If you have a Warranty Gold extended warranty that you purchased before June 2003 (maybe even more recently than that), your warranty is currently USELESS.
Here's my story:
We purchased an extended warranty for my wife's 2002 Buick Rendezvous earlier this year. Her vehicle is only about 1.5 years old, but she drives a lot and it has 39,000 miles on it. The 3yr/36,000 mile factory warranty is, therefore, expired. We purchased a 5yr/150,000 mile warranty from Warranty Gold shortly before the factory warranty expired.
Well, the air conditioner quit working and we took it in for service. This is our second extended warranty through WG and I didn't forsee ANY problems. The dealer calls us later to say that WG won't pay due to some legal issues... 3 hours and several phone calls later, this is what I've learned.
WG is required by law to have a company that "administers" their warranties. The company they had doing this was National Warranty. National Warranty is currently involved in several lawsuits and is also in bankruptcy... You can read the legalese on National Warranty's site (it was up earlier today, but currently appears to be down).
So, long story short, WG WON'T PAY on claims. They told me to pay out of my pocket and to file a claim with National Warranty. They say that the "funds" from my warranty are currently frozen and that they are trying to get the judge to release them so they can put them with the new administrating company. If they can get THAT done, the warranty will go back to "normal" coverage.
To make matters worse, the problem with the AC is noted in a service bulletin. It is EXACTLY the same problem and states to replace with a new part with an "updated design". So I tried to get Buick to cover the expense... ($860). So far, I've had no luck... but that may still pan out. Currently, I'm getting the line that since I have an extended warranty, Buick won't assist me. But my extended warranty is NO GOOD! Things may still pan out with Buick, but I thought you all should know about the Warranty Gold issues.
I have recommended WG several times in the past, and while I do believe them when they say that this is a situation that is out of their control, I also think that they could do SOMETHING for their customers who are in a bind. I'll probably even buy from them again in the future, but had I known about this issue earlier, I would have just waited to take the car in until after everything was sorted out in the courts. But since I didn't know, I had the choice of paying out of my pocket for the repair and hoping I get reimbursed or paying the $95 diagnosis fee and bringing the vehicle home. I chose the latter.
I'm seriously ticked off right now... at WG... at Buick... at the dealer who told Buick about the WG issues (had he said nothing, Buick would have covered it, I'm pretty sure)... it's been a bad day.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Here's my story:
We purchased an extended warranty for my wife's 2002 Buick Rendezvous earlier this year. Her vehicle is only about 1.5 years old, but she drives a lot and it has 39,000 miles on it. The 3yr/36,000 mile factory warranty is, therefore, expired. We purchased a 5yr/150,000 mile warranty from Warranty Gold shortly before the factory warranty expired.
Well, the air conditioner quit working and we took it in for service. This is our second extended warranty through WG and I didn't forsee ANY problems. The dealer calls us later to say that WG won't pay due to some legal issues... 3 hours and several phone calls later, this is what I've learned.
WG is required by law to have a company that "administers" their warranties. The company they had doing this was National Warranty. National Warranty is currently involved in several lawsuits and is also in bankruptcy... You can read the legalese on National Warranty's site (it was up earlier today, but currently appears to be down).
So, long story short, WG WON'T PAY on claims. They told me to pay out of my pocket and to file a claim with National Warranty. They say that the "funds" from my warranty are currently frozen and that they are trying to get the judge to release them so they can put them with the new administrating company. If they can get THAT done, the warranty will go back to "normal" coverage.
To make matters worse, the problem with the AC is noted in a service bulletin. It is EXACTLY the same problem and states to replace with a new part with an "updated design". So I tried to get Buick to cover the expense... ($860). So far, I've had no luck... but that may still pan out. Currently, I'm getting the line that since I have an extended warranty, Buick won't assist me. But my extended warranty is NO GOOD! Things may still pan out with Buick, but I thought you all should know about the Warranty Gold issues.
I have recommended WG several times in the past, and while I do believe them when they say that this is a situation that is out of their control, I also think that they could do SOMETHING for their customers who are in a bind. I'll probably even buy from them again in the future, but had I known about this issue earlier, I would have just waited to take the car in until after everything was sorted out in the courts. But since I didn't know, I had the choice of paying out of my pocket for the repair and hoping I get reimbursed or paying the $95 diagnosis fee and bringing the vehicle home. I chose the latter.
I'm seriously ticked off right now... at WG... at Buick... at the dealer who told Buick about the WG issues (had he said nothing, Buick would have covered it, I'm pretty sure)... it's been a bad day.
Thanks for letting me vent.