can be changed . 

You don’t get benefits until 6 months has passed 

They do pay weekly which is a pro , if your paycheck is correct


Sales expectations are not realistic 

Micromanagement is everywhere at this place and their constantly on your back about the smallest thing . 

Their is never parking so if you do decide to work their just know you need to arrive about an hour early to have time to walk to your desk .

Overall you can make some pretty good money their but you will have to put up with a lot of  stuff so beware . The starting pay is $10.50 and you don’t get your commission until after two months so live really really cheap

By the way you will be paid $4 per each sale you get until you get to like 1000 sales I believed .

They're always hiring because they can't keep anyone in the door. You're required to take a certain amount of calls each day and on majority of those calls, you're having to deal with extremely irate customers. Biggest issue with AHS is they hire the cheapest technicians they can find, who don't know what they are doing in these people's homes. So all day long, you're getting cursed out about AHS policies and technicians. Summer time there is AWFUL! At any given time, there can be anywhere from 500-2000 calls in queue. Meaning, customers are waiting 1-2 hours, on hold, to speak with someone. This time of year, a lot if people are having a/c issues but you're not allowed to expedite someone's work order until the temps are 105 or higher. Smh!! They have all kinds of shady business practices and you will be thoroughly cursed out about them. ALL DAY, EVERYDAY! Pay is decent, but what are willing to do for your money? They're robbing their customers... If you're good at, and enjoy finessing people, then this is perfect for you.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Authorization specialist 7 salaries reported	$15.67 per hour
Supervisor 3 salaries reported	$53,333 per year
Customer service representative 3 salaries reported	$14.33 per hour
Police dispatcher 1 salary reported	$27.00 per hour
Internet sales 1 salary reported	$60,000 per year

Working at American Home Shield: Company Overview and Reviews

American Home Shield

American Home Shield Ratings

Popular jobs at American Home Shield

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected