Warranty woes

[drcarrera]

Booked my car in in early-August for some work, but was only able to take it in a couple of weeks ago due to lack of loan cars at the dealer.

Now, the warranty company (I have the Audi branded extended warranty) are refusing to pay as I've exceeded the 15000 mile limit on the policy!

Two things -
when I first reported the fault it was well within the 15000 miles even by their calculations
the starting mileage they're using is from when I purchased the warranty at the last service, but the warrenty didn't start until several weeks later, so how can they know what the milage was at the policy start?

Fortunately I have a photograph taken back in August of the dash with warning lights, which also shows the date and mileage, so I'm hopeful they'll honour it eventually, but so far it's taken the dealer two weeks of hassling them and they still haven't agreed!

The dealer's been excellent to be fair and I've got a resonable loan car, but to be without the car for three weeks (so far!) largely down the the warranty company playing silly buggers seems appalling.

If I was toying with the idea of extending it for another year, my minds now been made up!


Anyone else had similar warranty issues? It's hardly what you expect for a four-figure sum ...

[Nib]

How depressing.

At the end of the day (how I hate that term), a waranty is just an insurance policy and the insurer is governed by the same set of rules as any UK insurance company. Therefore you need to get their full attention and the best way of doing that is to use terms that their regulator and ultimately the FSA takes extra special notice of.

To start with you need to ask for a copy of their Complaints Procedure, as "you do not believe that you have been treated fairly". TCF (Treating Customers Fairly) is currently a Big Thing within the insurance industry and the FSA take it very seriously. If that does not have the desired effect, make a written complaint following the Complaints Procedure, and keep copies of everything. The next stage would be the Insurance Ombudsman, but I seriously doubt that you'd need to go that far.

The number of formal complaints that insurance companies receive have to be reported to the FSA and they don't like doing it.

Good luck!

[HYFR]

I experienced similar woes with the mondial warranty ... Not regarding miles, but just them faffing before approving a claim

For twice the price of Warranty Direct and the fact they are Audi branded and therefore reflect upon the brand, its seriously PISS poor

[scottie1979]

I have had issues with them not approving a claim on covered parts because the dealer could not 'guarantee' it would fix the issue. Apparently they had issues with this particular dealer - the only one who suffered was me, their customer. So i went elsewhere.

[Golfather]

Yep Mondial warranty (Audi approved) have started to kick back on claims big time by using the usual wear and tear get out clause or anything else they can find.

Again, it all comes down to your dealer and how good they are at playing ball on your behalf.
Not sure what your problem is in this case but if you can prove the issue would fail an MOT that will further strengthen your case.
And always get Audi CS involved at the very start so they can back up your claims.

[drcarrera]

It's engine problems (MAF sensor, throttle - see http://www.rs246.com/index.php?name=PNp ... ic&t=86051 ) so not MOT related, but definitely should be covered by the warranty. Dealer is doing all it can, but apparently for every bit of information they provide it takes the warranty company two or three days to respond! I've got one of their demonstrators at the moment which should be on the forecourt now, so it's causing them problems as well!
For an Audi branded product it's very poor service ...

[scaghead]

for the doe you are paying that is very poor service....keep on at them fella you have nothing to lose now

[drcarrera]

Good news! They've finally conceded the issue occurred within the mileage limit - I think the photo swayed it, which was a bit of luck.
So hopefully I'll get my car back next week. Although it's probably caused the dealer more inconvenience and expense than me.!

[mark758]

Part of the reason I didn't pay the 1600 for the Audi warranty and went elsewhere is because one of the after sales folks at a dealership had started using phrases like 'oh, its nearly out of manufacturer warranty sir ' and 'it is a 2007 car sir' with an expression like there was a bad smell in the room

Possibly used audis are just an unfortunate but necessary evil in Audi UK world