Car World customer service / Auto Protect warranty

Waftiskoo

I've posted this elsewhere on the site and I'm re posting my problem here.

Roughly six months ago I purchased a car from Car world in Peterborough and took out the all singing, all dancing warranty offered with auto protect, covering all aspects of electrical problems and wear and tear. Needless to say, whenever I have had to deal with either company to get anything rectified it has been the most frustrating thing in the world.

Within 48hrs I had the first of 2 problems with the car. The deadlock would not disengage from the fuel filler flap which meant that I couldn't put any fuel in the car. I rang car world only to be told that it wasn't their issue as that was what the warranty was for. So, I proceeded to call auto protect who then told me that I would need to take it to an approved garage to get a diagnosis done (which isn't covered by the warranty) to find out what the problem was then I could see if it was in fact covered by the warranty. Feeling somewhat reluctant to incur a charge with a garage to get to the bottom of the problem which may not even be covered by the warranty I called car world back and explained my dissatisfaction in the way their customer service and the way that the warranty operates essentially having to pay to find out if some repair work that needed doing less than 2 days after purchasing the car was actually covered by the warranty. I asked if there was any way that they could fix it and their solution was to drive the car to them for them to have a look at it instead. A slight oversight on their part, and a concept to advanced for them to grasp (as it had to be repeatedly pointed out) was that I lived 16 miles away from the dealership, had no fuel in the car and no way of putting any fuel into the car. In the end I had to pay a mechanic to dismantle the filler flap and pry the deadbolt out of the way rendering it useless and buying a locking fuel cap instead.

Now however, I have another issue arise with the exhaust. It had started to blow and based upon the previous experience I decided to go to the garage to see where it is blowing from and to get a quote so that I could give the 'good' people at auto protect a good diagnosis of the work required as it would cost me £1100 to have it replaced due to the parts and the labour because massive length of time and work involved in doing the work. With details all to hand I called them up and asked how I proceed with having the work carried out only to be told that the exhaust isn't covered under the warranty, and to read the small print where I would find a small list of exemptions to the policy. It turns out almost nothing is actually covered under the policy I was sold as "covering everything" it even states in the small print that the list of items not covered is incomplete!

By this point I was highly irritated and decided to call car world to discuss the problem and matter of being sold a warranty to cover wear and tear only to find that almost nothing is covered. The signs of the problem would have been visible on the checks carried out before the purchase of the car as an 8" braided metal section of the exhaust isn't going to just rot completely into nothingness (there is none left at all) in the space of 6 months. Turns out they are completely washing their hands with the matter and won't honour any repair work if the warranty wouldn't cover it. Apparently the operate as a used car business, not as a main dealer so they only do essential checks to ensure the car is road legal when it leaves the dealership. All this and they claim to have excellent customer service! Since buying the car and having to deal with the people at the dealership and at auto protect I have heard nothing but bad reports about them from people having similar issues with getting problems with vehicles soon after purchase and car world seen to want nothing to do with it once the car is sold. Can anyone offer any advice on how to deal with this matter?