Complain about a product or service

Allied American Warranty

Angelia of Northglenn, CO October 29, 2009

On January 21, I received a call to my land line advising me that my extended car warranty that I purchased through the dealer was about to expire, and indeed it was. Because I am on the no call list for this state, I did believe that these people were affiliated with my dealer. They had all of the information on my car and me. I had had major car repairs a few months prior which were covered under an extended warranty, so I was a believer in these warranties. I purchased an extended car warranty from Allied American Warranty for $1900, $500 down, $77.78 per month for 18 months on 1/21/09. The warranty term was 84 months, 15 day wait period, 100,000 miles, no deductible and interest-free payments. The warranty purchased was Consumer Direct Warranty Services in Redding, California; it was invoiced through MEPCO Finance Corporation in Chicago.

On May 21, I received a call from rep of Allied (Sarah) requesting payment by phone, since no payment had been received. I told Sarah that I didn't make payments over the phone and I informed her that those payments were setup to issue automatically through my bank through the term of our agreement, 18 months. I confirmed through Internet banking that payment had been issued to and received by Allied, and Sarah confirmed same.

However, on the same day, May 21, a charge of $77.78 was made to the credit card I used for the original $500 down payment back in January, resulting in my having a credit balance with Allied of $77.78. I was unaware of this charge or the credit balance until June 21, when I received my bank statement. MEPCO did not invoice me for June indicating the credit, so payment automatically issued through Internet banking. I began attempting to contact Allied for an explanation of this charge and as to why they were retaining my credit card number on file. I was told originally that they didn't do credit card or automatic payments, which was the explanation for billing through MEPCO.

I was unsuccessful in reaching Allessandro C, Allied's principal. After many attempts, I did reach Sarah, who told me that I had authorized the charge and that if I cancelled I would receive no refund, which were given on an individual basis.

I cancelled the credit card, reversed the $77.78 extra payment and sent Allied a letter informing them of my intent to terminate our relationship and to recover the $888.90 that they had received from me. To date, Allied has not responded to me whatsoever. I filed complaints with BBB in California, Chicago and Florida against CDWS, MEPCO and Allied, respectively. CDWS responded that Allied was an agent and collected all monies and that Allied had told CDWS that they were in the process of refunding me. MEPCO reponded similarly, stating Allied was agent and to seek refund from them. BBB advised me that since neither CDWS nor MEPCO collected any monites, my complaint was with Allied.

Allied responded briefly to BBB that they had a no refund after 60 days policy and would send BBB a copy of said policy. No documentation was ever received by BBB and the matter was left as unresolved, as Allied is not a member of the BBB. CDWS is a member of the BBB. I did receive a letter in July from CDWS in Las Vegas, stating that Allied had requested my warranty be cancelled as of 8/19/09, providing no further explanation. Please note that 8/19/09 would have been what the payments extended to with the credit balance. However, they received notice dated June 25 of my intent to cancel. Finally, there was no performance under this agreement whatsoever. I hadn't even finished paying for it.

There is no policy in anything I received stating such a no refund after 60 days policy or anything else in that regard. If there were such a policy, and there isn't, why don't the other entities invovled know about it. This matter is beyond the scope of any policy, in my opinion, since these people cannot be trusted to do business with and I certainly wasn't about to give them another $1,000 and share financial information, etc. with them.

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