Never again extended warranty

[Beta Man]

Long story short.... I bought this piece of crap (old piece of crap at that) because my wife thought it was "comfy" and it was in our price range of vehicles we didn't have to finance (That was something we at least both agreed upon)

I got the "Manufacturers type extended warranty" the "Platinum" the "covers everything except oil changes/tires/fluids/wearables" Paid over $2k for the warranty, but knew that if anything went wrong, which given the piece of crap I bought, I thought very likely..... it would be really expensive to fix and I didn't want that.

Well... Check-engine light came on, and the warranty kicked in.... except they only pay "Up to a certain labor wage" and a certain amount for each type of part etc.....

Things that are getting replaced: Shift-column assembly (not properly engaging park, so key won't come out of ignition once out of every 50 times I stop the car or so)

A sensor under the steering column that is somehow tied into the stability control system.

Gas Cap (not tightening and this was actually the reason the Check-Engine light came on.... or so I'm told)


Those three things...... AFTER my super-duper warranty paid their portion, is only gonna cost me $1,083 (plus tax I'm assuming)

I just called them back to find out, and sure enough their labor-rate is $112/hr. so if they tell the warranty company "O.K. thing #1 is Replace Sensor, part cost @ $425 under steering column @ 4.6 hours" the warranty company apparently can say "O.K. we'll cover the part for $300, and 1.2 hours of labor"

I've read my whole frickin' warranty 7 times, and nowhere does it say they can pull this crap, but I wait on hold with the warranty company for an hour, then get the "We cover factory warranty type coverage" blah blah blah, and never once have I gotten anyone to tell me where it says they reserve the right to decide how much parts should cost, or how much labor should cost.

I understand "WHY" they do it, so the car dealership doesn't say "oh look, warranty.... this gas cap costs $500 and will take 8 hours labor to install" but seriously.... this is gouging at its finest.

[Blu-Benny]

sorry to hear that beta!!

[Beta Man]

My backup plan:

If they wash the car and clean it out during the service (which I believe they do) I'll claim that the stale cheerios in the back-seat from my kids have a $1,000 replacement value.....

[Blu-Benny]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

My backup plan:

If they wash the car and clean it out during the service (which I believe they do) I'll claim that the stale cheerios in the back-seat from my kids have a $1,000 replacement value.....

:locry:

do it w/a straight face and see what they say/do!!

[timhollerbach]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

My backup plan:

If they wash the car and clean it out during the service (which I believe they do) I'll claim that the stale cheerios in the back-seat from my kids have a $1,000 replacement value.....

hahaha......do it.....I bet they laugh at you......

Sorry to hear the problems, what type of "piece of junk" is it? I never buy the extended warranties...."knock on wood", I've NEVER had a problem on a car I can't fix myself......my old man is a "master mechanic" so if there is something I can't do, I take it to him.....yeah, I gotta pay parts, but if you're saying the warranty costs $2k, in the 17 years I've been driving, I haven't paid $500 for parts......so I figure I'm ahead......=)

We have this guy here in our area, that had one of those extended warranty scams going......was taking everyones money, and refusing to pay for their claims, saying thats not covered, or its only covered up to a certain amount.....kind of like what your hearing......well, he's in jail now, and all his assests are being sold off to pay his law suits, including his $48million dollar house that sold for $7.2 million......=) I wish I had $7 mil to spend on a house, I would have bought it.....Fidelis was the company name.

[Beta Man]

After more phone calls etc.... it comes down to what the "National flat rate" for repair times for each given part replacement cost should be, vs. what the dealership states they will charge. It appears that the "flat rate guide" says they should be able to replace these parts a heck of a lot faster than the dealership says it's going to charge. I'm kinda stuck.... they said to take it to another dealership, but I expect the results to be the same

It's a Cadillac SRX..... poorly made, fancy junk.....

[MaCruz]

Sorry Beta, but I thought this was another car of yours. Maybe your Jeep? Had know idea it would by your SRX.

I believe LeAnn had a similar issue with her Civic Hybrid warranty where there was an issue with the rear brakes causing the tires in the rear to wear out prematurely. Well her extended warranty didn't cover that so she ended up buying her 2011 Fit in cash and had that BS extended warranty switched over to her new Honda Fit.

[Beta Man]

No.... the jeep was awesome...

[Show spoiler]until you put 2 little kids and camping supplies in it

Well.... it's all getting fixed right now, and hopefully I get it back at the end of the day tomorrow.

[Hatter]

Always getting screwed. My favorite annoyance is the year warranty on replacement parts but only 100 days on labor. So if they screw up the labor part leading to early breakage, have to pay labor again. Even if they don't, it's still crap. Astro van replaced front window regulator with jobber. Damn thing had to be brought back several times to be adjusted. Then it failed outright a few weeks ago. Part in warranty but not labor. $80 just to take it out. Then they want to charge $150 labor a few days later to install a GM used piece which they did and the motor is pretty worn out. It struggles and shuts itself off if it overheats so you have to wait sometimes to bring the window back up or down.

Luckily, the shop forman said that's utter crap and waived the $150 labor fee for installing that crappy used gm regulator. Now it's pay the difference between the jobber and an authentic new gm part + only $60 labor which is pretty reasonable.

Keep fighting the good fight until they do the right thing.

[crxvtec]

I got an extended warranty on my 07 civic and went to get some things fixed a month ago. The E brake handle was broke ( the brake still worked though) and after an inspection, there was something else that needed to be fixed somewhere near the tire ( i forgot what it was) that was also covered under warranty. There is a 100 dollar deductible, I was never told of that and argued it. That did nothing. I did not have the 100 bucks so I did not get the work done. Here is the thing, if I did the e brake replacement and the other repair separate, it would be 100 each time. If I brought the car in and had both repairs( plus anything else that may come up) it would only be a one time charge of 100. I told them I would bring it back when more things broke on it. Sorry to hear about your situation Beta, you would think a cadilac would get you better service.

[My_Two_Cents]

I REALLY hate to say I warned you, but I believe I did! You should have bought a Pilot or MDX as we recommended back in that old thread.

Okay, that being said, I'm sorry to hear about this, John. I figured that even though you bought a POS GM product, at least you had an ER to cover you. I suppose hindsight would tell you that there has to be some sort of "gotcha" written into those things to cover the warranty company's behind should they actually have to pay for something, and it sounds like there is. If there is not language in the ER defining what they will/will not cover in terms of costs (both labor and parts), than you "may" have some legal recourse against them. I know that doesn't help you at the moment, but if you know a lawyer, I'd bounce it off of him/her.

[Beta Man]

I was expecting the "Told you so" from you days ago.... you let me down!

Yeah, "reasonable" repair costs based on National Average....... found it in small print on the 4th page.....

What happens, is the warranty company looks up some database (they use two, and select the cheaper option... they actually admitted this part to me) and if it says "Sensor replacement = 1.4 hrs. " and the dealership tries to bill more (3.6 hours in this case) then they only cover the first 1.4 hours.... so the rest (at $112/hr labor rate) is out of my pocket.

Warranty company says the dealership is screwing me...... Dealership says the warranty company is notorious for trying not to pay a penny.

In actuality, it's probably a combination of those things.

They have a whole separate database for parts too..... I can only hope my engine doesn't blow up, as the disparity in part costs would probably be tremendous.

That's the other thing.... the warranty company uses whatever database they have to say "This part, manufactured by GM, should cost $800" yet GM charges $1,200 for that part...... so I don't know how some database can set prices when we're talking about OEM parts, and not aftermarket stuff.... but alas.... they do.

It's all fixed, running like a champ, and the plan is to baby it, not run up the miles, and get the Honda Pilot we wanted all along

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

I was expecting the "Told you so" from you days ago.... you let me down!

Sorry, I completely missed this thread until now or I would have!

Glad everything is fixed, but you shouldn't have had to pay anything OOP. I'll add this as reason #234 why one should never buy an extended warranty unless you get it for cheap. So, if you add the initial cost of the warranty to what you just paid OOP, does it equal more or less than the total (before warranty) cost of the repairs? If it's less, then I suppose you could tell yourself that you came out ahead. I know that wouldn't really help much, but it's better than nothing, right?

[Hatter]

Yeah GM sucks. As an update to my story, GM modified the regulator over the years so you have to buy a small $177 nylon adapter to plug it in to an older model. A tiny nylon adapter for $177? Talk about fleecing.

[Navster]

Originally Posted by Hatter

Yeah GM sucks. As an update to my story, GM modified the regulator over the years so you have to buy a small $177 nylon adapter to plug it in to an older model. A tiny nylon adapter for $177? Talk about fleecing.

When purchased my 2001 Silverado back in 2002 i bought the the extended warranty for $2,400, and it covered me upto 6 years or 100K miles.. Really worked out for me, becuase my abs break sensors short circuited & semi fried my computer board, a repair that could of cost me $1400, was covered 100%, also my gas gauge went down on me too, where it would always be on empty , GM charged $800 just for the part alone, and another $400 for the labor, which lucky for me was covered 100% as well under the extended warranty .. So purchasing that warranty really worked out for me

Now onto Beta's dimelma, every car make has its "clauses" with the extended warranty on things it will cover and wont cover, for example I work for a Mercedes & Porsche dealershp, if you purchase the gold or platinum extended warranty for upwards to $4-$5k, it wont cover the CD player for some reason, which is stupid as shit imo, its part of the cars electronics, how is that not covered??? but we do disclose that to our customer's and have them sign a disclosure to cover our asses... Sorry about your situation