Service Net refuses to honor my Tweeter warranty because I cannot find the original purchase receipt, even though I have the original complete Service Contract. I purchased a Pioneer plasma TV (50 inch PRO1130HD) from Tweeter in August of along with several other home theater components. The total purchase price, including the 5 year extended warranty and installation, was over $17,000.
The TV stopped working, and the parts needed to do the repair are not available. Pioneer withdrew from the plasma TV market, so this TV is no longer in production, and there is no successor product, and no equivalent product available from any other manufacturer. The representative at Service Net who has been processing my claim agrees that a repair cannot be done, and a replacement product with equivalent specifications cannot be made because there are no such products available on the market. The Service Contract states as follows: In all cases where a replacement product cannot be made, You will receive reimbursement for the original purchase price, excluding sales tax.
I cannot find the original purchase receipt, and the Tweeter salesperson who completed the warranty paperwork did not specify the purchase price for each particular component on the Service Contract. The "contract price" in the Service Contract is listed as "$1,421.19" for each of the several components listed, including the TV, rather than detailing the particular price for each component. The $1,421.19 "contract price" represents 10% of the $14,219.00 purchase price for all of the covered components, excluding installation fees and sales tax. The warranty cost me 10% of this purchase price, so the Service Contract itself shows that the total purchase price for the covered components is $14,219.00.
Under the terms of the warranty, Service Net is supposed to pay me the original purchase price of the TV, but there is no record of anything other than the total purchase price for all of the covered components. The Service Net representative who has been processing my claim initially told me that they would take an average of retail prices shown in ads available on the Internet from the time of the purchase, but then changed that position and now says they will not pay the claim at all because I cannot find the original purchase receipt.
Service Net is taking the position that the Service Contract "only verifies proof of coverage" but does not serve as the "proof of purchase" that they require in order to pay a claim. Records available on the Internet show that the retail price of the TV at the time of the purchase was $6,500. I have offered to resolve the claim for that amount, but Service Net has rejected this offer and refuses to pay any amount.
I have concluded my attempts to convince Service Net to honor the warranty, and am now making a claim directly against the Insurer (State National Insurance Company) according to a procedure referenced in the Service Contract.
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