Disclaimer: Obviously, the vast majority of aftermarket (or extended) warranties on automobiles are borderline scams. I knew that when purchasing a warranty on my car, which is why I read quite a few posts and took advice from people on this forum about which specific warranty to purchase. I knew it would most likely be an uphill battle to get a claim paid for with any aftermarket warranty, regardless of the company I purchased from. I tried to pick the lesser of all the evils, if you will.

I went with a DirectBuy warranty that was insanely cheap. $2500 ($3k + $500 Amazon giftcard) for 4 years, 100k miles, unlimited coverage (except wear items), with unlimited tire protection plan. I also received confirmation, in writing, that they are fine with modifications on the car, as long as they don't cause the car to throw a check engine light. LOL, too good to be true, I know, but I went over the entire contract with a fine-toothed comb and figured I could thwart any of the shady tactics that the company may use.

ANYWAYS, onto the good stuff. My 2003 911 Turbo sputtered out on me a few nights ago. I had it taken into the dealership on a flatbed (I love Triple A) and they diagnosed the issue as a failed fuel pump. They contacted my warranty company about the claim, and this is the story of my battle with the ****heads at DirectBuy.

I've called them multiple times yesterday and today and spoken with different people each time. They all said the same ****. They all used the same tactics. They were all trained in the art of circular debating. The most annoying thing was that they would speak over me and not shut the **** up when I wanted to make valid points.

First, all he/they kept saying is that without any service records, the claim "could not move forward." This was their first tactic, and it was repeated to me OVER AND OVER AND OVER until I wanted to puke. They never said they were denying my claim... it just "couldn't move forward" without service records (on a car that had been driven less than 30k miles, mind you). So I pretty much just blew up at them and said that "couldn't move forward" was simply a euphemism for denying my claim. I told them that they were DENYING MY CLAIM because I didn't give them service records, and that they should never mention to me again the fact that I have not sent them service records; we were ****ing DONE talking about that.

I then moved onto the next order of business: the fact that none of the recommended maintenance items in the service interval section of the manual has anything to do with the fuel pump. I had to bang this into their heads multiple times, but finally I got it through to them and they had to put me on hold for about ten mins while they thought of the next tactic to use against me. The guy came back and said that they were possibly going to cover part of the claim, but not all of it since my fuel filter had never been changed, and a dirty fuel filter can cause the pump to fail. According to them, the fuel filter should be changed at 40k miles or 4 years, whichever comes first. Oh, right... because the fuel filter ****ing decays over time when the car is not being driven. *******S.

As I mentioned at the start, all the agents at this place interrupt me repeatedly and are almost invulnerable to interruption themselves; they simply will not stop talking until they finish what they have to say. What sucks is that they just said the same ****ing thing five times before. At about this point in the argument, these tactics pissed me off just a biiiit too much; the little ****** would NOT stop talking and even had the nerve to say "you are not letting me talk, sir." So I got verrrrry angry and told him to "stop talking completely" (just a bit more polite than telling him to shut the **** up), because "I actually had valid points to make and he was just repeating the same things over and over." He shut up fast, and I said my entire spiel and he was silent the whole time. I told him that it was ridiculous that they were trying to give me service intervals that override the ones in the manual for MY ****ING CAR. The service intervals in my manual recommend changing the fuel filter at 60k miles, without any specification of a time interval. This really stumped him. After I finished, he was still silent. I had to tell him "okay, you can speak now".... hahaha, that made me feel great. He still didn't have anything to say and said, "umm, hold on one second," (I heard him flipping pages) and put me on hold again.

After another ten minutes, he finally comes back and sounds all agreeable and says that, "as a courtesy to me, they've agreed to pay my claim in full." I told him thanks, but that it was laughable they considered this a "courtesy" to me. I told him that this was the worst customer service experience I've ever had with any company, and that I would be sure to relay these sentiments to friends and forums. I told him that I was onto their tactics and that they shouldn't try to pull another one over on me in the future. He started blabbering about some stupid bull****... at this point he didn't have any note-cards to read from and he sounded like a complete and utter moron. I was very happy to have fully broken him down.

Victory was mine... and to think that it was all over a claim of $726.95.

P.S. They're also trying to call my spoiler failure "wear and tear." Needless to say, I would NEVER recommend DBW to anybody!!!!!!

P.P.S. I mentioned, at multiple points throughout the conversation, that I was going to sue them and that I had a lawyer ready... which is not a bluff.

 

That sucks! Glad you got it taken care of.

 

Epic indeed!! Great work, love when the good guys win one.

 

Do you know if they service their contracts or if someone else does it? Shoot me a pm when you find out. If they sub it out, which is likely, there is a very good chance I know the company that actually has the warranty.

More importantly I know the founder, CEO and Chairman of the company- long story but I took them public back in the 80's.

Might be one heckuva sense of karma if you had the chance to blast the CEO over the phone!!!!! I'd be happy top give you his number...

Tom.

 

Sorry for your experience you had and thanks for the heads up. In these trying times integrity is hard to come by and the market will sort out the rift raft.

 

how much would you charge to fight an insurance claim for me? nothing gets me rattled more than fighting an insurance adjuster.

 

Really? They still have $2300 of your money.

You knew this was a rip off from the beginning- pray you don't have a major issue, they will not be so accommodating just to get you to shut up...

 

Thanks for sharing your story. Sounds like it was painful but it worked out for you at the end. I'm coming off of the CPO warranty in a little bit and I've been considering whether I want to get a 3rd party extended warranty. My gut is telling me "no" -- but I haven't completed my research. Certainly, I wouldn't get one unless I'm confident that my service place would be the one to deal with the warranty company rather a situation where I have to do it. Of course, I understand that this might not help anyway.

 

I did not know it was a ripoff. I knew it would be an uphill battle, but I didn't know it would be this bad.

The saga is not over. I received a call from Porsche this morning stating that DirectBuy didn't cover all of the costs. They essentially only paid for parts $770 and the entire bill (with labor included) is just over $1300. I guess I'm going to have to give them another call today. Fun.

 

My spoiler on my stock 04 vert went 2 years with about 9k on it, lol

 

damn, I am looking into warranties myself. Good to know to stay clear of these guys! Thanks!

 

Sorry to hear about all this. This is the reason why I only insure things that I truly can't afford to pay out of pocket. To pay $3000 for this kind of aggravation is simply not worth the time and trouble.

 

Congrats on your "victory", but I wouldn't call it that. I myself would NEVER buy an aftermarket warranty, because of this exact thing. If I can't afford to fix it myself, I don't buy it. When it comes to insurance companies, it's your job to give them money and their job to NEVER give it back, even though that is the contract you have with them.

 

So you NEVER buy insurance? You only buy things you can afford to fix yourself? I dont understand. What does that mean? Do you spend all your time fixing your stuff? If you got in a car accident, would you fix your car yourself? If you totalled your car, would you fix it yourself? Or would you just buy a new car (with all the money you presumably saved by not having collision insurance)? What about health insurance? do you just fix it all yourself or pay out of pocket when you have a health issue?

Please explain to the rest of us who have insurance in various facets of our lives where we are going wrong...

 

I'm talking about CARS. Like most people, I have way too much insurance for everything else. A car warranty, to ME, is NOT insurance, it is a scam...as evidenced here in this thread, and many other places to hear and read about. What other "insurance" do you call in a claim and get the run around until you just quit? It is rare that you hear of someone getting all of their money out of a car warranty...especially an aftermarket one. It happens, but not often. Nothing more frustrating then spending $3k or $4k on a "warranty" and having to FIGHT for your life to get them to cover a measly $500 claim. You call and (much like the OP here) have meaningless conversations with idiots reading off pre written cue cards, until you get so frustrated you just hang up. Fortunately he (the OP) hung in there and got SOME of it paid. NOW he gets to call BACK and keep fighting for the other $300 -$400. SO not worth it to ME. My point was, and still is, If I buy a car, I make sure that I am prepared to pay for all repairs that may or may not happen. If I cannot, I will not buy THAT car. I would rather just pay and fix it myself. I'm not saying that a warranty isn't good for someone else, just not worth it to me. I have been lucky and not had any MAJOR repairs. I"m sure my time is coming, but that's the price I pay to have expensive toys when I can.