Wal-Mart Car Battery Warranty

nicolehawley

Does anyone have experience with Wal-Mart’s warranty on car batteries? The terms are 3-year free replacement and then 2 years pro-rated after that. My battery died after it was 3 years and 2 months old. I figured, since it was only two months past the free replacement period, that the battery would be almost free. But, the manager took only $33 off the $100 purchase. I asked him to explain how he pro-rated the cost, or if I could find it explained in writing somewhere, but he couldn’t help me. I was pressed for time or I would have stayed until I got an explanation.

I looked online to see if anyone else had similar experiences, but couldn’t find anything. I plan on going back to Wal-Mart and talking to the manager, but it would help if I could compare the discount I received to what others have received.

Tigsteroonie

Hello and welcome to MSE

Unfortunately I doubt you'll receive many replies on here as this is a predominantly UK based forum, sorry.

nicolehawley

Oops, thanks for letting me know!

shaun_from_Africa

Have a read of this website:
https://moneysmartfamily.com/money-saving-tips/walmart-everstart-car-battery-warranty/
as it gives a lot of info about the warranty.

Manxman_in_exile

nicolehawley wrote: »

Oops, thanks for letting me know!

Thank you for having the good grace to acknowledge your error! (Lots of people don't).


I haven't read Shaun's link, but in the UK we would advise posters to closely examine the terms and conditions of any warranty (together with any US statutory consumer protection that may apply in your case).


Following three years "free" use under the warranty you may find that after a further two months you can only claim back 33%. After four years it may just be, say, 10% or 5%.


Good luck with Wal-Mart!

Joe_Horner

It looks like they assume a 5 year (60 month) lifetime for the battery and, once the 3 years of free entitlement is passed, calculate the pro-rata based on the total age (including the 3 years) and that notional life.

They probably also round the "life used" up to the next month so, if it failed after 3 years 2 months and a day they'd count it as 3 years 3 months of use.

In your case that would be 39 months out of 60 used, leaving 21/60ths to be refunded against the new one. That would be $35 on a $100 battery.

Which is close enough to what happened without exact dates & prices (it'd be the price of the old one that counted, not the new one and it may well have gone up a couple of $ in the 3 years)