Car warranty company refusing to pay out and blame me

ArkleP

i purchased a car on 30th Oct 2019 and for peace of mind alongside that I purchased a gold warranty and told that would cover me for any fault on my new car.  I had no issues with the car until last week.  I drove to work in the morning and the car ran normally, and when I got to the security gate to get in, the inside of the car started rumbling/vibrating.  I drove to my car park which was about another 200 metres.  The gear selection still worked but stiffer, it became obvious a fault had occurred.  Anyway at lunchtime the workshop manager at our mechanical department came over to have a look.  The car ran for about 4or 5 mins and he drove the car about 10 meters before reparking the car as pulling away now the car seemed to be struggling to move smoothly.He said he thinks it the duel mass and to use the warranty to get the car fixed.  So I rang the warranty company, they booked my car into a garage 2 days later.  They told me I had to get the car to the garage.  I arranged for a local man to take my car in on his recovery truck, the car was started up to make the power steering work and it was pulled onto his lorry.  I followed him to the garage about 10 miles away, when we got close to the garage he unloaded my car.  The garage was in a secure area about 500 meters away so I didn’t really have any choice other than to drive the car to the garage.  It moved ok but there was an obvious problem in 1st and second pulling away,  third and fourth seemed to get better( I was just experimenting and trying to work out what was wrong).  I got up to a speed of 30 doing this before I got to the garage.  I parked up and gave them the keys, and the info about the gears seemed to be better as you went up them.  
Anyhow, I had to pay £72 for an initial diagnosis and a further £460 for a furthe 6 hours to diagnose.  I would get this back if the repair was under warranty.  3 days later and lots of chasing the warranty company and they send me the diagnosis of a collapsed bearing on the spigot, resulting in a loose flywheel causing damage, and the clutch would also need replacing as good practice the total cost was £1236. Then an email refusing the repair came though from the warranty company saying it is my fault for driving the car knowing there is a fault and I should take responsibility to maintain my vehicle. I have appealed this with quite an abusive email, no bad language may I add.
The damage or fault clearly happened when I arrived at work that morning, I had no idea a bearing was wearing down in a sealed casing in the engine.  Also I didn’t realise what had happened, it could have been a loose exhaust pipe for all I initially knew.  In hindsight the lorry could have gone through the security barriers at the garage instead of unloading out on the road and me driving it to the doors but even so, the damage was already done.  Also even if they are blaming me for driving the car with a fault, the fact is the car developed the fault and I parked the car as quickly as I could and reported it as soon as I could the same day so they should at least cover the diagnosis and the replacement of the bearing and spigot, and probably the flywheel as well.
Any productive advice or suggestions would be appreciated in my much unwelcomed battle with this rip off company.
Thanks for reading.

AdrianC

What does the warranty documentation actually say is and is not covered? No precis or "But I was told"... Either quote the exact wording, or tell us who the warranty company is so we can go to the horse's mouth.

What age/mileage of car?

Arklight

Why did you have your car towed to a garage and then start driving it around when you had got there?
If you've told the warranty company all this, I would say they are within their rights to reject the claim. As opposed to making up a reason to reject the claim, which they would have done otherwise. 

tacpot12

I think the consequential damage could be on you, but the original fault should be covered by the warranty. The cost to repair is not that great. Why don’t you ask if the warranty company will settle the matter by pay £600 toward the repair?

Arklight

The warranty company will have a list of exceptions a mile long. Probably any three dozen of which they could point to, to avoid paying out on this claim. Or any other.

shaun_from_Africa

ArkleP said:

The damage or fault clearly happened when I arrived at work that morning, 

It's not that clear cut.
The failure certainly happened when you arrived at work and there may have been some damage caused at this time but by running the engine and driving another 500 metres, you could well have caused far more damage.
I think the only way you could possibly fight this is if you were able to get an independent report stating what damage was caused when the initial failure occurred and what was caused by the 1/2 kilometer drive.
If you are able to get such a report (and I'm not certain that this would be possible), the warranty company would still only be liable for the initial failure and related damage.

ArkleP

Apologies, here’s the info.  Warrenty assist, gold cover.  Car is 3 years old. 77000 miles.  Everything faulty is covered and stated on the plan Documentation.

 arklight said:

Why did you have your car towed to a garage and then start driving it around when you had got there?
If you've told the warranty company all this, I would say they are within their rights to reject the claim. As opposed to making up a reason to reject the claim, which they would have done otherwise. 

The garage is on a secured estate with barriers at the gate. we could have got in easily but the truck driver had already parked up on the side of the road and started to take his straps off the wheels.  The garage stated I drove the car in on their report to the warranty company which technically I did. My fault I suppose but I don’t want criticising for this, I’m just appealing for advice on anything I can do to get through to The warranty company.  Thanks

.tacpot12 said:

I think the consequential damage could be on you, but the original fault should be covered by the warranty. The cost to repair is not that great. Why don’t you ask if the warranty company will settle the matter by pay £600 toward the repair?

Thanks for your reply, I think approaching it like this is the only chance I have of getting something back. , thanks.

AdrianC

ArkleP said:

Apologies, here’s the info.  Warrenty assist, gold cover.  Car is 3 years old. 77000 miles.  Everything faulty is covered and stated on the plan Documentation.

https://www.warrantyassist.co.uk/files/policies/45/Warranty_Assist_Gold_Cover.pdf
Only specifically listed components covered - list on p4. There's a bit of Chinese whispers going on, so it's hard to know exactly what they're meaning by "collapsed bearing on the spigot", and whether that would be included in the covered parts. If they mean an input shaft support bush in the end of the crank, then that doesn't appear to be covered - it's not "internal" to either engine or box, and it's not listed explicitly under flywheel or clutch...

Gradual deterioration and wear and tear are excluded, as always, and they retain discretion to define what that covers.

p10, point 6 - they can ask you to make a contribution towards betterment. Replacing a 77k mile DMF and clutch, even if covered, would certainly get hit with that. But with 70-80k miles, you're paying 30% of the bill anyway, assuming your warranty isn't the 100% coverage option.

p10, point 21 - if they decide the root cause is a non-covered part, they won't pay for any covered parts.

p9, point 9 - "any form of consequential loss" - so they'll pay for the root cause, but not for any damage arising from continuing to drive the vehicle.