Extended Warranties - RV-Dreams Community Forum

GENECOP · RV-Dreams Family Member

Extended Warranties

Cautious Word · RV-Dreams Community Member

Hello RV'ers! Although I am without an RV at the moment, I want to share a cautionary tale with any that may be doing some research before buying one and provide a word of advice for those that have purchased an extended warranty for their RV.

I bought a camping trailer in 2007 and paid for a 7 yr extended warranty. In 2011 I traded that one in on a new 5th wheel. When I called to cancel the extended warranty on the camper and get a prorated refund, USA Travel Care, the company that provided the warranty, said they had no record of the policy number, the vehicle, or me.

The company I bought the RV from had taken my money but had not submitted the warranty papers and had since gone out of business. I eventually got a portion of my money back by filing a criminal complaint against the owner of the RV company. Lessons learned.

If you are buying a new RV, the sales people will pressure you to buy an extended warranty with it. You will be much better off to put the money in the bank and save it for any eventual repair rather than purchase an extended warranty. Extended warranties are a racket - the warranty providers pay out the big commissions ( that's why sale people push them), pay the claims that aren't able to deny, and still turn a profit!

If you do purchase an extended warranty, don't assume that you have one just because you have a contract that's paid, signed, and has a policy number. During my ordeal it became obvious that, even though USA Travel Care provided these contracts to dealers, they had no controls over the number of contracts that dealers issued and no audit procedures in effect to balance contacts provided with policies created or detect fraudulent activity; your warranty provider may not either. To me, that is an absolutly disgraceful failure on the part of the warranty company, tantamount to enabling the fraud, and a failure of the regulatory agenices that are supposed to keep that kind of thing from happening.

If you have an extended warranty, call the warranty provider and verify that your policy is active. If they don't have a record of your policy, file a fraud compaint against the dealer that sold you the policy - everyone has an obligation to get rid of the shady dealers and that will help the good ones flourish.

Happy RVing everyone!

GENECOP · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks for the word of caution, now if you would like, come back and introduce yourself to the best RV Forum out there...RVD's

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'll extend a welcome as well to the RV Dreams forums. You will find it a valuable source of information.

As for the extended warranties, there are differing opinions on those. A number of folks that have commented on them in the past believe that they are valuable, especially if you are considering Class A motorhomes.

We've had extended warranties on three different RV's and on each of the trades that we made, we easily got a prorated refund. Thus, my opinion of extended warranties differs from yours.

It looks to me like the dealership was your problem, not the warranty company. My guess would be that while a dealership might normally get a percentage for selling a warranty, your dealer probably pocketed the entire amount of the warranty purchase.

Terry

Cautious Word · RV-Dreams Community Member

Hey there, I'm Jim. My wife and I used to live in TX and belonged to Lake Pointe RV Resort there, which we enjoyed for a number of years and recommend if any plans to spend time in central Texas or are looking for a nice place to escape the cold northern winds. When it came time to retire last year, we traded the camper for a 5th wheel, a Crossroads Cruiser which I also recommend, and headed northwest. We stopped when we got to Wasilla, AK. If you plan on taking a trip up the Alcan, the parks don't open until the weather gets nice, around May, however, there isn't much traffic in April - there were some stretches of road in the Yukon where there were very few vehicles to be seen between towns.

I sold the Crossroads and plan to by another bumper pull, small and easier to manouver on unimproved roads - something a little more rustic and rugged.

I really wanted to warn folks about the potential for fraud in the sale of the extended warranties, the fact that the company did not control their contracts means there are a lot of other people out their that do not have the warranty they think they bought.

I didn't buy one for my 5th wheel, had pretty much figured out that they were a waste of money - all luck, nice to have if you get unlucky, but odds are you won't get your money out of it.

Jim

GENECOP · RV-Dreams Family Member

Make that Non Fraudulent behavior....

3fortheroad · RV-Dreams Family Member

GENECOP wrote:
Terry and Jo wrote:

I'll extend a welcome as well to the RV Dreams forums. You will find it a valuable source of information.
As for the extended warranties, there are differing opinions on those. A number of folks that have commented on them in the past believe that they are valuable, especially if you are considering Class A motorhomes.
We've had extended warranties on three different RV's and on each of the trades that we made, we easily got a prorated refund. Thus, my opinion of extended warranties differs from yours.
It looks to me like the dealership was your problem, not the warranty company. My guess would be that while a dealership might normally get a percentage for selling a warranty, your dealer probably pocketed the entire amount of the warranty purchase.
Terry
Terry, that's definately what he says has happened, I agree with him also that the warranty company also falls short in not having any system in place of checks and balances. The warranty forms should be numbered and given out in small quantities to the dealers, quick audits by the warranty company would ensure fraudulent behavior....

-- Edited by GENECOP on Saturday 11th of February 2012 07:36:22 PM

Thank you Genecop!!

Ron

-- Edited by 3fortheroad on Sunday 12th of February 2012 10:55:43 AM

Workinrvers · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have USA Travel Care as well and have used them a few times with no problems. Agree that the dealer sounds like the ones to blame here. Probably too late in your case but a call to the State Attorney Generals office and/or the State Dept. of Insurance would be in order since you mention you have a signed contract and the dealer was acting as an agent for the warranty company by issueing the contract.

Welcome to the forums and sorry you have a had a bad experience.

Phil

Workinrvers · RV-Dreams Family Member

again, sorry for your problems, sounds like a lot of "passing the buck" going on with you stuck in the middle.

We are sitting in Texas now, Del Rio, but it sure isn't warm here! Woke up to sleet and threats of snow. Been cold and gloomy all day in the low 30's. I guess winter in Texas this year came on a Sunday bleh

Probably a little colder up North where you are though.

Good Luck,

Phil

-- Edited by Workinrvers on Sunday 12th of February 2012 06:00:24 PM

3fortheroad · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hello Jim welcome to the Dreamers site. Great subject and a good reminder that we need to go in with open eyes and a "Buyer Beware" attitude.

Ron

Cautious Word · RV-Dreams Community Member

Hi Phil, I sent a letter to the TX AGO within days of finding out I had no warranty and received a reply at the campground before we started our trip. They did nothing and told me to take it to civil court - sounded to me like they didn't care and didn't want to bother with it. I don't know if they sent anything more, we hit the road a couple of weeks later - we were hanging around in TX ( 70-80 degrees) waiting for the weather up north to get a little milder ( Whitehorse minus 40).

The dealer was definitely a crook, although he claimed that a salesmen had stuck 'several' of them in a drawer and he found them when he closed the place down - but he didn't make any effort to contact the customers. I was fortunate that my police report landed on the desk of an officer that took it seriously, talked to the guy, and then gave me the phone number.

What concerns me most is that the warranty company has no controls on the contracts - that's the reason this guy was getting away with it.

If you have a covered problem and the warranty covers it, that's great. If you buy a warranty and don't have a problem, you helped pay for the other guys repairs and the overhead. Like all insurance, it's bettting on the risk.

Cautious Word · RV-Dreams Community Member

It's been nice here the last few days - cold and gloomy and up in the 30s! Actually, we've gotten up around 40 and had some sunshine. We had a lot of days in the minus teens and twenties in Jan and earlier in Feb, now the days are getting longer and everyone is starting to hope we'll have an early spring.

I'll bet its going to warm up in Del Rio next week and the trees will start blooming in a few weeks...

My mom lived in Lubbock for a few decades - the panhandle gets cold!

Thanks for the warm welcomes, everyone!