warranty direct are they any good?

[Carlton Banks]

Avoid.

Avoid.

Avoid.

I have owned BMW 'M' cars and always had a bmw / mondial warranty.

My c63 has the merc extended warranty.

I know a few people who have tried warranty direct / warranty wise etc

The exclusions are extensive and caveats on wear and tear are laughable.

They go with the hard sell full of promises but when it comes to a vanos failure or major component failure they will find anyway to get out of paying.

At least with merc and bmw, they are well known for actually fixing items under warranty.

R

[Clivep078]

I have found Warranty direct excellent. On Porsche and BMW they have done shocks, bushes, rear main seal, water pump, cv bellows, no problems paying just look after your car and follow. Service rules etc they are not cheap but genuine if you are.

[ArmaghMan]

Avoid like the pague. Refused point blank to pay out on my M5. They will promise the sun the moon and the stars to get you signed up, but try to make a claim... Different story.

[Aeroresh]

Clivep078 said:

I have found Warranty direct excellent. On Porsche and BMW they have done shocks, bushes, rear main seal, water pump, cv bellows, no problems paying just look after your car and follow. Service rules etc they are not cheap but genuine if you are.

Lol! Do you work for them?

[zip929]

Aeroresh said:

Clivep078 said:

I have found Warranty direct excellent. On Porsche and BMW they have done shocks, bushes, rear main seal, water pump, cv bellows, no problems paying just look after your car and follow. Service rules etc they are not cheap but genuine if you are.

Lol! Do you work for them?

What makes you say that!

[QP Noor]

I cancelled a policy that I had with them after 35 days as i had sold my car.

They charged me for 30% of the policy plus a £50 admin charge to cancel.

[MarkwG]

QP Noor said:

I cancelled a policy that I had with them after 35 days as i had sold my car.

They charged me for 30% of the policy plus a £50 admin charge to cancel.

Why not transfer it to your next car? If you cancel any insurance policy early they'll hit you, that's not unique to WD.

[anonymous-user]

I used warranty direct on my SL55 which I had from new for 8 years after the official Merc warranty went galactic (after 45k miles I think the price goes bonkers?).

There was a fault on something under the drivers seat that stopped the seat keeping its memory setting - not a major fault but the easy entry feature would not work correctly and I like my cars 100% right.

The repair was a replacement component including fitting cost in the region of £230.

Warranty Direct refused to pay for the repair stating it was an electrical issue and therefore not covered.

I had a further issue at the same time with a front brake sensor that had failed and was giving me warnings on the instrument display. Note this was just a sensor, not the brake itself.

Warranty Direct refused to pay for the repair stating it was part of the brake system and therefore not covered.

I duly cancelled the policy as exclusions like that make the warranty worthless.

The policy was 2 months old when I cancelled, and I bought myself a bag of crisps with the few pennies WD threw back at me (the warranty was around £800 to purchase).

Weirdly, as soon as I cancelled and had the above issues fixed I had no further problems with the car!

In my experience avoid Warranty Direct, I would never consider giving them any of my money again.

[Deva Link]

QP Noor said:

I cancelled a policy that I had with them after 35 days as i had sold my car.

They charged me for 30% of the policy plus a £50 admin charge to cancel.

That's less than the spammer on the previous page said he had to pay.

[Deva Link]

soofsayer said:

I used warranty direct on my SL55 which I had from new for 8 years after the official Merc warranty went galactic (after 45k miles I think the price goes bonkers?).

So you bought a cheaper policy and, surprise, surprise, the coverage wasn't as comprehensive.

soofsayer said:

There was a fault on something under the drivers seat that stopped the seat keeping its memory setting - not a major fault but the easy entry feature would not work correctly and I like my cars 100% right.

.....

I had a further issue at the same time with a front brake sensor that had failed and was giving me warnings on the instrument display. Note this was just a sensor, not the brake itself.


I duly cancelled the policy as exclusions like that make the warranty worthless.

I do think most of the reason people get upset with these policies is they have the wrong expectation. Faults that can be fixed for a couple of hundred quid on an SL55 are neither here nor there.

To my mind the purpose of these policies is a safety net to catch the major failures - engine, gearbox, air suspension etc.

I went for WD after reading of people on the MB forums who've had £10K+ out of Warranty Direct.

[anonymous-user]

Deva Link said:

I do think most of the reason people get upset with these policies is they have the wrong expectation. Faults that can be fixed for a couple of hundred quid on an SL55 are neither here nor there.

To my mind the purpose of these policies is a safety net to catch the major failures - engine, gearbox, air suspension etc.

I went for WD after reading of people on the MB forums who've had £10K+ out of Warranty Direct.

The question on the thread is are WD any good. I understand the point you are making and your comments are very valid, however, the problem with WD is that they do promise a comprehensive 'no worry' warranty which simply is not the case. Major failures are always covered by warranties and to some extent the law (unless the terms of the warranty have been broken, e.g. servicing), I presume most people like me would buy a warranty for a worry free 12 months of motoring in the knowledge that if anything goes wrong with the vehicle it is covered by the policy. It is not difficult to end up with a four figure repair bill from a Merc garage without your engine or gearbox blowing.

Have you made a claim on your WD policy, and if so, how did you get on?

[Deva Link]

soofsayer said:

....the problem with WD is that they do promise a comprehensive 'no worry' warranty which simply is not the case.

Genuine question: Can you point to WD page or statement where it says that?

I'd like to know as I'm collecting such things in case I ever claim and they deny the claim!

soofsayer said:

Have you made a claim on your WD policy, and if so, how did you get on?

No, and, touch wood, I hope I never have to claim.

There are loads of reviews here: http://www.ciao.co.uk/warrantydirect_co_uk__532475...
Don't know about you but I always just read the negative ones (the spammer on the previous page has posted in there) and some of the things people are complaining about just show they have a clear lack of understanding about what they've bought.


I've never seen many comments about MB's own extended warranty (perhaps not many people buy it) but someone above mentions BMW and I've seen plenty where they've refused to authorise work.

Edited by Deva Link on Wednesday 9th January 17:42

[anonymous-user]

Deva Link said:

soofsayer said:

....the problem with WD is that they do promise a comprehensive 'no worry' warranty which simply is not the case.

Genuine question: Can you point to WD page or statement where it says that?

I'd like to know as I'm collecting such things in case I ever claim and they deny the claim!

soofsayer said:

Have you made a claim on your WD policy, and if so, how did you get on?

No, and, touch wood, I hope I never have to claim.

There are loads of reviews here: http://www.ciao.co.uk/warrantydirect_co_uk__532475...
Don't know about you but I always just read the negative ones (the spammer on the previous page has posted in there) and some of the things people are complaining about just show they have a clear lack of understanding about what they've bought.


I've never seen many comments about MB's own extended warranty (perhaps not many people buy it) but someone above mentions BMW and I've seen plenty where they've refused to authorise work.

Edited by Deva Link on Wednesday 9th January 17:42

Hi Deva,

Warranty Directs website faqs: http://www.warrantydirect.co.uk/faqs.html

They infer that the WD warranty will cover you as though it was the manufacturer warranty, which to the best of my knowledge is pretty much everything other than general wear and tear.

But WD go further to say they cover you for wear and tear also: http://www.warrantydirect.co.uk/wear.html

WD term this 'protecting' you which also implies that by giving them your money you are not going to be getting any finanical surprises. I think it has been written very carefully by lawyers to imply much but offer little. I was taken in by it TBH.

My experience with WD was not that, as mentioned already.

I had purchased MB extended warranties for at least 2 years prior and on the couple of claims I made they were done under warranty so no problems with MB. The MB extended warranty terms change (or at least used to) at around 45,000 miles I think whereby the premium went up by about 50% and the level of cover dropped to only the big stuff. At this point I looked at WD and went with them, so the car had been fully warrantied by MB from new to that point.


Many years ago I was told that one bad customer experience / purchase would be relayed 20 times, a good experience maybe 5 or 10 times. The internet just extrapolates that exponentially (need to sit down after 2 big words in one sentence) So by that maths you are going to find a lot of negative reviews about most things, and fewer positive.

I sincerely hope that if you do make a claim you get it covered.

[jmonks07]

I can safely say that Warranty Direct are a company to stay AWAY from. I have just recently purchased a new vehicle and shortly after the central locking in the passenger door stopped working along with the 12v power outlet and a "puncture" sensor kept going off when the vehicle di not have a puncture.

I contacted warranty direct at the start and they said to obtain a quote and they will pay the repair cost once they have the details from the garage. I took the vehicle in for an inspection and within a few hours Warranty Direct contacted me to say they will not cover ANY of the faults. The 12v power outlet was a fuse so that was understandable but the central locking system ... that i would surely expec to be covered.

I emailed my complaint to them and the below email was their reply -

Dear Mr

You may go ahead and get your vehicle repaired however, this will be your resposibility. This will not affect your rights.

Yours sincerely

[ecain63]

WD are st! Avoid like the plague, just like any of the aftermarket warranties.

Stick to Manufacturer with these cars. They pay for themselves.

[jacksdd]

Please do not Give these people your money.
I have the 'Gold' Warranty and have had cause to use it twice. Basically when you call, it will not be covered. If it is covered they will wriggle out of it with the small print.
When you pursue it through regulators you will find they are legally correct due to forementioned small print.
Legally Correct, morally Bankrupt.
Keep the money in the bank and use it for repairs if you need it.
I wish all kinds of evil on this company and its employees.

[gizlaroc]

jacksdd said:

I wish all kinds of evil on this company and its employees.

Blimey, was Jimmy Saville your baby sitter as a child or something?!

Seems to be a whole lot of anger built up in there!

[GBB]

I got a quote for my E500. Reasonable quote but didn't cover the air suspension so not worth considering

[xkrsupercharged]

Have used them on 4 cars over 7 years - so far paid out in access of £8500 over all cars. HTH

[coetzeeh]

run Forrest