I bought the estate coverage, mainly because I wanted protection on the used car a had bought. Don't get me wrong the car I bought is great, but it is used. I paid $1000.00 for the warranty. I figured $1000.00 isn't bad considering some repairs exceed that amount by quite a bit.
The first time I tried to file a claim with AUL, it was for a strut. The strut was malfunctioning and causing my right wheel to hop on acceleration. I had to fight tooth and nail to get AUL to pay for just the one strut, and then they wouldn't pay for the fine tuning and adjustment. I ended up paying $100 for the deductible and almost $300 for the fine tuning and alignment. AUL claimed that they could only pay for the part and labor (to install the part).
The second time I filed a claim was for a window motor. This time it wasn't so difficult. I am thinking it wasn't difficult, because it was a cheap fix. The deductible would have almost covered the cost of the fix.
The third time and the reason I am writing this is my transmission started to act up. Basically, I couldn't shift from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd without some kind of grinding and resistance. So, I immedately took my car to AAMCO to have it checked out. AAMCO diagnosed it as a transmission problem and that some parts in the transmission need to be replaced. I gave AAMCO the warranty paperwork so they could open the claim. A day went by and an inspector paid a visit to AAMCO. The inspector saw no parts broken and said it was normal wear and tear and the claim was denied.
Just out of curiosity, how can a wore out part be a result of only 20,000 miles of driving. On top of that, the care was not abused, the clutch has 15 to 20,000 miles left on it and there is not even a hint of it being burnt. It may be worn, but it's not normal wear. The inspector stated that there was no mechanical breakdown. If there isn't any mechanical breakdown, then how come I can't shift properly?
I called the AUL customer service line to plead my case, but I got nowhere. Every time I made a point, such as "if the transmission isn't working right, it's broken", the customer service rep. (more like dis-service rep.) stated "you are wrong sir." What ever happened to the customer's always right? I guess the customer's always wrong with AUL.
Since my car is my only mode of transportation, I had no choice but to have it fixed. The repairs are well North of $3000.00. I can't really afford to fork over that kind of cash, but if I want my car fixed I had to fork it over. I kind of feel like I got forked.
AUL along with a lot of other aftermarket warranty companies give the regular Joe like me and you a false sense of security. After this experience, I don't recommend using AUL. AUL is just out there to seperate you from your hard earned cash.
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