Endurance Warranty

I had already called CarShield and they were just too expensive. I had called CarShield a long time ago before my warranty was even close to being up just to get some information from them and to see if I wanted to go with them. They were not very good about it at all and I was unhappy after I talked to them. When I called CarShield, it was a real hard sell thing. I didn’t like to be pushed but that was exactly what they were doing, and that was also part of my decision not to go with them.

But when I talked to the people at Endurance, they weren’t like that at all. And I had already made up my mind that I was going to get something, which was what I told them, and they were cooperative about it. I didn’t feel like I was really being pushed too much because I've already made that decision to do it, it's just a matter of with who. They told me a bit about things, what was available and why they thought that one might be a good choice. They sent some stuff by email, but I haven’t had internet now for a couple of weeks because I shut everything off thinking I was moving two weeks ago, and that didn’t happen. So, I need to go and check. I don't know if they're sending a paper bill or not, so I have to find out about that too. I'm not even sure when it's due. I paid two months ahead and they told me how much it was gonna be to get it in place, and that was what I did. So, the experience was all good.

I wouldn’t have any problem sending somebody to check Endurance out. I was a manager in Tudor Systems for years and I just loved the customer service. So, I've got a thick hide when it comes to dealing with people with something like that, but most people that are looking for something and shopping around, I don’t think they’d have any problem talking to anybody there. They answered all my questions, which was good. Their customer service is great.

I filed a claim with them recently and I’m in the middle of the process, which has been a bit frustrating but kind of understandable at the same time. My check engine light went off. I took the car in and had it looked at. The mechanic got the readings and before they went to the warranty company, they looked at other things that might have given the codes that came up. But when they approached Endurance, they're having them jump through some hoops.

In conversations with my mechanic, they said they needed the information from me. So, I called them to find out exactly what information they needed. I was told that they just needed me to send them evidence that I had had an oil change within the 30-day period that was required under the contract and I sent that to them. Then there was more back and forth between my mechanic and Endurance. And my mechanic told me that Endurance told them that they needed more information. But nobody from Endurance contacted me to tell me that and that slowed down the process for about a week and a half. If what I sent the mechanic initially was not adequate, I would’ve expected they would’ve told me immediately so that I could get that and keep the stuff together. But then, I did send it in.

Then the most recent thing was they had my mechanic give them a full listing of everything that would be required to effect the repairs that were necessary. According to my mechanic, they were talking about down to the last screw that was necessary. Again, I get that. They’re a warranty company and they’re trying to minimize what they have to pay out. And if there’s anything that’s not explicitly covered, I’m sure that they’re gonna tell me that they don’t wanna pay for it even if it’s something that holds in a part that have to be replaced. So now, apparently, my mechanic has given them everything they need, in writing at least, and I have given them everything that they have asked for as far as documentation on all of the maintenance records since I’ve owned the car. The step where we are now is that they are having their own mechanic coming in and check my mechanic’s work.

This claim has been going on for a while since late July. My mechanic now has my car waiting for Endurance's mechanic to come in. So, I’m driving a rental now. It’s supposed to take no more than 48 hours for their mechanic to come in and that 48 hours started today. What’s gonna be interesting will be just how long it’ll be before they actually get around to approving it. I have a pretty good idea of what the warranty covers based on my reading of the contract. If they come back and try to nickel-and-dime me, that wouldn’t be good. If they take care of it the way that I think they should, I would recommend them to others.

I liked Endurance partly due to some internet reviews on it. It was kinda rated as an underdog, under-picked that was actually that many people enjoyed. I'm still considering that idea, but that is what it was recommended as. I am still under the 30-day trial run. And a lot of these policies don't allow you to really examine the policy without doing a trial date. And where I'm at right now is examining Endurance's quality in regards to some other companies. But I'm not completely sold on them yet, but it did have good reviews, and it had a good price range.

Also, they do one thing that no other company ever does which is to insure on tires. And I had to ask them that 50 million times because I was kinda baffled that they do that, and I'm not really sure whether there is a loophole on this thing or not, but a kicker for me was that if a tire will not keep air, then they will be putting money in to replace it. And that is something that no other company does. It seems like there's a loophole there. It's odd that, Endurance, of the 50 million extended warranty companies that are out there, is the only one I've had offer that. So, that was kind of a plus and a turn on for them, but also a little bit leery. The other reason was that they offered a warranty on all of the electronics within the car including the stereo.

Now, one of the things I'm a little turned off by which is another one of those cool things, but a little bit leery on which is the promotional coupons that they offered along the way. This, from my experience, makes it seem kinda like a used-car dealership where they throw you a bunch of free mugs and t-shirts, but they're really selling you a piece of crap. So, if you're gonna be a car warranty company, you should stay focused on car warranty company. But trying to offer incentives like that is like putting dressings or a Band-Aid on something you're trying not to get the customer to see the actual problems.

Protect My Car does the same thing. And I talked to Protect My Car for a while due to Endurance's price range being very similar. It was on the lower end. The price range has been where it might have some value. But in talking to that company, they had some of the worst organizational issues I've ever seen in a company. They had no record that you had talked to them and what you had talked about. And I feel like I'm getting a runaround on that these companies are giving a really good sales pitch, but when it actually comes down to the product, it is not all that great. And being that Protect My Car and Endurance are set up in a very similar way, it makes me leery to see how Endurance responds in that aspect. They're both acting in that used car dealership, where they're offering a lot of little incentives. And so, I'm a little leery about that.

Endurance's main competition right now for me, not in price but in quality is Omega Auto Shield. It is a different price arrangement, but it is a more legitimately based back and higher BBB setting. Based on its backing, I'm hoping it's better. But based on Endurance's price, I would prefer them to be the underdog. And also, the other company is working through a subsidiary company. They're hiring a subcompany to do their interactions for them. And that can become an issue in business that I've discovered before where you end up in an argument game between two different companies. You will be caught in a middleman. One of the reasons I like Endurance and one of the reasons their price is low is they're not having that middleman involved. They're skipping the middleman price, and the hassle that comes along with trying to deal with two different companies that are fighting amongst themselves.

Other than that, Endurance got me my papers out in a duly time. They haven't left me off the face of the earth. And they are calling to verify and ask how my experience is which is good. So far, they have called me to ask me about how my service is which is good. They answered all my questions successfully for the first initial call which I can get thoroughly involved in some questions. I'd like to do my due diligence on research and understanding an agreement before I get involved in it.

Most internet reviews for Endurance were fairly positive. A lot of guys like me that had tried or looked at other places weren't really and just decided that all in all, this was a hidden gem that they found that was really good. And they took a gamble on them, and it worked out well. They were loyal and they didn't give them a beat around. They didn't lie to them. They didn't harass them with calls. They didn't say one thing and then come back and then say another with a loophole in fine print.

Their reps sucked and they weren’t very nice. I’ve already paid my 179 then the payments got broke down to $88 a month for 36 months. I’m into my second month on automatic payment now then they told me that I had to have another oil change within 30 days of the policy. And they want to re-verify the mileage, which will change from the time that they called and they won’t take “No” for an answer. I could’ve been a good trooper and just went out, got the actual miles on that day, and prove to them that I just had an oil change not less than 30 days ago. But I ain’t about to waste money and have another perfectly good oil change that’s set by Endurance. What difference does it make whether I have an oil change or not when you’re not really asking me the whole package of how my truck’s doing mechanically? And I’m lucky that my truck's condition is very sound and it's probably gonna be the last truck I'll have.

I went around a few times with their reps on these issues. I talked to about three different people and with all three of them, I almost cancelled. I’m on a 60-day period where you can’t have any transactions and that’s okay. It’s to make sure you’re not getting some pre-existing condition. But in my case, there’s nothing really wrong with my truck. So I’m just burning out that time. I’m paying my premiums ‘til that happens then hopefully, time will pass and you won’t even know the difference whether I’m covered or not for if something goes wrong, which I probably will be.

And for me, it’s pretty lucky because I got a certified mechanic right here in my hometown where I’ve had most of my service done in my vehicles most of my life. So I don’t have to go very far, depending on where I break down, unless it’s critical and needs to be fixed right now. And as far as what Endurance's policy offers a rental car or the place I go would let me borrow a car if I did the work right there.

But I’m not about to go be pushed around about it just to dot an I or a T there. They could be doing that every couple of weeks or every couple of months. And I’m supposed to keep track of my service that I do on my vehicle, which most people don’t do but I do. I keep track of my oil change, so the place that does my work if I have any work done has a record available to prove it. I’ve had quite a few new things on it. I’ve had a new brand-new battery put in not very long ago and I have four new tires that I’m still paying for. But what we paid off has nothing to do with what we’re talking about as far as insurance goes. These are things that I had to keep up with anyway, like down the windshield wipers and a lot of that stuff.

But overall, I’m not really satisfied even yet and Endurance's reps ought to believe what you tell them the first time. I had a pretty hefty talk to where I was almost gonna hang up on the last rep I talked to. I was setting to cancel and telling him to send me my money back. I wouldn’t have got it, but I thought it would at least help me that I was a prior customer. I’ve had Endurance for a few years and I didn’t even burn the whole amount off of three thousand and some bucks.

So far, I got the Ts crossed but I doubt it a little bit. Hopefully I don’t have to use the warranty because it sounds good on paper and verbally, but until you actually exercise some of these deals that you’re supposed to be getting credit for or fixed, you will never know. It's pretty cool to just pay a hundred bucks upfront to my mechanic or the dealership itself and they’ll take care of the rest. But at this time, my experience with them has not been very well and I hope somebody hears about what happened because the damage was already done.

However, it was very evident that when I called in, it immediately turned into a sales call. It was about informing me about the product, but the rep was continually trying to like, "Okay, do you wanna buy now? Do you wanna buy now? How about right now?" There was a good, strong push. And there were these incentives, "Buy today. Pay in cash 100% upfront and do these certain things." I recognized what was going on. I had more questions and it was more like they wanted me to buy and they wanted to spend more time on just getting the sale done.

Also, the guy did some weird stuff to secure the sales. It ended up like he settled up some deal where it gave him $100 and reserved my discount for two months that I could cancel and get my $100. But if I decided to keep it, then I was fine. That got me the discount. I thought, "Okay, this guy just wants his numbers to say he made a sale." That was coming through to me and I was like, "Whatever man, take my $100." But the gentleman was willing to answer all of my questions and took the time to do that, otherwise I wouldn't have purchased from them.

Also, there were some things that they left out that I got to the fine print later. They sell you this coverage where they pay up to $12,000 for the vehicle in claims and that's what I purchased when I was sold the goods. When I got the contract and read through it, it actually says up to $12,000 but nothing exceeding the market value of the vehicle at the time the claim is made. So, if you buy a vehicle worth $8,000 and you're paying for this $12,000 of coverage that you were sold, you will only get $8,000 which is something that they didn’t really go over in the sales part. They shouldn’t do that because they sell you this number and you think, "Okay, I'm getting this much."

If you buy a $4,000 vehicle and you think, "Oh man, if the engine breaks and it's gonna cost all this money," and you bought a $12,000 warranty for coverage and then you go to make a claim and it's like, "Oh, where's the other $8,000 I paid for?" That's an interesting thing for them to have to deal with. It's certainly information that they leave out from people who buy the plan that inclusively covers more, but then they get stuck with this cap that's in the fine print that you find out about later that it could be much less, depending on the value of the vehicle. I didn’t feel good that they would not clarify that in the beginning. But given that the value of my vehicle is high enough, I'm not too worried about it. That part wasn’t cool. Everything else seemed standard.