Home warranty company sent convicted felon to another client’s home as trusted contractor

Chris Horne
·2 min read

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Another local family recognized Amanda Deese from WAVY’s coverage as the plumbing contractor dispatched by Select Home Warranty to their home.

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Deese, 49, was convicted in 2012 in federal court of embezzlement, and then charged last month with conspiracy to commit murder.

A Chesapeake couple recognized her from that story as the plumbing contractor sent to their home by Select Home Warranty about a year ago. Tuesday afternoon a Norfolk couple, Donald and Faith Sullivan, said Deese came to their home at about the same time, also through Select Home Warranty.

Donald Sullivan said he paid Deese the $75 deductible and then “she never came back.”

Sullivan recognized our previous coverage of Rob and Kelly Rogers of Chesapeake. They got a $6,500 judgment against Deese after Select sent her to their home, did minimal work and disappeared.

“I was so stunned when I watched you on television and you mentioned about Amanda Deese and the contract with these other people,” Sullivan said. “And I said to myself that was the woman who was here.”

Sullivan then called Select to send out another contractor. That plumber demanded $267 for materials up front, which didn’t sound right to Sullivan.

“(He said) ‘you’ll have to pay me in advance.’ Why do I have to pay you in advance? That’s not the terms of the contract.”

And Select Home Warranty told him to go ahead and pay the $267 up front.

“So my wife wrote him a check upfront and we never saw him again.”

Sullivan says Select had now sent two contractors – one a convicted embezzler who did federal time, the other who made off with their money.

“As far as Select Group, I don’t think that they are very thorough in vetting their contractors,” Sullivan said.

Select Home Warranty gets poor reviews in Virginia from the Better Business Bureau – averaging just one and a half stars out of five. But nationally, US News and World Report ranks Select among the top five in the country.

We reached out to Select as we have in the past and they have yet to respond at all.

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