Penn Warranty Corporation Reviews and Complaints

Consumer Complaints & Reviews

Eddie of Seymour, TN on March 23, 2010

I purchased three Genesis warranties from Penn Warranty. They were for a 2000 S-10 Chevy, 2000 GMC Sierra, and 2002 Chevy Impala. These warranty payments were set up on the auto pay via a Discover credit card. In April 2009, fraudulent activity was suspected on the credit card placing a freeze on the account. During this time, both the S-10 and GMC payments were due. With the hold placed on card, no payments were issued.

Penn Warranty was unable to contact us due to an address change on our end, therefore the warranties lapsed and by the time we realized this via credit card billing cycle, it was too late to reinstate warranties and Penn Warranty refused to renew due to mileage on the vehicles which they had covered the previous four to five years.

In November 2009, I notified Penn Warranty of a new credit card number for the auto pay for the warranty on the Impala. The Discover card on file was being replaced as a result of a breach in the security and potential fraud. After notifying Penn Warranty of the changes, so as not to experience a lapse in payment, Penn Warranty treated this a renewal which wasn't the case - it was simply updating information for auto pay to continue uninterrupted. The renewal I never applied for was declined due to excessive mileage on the Impala.

When the warranties were purchased, they were good for as long as I had the vehicles and payments were made. Though there was an unfortunate miscues on the S-10 and GMC due to credit card freeze, there was no tolerance given even after providing documentation of notice from Discover. While it seems that tolerance should be allowed for such situations of credit card companies monitoring for fraudulent activity, there is no excuse for cancelling a policy simply because one changes the credit card information on file so there is no lapse in payment.

It would appear that Penn Warranty wants to cancel customers when the risk is greater for potential problems since I have kept the vehicles longer than the average person does and the mileage on them exceeds their limit for new applications.

Knut of Silver Point, TN on June 5, 2008

My 2000 Volvo V70 XC AWD threw a rod and created catastrophic damage. The engine was full of oil after the accident. Penn Warranty said accident was caused by a lack of lubrication on the bearings which then caused the rod to break. The car was bought in Sept 2007 The was bought with 127275 miles on the car and had been driven only 4750 miles at the time of the accident in early May. The car also had a carfax report. My mechanic told me that the car had been hit on the right side.

It is my opinion that the Problem that caused the accident existed at the time I purchased the car and was just waiting to happen. After purchasing the car I found out that the safety breaka did not work.

I had a retired Volvo mechanic and his son look at the car and they said the engine sounds like it has 200,000 miles on it. They advised me to get rid of the car.

It was at this point that I decided to get warranty protection.

When I changed the oil, the paper filter was an oil soaked wad of paper.

When I replaced the thermostat I found the termostat had been broken to run in an open position providing more cooling for the Engine. A proper thermostat was installed for heat in the passenger compartment.

The findings of the inspector from Penn Warranty stated that the pan had been recently cleaned and he said that sew heat marks on the bearings.

When the engine blew, we heard no noise to warm us.

The engine blew smoke, a thud and rolled to a stop. It happen in seconds.

The vehicle was bought from Variety Auto Sales in Cookeville, Tennessee. Variety imports cars from Baltimore to cookeville which does not require smog devices. I feel that the car was dumped to Variety.

Regardless of the Condition of the car at purchase Penn Warranty did not inspect the car and the warranty was in affect immediately.

With mechanical wear, the radial deflection of the rod becomes excessive and the rod

suffers from torsion vibration. This leads to connecting rod breakage and catastrophic Engine damage