Royal Administration Services Reviews

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.

Inspector comes out few days later the following week, looks at the issues, submits to Royal admin, claims are denied (no surprise), since they were considered "pre-existing" prior to me owning the truck??!! What?? These were driveability and performance issues that would not let me drive very far to begin with and I drove it 700 miles on its first trip home! You have got to be kidding me! I was honestly not surprised by this, so I fork out the $600+ for the work and moved on with things. Fast forward to spring 2020 and the truck is starting to have performance issues, gas mpg decline, and a sever rattle on start-up.

I look up the symptoms and sure enough, it has been experienced before, "Great", I thought, another claim to be denied I bet. Bring it in to the Ford dealership to have them inspect it and risk paying out of my pocket for the diagnosis (dealership woes) if claim is denied, need more time, etc... Well needless to say an inspector comes out, tells them to measure oil pressure at start up (always going to be 0), worthless test, didn't hear the issue, etc... CLAIM DENIED. Call warranty company back, have to beg to get another inspector out and to LISTEN to the dealer about the issues, not just do a random test that would achieve nothing.

Second inspector comes out for the same issue (2-3 weeks in the shop at this point) and listens to the dealership, hears the issue, says, "Oh yeah, this is a known issue, I've seen this before, I'll report back to warranty company," also mentions why this hasn't been taken care of since it is a known issue?!?! Claim goes back to Royal admin..."I have it this time!" I think. Then they ask for service records, great! We're getting somewhere. I can see the writing on the wall, however, when my service adviser calls them and they say they never received any service records. I check my email, check the address, says "sent", so I re-send it again; never receiving confirmation from them, mind you.

Fast-forward 2 more weeks, I call the selling dealer; they route me to "that guy" (the one who is local who can "help" with their company claims). I have to listen to his rhetoric about how old he is, how long he's been doing this, how he used to be a mechanic, dealer, service adviser, worked for every dealership, blah, blah, blah... He then blames the dealer and says they are the ones holding this up, saying they have been lazy about calling, whatever. I get it, man, your job is to ensure that your company doesn't have to pay out, I imagine you get bonuses for every "blocked" claim!!! At this point I'm exhausted from all the calls, the constant checking in, the time, MY time, I haven't had my truck in over a darn month!! This is absurd.

Service adviser calls back the other day (end of March 2020 now) and says CLAIM DENIED, because there was no check engine light.... Words cannot begin to describe my frustration at this point. I am now dealing with the dealer to get whatever money back I can on this, so that I can pay for a $2500 repair on my truck. TLDR (Too long, didn't read): 3 CLAIMS DENIED, fine print will kill you, most of them say "TSBs not covered" (for reference a TSB is just an approved method of doing a repair consistently, nothing more), even when you have ALL the right documents and proof, they always will find a way to weasel out of it. After all, that is the point of their business--to literally DENY as many claims as possible. Save up your money for when a repair is actually needed, do your PM (preventative maintenance).

Original Review: Feb. 19, 2020

Declined warranty stating Carfax report of services rendered was not sufficient. Wanted invoices directly from service provider. Service provider changed computer systems so could not produce invoices, so had provider send email to warranty company confirming services. Royal would not accept. Cost me $4100 in repairs that were covered in warranty contract. Business should be shut down.

Today a Royal agent called telling me that my claim was denied. The reason given was that I didn't have my transmission serviced every 30k miles. My owner's manual shows recommended transmission service at 150k miles. I contacted my dealer asking for them to check their records to see if they performed the 150k service. I was told that I had a minor transmission repair at 67k miles that included a fluid and filter change. My service advisor stated that I didn't need transmission service for another 150k miles. My vehicle has about 196k miles so I wouldn't need transmission service until 217k miles.

Today I called Royal to discuss the issue. The first agent I spoke to took a little info then said they needed the 150k service receipt. I tried to explain and was in mid-sentence when another agent came on. I was actually transferred back in queue. This agent told me that my vehicle manual shows that the transmission was to be serviced at 150k miles period! Even if it was serviced at 149,900 miles it would have to have been serviced again at exactly 150k miles to be covered. I guess one would have to drive their vehicle till the odometer hit exactly 150k miles then have it transported to the dealership making sure it didn't run to 150,001 miles.

Folks, this is how these scam companies work. The agent's main job function is to deny claims. It doesn't matter that the manufacturer recommends service after 150k miles of operation. Common sense dictates that if it was serviced before the 150k miles that would extend it to a higher mileage. BUYER BEWARE! After spending around $6,000 in extended warranty premiums I get denied on this. My total compensation on repairs during the life of the TWO warranties was $88.76. From now on I'll take my chances after my factory warranty expires.

I was also told that I would be responsible for all tear down cost. Engine was disassembled and bent valve was determined to be engine component failure on cylinder 2 and determined it also had cylinder damage also. Also all other valves were not seating properly also. Once again inspector was dispatched to inspect. Mechanics at Ford service had already recommended that long block was what it would take to repair properly. Warranty inspector only recommended replacing heads and stated if repair failed, don’t worry I had a warranty just bring back for repairs. Once again info returned for review. 2 days later I was called by warranty company and was told that my engine was not covered and I would be responsible for all repairs. Did I mention clowns and circus, but I’m not amused at all.

When I purchased warranty I was assured that it would cover any engine failures. No worries they stated! So now My costs will be $3800 dollars and warranty $0. Did I mention $1890 wasted on worthless warranty! People are doing time in jail for lesser robberies and I believe if justice was served this warranty company should be too! Lies, lies, and more lies! How do people take hard working peoples money under false pretenses and stay in business?

Anyways at start of this review I was asked to pick stars to show this so called business’s rating. No stars wouldn’t begin to express my discuss. This company is a lot of things, but auto warranty would not be one of them! Wish I had had a chance to read the reviews before purchasing! From what I have read this is not the first time they have robbed somebody! If anyone reads this, please help me and all the many other violated people obtain justice! Warranty company my foot! Worthless clown show yes! So if you want to get screwed, this is the company for you! Don’t warranty anything all lies!

I had the car dealership send all records of my services but the only response I could get was, “well when you get that document we need we will review the claim”. There was no document because there was no required service needed at that mileage for the year that my car was built and only pertained to more recent models. Though they could have easily found that information, they said, “Well, we already closed the case!”. Believe me! Their business is not the sort you’d like to bother with unless you like to throw thousands of dollars away. I’m fighting this as hard as I can and I hope all the other people who have been shanghai’d by this group will do the same. Royal Rip off is more appropriate!!

They wouldn't even cover but 1 item of concern - then only even a quarter of the price to fix that! I was never told they approve claims on a percentage basis upon purchasing this contract. I told the dealer no thanks and paid the diagnostic fee. Called and quickly cancelled my contract. Let's see if I even get a refund! This company dragged their feet and I needed a car for work so rented one myself (I'm quite sure they would've only paid $5 a day for a rental if even that!) These people are crooks - RUN FAR AWAY and don't look back!

Updated on 08/10/2018: So I got a call from one of the inside liaison people @ Royal Administration yesterday in the hopes of appeasing me with futile rhetoric once again. She made a shameful attempt of trying to reiterate the language of the contract between Royal Administration and AWA services and me. I made it very clear to her I will only be appeased with the proper professional treatment and a full refund of the money I spent out of pocket to rescue my car from the mechanic. This was a claim that they approved and so my mechanic went ahead with the necessary repairs only to find out later that the repair was more than my car is worth (according to Royal Admin) and for that reason they were not going to pay the claim.

This sounds ludicrous to me. When we entered into this agreement they knew the age and condition of the car and furthermore they took my money and then placed me on a (30) thirty day waiting period before they afforded me coverage. What kind of a business are these people running? When they took mine and others money they have agreed to assume the risk by offering coverage for repairs that is needed from time to time. However, they find it beneficial and favorable to themselves to back peddle on their legal right to fulfill a written promise. NO INTEGRITY! on their part. Buyers beware.