Endurance Warranty

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.

I ended up buying the car, and I was searching warranties, and Endurance came up and what they offered me seemed to be affordable. Being I'm a retired General Motors master technician, I've been in the automotive business for 50 years. So, I know the questions they asked as far as what's covered and what isn't. I asked if all the high-tech electronic components are covered. This has got the adaptive cruise control and all that, the radar, the sunroof, all the window motors and the seat motors. Those things are extremely expensive, besides the engine and trans.

They said, "Well, give us 150 down." It was $56 or $60 a month, and in two or three years, it will be paid off with no interest. Having the warranty gives me peace of mind. I'm 72 going on 73 and I'm not the person I was 10 years ago, much less 20 or 30 when I was in my technical prime of fixing cars. I'm at the mercy just like anybody else. I still have a friend that loves me and he'll feel sorry for me and fix my car. But you can't ask for everything. Also, he doesn't do trans or engine work. A big thing for these cars are their AC evaporators. That's a big job. So, the warranty seem to make sense to me. The agent that talked to me was knowledgeable, respectful, and tried to answer every question I had.

Based on my experience so far, I'm completely satisfied. I like that the company is based in Northbrook, Illinois. If I got a real beef, I will go to their front door and demand to talk to somebody about it, and they certainly ain't going to baffle me because I was a master tech. From what I understand, the way they presented it, there shouldn't be any issue. Working with GM and Cadillac, I strive for perfection and I hope that they do the same. Everything I've dealt with the company so far is 5. I was transferred about three times before it got to the nitty-gritty and them grabbing my checkbook and/or credit card to get this thing going. I thought it was a reasonable price.

Also, I was told I was going to get some coupons for Amazon because I paid for the whole thing upfront. I thought that was awesome. I was good with just taking the cash off but the coupon was equal. They said we had to do the coupons because I had to deal with Amazon. That made my policy even a better deal. But you have to actually get the coupons for the good deal to be there. I was told that normally, people make payments so I would get one coupon on the front end and another coupon on the back end. The guy that was green said that I would get both coupons on the front end. He said I would get one right away then I would get one three months later. But I haven't received any. That's a small snafu.

The green guy told me the cost for a month. I said, “No, hold on. I don't want to do that. I'm looking to pay the whole thing off, and is that a discount?” He didn't know and he would have to get ahold of somebody else. He would call me back the next day. I have three of these, “I'll get back with you, call you back tomorrow,” because the guy was green. I get that he was new at a job but I really needed and wanted cash. Also, they never explained how the payment was going to be made. They just said I would get a credit.

One thing that I liked about Endurance was they offered a warranty through my bank at work. My credit union is right at the end of the parking lot and that's really handy to use. But they didn't even make the top 20. They wanted to have a loan on the vehicle but I didn't really want to pay interest on a vehicle just to have a warranty. I did the Consumer Reports and Endurance rated the highest. I didn't have to have a loan and that was one of the reasons I went with Endurance. I read through my policy and I have to have a log of all my maintenance and all my stuff and I kind of get that. By the time I bought the warranty, everything all-in was 47,000 bucks. I’m like, “Is this for their benefit to not pay for something because I should have done something better the way they wanted it done?”

It's just I had a little confusion on the sign-up and I haven't gotten my promised benefit yet. I had confusion about getting a copy of the policy. It went through a couple of different people. They kept wanting me to download it off their site but I wanted them to mail me a paper copy so I could read it. Why would I want to read a warranty on my cell phone? That basically demands that you have a computer and a printer at home, which I do. Finally, I got ahold of a guy who gave me a link and who would actually work on the printer. The third guy was a smart one and knew exactly what the issue was. He was going, “I don't know why the first two people did that, but this is the easy way to do it.” He finally mailed a copy to me. But that was a one-two-three process to get a copy of the policy.

The sales representative was helpful and cordial. We were having all kinds of conversations but the main one stuck upon the purchase of the actual coverage and things of that nature. He was delightful to talk with. It was great. The car only has 80,000 miles on it. It was a small amount but he answered a number of questions that I had, which was what pushed me over the edge. Making the payment for the warranty was very easy and I did everything over the phone. He explained what the payment was for and my deductible.

I received a letter in the mail from a company that will be doing the automatic drafts every month. It said that if I choose not to do that, then to call Mepco, which was their name. When I called that company, the interaction was a little different. They weren't as forthcoming. They didn't want to stop the pre-authorized draft and then finally told me to call Endurance, and gave me the number. I spoke with a young lady and at first, she said that I hadn't had this policy long enough. I explained to her that they just sent the billing information. But then she said that they got it all straightened out.

The reason I didn't wanna do the pre-authorized ACH with this other company that received in the mail, is they couldn't tell me what day it was going to be taken out on. All they could tell me was that I was using a credit card and the last four of my credit card. The rep said that I would have to call back or I could go online. I said that he should be able to look at my account and tell me. Right then was when I said that I didn’t wanna deal with this company. So I dealt directly with Endurance.

I work for the government myself and I deal with a lot of companies with contracts and various agencies where the customer service is crap. I did my research, which was how I found Endurance. The number one objection that I look for in most of reviews is how customer service deals with the problem, getting back with them, customer service taking their problem or concern seriously, and doing everything they could to fix or find solutions. Almost every one of the reviews about it is what drives me towards the company. I read a lot about their customer service, then I'm on board.

I contacted United Car Care and spoke with a person named Kevin. Kevin said "well the claim was denied because consumption is not covered, and the claim was presented to us as consumption" to which I asked "then why did your adjuster insist I tear down the engine then if he already knew it was consumption and that consumption is not covered?"

That was on 9-8-21 at 4:04 pm and I was advised by Kevin that he "would see what he could do." So I have spent over $4000.00 on a warranty, which I have never filed a claim on my car until now, and it is immediately denied after they cause me to have to pay $6000.00 for a teardown of my engine so they can knowingly deny the claim due to uncovered consumption claim. The worst, and this was purchased through Endurance Warranty, with the insurance being Mepco. A complete scam and waste of money. I purchased my auto warranty through Endurance Warranty. #UnitedCarCare #EnduranceWarranty #Mepco

The person I spoke with was knowledgeable as to sales, but he was not pushy. He explained what was there and I explained my situation when I found out about that thing about being covered for six years. Other than that, my son purchased a policy through somebody else and I got to talk to him and tell him to think about changing it.