Buying used car with RAC warranty

EdGasketTheSecond

AA warranty is just the same. Wouldn't pay for friend's wrecked engine (Zafira) due to timing belt snapped well within its expected life; car fully serviced; they just keep throwing new things at you to come up with e.g. photos of before and after, the old parts, what the mechanic was wearing, anything even totally unrelated to the failure. The job would take the garage twice as long if they did everything the AA wanted. They never did pay.

devonbird19

I'm also having real problems getting this warranty to pay out. They are now owned by Assurant.

It's been 3 weeks since my camper van has been at the garage awaiting the warranty company's decision. First it was 'heavy corrosion' relating to a broken woodruff key, which the garage said was actually 'minor surface corrosion' and even sent photos to the warranty company to prove it. The warranty company are now suggesting it was the fitting of a new cam belt before we bought it. They have sent an 'independent' assessor from another company, Scotia, to look at it and I'm awaiting their decision. In the warranty T&Cs corrosion is the only thing that has absolutely no qualification - i.e. which parts are covered, what sort of corrosion, This is like a 'get out of jail free' card. I was also not given the complete T&Cs by the dealer, only a leaflet, which I now understand was not what I should have been given. Also the warranty company took some persuasion to send me their full T&Cs, which was very odd.

I can't take it to the motor ombudsman as the company is not accredited, so if the claim is turned down again, I need to go the the financial ombudsman or small claims court instead. Meanwhile I have been without my everyday vehicle for almost 2 months and am likely to face a bill of over £800 to put it right.

I have passed this onto Trading Standards too.

I thought that buying an 'RAC' warranty would give me peace of mind as it is an organisation that has a good reputation. I was not aware that it was actually run by another company, TWG, now taken over by another company Assurant.

I feel that I paid more for the vehicle initially because it came with a year's warranty from the RAC.

I hope this helps others.

I await the warranty company's decision.

Dendenden

Thanks for taking the time to post about the RAC warranty. I too would have been reassured and tempted to pay a bit more by getting such a warranty - not now.

jatman

Hello All,

So today is day 3 of working with RAC Warranty / The Warranty Group / Assurant group and its been a bloody nightmare. My car Audi A6 clutch failed during a road trip with the family on a Sunday morning. Right bang in the middle of the road, all of 4 stopped in the middle of the road. The clutch was stuck to the back of the car and wouldn't move. The gearbox wouldn't work and change.

I managed to get RAC to tow the car to a garage (that was a nightmare of service too), took them 4hrs to move my car.

Anyway, Monday morning went to the garage, before putting the car onto the ramp, we though the issue is the flywheel, we opened the bonnet and there was no oil leak. Put the car onto the ramp, checked underneath and there was a small oil leak from the gearbox. O bummer.

The mechanics took everything out, the clutch, dual mass flywheel, and the gearbox and we found the oil leak in the gearbox. Now my car is 2015 with 54618 only. bought when had 48miles in October 2019.

Of course, anybody would tell you all three components (clutch, dual flywheel and gearbox, if you change one you have to change the others and you cant put them back in if something is damaged. I could upload 9 photos to show you all.

Now you can see everything has been removed from my car, the oil stains on the gearbox, the clutch is below and the dual wheel is below.

RAC Warranty / The Warranty Group / Assurant group has only offered to pay for the clutch and nothing else, I said it because its the cheapest. They spent whole morning arguing with me and my mechanic that there is nothing wrong with the other mechanical parts even though my car is all apart and sitting on a ramp with everything removed and a faulty clutch to a gearbox issue. Their policy says they won't cover the clutch if "reached its end of life or burnt out". Considering mine is a mechanical issue all repairs should be covered.

What makes it worse, their engineer has to look at photos to tell you yes or no, while my mechanic is stell them which parts need to be fixed and why because he standing next to the car.

The whole process is shambles, there is no straight method, why o why have I paid for a !!!!!! contract on my expensive car when I could have gone somewhere else. The car is expensive to run but not to be treated like rubbish when clearly a mechanical fault has occurred. The car is less than a year old, so will Imperial Cars take it back, will RAC Warranty / The Warranty Group / Assurant group fix the car properly who knows?

At this moment in time, I have to pay for the main components and RAC Warranty / The Warranty Group / Assurant group are only paying for a clutch?

Bloody Rip Off and Bloody Cheapskates.

Who know where I can escalate this issue and who can tell where I can get action properly and correctly?

today

jatman

Right I have an update, RAC Warranty [Warranty Group] is now only Assurant.

They have refused to give me a car hire as their company AutoData said the job will take 7.1hrs, considering my car has to have a full change over from clutch to gearbox, this is at least 2 days.

They have refused to give me a hire car too.

So where does that leave me and my family. Stranded on a pointless and rip off service.

No car and money spent down the drain

JasonGT

Having had 2 problems with my car over the previous weeks/months on both occasions the RAC warranty have challenged and now the second one they are declining major engine damaged based on wear and tear when in fact it was made clear to them from a RAC approved garage that this is sudden failure. I am already £1000 out of pocket with now another circa £1700 out of pocket because  they say its wear and tear, and they haven't even inspected the vehicle. Dealing with this organisation has be hard and dare i say it pointless. They have no customer service quality what so ever,  and do not even have the decency to call the customer back or give them updates. They also insist i must wait up to 3 days for a manager to call back. The problems and stress these people have caused me is endless and despite me being able to prove that the failure is covered in the booklet they still insist on creating obstacles and declining the claim. Surely something can be done about this because this simply isn't right. The next car I get will not be from a approved RAC dealer and if it comes with warranty I want it to come from the dealer and not an organization that does not meet the warranty commitments.

ontheroad1970

Approved RAC/AA dealers are just wrapping to help the dealer to sell cars.  They do not make them any more reliable than any other dealer...

nermin82

I bought a 3 year warranty with RAC when buying my used Audi Q5 from Fords of Winsford, Trafford. I paid £1000 for 3 year cover. Its garbage. I made a claim as my car went into limp mode and message had check engine. Went online and found a garage for diagnostic they suggested on their website. The garage did the diagnostic and said we cant do the work as its to do with turbo. Advised to go back to RAC. Called RAC and they told me to go to one of 3 recommended approved repairers. They were all over 10 miles away and I live in Warrington so plenty of garages here. So I took it to their approved recommended garage. The garage calls and says RAC will only approve £108 of the bill as they deem the repair will only last 0.3hrs according to the website they check. They will also only pay £32 for a part as they found it on Euro Car Parts. Its the cheapest piece of plastic. Garage said they wouldn't use that part as its rubbish and not worth installing. The part they wanted to fit cost £118 and when I checked online, that was about right for a decent turbo air flow sensor. 

Anyway, RAC argue that they will only pay for the 0.3hr labour and the cheap part and the rest is up to me. They say its in the T&C and its tough. 

My anger is that they told me to take it to their approved garage which is out of my way only for them then to dispute the charges and refuse to pay. Why would they recommend an approved garage if they don't agree with their rates and parts costs. If they told me in advance that this might happen, I would have taken it to Audi or a local garage and paid the difference. Appalling customer service and treatment.

 I have since made complaints to Assurant and the responses I have received are awful. In summary, the message is tough, its in your T&C's.  This whole incident has left me with no car for over a week, stress and worry, and massive inconvenience and time. I have not got the money to cover the rest of the bill, and have been left without a car and with a £1000 warranty that is not worth the paper its written on. I am unable to get any refund. I believe I have been mis sold the warranty at point of sale in FOW, as they claimed it was piece of mind and very easy should something go wrong. They never discussed policy limitations of T&C's. I would have never bought this policy if I was made aware of the way in which RAC treat customers and refuse to pay when something goes wrong. 

born_again

nermin82 said:

I bought a 3 year warranty with RAC when buying my used Audi Q5 from Fords of Winsford, Trafford. I paid £1000 for 3 year cover. Its garbage. I made a claim as my car went into limp mode and message had check engine. Went online and found a garage for diagnostic they suggested on their website. The garage did the diagnostic and said we cant do the work as its to do with turbo. Advised to go back to RAC. Called RAC and they told me to go to one of 3 recommended approved repairers. They were all over 10 miles away and I live in Warrington so plenty of garages here. So I took it to their approved recommended garage. The garage calls and says RAC will only approve £108 of the bill as they deem the repair will only last 0.3hrs according to the website they check. They will also only pay £32 for a part as they found it on Euro Car Parts. Its the cheapest piece of plastic. Garage said they wouldn't use that part as its rubbish and not worth installing. The part they wanted to fit cost £118 and when I checked online, that was about right for a decent turbo air flow sensor. 

Anyway, RAC argue that they will only pay for the 0.3hr labour and the cheap part and the rest is up to me. They say its in the T&C and its tough. 

My anger is that they told me to take it to their approved garage which is out of my way only for them then to dispute the charges and refuse to pay. Why would they recommend an approved garage if they don't agree with their rates and parts costs. If they told me in advance that this might happen, I would have taken it to Audi or a local garage and paid the difference. Appalling customer service and treatment.

 I have since made complaints to Assurant and the responses I have received are awful. In summary, the message is tough, its in your T&C's.  This whole incident has left me with no car for over a week, stress and worry, and massive inconvenience and time. I have not got the money to cover the rest of the bill, and have been left without a car and with a £1000 warranty that is not worth the paper its written on. I am unable to get any refund. I believe I have been mis sold the warranty at point of sale in FOW, as they claimed it was piece of mind and very easy should something go wrong. They never discussed policy limitations of T&C's. I would have never bought this policy if I was made aware of the way in which RAC treat customers and refuse to pay when something goes wrong. 

Did you not read the T/C before signing? Did you ask about limitations?

A warranty is never a general cover all sort a problem ASAP at whatever the cost. 
If they say that is the time frame for fixing (there is a system that gives times for fixing issues) my indi used it years ago.
Same with parts. You just need to tell repairing dealer to use them.
More a case of repairer scamming you than the warranty.

BlueHarbourBouy

Look on TrustPilot BigMotoringWorld Warranty 1 &2 star reports. Customers who claim are given 'the run around' and eveything is down to wear and tear, and help refused. Seems all these warranties are a waste of money.