I have two cars, a 2004 4-Runner wiht 125K miles (I love it) and a 2006 Lexus IS350 with 102K miles (I like it but it is the LEAST reliable car that I have ever owned including a Rambler American!) I had the 5 year 100K mile extended warranty on each of them and I broke even on the Toyota and did very well on the Lexus. Now I am interested in an additional 3 years of warranty form Consumer Direct Warranty Services. Does anyone have any thoughts or experience or both? Any other options?
I can only make one comment. Have you seen those very nice large buildings that house insurance companies? Have you seen all the people that work there? All those cost have to be paid be someone. That someone is you. So far it appears you have beat the odds. But remember they beat the odds most of the time.
They know the odds better than your do. If you are buying a car that has less than average reliability and cost more to keep on the road, they are going to know it before you do. They are going to charge you enough to cover all the average cost then add in their overhead and profit.
Just one question: Will they pay? Some people ask whether they will be in business next year. If you are buying protection for two cars, just keep the money in the bank and use it for future repairs.
Here is the skinny with aftermarket(non car maker branded) warranties. Many garages will waste lots of time trying to:
- Get thru to preapprove repair
- Have trouble approving repair or cost thereof
- Use 2nd rate parts in cases where mechanic knows to use OEM in special cases.
My brother and his mechanic(AAA approved shop) have a terrible time with his aftermarket warranty sold thru AAA. Oddly and luckily he has one used once and felt terrible for his mechanic trying to wring $400-$100(deductible) for a relay repair on his Saab 95.
Joseph Meehan worded it perfectly. The extended warranty is really a gambling policy where they set the odds in their favor. You apparently beat them once. But be careful about trying to use that as a reason you’ll beat them again.
They wouldn’t stay in business if you consistently came out ahead. When lots of their customers do come out ahead, they just go bankrupt and open up in another name.
Only buy it if it helps you to sleep at night - not as any way of trying to save money.
I just got done dealing with this company for a customer of mine…I own a repair facility. The customer’s vehicle is unsafe to drive due to worn out u-joints. I faxed all of the the info requested to the company and the claim was denied, because the U-Joints are not broken…in speaking with them, I informed them what damaged could happen if the U-joints did happen to break, and they were unconcerned, as they only warrenty “Broken” parts…although when I stated that if the U-Joints did break while the car was being driven it could cause substantial damage…they again were unconcerned because they only would cover the U-Joints. Having dealt with numerous “warrenty” companies over the years…my advice is to first and foremost, ALWAYS get a pre-buyers inspection done on ANY used car you are buying, and secondly if you feel the need to purchase one of these policies REALLY know what you are getting, by reading the WHOLE policy, better yet have an attorney look it over for you…there are some decent ones out there, but they are FEW and FAR between.
Remember the posts from "Dominic"a few days ago? He said he had $7000.00 in extended warranty work done on his 2002 Monte,got his money’s worth,wonder what the Dealer thought of his “complaints”?
These are nothing but very very very expensive insurance policies. You really should never buy one.
You have almost the same vehicles my wife and I do…I have an 05 4runner with 105k miles…Wife has a ES350 with 36k miles…Both have been extremely reliable. Sorry to hear about the problems with your Lexus. Hopefully it’s NOT common on other Lexus’s. But I still wouldn’t buy an extended warranty.
The Problem With The Extended Warranty Is That It Is Specific To One Vehicle
I have several vehicles. I have purchased extended warranties (factory) before on cars and household appliances. With my luck the appliance or vehicle without the warranty is the one to break. Buying warranties for each gets to be ridiculously expensive. Put the money in an account that can cover any and all vehicles, replenish it and self-insure.
Maybe you are paying too much at the facility that maintains/repairs these vehicles. We hear horror stories all the time. Maybe a new shop is in order. Check with other Toyota owner Docs for recommendations.
What were some of the major repairs concerning the Lexus and the 4-Runner?
The caller ID that shows up on my phone was “Call Center, VA 703-291-9045”. I called that number and I got an operator message saying the number is not in service. The salesperson lied to me several times about the name of the company and the details of the services they offer. When I confronted the “finance manage” with the laundry list of complaints on the Better Business Bureau web site, he hung up on me. I DEFINITELY would not recommend getting an extended warranty through this company. You should go to your local Lexus dealership and speak with a finance manager about getting a warranty extension through Lexus directly. Check out their complaint history with the BBB by clicking this link: http://necal.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=67&bbb=1156&firm=47005134
AUTO WARRANTY COMPANIES SCAMMING THE PUBLIC
Consumer Direct Warranty Services (CDWS) of Redding, CA who maintains
an office at 4425 East Sahara Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89104, sells auto service
warranties though dealers such AA Auto Warranty of West Deptford, NJ.
When speaking to a sales representative you are told these warranties cover
the Mechanical, Electrical, Optional Seals & Gaskets, and Labor of a failure.
When you get the short form policy in the mail it seems logical listing all the
major components of engine, transmision, drive axle, air conditioner, etc.
Your are told to maintain the manufacturers service schedule. Sounds Ok.
Now you have a failure (in my case the Transmission). I take the vehicle
to a GMC dealer on 11/5/09 and sign for a $130 diagnostic fee (covered in
claim if accepted). You are asked for all documentation SINCE the warranty
started (I offered more). A day later the service writer calls from the servicing
dealership to tell you the claim has been closed because you did not follow the
manufacturers service schedule. You send them more records previous to the
warranty showing you have exceed this, they reopen the case.
The next day CLAIM CLOSED AGAIN. They could not read the mileage clearly
on the service report. Get copy from the tire dealer who did the oil change
from there accounting department and resend to reopen claim.
The second day CLAIM CLOSED AGAIN. They claim no transmission service was
done at 100,000 miles. True because it was done early at 60,000 mile BEFORE
the start of the warranty. I provide the proof, nothing happens over the weekend.
Monday after much back and forth CLAIM OPEN. They fax the service writer
a form for me to authorize the tear down of the entire transmission for which
I would have to pay $650 if the claim is not accepted. That would now put me at
risk for $780 in addition to the $2,138 paid for the entire warranty.
A local transmission shop quoted me $800 to rebuild it.
CDWS has in spite of my continuing offers to provide what ever information that
could be required repeatedly thrown road blocks to paying this claim. After
six days and counting how much faith should anyone have to sign for another
$780 of risk money.
My past warranty from INA was always processed in about twenty minutes.
That is without requests for every oil change (whats that got to do with the
transmission) or any paper work.
It becomes obvious that CDWS has no intention of honoring this warranty.
The service writer at the dealership tells me that this is now happening to
lots of people all the time. According to the Better Business Bureau CDWS
had 97 Claims against it and shows an 800# to its legal department. Numerous
sites on the internet (such as RipOffReport.com) are loaded tales of unpaid
claims.
I paid the $130 to the GMC Dealer, picked up my car and will start to
sue all parties involved.
Charles Kominek
Las Vegas, NV
NJ Certified Teacher of Industrial Education and Automotive Technologies
Speaking from experience - For most people I would recommend that they find another warranty company or save the money to use toward repairs. Working with CDWS is not for someone without tenacity, research capabilities, and coping skills. If you have all these, this may be the company for you. I am in the middle of a similar experience as Mr. Kominek with a claim I have submitted. My AC compressor has gone bad on my 01 Silverado. After a long wait they sent a denied based on TSB/Recall. My dealer said there were not any Technical Service Bulletins (TSB?s) on this item for my vehicle. I did some research on my own and came to the same conclusion. I asked if they had all the information needed and they replied ?yes we do, and rest assured your claim is denied.?
I was going back and forth with emails stating there were not any recalls and that service bulletins don?t mean a recall. They kept saying it is denied because of a TSB. I finally asked them for information on the TSB they were using and they replied with TSB No 01-01-39-002B. I looked it up, and this TSB is for a Suburban with rear air; the problem is due to faulty line component causing compressor failure; This TSB was also for an older vehicle than mine and my vehicle is a pickup (no rear air. I pointed this out to them and after waiting all day for another reply they said “oh sorry we meant 01-01-38-013A.” This is an information bulletin - Subject: Diagnostic Information To Consider Before Air Conditioning Compressor Replacement. It applied to all GM cars and light trucks 93- time of publication in October 2003, basically saying there have been too many compressors replaced that were OK. Please do more careful checks.
So this is where I?m at now. Obviously they are reaching and they didn?t really mean this second bulletin originally. It took them all day to find it. Plus why would they say denied do to TSB recall if the second bulletin is the one they really meant?
By the time I could get my email it was end of day Friday and so it will go into next week now for round 8. I talked to the service department on Saturday AM and they said CDWS asked for extensive diagnostic information already, but they will send them another email describing their diagnostics and in fact the compressor is defective. I don?t think they really should need to, because CDWS already asked for diagnosis information.
I did reply to CDWS asking what more you need from us. Remember they told before they had all the information needed. I also pointed out this is a GM certified ASE repair facility and they did the proper diagnostics. - Now it?s the weekend as I write this.
They sure have given us the run around. I?ve spent every lunch and time after work for the last 3 days going back and forth with emails to CDWS and researching in the evenings. I was very upset at first, but now I?m just very determined to get this resolved. Also they were very quick to reply to the early email questions I had with ?Your claim remains denied.? But after I finally found the correct information to prove them wrong, it took all day for them reply because they had to find something else. At least on the last email it didn?t state your claim remains denied. So we?ll see what happens.
They did pay a $150 dollar seal replacement repair last year, no questions asked. I believe if the claim gets to a certain $ amount they have people find whatever looks even close for a reason to deny. Most people wouldn?t be able to do anything about it or figure out what they are really getting at. You can?t just tell the service department to go ahead and well work out the warranty later. Then they will then deny because it hasn?t been approved. They control the money and they can stall all they want. Reputation and customer service isn?t a concern to them. Filing complaints won?t make a difference because all you have to do is type Consumer Direct Warranty into a web browser and you will get pages full of complaints. One more won?t make a difference.
I?ve done a lot of work previously researching items on my vehicle, repair work, RPO codes, service bullions etc. for other reasons. I really feel sorry for someone who purchased their warranty and doesn?t have the resources to work through this.
I wish I had better news.
PLEASE DON’T BUY A WARRANTY FROM THESE SCUM BAGS WHO DENY EVERY CLAIM , like Power windows even though they are listed as a covered part, and steering pumps under the hood, Read all the reviews on these Consumer Direct Warranty Services SCUMBAGS , they are not honest play a game , take 2 to 3 days to even handle the claim and then deny all claims. I guarantee they pay less then 1 % of all claims and it will come out in a class action lawsuit. I am out to get these scumbags, they are thieves . Don’t do business with Consumer Direct Warranty Services. Signed Male Age 40 owner of at with integrity and common sense to know thees scum bags are scum of the earth, dishonest, and will suffer in the end. How their employees work there I do not know, I can guarantee they have a high turnover rate. Consumer Direct Warranty Services are THIEVES. Consumer Direct Warranty Services are not available by phone, they use a 3rd party, they did not sell the warranty they just stole your money and gave 20 % to the other SCUMBAG who was so sweet on the phone and stole your money also.