My case is about a used truck I bought 5 months ago.
On September 8, I bought a Ford F-150 pick-up truck. The owner of the dealership (Hughes Motorcars VA) told me, he couldn't give me a lower price on it, because he recently spent $1800.00 on its transmission change. I said fine, I just needed the receipt for it, just in case, something would happen to it. He wasn't able to find the receipt so he offered me an extended warranty (Premium 2000 Plus) for a low price, that will cover my truck for 5 years/100.000 miles.
5 months later, on January 30, my truck broke down, I couldn't put it in any gear. It was towed to the closest Ford dealership (Ourisman Ford Bethesda MD) where they told me, the transmission needed to be replaced. I immediately contacted the warranty company and they told me that I needed to fax them all the proof of the oil changes and that I added the treatment fluids they sent me. I did that as soon as I got home and I left a message for Kathy at Premium that I did so.
I was waiting for their phone call on Monday, but they never contacted me, so I tried to call them and I couldn't reach anyone at the company all day. The next day, when I could finally reach them, they told me, their phone lines were not working all day Monday. So I sent the faxes again and I had to call them to make sure, they got everything. Kathy looked at the papers and told me, it was approved, everything looked fine, they just needed to send somebody to make a report about the transmission. Of course every time, I was told they were going to keep me updated, but I never was contacted.
After another number of calls to them and Ourisman Ford, 3 weeks later I had to find out (again I had to call them to find it out) that they were not going to pay for it. Their reason was that the problem already existed in the transmission when I bought the truck and the warranty. On their contract, it says, they don't cover any problems if it happens in the first 90 days. This happened 5 months after I bought the truck with the warranty.
Then, of course I talked to several people at that company but they refused to pay for it or give me any help or advise. They told me to go back where I bought the truck.
I contacted the Hughes Dealership about this problem and the Manager -Mr. Basil - offered his help, he contacted the warranty people and even faxed the receipt of the transmission change he had done on the truck. They refused to pay for it anyway.
My truck has been sitting there for 4 weeks. I wasted this whole time, I wasted all the money on the warranty and nobody seems to be responsible. I bought a truck with an alleged new transmission (which wasnt new according to the mechanic at Ourisman Ford, but he also said, that you cant tell about this problem if it was in the transmission 5 months ago or not).
I even bought a warranty plan just to be on the safe side and I ended up paying $ 3.529.80 for the new transmission and labor, I paid $579.00 for the warranty and $175.00 for towing. A total of $ 4.283.80. Not to mention they put me out of work for a month.
While the whole process was going on, the only person, who was trying to find a solution was Mr. Basil, who called the warranty company and tried to argue with them about the way they handled this situation.
Finally, he offered me to replace the transmission to a refurbished one and give me a 6-month-warranty on it or give me $1000.00.
By this time, I was stuck with a $440 (!) bill anyway, which was for the removal of the old transmission for the warranty company's request to make the report about it!
To get my truck back as soon as possible, so finally I could start working again, I chose the get the $1000.00 from Hughes Motorcars and get it fixed at the Ford Dealership where they give me 3 years warranty on the new transmission.
After all this I went to see a lawyer about this situation, she read all the small letter parts on the contract, Then she called Premium 2000 where they both found out, that they have written every possible cause for these parts to brake down and at the and they added or preexisting condition are not covered item.
So, what good is this warranty good for? For nothing!
Of course, I don't even have to say, I can not cancel my warranty and get my money back either Don't let these people to sell their bulls*t warranty to more consumers! It only cost you and give a $440 bill on top of everything and a lot of headache!
Zoltan
Alexandria, Virginia
U.S.A.
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