RAC platinum extended warranty - how to claim for mis-selling/ unsuitability?

principalacc

I bought a 3 year RAC Platinum plus warranty when I purchased my used car 2 years ago, priced £799, on the basis that it would provide total peace of mind for any issues (as the sales person said). All I was given was a leaflet, the whole policy came via email afterwards.

Having now read the small print, as I was intending to claim for a fault, it is almost useless- the list of excluded parts is vast, they will only pay for cheap parts not good quality ones, only £55 an hour for labour, diagnostic costs not covered etc. The fault I wanted to claim for can only be put right by a main dealer - which charges £120 for labour, will only supply its own parts and so on. They wouldn't deal direct with the warranty company either, so I had to pay upfront with a view to reclaiming (as it happens it was an excluded part anyway as  "electrical" faults aren't covered.)

I wouldn't have taken out the policy had I known all this at the time. Is there any point in trying to get any money back for the warranty vis a mis-selling complaint or should I cancel and see if any refund of the remaining time (7 months) is due?

Obviously I wouldn't buy another one, and I should have read all the small print when it was emailed to me, and cancelled it then and there.

Has anyone successfully claimed mis-selling for this type of thing, and if so - what evidence did you use?

DullGreyGuy

principalacc said:
The fault I wanted to claim for can only be put right by a main dealer - which charges £120 for labour, will only supply its own parts and so on.

Assuming it is something covered by the warranty then your normal approach would be to go via the warranty's preferred network and if they have to pass it to a main dealer that becomes an issue between them and the dealership but as you've entrusted it to their provider all costs are covered (again, assuming its a covered issue).

Warranties are typically not legally insurance and so have less protections than insurance would have. It however generally isn't "sold" but is "bought" and hence you have a statutory cooling off period to give you time to read the policy and ensure it's appropriate for your needs.  Ultimately however if you want to complain it was miss-sold then you need to contact whichever firm you bought it from. 

Seeing as you've now read your policy book you will also know the cancellation terms, I only have an old copy of their wording to hand but in it you could only cancel mid term in the event of your car being written off or you becoming disabled and unable to drive (or dead)

Nasqueron

The problem you will have with mis-selling complaint (not claim, you aren't owed anything) is that really since the PPI days, sales people are now regulated for selling these products so the majority are much more careful to cover their bums - you will have most likely signed the paperwork to say you agreed to the terms and two years later is way too late to argue you didn't know what you were signing for with any guarantee of success.

You would have to submit a complaint to the firm who sold it to you and see what they say. Expect swift rejection with copies of your signed paperwork, then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

Edit - "now regulated" not "not regulated"

400ixl

How soon after you signed up did they email you the T&C's of the warranty? You would have had 14 days from the point of agreeing to the policy to cancelling it in the cooling off period if you had not made a claim. That was your point to check that what you had bought was in line with your expectations. As in check you hadn't been mis-sold anything.

If they didn't supply the information until after 14 days and therefore removed your ability to review and confirm then you may have a case there.

Outside of that I'm not sure what claim you would have for mis-selling.

DullGreyGuy

Nasqueron said:

You would have to submit a complaint to the firm who sold it to you and see what they say. Expect swift rejection with copies of your signed paperwork, then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

Its a warranty not insurance, there is no warranty ombudsman

Nasqueron

DullGreyGuy said:

Nasqueron said:

You would have to submit a complaint to the firm who sold it to you and see what they say. Expect swift rejection with copies of your signed paperwork, then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

Its a warranty not insurance, there is no warranty ombudsman

They sold a warranty policy which is insurance in all but a name and the FOS will take on complaints about extended warranties, heck, they'll do complaints about used car sales as well, indeed according to this warranty company (and the RAC if you look at their site), they do indeed allow you to go to the FOS

principalacc

Thanks all for the useful comments, I will complain to the dealer who sold it as I do think I was misled somewhat. Whether I have any grounds for complaint further up the chain, or for any money back, I am not sure! I should have read the 50 pages of t&c's that were emailed to me at the time. I'll not be buying any such product in the future anyway, if this was the "best" version.

DullGreyGuy

Nasqueron said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Nasqueron said:

You would have to submit a complaint to the firm who sold it to you and see what they say. Expect swift rejection with copies of your signed paperwork, then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

Its a warranty not insurance, there is no warranty ombudsman

They sold a warranty policy which is insurance in all but a name and the FOS will take on complaints about extended warranties, heck, they'll do complaints about used car sales as well, indeed according to this warranty company (and the RAC if you look at their site), they do indeed allow you to go to the FOS

@Nasqueron some extended warranties are insurance and therefore do fall within the scope of FOS. 

On the RAC website you are failing to notice the word MAY... for their insurance product you can, for their non-insurance products you cannot.

On the used car case the complaint was about the financial services firm that provided the credit for the used car and therefore was jointly liable for it... it wasn't a complaint about the used car garage

Warranty Direct in your final link even point out that you need to ensure it is a regulated product (aka insurance) to be able to get the benefit of the FOS because if its not insurance there is no FOS rights. 

Nasqueron

DullGreyGuy said:

Nasqueron said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Nasqueron said:

You would have to submit a complaint to the firm who sold it to you and see what they say. Expect swift rejection with copies of your signed paperwork, then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

Its a warranty not insurance, there is no warranty ombudsman

They sold a warranty policy which is insurance in all but a name and the FOS will take on complaints about extended warranties, heck, they'll do complaints about used car sales as well, indeed according to this warranty company (and the RAC if you look at their site), they do indeed allow you to go to the FOS

@Nasqueron some extended warranties are insurance and therefore do fall within the scope of FOS. 

On the RAC website you are failing to notice the word MAY... for their insurance product you can, for their non-insurance products you cannot.

On the used car case the complaint was about the financial services firm that provided the credit for the used car and therefore was jointly liable for it... it wasn't a complaint about the used car garage

Warranty Direct in your final link even point out that you need to ensure it is a regulated product (aka insurance) to be able to get the benefit of the FOS because if its not insurance there is no FOS rights. 

Which brings us round nicely full circle to my original post which clearly states 

then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

DullGreyGuy

Nasqueron said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Nasqueron said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Nasqueron said:

You would have to submit a complaint to the firm who sold it to you and see what they say. Expect swift rejection with copies of your signed paperwork, then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

Its a warranty not insurance, there is no warranty ombudsman

They sold a warranty policy which is insurance in all but a name and the FOS will take on complaints about extended warranties, heck, they'll do complaints about used car sales as well, indeed according to this warranty company (and the RAC if you look at their site), they do indeed allow you to go to the FOS

@Nasqueron some extended warranties are insurance and therefore do fall within the scope of FOS. 

On the RAC website you are failing to notice the word MAY... for their insurance product you can, for their non-insurance products you cannot.

On the used car case the complaint was about the financial services firm that provided the credit for the used car and therefore was jointly liable for it... it wasn't a complaint about the used car garage

Warranty Direct in your final link even point out that you need to ensure it is a regulated product (aka insurance) to be able to get the benefit of the FOS because if its not insurance there is no FOS rights. 

Which brings us round nicely full circle to my original post which clearly states 

then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

Which enables us to square the circle as confirm it does not apply as RAC Platinum Warranty is a warranty not an insurance product and as such is not in the scope of the Financial Ombudsman and there is no "Warranty Ombudsman" as stated in my post:

DullGreyGuy said:

Nasqueron said:

You would have to submit a complaint to the firm who sold it to you and see what they say. Expect swift rejection with copies of your signed paperwork, then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

Its a warranty not insurance, there is no warranty ombudsman

Nasqueron

DullGreyGuy said:

Nasqueron said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Nasqueron said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Nasqueron said:

You would have to submit a complaint to the firm who sold it to you and see what they say. Expect swift rejection with copies of your signed paperwork, then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

Its a warranty not insurance, there is no warranty ombudsman

They sold a warranty policy which is insurance in all but a name and the FOS will take on complaints about extended warranties, heck, they'll do complaints about used car sales as well, indeed according to this warranty company (and the RAC if you look at their site), they do indeed allow you to go to the FOS

some extended warranties are insurance and therefore do fall within the scope of FOS. 

On the RAC website you are failing to notice the word MAY... for their insurance product you can, for their non-insurance products you cannot.

On the used car case the complaint was about the financial services firm that provided the credit for the used car and therefore was jointly liable for it... it wasn't a complaint about the used car garage

Warranty Direct in your final link even point out that you need to ensure it is a regulated product (aka insurance) to be able to get the benefit of the FOS because if its not insurance there is no FOS rights. 

Which brings us round nicely full circle to my original post which clearly states 

then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

Which enables us to square the circle as confirm it does not apply as RAC Platinum Warranty is a warranty not an insurance product and as such is not in the scope of the Financial Ombudsman and there is no "Warranty Ombudsman" as stated in my post:

DullGreyGuy said:

Nasqueron said:

You would have to submit a complaint to the firm who sold it to you and see what they say. Expect swift rejection with copies of your signed paperwork, then you can decide about going to the ombudsman if it applies (e.g. business is still trading as the same company; was a dealer/regulated sale etc)

Its a warranty not insurance, there is no warranty ombudsman

Or maybe it's just completing the circle as the RAC themselves say on the site that some of their products are covered by the FOS; the FOS themselves (per the examples I provided) cover complaints about warranties that are underwritten by an insurer (which the RAC is); alternatively OP could contact the apparently non-existent Motor Ombudsman  (quite how such an organisation could operate, given they simultaneously don't exist but do is beyond my mere human knowledge ) who deal with complaints about car warranty sales.

Perhaps now would be the best point to step back and accept the facts?