MotorEasy Warranty

beemarman

Hi,

I really need some advice on dealing with this company. This is my story below.

I bought the car in February 2023. My car developed a fault on the 12th of June 2023. I called the AA, and they came out and diagnosed the fault as a faulty turbo. I booked the car into Jaguar to have the fault repaired. On the 16th of June, the car was towed into the Jaguar garage. On the 30th of June, I got a quote for the repair work. I put this through MotorEasy to be fixed. Since then, they've been looking for any excuse not to pay. I paid £900 for a Plan A warranty. The policy covers me taking my car to any garage as long as it's below the £200 per hour mark. After calling numerous times, they've now come back and said they're going to take the car to another “cheaper” dealer so that they could save a few quid. The repair cost is £2700 including VAT. They want to see if they can get that cheaper by fitting a second-hand turbo. I have already been without my car for 1 month and am not very well. I'm not very well and I need my car to get me to my doctor's. MotorEasy doesn’t care about my health if it means them saving a few £££.  I had another phone call from Callum (engineer at MotorEasy) saying before they do that, they would want to get an engineer out to inspect my car, he also said they do this for claims that are more than £1000. This is rubbish. They’re thinking because the car has only done a few thousand miles since I bought it, that I must have known about the issue before taking out the warranty. I bought the car in February 2023 and had it serviced at Jaguar's main dealer in February,  the health check for the car came back 100% and this is before taking out the warranty. I then took out the warranty in March 2023. If they were a previous issue with the turbo, then how can I be driving a car with a faulty turbo for more than 4 months and more than 3000 miles after the warranty was in place without causing any further damage to the car?

 As soon as AA came out after the fault occurred. I had the car towed to the garage because I didn’t want to cause any more damage to the car.  This company is bad. Everything you’ve read about Aftermarket warranty is true. My car has only done less than 50k miles. It has FSH all the records are correct. I have made sure I read all the MotorEasy terms and conditions and still, I’m having problems getting them to pay £2,700. What about if It was a bigger claim? What about innocent people that genuinely took out a warranty without really understanding the terms and conditions? If they’re doing this on a smallish claim like mine, then I feel sorry for anyone with a more serious problem. I paid for the top-of-the-range warranty. My car was serviced by a Jaguar main dealer. I uploaded all the service records and invoices to them. They didn’t come back to me to say they’re not paying because the fault wasn’t covered. They’re coming back looking for every single excuse to delay paying or not paying. To try to say I knew about the fault before taking out the warranty is just crazy. How can I be driving around with a car with a faulty turbo for nearly 5 months and 3000 miles? 

jlfrs01

When I took out a Motoreasy policy on my car last year the cover was conditional on a checkover by Halfords to verify there were no issues. Did they not notify you at the time the policy was taken out? 

born_again

It's a warranty & you have to go by their terms.

beemarman

jlfrs01 said:

When I took out a Motoreasy policy on my car last year the cover was conditional on a checkover by Halfords to verify there were no issues. Did they not notify you at the time the policy was taken out? 

They said I didn't have to do the checkup due to the mileage and age of the vehicle. I wish I didn't listen to them now.

tightauldgit

If the car has developed a fault within 6 months then shouldn't the dealer be involved with this - potentially a claim under consumer rights? Presuming it was bought from a dealer. 

As far as the warranty goes then you only have the rights and cover that the warranty says you have in its terms.

jlfrs01

I have a "Plan B Lite" policy. When I downloaded the documentation it included a "Key Facts" document which sets out exactly what components are and aren't covered under the policy and for my policy, taken out last year, the Turbocharger is covered so if you have the "top policy2, I personally think it highly likely yours is covered as well.

I recommend you pore over your own key facts document so you know exactly where you stand. If you were told an inspection wasn't required, it would be useful to have something to back that up such as an email or the name of the person you spoke to at MotorEasy. In my case, they emailed me and when I logged into my account on the website, I had a message to say one needed booking and a link to a calendar to choose a date. If they say the claim is invalid because a visual inspection wasn't carried out, the obvious question to ask is "does that mean this policy is null and void then because if this claim isn't valid it must mean that any others won't be valid either. In this case I think my money should be refunded".

One other option open to you is if you truly believe your claim should be settled then write to the Financial Ombudsman Service to intervene on your behalf. You'll need copies of all correspondence and cast iron proof your claim is valid. In addition to the fee requested, you can claim for compensation but only the once so if you go down this route, think carefully about the exact sum you want recovered.

born_again

jlfrs01 said:

I have a "Plan B Lite" policy. When I downloaded the documentation it included a "Key Facts" document which sets out exactly what components are and aren't covered under the policy and for my policy, taken out last year, the Turbocharger is covered so if you have the "top policy2, I personally think it highly likely yours is covered as well.

I recommend you pore over your own key facts document so you know exactly where you stand. If you were told an inspection wasn't required, it would be useful to have something to back that up such as an email or the name of the person you spoke to at MotorEasy. In my case, they emailed me and when I logged into my account on the website, I had a message to say one needed booking and a link to a calendar to choose a date. If they say the claim is invalid because a visual inspection wasn't carried out, the obvious question to ask is "does that mean this policy is null and void then because if this claim isn't valid it must mean that any others won't be valid either. In this case I think my money should be refunded".

One other option open to you is if you truly believe your claim should be settled then write to the Financial Ombudsman Service to intervene on your behalf. You'll need copies of all correspondence and cast iron proof your claim is valid. In addition to the fee requested, you can claim for compensation but only the once so if you go down this route, think carefully about the exact sum you want recovered.

You can only do this after going through Motor Easy complaints process.

Crafty they do not mention this on their website, but FCA site shows them as registered.

PHK

born_again said:

jlfrs01 said:

I have a "Plan B Lite" policy. When I downloaded the documentation it included a "Key Facts" document which sets out exactly what components are and aren't covered under the policy and for my policy, taken out last year, the Turbocharger is covered so if you have the "top policy2, I personally think it highly likely yours is covered as well.

I recommend you pore over your own key facts document so you know exactly where you stand. If you were told an inspection wasn't required, it would be useful to have something to back that up such as an email or the name of the person you spoke to at MotorEasy. In my case, they emailed me and when I logged into my account on the website, I had a message to say one needed booking and a link to a calendar to choose a date. If they say the claim is invalid because a visual inspection wasn't carried out, the obvious question to ask is "does that mean this policy is null and void then because if this claim isn't valid it must mean that any others won't be valid either. In this case I think my money should be refunded".

One other option open to you is if you truly believe your claim should be settled then write to the Financial Ombudsman Service to intervene on your behalf. You'll need copies of all correspondence and cast iron proof your claim is valid. In addition to the fee requested, you can claim for compensation but only the once so if you go down this route, think carefully about the exact sum you want recovered.

You can only do this after going through Motor Easy complaints process.

Crafty they do not mention this on their website, but FCA site shows them as registered.

THE FCA register says they are an appointed representative and warns that not everything they do will be regulated.

The Plan A warranty isn't a regulated product and so you won't be able to go to the FOS. If the OP is unhappy with their final decision then they can only bring their complaint to the owner. There's no ADR.

Their website makes a big deal of them not being insurance.

Personally, I would avoid an unregulated warranty. 

The FCA are looking at motor warranties and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the case (like funeral plans) where the law will change to make them regulated.

jlfrs01

MotorEasy does in fact list their complaints procedure in their policy documents, I had assumed the OP had done this as a matter of course - my bad, it does need to be done as a matter of due process. I'm still puzzled by the fact the OP wasn't asked to have their vehicle checked before the plan was issued, I bought my car 2 years ago from a BMW main dealer (so fully checked and warrantied), it's on a 17 plate, had 26,490 miles on the clock and MotorEasy still insisted Halfords give it the once over.

If a formal complaint is raised, this may be flagged as a serious error on someone's part and the decision reversed or MotorEasy may come back with a compromise offer to settle.

PHK is quite right - this is a "plan" not an insurance product so wouldn't be covered by the Financial Ombudsman BUT I think it may be by the Motor Ombudsman, details on the Trading Standards website.

beemarman

jlfrs01 said:

I have a "Plan B Lite" policy. When I downloaded the documentation it included a "Key Facts" document which sets out exactly what components are and aren't covered under the policy and for my policy, taken out last year, the Turbocharger is covered so if you have the "top policy2, I personally think it highly likely yours is covered as well.

I recommend you pore over your own key facts document so you know exactly where you stand. If you were told an inspection wasn't required, it would be useful to have something to back that up such as an email or the name of the person you spoke to at MotorEasy. In my case, they emailed me and when I logged into my account on the website, I had a message to say one needed booking and a link to a calendar to choose a date. If they say the claim is invalid because a visual inspection wasn't carried out, the obvious question to ask is "does that mean this policy is null and void then because if this claim isn't valid it must mean that any others won't be valid either. In this case I think my money should be refunded".

One other option open to you is if you truly believe your claim should be settled then write to the Financial Ombudsman Service to intervene on your behalf. You'll need copies of all correspondence and cast iron proof your claim is valid. In addition to the fee requested, you can claim for compensation but only the once so if you go down this route, think carefully about the exact sum you want recovered.

Hi,

It's clearly stated in my policy and emails that I didn't need to have pre-inspection on my car. I'm still waiting to see if they reject the claim or not. It's currently booked for their engineer to come and inspect the car. I have already spoken to Jaguar where my care is located and they've confirmed that the only code showing is the turbo failure and the mileage when it failed.

beemarman

tightauldgit said:

If the car has developed a fault within 6 months then shouldn't the dealer be involved with this - potentially a claim under consumer rights? Presuming it was bought from a dealer. 

As far as the warranty goes then you only have the rights and cover that the warranty says you have in its terms.

I bought the car from a private seller.