Jeff, I also had a GE Capital warranty for my last car, if you can call it
that. A 1992 Hyundai Elantra for which I purchased the 6 year/100,000 mile
bumper to bumper warranty through GE Capital at a cost of $720 in 1992.
Any claim under $500 (I think) was fixed with just a phone call from the
repair shop to the claims office to verify the coverage. This worked
several times and these small claims paid for the warranty by themselves.
But, it was the over $500 claims that were killers.
As my car was nearing the end of the extended warranty I started to amass
quite a list of small annoyances that needed to be fixed. They were all
covered under the warranty and I was just waiting to make sure I got the
most out of my $50 warranty deductible.
I took the car to my normal Hyundai dealership with my list of problems such
as the driver's side "manual assist" power window, the floor heater vent
flap that didn't open and made for really cold feet in the winter time and
the third or fourth alternator.(For some odd reason I kept chewing up
alternators on that car. Couldn't have anything to do with all the stereo
equipment that was in that car could it?) And the power mirror that wasn't.
Yadda yadda yadda, etc, etc.
Anyway, I dropped the car off early Monday morning and called them after
lunch to check the progress of my car. They said that the warranty company
was going to have to send out an adjuster to verify the claims since there
were so many of them all at once.
Tuesday afternoon. I called to check the progress and was told that the
warranty company had denied all the claims. WHAT THE!!!!!!! Dang, where's
the Mylanta?
I immediately called GE Cap and waited on hold for an eternity to get an
answer. They told me that the claims adjuster had to see the broken parts
with his own eyes and hold them in his hands to verify the claims before
they would authorize the rapairs.
"I'm puzzled" I told them. "I thought I had a bumper to bumper warranty".
"You do but we need to see the broken parts before we can authorize their
repair" they said. My stomach is now really churning.
So I said something to the effect of "It's a bumper to bumper warranty
right? And the broken parts are named specifically in the coverage section
of the warranty paperwork, right? And the broken parts are between the
front and rear bumper aren't they? Then why are you giving me such a hard
time about covering the repairs?"
Basically I had to authorize the labor expenditure to have the dealership
tear down the car and remove the broken parts so that the claims adjuster
could visually verify them himself. The floor heater vent was 6 hours of
labor by itself. So, nervously I authorized the labor to tear down the car
and retrieve the broken parts. Oh no, I'm out of Mylanta. Better get
another bottle quickly.
Wednesday afternoon: I called to check the progress. No claims adjuster
has yet to poke his face around the dealership.
Thursday morning: I call GE Cap to see when a claims adjuster is going to
check on my claim and they say it may be early next week since the only area
claims adjuster had to go out of state to verify another claim. I told them
that this was basically total horseshit and was unacceptable. I promptly
finished off the next bottle of Mylanta went to the front of the hospital
pharmacy in which I work to get another bottle.
Friday afternoon: The claims adjuster shows up and with the broken parts
now in his hands, authorizes the repairs. More Mylanta down the hatch.
Tuesday afternoon: I get my car back. I call GE Cap to find out how to get
reimbursed for the rental car that I've had for 9 days. They say that
there's a 7 day reinbursement limit on my warranty. I told them that if it
wasn't for their horseshit (I actually said something very close to that)
then my car would've been fixed last week and I wouldn't have had to keep
the rental car over the weekend. "Glug, glug". That's the sound of more
Mylanta going down the hatch.
Wednesday afternoon: I am told by some district manager type dude that they
will cover all 9 days of the rental car after all.
Whew, where's my Mylanta.
So, in hindsight it was worth it financially but not too good on my ulcers.
You may have better results with their claims department. That's part of
the reaon that I paid the extra big bucks this time to have an extended
warranty that was administered through the Chrysler dealerships as basically
just an extension of the factory 3/36 warranty but which goes all the way to
6/100.
See you on course.
Eric Linnhoff in KC
#69 DS TLS #13
eric10mm@qni.com
Charter Member of P.E.T.A.
(People for the Eating of Tasty Animals)
|