Portfolio Protection Vehicles & Services

After calling Portfolio, an associate asked that I submit various documents to confirm that I was requesting a refund, that I provide a certificate of mileage and lien holder information. Seemed reasonable enough. After faxing the information, I followed up to confirm that the associate had received what I faxed, but had to leave a message (reportedly, he was 'out to lunch'). No call back. I followed up several hours later (and after supposedly going through various PDF documents, as the associate referred to them), the associate acknowledged receipt. The associate seemed to tap dance however, around my primary concerns as to how much would be returned and when I might expect it. The best I could elicit was that Portfolio would process my request.

While I certainly don't wish to rush to judgment too quickly, I have to admit that I wasn't too terribly impressed or inspired as I felt as if I was simply dealing with a call in center, where one customer call was no more important than another. From my perspective, an uncomplicated refund request should be a relatively simple, straightforward process (especially since there was no lien holder involved and that I had not exercised any portion of my seven year plan at all). Yet, just over seven weeks later, still have no refund in hand. Perhaps I should feel fortunate that I wasn't filing an actual repair claim.

Having read various customer reviews about Portfolio, here and elsewhere, my initial impression of Portfolio (based upon my telephone conversation with one of their associates), hasn't been exactly great. Let's face it - getting refunds can sometimes be a bit more difficult than one might anticipate. While purchasing these extended protection plans seems like a wise investment, since each of us want to feel 'protected' from 'unforeseeable' repair issues, I'd wager that a respectable number of customers end up being disappointed along the way with these plans (home appliance plans, auto plans, etc. ), when they discover that they weren't as 'protected' as they believed when a claim is denied, for any number of a hundred reasons. One thing that I must confess to is that I didn't truly take into account (at the time of plan purchase), is that the administrators of these plans can deny claims using virtually any rationale that they choose to apply.

At the time or purchase of these plans, do any of us actually bother to read through all the pages of extremely fine print contained within these protection plan contracts? I didn't. There's so much fine print that one almost needs a magnifying glass to wade through each and every paragraph (presuming that we can fully comprehend all of the fine print (gobbly-gook, in my opinion), contained within). Even the wording about how refunds are calculated, in my situation, seems rather difficult to absorb.

Portfolio describes itself as the plan administrator (as do several other companies I've seen offering similar services in television ads), where they and their 'providers' are different entities (which may not anything particularly unusual). In my case however, the provider is "Express Systems" out of California. So the question becomes, just who is the customer (or the repair shop) supposed to be dealing with directly, when it comes to addressing an issue, getting work approvals, payment decisions or determining whether a claim is approved or not? One might logically presume it to be the plan administrator.

If you stop and think about it, the "administrator" and/or "provider" could theoretically, run a customer (or the repair shop) through all kinds of endless hoops as to whether or not a particular claim will be honored - after all, it's their interpretation of the plan which prevails, irrespective of what you paid for the plan. So just what position does this put the customer in when a claim is denied and they thought they were fully protected? Imagine the delays and disconnects (and potential disappointments) which could occur along the way when you're depending upon a timely responses and a claim is denied or you're having to deal with multiple entities?

Even though you've paid good money for your protection plan, it's almost as if it's a 50-50 proposition as to whether you're as fully covered as you believed. As complicated as cars have become these days, I would speculate that the list of excluded parts is probably quite large. Personally, I fail to understand (at least in part), why these protection plans absolutely must commence on the date your new vehicle is acquired, when the manufacturers warranty provides bumper to bumper protection for x number of miles/years, roadside assistance, etc.. Maybe I'm not seeing the entire picture.

In hindsight, I find myself asking when it comes to repairs, how many of us have actually taken into account that repairs may make use of 'used', 'like new' or re-manufactured parts? I'm guessing that most of us probably 'assume' that 1) we're fully covered and 2) that repairs, when needed, would consist of new or OEM parts -- ah, one should never 'assume'. If used or like new parts are used, just how long would those parts actually last and will your protection plan cover failures of those? In other words, the 'peace of mind' that we thought we purchased can (potentially) disappear quite quickly when the plan is put to the test - again, a 50-50 proposition in my opinion. If one's peace of mind is shattered (in the event the plan administrator decides that a certain repair, service or part isn't covered), just what recourse does the plan holder have? Probably, not much.

Consumers absolutely must do what I neglected to do prior to purchasing a plan. Do some online research beforehand (using various search engines), to seek out both positive and negative reviews of the company offering the plan. As I understand things, on a new vehicle purchase, you have a grace period in which you can opt into purchasing an extended protection plan and don't necessarily need to purchase a plan at that very moment. And reportedly, there's also a grace period in which one can cancel a protection plan without penalty (you should be able to cancel a plan at any time however, but will likely pay some sort of administrative fee in addition to a pro-rated calculated refund). Grace periods however, may vary.

Reputation, trustworthiness and credibility, one would think, would be of paramount importance to companies, where success hinges upon these qualities .. but, I have to wonder about where Portfolio stands, given the difficulties I have experienced in obtaining a simple refund.