I bought a vehicle from CarMax a couple years ago and, despite reservations, purchased the MaxCare extended warranty.
I recently had some repairs (resealing camshafts/valve cover) that were actually covered by the extended warranty. The warranty company told me I would only be charged my deductible and that they would work directly with the dealership (this is a VW dealership I’ve never done business with before, not the CarMax where I got the car). The dealership, after contacting the warranty company, also quoted that price. And, happily, that’s exactly what they charged me when I picked up the car five days ago.
Today the dealership told me I owe them an additional $250 for “nuts and bolts” that the warranty company refused to pay for. Setting aside that that seems like an awful lot of money for nuts and bolts, I naturally assumed that the itemized cost of repair had already been negotiated between the other parties. I was never involved in that discussion and had no way of knowing there were any potentially disputable charges.
I had an otherwise great experience with this dealership and want to maintain a good relationship, but this kind of feels like a “them” problem. At most, I could see paying their out of pocket expense (which I’m sure is considerably less than what they’re charging me).
But this is my first experience with such a warranty so maybe I’m off base here. Any advice?
I would call the warranty company 1st and ask them why that was not negotiated, be nice though… And then I would ask the dealer for an itemized bill and why was the “nuts and bolts” (normally that is called shop fees and is much lower) not on the same bill… Did you sign any paperwork for the repair before the work was started??
Sometimes parts are needed that are not covered for the repair by the warranty company; brittle hoses, hardware, fluids etc. Nuts and bolts would seem to be inexpensive however special exhaust manifold bolts for example can cost $10 each.
I didn’t sign anything other than the final bill after the work was complete. They gave me a detailed but not itemized quote, which I agreed to via text message.
I’m going to push both parties to give me a better explanation for the dispute. And then I suppose I’ll end up paying it – after all, I probably would have agreed to the cost had I know about it, and they did save me a lot of money and hassle by working directly with the warranty company.
Honestly I don’t remember exactly what I paid for the warranty, and I don’t particularly want to look it up. It was too much.
The valve work was $1500. But that was on top of the main repair, which was replacing the water pump/thermostat unit – which itself was fully covered by a manufacturer warranty.
So even with the surprise bill I got out really cheap, and I’m not going to make too big a deal of it. Just a little frustrated by what feels like a bait-and-switch (even if it wasn’t intentional).
Yeah, and I would feel differently if these were parts they found needed replacing after they started the work. But the bill was exactly the same as the quote, so they knew they were going to be charging for this before they even talked to the warranty company. So it’s a little annoying be finding out about it a week after they told me everything was going to be covered.
Anyway, I don’t think it was any kind of intentional scam, and luckily I’m fortunate to be able to afford it. But I’m thinking about times in my life when $250 would have been the difference between making rent or not, and it doesn’t sit well with me for a company to demand a large extra payment after the bill has been settled.
Like you said, you may need to use them again, so you kind a need to tread lightly, but you paid for and signed the invoice and paid in full and they handed your keys/vehicle back over to you, meaning that is all they said you owed them, and then they call you a WEEK later and say oops we forgot to charge you for X parts for $$$.?.?.? That should be on them not you… It’s not your fault they screwed up… lol
Putting my legal hat on, I think the deal is between you and the warranty company, not the dealership. Them working with the warranty folks would be more of a courtesy to customers rather than a binding agreement. So I think you are on the hook for the extras, same as you would be if insurance didn’t pay the whole cost for body work. But first get the itemized list of the extras and discuss with the dealer what it was for. Then contact the warranty company. Looks lik3 the dealer submitted the extra but the warranty gurus refused. The dealer was only working as your agent on the whole thing not as agent for the warranty company. Most of us here advise against after market warranties unless from the manufacturer.
Whether or not you should have been notified or not when the excess parts were needed, I guess just depends on how the job proceeded.
As another poster already pointed out, you need this VW dealership more than they need you, and for $250, I would just pay the bill and not worry about it further. And I say this as someone who is a major cheapskate. It is likely that certain parts, shop supplies, or fluids/lubricants were not covered by the “extended warranty” company, and are therefore your responsibility.
Be thankful that this “extended warranty” paid for $1500+ worth of repairs. Many such plans are completely worthless, and will deny your claim for BS reasons.
The only thing is, he warranty company was involved so not that simple. I just got a statement from my dental insurance on what they are actually paying and what is my responsibility. Dentist submits the claim and insurance has the final say. The difference is what I have to pay regardless of what the dentist thought. Really it’s the same type of third party relationship. Total expense has to be paid.
Yup!
I had a recent ER visit, and the next day I got an email from the hospital stating that they had billed my medical insurance company for $370, and that I owed nothing. Several days later, the insurance company sent me their accounting of the matter.
It seems that the hospital wound-up billing $11k+ for my 3.5 hours in the ER, and the insurance company informed me that my co-pay is $25. Obviously, it wouldn’t be good for me in the long run if I contest that amount, so I have already paid it.
My old insurance through my employer used to send me a bill reconciliation that told me how much I owed for a service. They always concluded by saying that if the provider billed me for the service I should ignore it and contact them immediately and they would take care of it.
In this case, the VW dealer should have dealt directly with the warranty insurer and not submitted a bill to the OP until the insurer had made disposition. It looks like really bad business sense on their part.
I think OP has a valid complaint. Dealership should at the minimum informed OP that the final price to the OP might be higher if there’s more parts/labor involved than originally believed, not covered by the warranty. I expect the term “nuts and bolts” isn’t meant to be taken literally. The $250 isn’t for fasteners, just stuff that usually wouldn’t need to be replaced but in this case was, only discovered after starting the job. I own older cars, and discovering while diyer’ing I need to replace something unexpected in the middle of a job is a very common thing.
If the $250 is for something who’s replacement need is believable however, OP should consider they now have that replaced, as well as the valve cover leaks stopped, both a good thing for their car, and likely well worth the extra $250.
for my 3.5 hours in the ER, and the insurance company informed me that my co-pay is $25. Obviously, it wouldn’t be good for me in the long run if I contest that amount, so I have already paid it.