Endurance Warranty

We had a program one other time. We had bought two new cars and it was our first excursion into these highly electronic vehicles. It'd be a good idea to have them covered. When we had a couple of issues, we were treated poorly so I was very leery of this kind of a process again, but yet having bought that vehicle, it might be worthwhile trying it once more, and we have.

At first, I had some problems with the MEPCO website. I couldn't get from Endurance to MEPCO very easily and I had to make a few phone calls to get there. It took me about two or three different tries. We bought the warranty in either November or December and the first payment was late because I couldn't get to the website at all. I kept trying to enter the data and for some reason or another, it wouldn't take it. I got a nastygram from Endurance saying I was late and I said that I tried to pay three days ago and nothing happened. I never got a receipt. I talked to a couple of people about it and it seemed to indicate to me that I paid it. But I got the nastygram from Endurance saying I was late and did I need help with payment. It was a whole bunch of who struck John about my finances but it had nothing to do with that. It had to do with their website. So, I explained that to people and I was able to get the payment made.

The following month, I had a similar problem but I kept trying because I noticed that the first time, after I got on it the second time on the first payment due, there was a difference in the way it reacted. So I kept looking for that and I finally found it. I would like to see it be all just one website to go to rather than the way Endurance splits it up between their service and advertising website, and then somebody else is collecting my money. I find that a little disconcerting, but if that's the way they're going to do business, that's your business model and it’s entirely up to them, but I would prefer different.

I don't have any problem with the sign-up procedure. The only problem is that I didn’t know that they wanted me to wait 1,000 miles. I could care less, because as soon as I picked up the car, I took it to my friend down the road who owns a garage and I had him check everything. He checked the brakes, the tires, the oil and the Freon pressure. He took care of all that and I paid that out of pocket. I already had the car serviced and I don't care about any contracts. Money is not my issue. It's getting something programmed that the boys can use. I bought a 10-year-old Hyundai Accent, because I wanted something for the boys to start and I want them to have it. They start driver's training next year and as long as they're driving the car, it will continue to be insured and it will also have the Endurance service if it works. It doesn’t go away.

Everything was fine, except the terms of the agreement are concerning me. Because I looked up the people that I talked to and they told me that they have people that use Endurance all over the country, and I said, “Okay.” Then, they were telling me that they were trying to recruit as many people as they can as customers in Florida because of the growth in Florida. I live in Polk County so I started looking around to find somebody who uses Endurance in the event that I need to get something done, I would know where to go. I found only one in my area. So, my concern now is that they're moving into Florida, but there aren’t very many people in Florida that will honor Endurance. There are some in Tampa and some in Jacksonville but there are few anywhere else. If I start hunting and I can't find one, I am not gonna be a happy camper. I'll be looking for somewhere else for coverage or another place.

Endurance said I have the right to stop whenever I want to. I’d just tell them to terminate, I don't make any more payments and that's the end of it. I just lose the money that I invested upfront. Now, to make it even more exciting, I'm moving to Oregon and I don't know what Endurance offers in Oregon. Also, there were a few things that Endurance failed to mention that were clearly omitted. One of which was the use of Mepco as finance people. Nobody told me about that and I didn't know until they sent me the bill.

I got full cover insurance through Progressive. Then they got a little insurance up there at the Ford place where they take care of certain parts. When I was up there talking to the guy about it, he was telling me that they got something that’ll take care of like the brakes, the motor and the different stuff that they were telling me about Endurance. I had just made up my mind to just keep everything in one place, which would be at the Ford place. If anything happens, I'll just let them take care of everything. It was gonna be like a $105 a month that I would have to pay up there to Ford place. I am just gonna let them handle everything at the Ford place because I'm going through a little something right now and the cheaper that I can get things to work out for me, the better.

At first, I spoke with the guy from Endurance and he was nice. I let him know that he would have to call me back around by the 1st of October because I didn't have the money when I talked to him because I had just went and purchased the car. He didn't do a follow-up call with me. Another lady did right towards the end of September. And she's telling me that she could get me approved and she let me know what I was going to have to pay to get it approved. She broke everything down. She was really sweet.

Then, I ran into a problem and I really didn't want to get in. With the lady that I was talking to yesterday, I didn't want to talk to her about what I was going through. I just let her know that I was going to take everything to the Ford place. I was going to try to deal with them until I got myself straightened back out. I had to tell her about three times that I just wanted to get my refund back. It's not because I found anything wrong with the service but I just thought they said I had 30 days. I was trying to do it within the 30 days because the only thing that I paid on it was getting it set up. I haven't even paid my first monthly bill yet. I was trying to stop that before it got to that point and they got ready to take the money out of my bank account and I was gonna need it. The lady said she cancelled it. I have been checking my banking account, but it hasn't gone back in my account yet.

The fact that, even if the car goes into the shop for major repair, I get at least a five-day rental. If I lose my keys, they cover me. I've lost my keys and had to call a locksmith. I've had to pay the $400 to have it replaced. It just relieves everything because it's like, "Wow." I just did an oil change yesterday. The car was saying to give it an oil change or it was saying give it an oil change soon. Things like that give me anxiety when if the check engine light is on or there's an issue, I can't because I need a reliable car. Although, I know the vehicle has a lot of miles, it is very reliable. It's a good ride, it rides good, it performs well. But I like the security and the protection that Endurance offered, which is why I went with the company. Because everything that they were saying, I've probably experienced.

Before this Ford Fusion was the Chevy Malibu and I had expired my miles for my warranty. I bought it brand-new from the dealership and I went to my miles. I've owned the car for a few years now, but I was way out of my warranty and the transmission went on me. The transmission was 33-something. That was something I wasn't prepared for. There wasn't even a warning, there wasn't anything for me to say, "Hey, okay." So, I had to park the vehicle. I was paying for a rental and I have to save up the money for because I needed a car. I don't want to be in that situation again because paying for a rental every week was a lot.

I feel much more comfortable and secure now that I have this warranty. I've bought brand-new cars off the lot. When you have that warranty, something goes wrong, you're worry-free. You take it to the dealer here, you fix it, whatever is wrong, whatever was defective, they fix it for you. Great, you go on about your day. I like the $100 deductible because it's not like I got to come up with $1,000. I liked everything about it in comparison to other situations in life. I like this and I'm gonna go with it. The guy was very adamant. He wanted me as a customer and he did everything in his power to make sure that I was satisfied with my warranty.

I have definitely been telling all of my friends, "Hey, have you heard of these companies and do they work or am I wasting my money? Are they really gonna cover my car or am I wasting my money?" Some companies offer you things. And one thing that I liked was the rep was very clear that it is not a reimbursement. I take it to the dealership, the dealership deals with Endurance, Endurance pays them, and it has nothing to do with me. I just pay my deductible. I am looking forward to seeing if this is really for real.

I had always done all the service. It was my second Ford vehicle, the same type, and I thought, "Okay, I'll get a quote from Ford. My life won't get any worse." But Ford gave me a quote, and I felt that it was too expensive. It was over $1,000 a year for the car and there were limitations, but they were going to extend the warranty out quite a bit. Some time past, mileage on my vehicle got up well over 60,000 to like 64,000. And I was doing some other inquiries online and I saw the ConsumerAffairs solicitation about auto warranties and I felt a sense of comfort about ConsumerAffairs being a relatively objective assessor of what is being offered. So, I put in the information about myself to try to get a quote and I listened to the pitches that came at me electronically. ConsumerAffairs gave me a number, I selected one and it just happened to be Endurance.

The thing that I liked about them was they're not a brokered service, that you were talking to a person who worked at Endurance Auto Warranty who writes the expense check. They're not just taking a cut of finding a victim. It wasn't a heavy pitch sale. Every question I asked was well-answered. And even then, I just took the number of the person I spoke to and I said, "I'll make a decision this weekend." At the same time, that was coincident with me speaking with Ford, and Ford almost harassed me. "What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Your mileage is going up."

Ford structured an environment where they find hardcore driven sales people that just annoy you. So, I lost my sense of endurance to tolerate the Ford thing. By the third time the guy asked me, "What are you going to do?", I said, "I'm going to drive the car until it breaks and take the risk and pay for the repair myself because you're playing a game with effective insurance here and you're making money." Am I just willing to stand at the roulette table and think, "Oh, the transmission will make it to 70,000."

What these people who are selling this stuff don't understand is that you have three other people that you know with the product and they're on their 120,000th mile and they haven't had a problem. And you've done regular maintenance. I'm an engineer and I've done regular catalog maintenance all the way along and I don't have any really horrible disturbing problems with the vehicle. And it's completely paid off now for like three years. Do I want to suddenly pay more and more and more? And every year, you pass every few more miles that go on the car. When I was talking to Endurance, the person told me the quote they gave me would be the quote that would hold until the car clicked over to 70,000 miles. So, I was sitting there thinking, "These calls are never going to stop. I can probably shop this for a little longer. Risk at driving a little longer, and then make a decision at 68,000 or 69,000 miles."

I became more keenly aware of what the shortages meant for the retail experience of buying, and that used car prices were increasing for the first time in 28 years. Statistically, they never have. I have an extremely low mile, good quality vehicle, well taken care of. It's 2021 and I'm driving around in a 2013 Ford Flex. The Ford Flex's design hasn't changed. It's an acquired taste. It's not all sexy, but I accepted it. I traded in an Audi Q7 for the Ford Flex and the Ford Flex was as good of a vehicle in 2010 when I bought my first one, and it was 40% less than the equivalent purchasing of the Q7, a new 2010. I was so happy with the 2010 Ford Flex, I bought another one in 2013, I leased it. And then, at the end of that lease, I bought it out because I would have given back cars to dealerships with a total of over 30,000 miles unused mileage. So, when I bought the car out. I was happy with it.

Now, I'm probably driving around in the state of Pennsylvania with the only Ford Flex with 64,000 miles on it. I had it built to the specification that I wanted. It's loaded. But it has no sunroof. I don't like sunroofs. I like the extra headroom of no sunroof and I like the fact that the sunroof weighs in terms of all of its mechanicals and everything. It adds 100 pounds of weight to the very top of the car. It changes the center of gravity and handling of the car and things like that. For the amount of time I'm going to use it, I'm not going to pay 1,500 bucks to open it three times a year. I get to this point, and Endurance called me back and said, "Because you're of your age, the car's owned, we can sweeten the warranty a little bit."

And then, I told Endurance all the different comparable numbers that I've heard in the market for the additional amounts of mileage you can drive and how much per month, how much per year you pay for these things. Generally, for four years of additional coverage, you pay for it in 24 months, and everybody's playing the numbers and statistics and gain here. If you get the whole thing paid off, then you don't have to pay for 24 more months, but you're still covered. According to the terms of the warranty, you can adjust the amount of your cost if you change it from a four-year plan to a three-year plan or even a two-year plan. So, you can modulate how much you want to spend, then you discover it's transferable to a new owner as long as they re-up the program. That increases the value of it.

And right now, we're at this one time in third year experience of used cars being worth more every month than they have been in the last 30 years, and it's just because you can't buy the new car you want at the dealership. And your used car doesn't represent any problem to you in its function. Why endure the additional economic burden right now? Just keep driving your car.

So, I reached the point where, economically, I found that I could get a warranty that would be good to take me to 100,000 miles for about 120 bucks a month. And I thought, "I'll probably drive this car for six more months until the shortage of new car availabilities is addressed in the market." I can actually place the order for the vehicle that I want and have it speced because it's never going to be on the lot. It's always gizmoed out more than I want it in the last 10% of all the options that you buy on the car, the things that go wrong or haven't been adequately tested because they're unproven in terms of true durability. So, I rationalized I'll pay 120 a month for at least six months until I get through that time and I'm covered for any big failure. If I just decide spontaneously to sell the car, I can sell it and transfer it with the warranty, which is, in today's market where used cars are going up, it enhances the value of the car I'm selling.

The reps seemed the more rational of people that I met in the marketplace. And there are mean jokes about auto warranties right now on the internet. There's a famous meme I've seen where it's actually one man standing in a men's room against a bank of 30 urinals. And another man walks into the men's room. Now, there are 30 urinals and the man walks all the way to this urinal adjacent to the man that's already occupied. And then you see his head turning and he says, "I'd like to talk to you about a new automobile warranty." The parody in the pictures. In no men's restroom would another guy walk all the way down and stand right at the urinal next to you when you have 30 urinals to choose from. But the joke is the first thing that comes out of the guy's mouth is something about an automobile warranty. That's why he took the extra steps. It's a perfect parable for what's going on in the marketplace today.

All these companies that are selling modeled their selling protocol to the C student in your class. Professional salespeople that are involved, it's a numbers game. They just got to get you to yes, they just got to get your credit card number and get you through their mill. So, their pitch is designed for a C student. They never anticipate an informed customer would ever arrive at their door. The thing that Endurance could do better is figure out quickly through a series of qualifying questions when they're talking with the customer, where does the customer sit on the intelligence bell curve? Are they smarter than the average cat or are they just another entrapment mechanism that we have to use all of our sales pitches and all of our special adjectives that, "This is the super, prestige," dah, dah, dah.

When I'm talking to someone, I understand what I want. I actually had to draw it out of them. "Oh, so I could do this for over two years, not three? Oh, okay. And I could do it to a monthly payment and I could do it to this." I asked more questions than the guy could answer, but it's necessary in order to get him to tell me what I want to know because the middle of the road, the consumer is not going to call and understand what they want and what they need and where the fulcrum should be to make the decision.

It was an awful experience. They claim that they have no control of what their sales representative told me. When I had to speak to him, I was told he was no longer there and they said, "Contact one of these shops." When I contacted the shops, these were the shops that rebuild parts. Those are the vendors they have. I had to go through the process a few times, and their algorithm keep changing in terms of what can be done being covered. I have to cancel the policy because it doesn't suit me. I don't want to deal with the stress. I was very dissatisfied.

I had one experience with Endurance and I only got one experience to compare them to, which is with CarShield. And it was night and day. Endurance knew what kind of car they were covering when I called in. They let me know everything about my car and my coverage. Whenever something goes broke in this car, I want the original part. I don't want to put in a Camaro’s part in my vehicle, which was what CarShield was doing. But Endurance gave me the original part of my car. So, I was satisfied with that. It was very good experience with Endurance. The price and the promptness were very good.

Although they need to update on the prices of the parts and they need to recheck their labor when they’re looking to pay for labor. The adjuster says one thing and what the computer says the time that it takes to do it is totally different. Also, they only covered a certain number of days when I had to use a rental car when I had an engine change. I had to pay the difference, which was like 500 bucks. Then, I get three oil changes per year and they only cover up to $50 on that. Oil changes now are 75 and better and my vehicle takes full synthetic, so that's costing me even more.