Royal Administration Services

The owner of the shop and I were frankly surprised regarding the driver strut not being approved. As it was very clear it had failed (see photos below). The vehicle should sit level indefinitely and not lose pressure in the struts whatsoever if they are operating according to manufacturers specifications. Neither the passenger Nor Driver Side were functioning based on these standards, and the car would quickly lose pressure and not hold pressure on the passenger side and lose pressure within minutes on the driver side. Per the policy this alone would have been grounds for approval of the driver strut replacement. It is also improper and not safe to replace only one strut. There are dozens of articles and my personal calls to several suspension shops (and German Automotive Service Center) which would verify this. Replacement of one strut would make the vehicle lose control at highway speeds.

The owner of the shop attempted to call Royal several times and was on hold for extended periods. They refused to change their opinion. As this Audi has the specific sports suspension the struts are in short supply. NO store locally has them. Finally a shop was located in Florida who rebuilds them. Both struts were ordered. Audi stated the struts would be $2300 each and take 8 weeks to arrive due to the pandemic shortages that still exist. So the shop in Florida was chosen due to this delay.

The struts finally arrived in early October. The Driver side strut now, was very clearly not holding pressure and a reexamination by Royal’s inspector was ordered. They denied the coverage again. I became involved and called Autopom! The broker who sold the policy originally. I spoke to Colgan **, who attempted to help. He suggested that I email and the following was sent out on 10/13:

"Good morning, I am the owner of a 2011 Audi A8. After several weeks of going back and forth coverage has been denied for the drivers side strut. The passenger side was approved. Both sides are faulty and NOT holding air (please see photos below). According to the Audi manual these should hold air almost indefinitely (and not deflate when the car is off, and level when the car is on). The car is sitting on the ground. By definition they are faulty. One is not holding air whatsoever.

In addition on the A8 it is required to replace both struts as the wear on one strut and a new strut on the other side will dangerously affect the steering and driving of the vehicle. Every suspension shop I have spoken to would NEVER replace one front strut. A simple google search also verifies that replacing one strut over the other is potentially very dangerous. According to the policy a part that is affected by the failed part is covered for replacement and this would also be the case here at the minimum. Though both are clearly faulty. This is a car I drive my two year old in and this is unacceptable. If the driver's side is not approved by Friday 10/14/22 I will have no other option but to take legal action against the underwriter of the policy. Thank you and I look forward to your prompt reply."

I received no reply to this email. I then called Colgan ** back and he stated I should call Royal on Monday 10/17/22. He suggested that I request the California Claims manager, by the name of Henry. I called and a person named Dennis at Royal Administration picked up the phone. I asked to be connected and Dennis refused. I brought up the points above, and he still refused to connect me. He also stated that they were not responsible for safety issues resulting from one strut being replaced. He became belligerent on the phone. I asked who their agent of service was and he stated ‘I am under no obligation to give that information’ and refused. The phone call ended.

I inspected the car and took more photos, including the exterior photos and the photos of cosmetic damage caused by BOTH failed struts inside each fender (which showed the strut rubbing against the top of the inner fender. This was present on BOTH sides). The President of Autopom got involved and contacted Henry, Henrys response was provided to me via text by Autopom! Which was a further denial.

I picked up the car on 10/19/2022 and paid for the other strut and the $200 deductible. (See receipt). Royal’s reasons for denial are that the driver side ‘worked’ or the shop did not demonstrate a failure, this is ridiculous. Royal also refused to communicate with me in writing. They also refused to contact me directly (Henry claimed he contacted me but I received no message and no call). Clearly they wish to merely deny the claim and hope I go away. Their arguments are faulty at best.

The driver strut was bad, per the policy if a part is not within manufacturers specifications it is covered for replacement. When I dropped off the car in May neither strut was holding pressure overnight, by October both failed. The damage to the inner fender from the wheel and other parts rubbing against it due to a bad strut was present on BOTH sides. Per the policy struts are covered Replacing one strut and leaving a failed strut on the driver side would lead to the car being dangerous and a loss in handling not to mention issues with alignment, etc. At this juncture I am demanding coverage for the Driver Strut and labor totaling $1146.73.

On my 2nd go-around with this company, the lifters went bad in my Tahoe and they denied the claim on a full coverage warranty because when they turned it on, it wasn't showing the problem. I have now been without my vehicle for 3 weeks, they decided to deny the claim. First for the oil change slips not being signed and now because they couldn't find an issue with the vehicle. I am speaking to company management, adjusters, etc. to get this issue resolved before the vehicle gets any worse and my vehicle returned to me, and I am currently not getting anywhere with them. If you want to continually argue with the company to back their product and pay the bills on warranty claims by all means go with this company. I would highly advise not using this warranty company. I hope this helps anyone avoid making the mistake that I did with entrusting this company.

I was hesitant because I had ran through the same scam with a different company and a different vehicle before. (Paid $2000 and was never able to use it.) This time I wanted to make sure I was not throwing my money in the trash. Good thing I was not. I refused to give my money to sales reps for a company that were so pushy. The gentleman on the phone, even said "I don't have time to wait for you to make up your decision. I have to close your case today, I have a family and I need to put food on the table. I'm not gonna lose my job over some random person." I got extremely infuriated that I ended up just hanging up the phone. Trust me. This, company will paint a beautiful picture for you how they will give you this glorious package. With unlimited this unlimited that but based off the reviews it looks like that's not the case. I'd rather look for someone else who's legitimate.

They leave us feeling like we got SUCKERED into buying this on a used vehicle we purchased. Had the car (2007 Nissan Murano AWD) for very short time, and then COVID hit. We only drove it about 6k miles in roughly the first 8 months. The transmission bit the dust. I had it towed to my local shop because in just a single day since noticing it, the transmission sounded like the Jolly Green Giant was smacking a hammer inside of it with every turn of the wheels.

THREE (yes 3, tres, THREE) weeks later, this "Royal Administration Company" finally sent a local claims adjuster to the shop to evaluate my car. I hear NOTHING, ZIP, NADA from ROYAL. I call them asking what's up. They tell me - the first claims adjuster was assigned to another case. This guy didn't even work for them so being assigned to another case made NO SENSE to me. He was a LOCAL independent adjuster. My guess - he found the damage, wrote it up and showed it to the mechanic, talked to the mechanic about it, turned it in to Royal, and Royal saw that they were going to have to pay a lot of money to cover my repairs under my warranty. So, they called another guy out in hopes that he'd find lesser damage so they didn't have to pay as much. He seemingly found the same damage as the first local claims adjuster. So now we're at 4 and a 1/2 weeks and they finally start considering my claim.

My car is an All Wheel Drive, which means it has a transaxle/transfer case. According to my own research, and my local shops written estimate from Nissan to replace necessary parts, the total would have been around $6k. This is where it gets interesting for us, and CHEAPO Royal SCREWS us, and apparently a ton of their customers.

Royal gets the estimate from my mechanic, and then they go find their own transmission. All good and well until their "authorized payment for repairs" comes back to my mechanic. They are only going to pay HALF of the estimated repairs for my car. Why.... Good question. I call them and talk to some knucklehead named Henry. He says - we found a cheaper transmission, and other necessary parts, for a cheaper price and that's how much they're going to pay. After digging and digging and many questions with VERY frustrating vague and evasive answers from him, he gives me the number to the shop where they're getting the transmission and I get what I'm sure is a fraction of the real story.

Ready - they found me USED PARTS with 90,000 MILES ON THEM from a state OUTSIDE of where I live (Texas), so Henry Knucklehead says - they did their job. I only had 119,000 miles on my car. I think the average intelligent person would expect the same mileage out of any replacement "USED" transmission that the original one had before it broke. So, I'd get about 30k miles out of the crappy USED transmission, and then have to fight with Royal all over again. Also, if I want the parts, I HAVE TO PAY TO HAVE THEM SHIPPED to my mechanic. Who in their right mind would put a used up transmission in their car when they can only expect it to break again so soon. I'll bet NOBODY from Royal would do that. Joanne Wisnaskas - CEO of Royal - would you do that? I'll answer for you - NO WAY, you wouldn't. So why is it okay to treat customers this way? It's not, and therefore my negative review.

SUMMARY: This is ABSOLUTELY THE WORST VEHICLE WARRANTY COMPANY ON THE MARKET. THE CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS, and according to almost everything I read about them on the Internet, that's about what everyone thinks. Wish I would have done more research before I got suckered by them. THEY DON'T TAKE ANY ACTION FOR WEEKS AND WEEKS AT A TIME. THEY NEVER communicated with us. It was always ME calling them, staying on hold for long periods, and getting pushed from person to person or being given vague and evasive answers.

THEY JUST SUCK THAT MONEY FROM YOU, AND THEN DON'T WANT TO PAY. They are terrible, and the absolute worst warranty company. We've used several other companies over the years when we've purchased used vehicles. NEVER NEVER NEVER AGAIN, and I'd strongly advise anybody to NEVER used this Royal Administration Services for anything, regardless of what they sell, and especially vehicle warranties.

Apparently they consider this normal wear and tear? I've owned cars for over 30 years and not once have I had to replace a door handle cable because the door wouldn't open!! Compressor on my AC went last week. Filed another claim DENIED!!! Their excuse this time was that the clutch had failed and they don't cover mechanical failures? What the f??? Wasn't that the WHOLE REASON I got this rip off insurance in the first place? I could have sworn they told me on the phone back in '16 that the AC is one of the systems they'd cover if I had a major repair on it.

I'm left to wonder what, if anything, on my car would they cover if it breaks? Roy, my mechanic, has told me that they look for excuses to weasel out of paying constantly and that all these car repair insurance companies are scamming thieves. I'll be calling them Monday morning and I'll probably get nowhere. Another poster says they are located in Massachusetts? I think I will end up filing a complaint with the Mass AG.