Extended Warranty

[41racing]

Nes881, My favorite part about the warranty company's is when they say that they will pay a reasonable cost for the part. Just for an example, the several Cadillac torque converters that I've replaced. Most of the customers had an extended warranty. The problem comes in when they won't pay the full price for the converter. It's only available from gm and it costs like $450, but the warranty will only pay a reasonable cost which they say is like $300. Now the part is only available from gm and that is what it costs, told the company to call and find out for themselves. They say too bad this is what we will pay. Now who pays for the other 150? I can tell you it aint gonna be me and now the customer is mad cause his $2000 isn't gonna pay for the job. Oh yeah, I haven't seen one yet that uses the factory labor guide, all the warranty company's times are short from the factory. Forces the shops to up their labor rates for warranty claims. Don't kid yourself tons of shops do it.

Now if people would just put the money that they were going to spend on the warranty in a savings account, 99 times out of 100 they would be money ahead. Most people won't have as much repair bills as what they spent on their warranty.

I also like the company's that sell the high dollar policies and then when it comes time to make a claim you find out that they closed up shop.

The latest rip off I've ran into was a guy being denied a bearing falure in the rear end because his fuel filter, air filter and cabin air filter weren't changed at the specified 30k mile interval. This was on a f-150. Also had one that wouldn't pay a water pump job because the guy was 1000 miles overdue for an oil change. In the end the water pump job was paid for after we found out that the quick lube place had wrote down the wrong mileage, but we had to fight with them about that.

As for reading the policy, you almost need a lawyer to understand most of them. Covered parts are not covered if a non covered part fails causes the covered part to fail, and so on. They make them tough to understand and misleading on purpose to swindle people out of their money. The salesman that sell them are no better scaring people into buying them with statements like a starter costs $1000. Heard that one many times.

I guess you might say that I'm totally against these warranty's.

 

[Nes881]

41racing, looks like you have bad experience with warranty companies. Like I said before I'm just giving you info on the way my company works. We pay parts at the MSRP, sure sometimes we use reman parts to save money compared to using OEM parts but they are just as good if not better than OEM parts. Remember that what has failed on customer cars are original equipment parts so why wont a reman be just as good when they are rebuilt to fix the problems that O.E. is having?
As far as Factory labor times they pay far less than Motors, Alldata, Mitchell and Chilton you should know that if your a tech. The guides typically pay 40-50% over factory times.

Sure there are times customers buy the agreements and never use them and thats how high risk companies make there money. But when these warranties are used for the most part they pay for themselves if not triple what they paid for the agreement. Im sure a lot of the people here in the forums dont have 5-10k put away in case there vehicle breaks. And let me tell you 4l60e transmissions are pretty expensive to fix you should know.

Claims are denied when there is obvious abuse, modifications and lack of maintenance that resulted in the failure. If your getting companies that are denying claims for maintenance that was not performed for a non related failure then that is stupid. If your trying to file a claim on an engine that blew up because of lack of maintenance or because of the big turbo you decided to put on, of course its going to be denied. GM, Ford Chrysler and the import companies would do the same for repairs that are covered under the manufacture warranty!

Our agreements are in plain English and doesnt take a college degree to read. Like I said before A LOT of the people that buy and sign these contracts (like any other contract) never read the "fine" print. And for that I blame the customers as well as the dealers that sell them. I'm not saying there aren't shady companies but for the most part the biggest 3 aftermarket warranty companies that's out there are really good at standing behind there contracts. And there are many more shady shops, service writers and techs that try to con the warranty companies with either bogus claims/failures or just jacking up prices on the repairs and to prevent that independent inspectors are send out.
DON'T KID YOURSELF TONS OF SHOPS DO IT.

I was a Ford tech for a few years and yes I had my fair share of problems with not only aftermarket but manufacture warranties as well. I have purchased several agreements with the majority of the vehicles that I have owned and let me tell you they work, and they all paid for themselves 2 times over with my Chevy and Ford vehicles that I have. I recommend them to friends and family. If buying American is what were are told to do, let me tell you getting a warranty from a reputable company will come in handy because our Chevys, Fords and Chrysler vehicles do break and they break hard and expensive. :yesnod:

 

[2001Yuke]

I just bought my Tahoe today. Its a 2005 with 40,000 miles. It is a GM Certified pre owned vehicle, so i got a free 100k Warranty from GM

Not EXACTLY free, you paid for it for sure.

 

[2001Yuke]

Advice for everyone, DO NOT buy an aftermarket extended warranty if you plan to replace ANYTHING on the vehicle: wheels, tires, lightbulbs, stereo, etc. If you plan to modify ANY portion of your truck don't bother with a warranty. They will deny ANY powertrain claim because you put an intake or muffler or wheels or tires on your truck. They will deny anything electrical like power window motors because of stereo equipment or DVD screen. Seriously take "41racing"s advice, put the money in a savings account. If you were going to pay $2000 for a warranty, take the money and stick it in a savings account. They already have your money and the fight when they won't cover anything is no fun. It WILL be pro-rated (miles or time) so if you buy a 2year 24k mile warranty and your transmission goes out after 1 year you lose half of that money, and they aren't going to cover it (policies, procedures, agreement, blah blah).

 

[2001Yuke]

P.S Dodge would cancel your warranty if you use Mopar parts HAHA

 

[41racing]

We pretty much stopped dealing with extended warranty now. I guess people don't have the cash to drop on these warranty anymore. We also now make the customer pay the bill in full and have the company reinburse the customer, so we don't get burned by the ones that have closed up shop.