Protect My Car

I've had problems with coverage and it's not just with Protect My Car. I've had it with other companies too. One time, something broke and I had it fixed. When you're under stress with your car, you have to take your car to get something taken care of and it's a major part, you're not thinking that you have this extra coverage. I spent $800 to have that done then, I realized it. I called the company. They said, “We can't cover it now because of the fact you’re supposed to call us before they did it.” That pissed me off. That was early, so I try to remember. Certain things they say, “Well, that’s wear and tear,” and I can understand that part. However, when they're telling me they're not gonna cover what they told me they covered because I didn't contact them before the shop worked on it, that’s not nice at all.

The other day, I had to get my inspection done. Not thinking, I left my car at the shop and went home. The guy called me and said, “Your ball joint on your tire need to be replaced.” I’m not gonna pass inspection by that part being bad, so I said, “Well, go ahead and do it." I needed my car inspection to be done then after I was done paying the guy and got home, a day later, I realized maybe I could’ve used the warranty to pay for getting that part done. I don’t know if that is considered one of the wear-and-tear parts, so I never called them back.

The only one thing I have been doing on a regular basis is getting my oil changed. With the first couple ones, they said, "Rotate the tires,” and it was done. They paid the people that did the work and I didn’t see any issues with them. If I did, I’m the type of person who will tell people about it. They get my oil changed, but in essence, it’s not free because I’m paying for it every month that I put out $70-some.

I still have the service and I’m okay with it. Everybody I spoke with since then has been wonderful. I finally used it maybe two weeks ago and it went wonderfully well. I had to have my motor mount repaired and there was a piece that the mechanic told me that had to be added on, and it wasn’t covered. That should’ve been covered because it was part of the mount but maybe I didn’t understand the mechanic. I’m okay with it and I got it done. The mechanic place and the representatives were fine but the person who sold me the policy was not anybody who impressed me. I told him exactly what I thought about him and his customer service skills, and that he needed to do a little better than he was doing. He needs to listen. I explained to him that I've been doing this and customer service is very important.

I have been a customer service representative for the majority of my career and it’s in the way you talk to people, answer them and allow them to ask questions. If you’re good, I wanna speak to your supervisor because I wanna compliment you. If you’re bad, I’m gonna do to you what you think you would. But other than that, I’ve had no issues with Protect My Car. I love it. My battery died on me and they came out and did that. I’ve said to a lot of people that they need to get the warranty. It’s worth having.

I've seen Protect My Car twice. Once, there was something with my engine. It was $900 and I ended up paying 425, which was when I decided to go with the top tier they had, which you pay 25%. This last one that I had, my brakes and I had to get a couple of things done and the total was 1,800 but I ended up paying 25% of that. So, the warranty helps. They take out $79 a month but it pays off in the end when I need to take the car in and get it fixed. So, it is worth it. Protect My Car is a good service, especially if your car's getting a little older and you're going to need some major maintenance. If you want to save some money, go with Protect My Car because they got some good programs and you choose whichever one that is eligible for you. You should go for the high tier. You pay less and it's not bad. Plus, I'm a veteran, so I got a discount.

I sat down there. It was about an hour and a half. He was back and forth on the phone with Protect My Car trying to get it straight. Finally, he got finished with my car. He said that the back brakes, the calipers and I don't know what all. He just said, “This is wrong and that's wrong. And that's what we had to fix.” But I don't know anything about cars except how to put gas in them and drive it. He took the wheels off the car. I could see it through window. And he came out and said, "This is shot, and that's shot." "Okay, well, here's their number. Call Protect My Car." I sent pictures of the papers that he gave me, and charged me 500 and some dollars before I could go home. I was aggravated because I said, "I was only supposed to pay $100. I came here for an oil change and a grease job and all that. And here you're sending me out with an almost $600 bill." I paid it with my credit card and I just said, "I can't deal with this now."

I called Protect My Car and I talked to two different people. The last one, his name was Benjie. He said, "Just send me a copy of the papers and we'll go from there." Protect My Car did good on what Midas said they put a claim in for. But I wasn't happy for the amount. Everybody down at Midas couldn't have been any nicer but nice doesn't work with me when it's money involved.

When I sent those, the representative told me that I wasn't being honest. There was one oil change receipt from a local mom-and-pop shop that didn't look like a receipt to her. It was handwritten, and because of that, it took them an extra week and a half to approve my claim in order to get my car started, which then caused the engine that was coming all the way from Michigan from the Ford factory to be delayed. It left me without my car for almost a month. To add insult to injury, they only covered me for $150 for a rental car so I was stuck with a $2,000 rental car bill. Nobody could help and do anything to minimize that. Had Protect My Car done what they were supposed to do on the same day that I gave them every document that they asked for, I would have had my car a lot sooner than December 23th, that rental car bill would have been a lot cheaper, and I'd probably be a happier customer.

I was very unhappy with the way that the staff, mainly the higher-up, handled the situation and lack thereof. The representative that was in charge would tell the people at the dealer that she was trying to get ahold of me and was calling me. She never did. I was trying to call her. I would have to go through my actual car dealership. I even went as far as going over to the mom-and-pop shop to speak to the guy there and explain what was going on.

I felt that Protect My Car, being that the work was going to cost about 5,000, could have done a little bit more to help me out, especially knowing that they dragged their feet and it was their fault because I wasn't approved. I couldn't even pay my monthly payment for January and they've been calling me like crazy telling me that my payment hasn't gone through. I know it hasn't gone through because I'm still paying off the rental car bill. The other people that worked with me, as far as the customer care reps, were great and very helpful.