Warranties Direct

[scottyr]

Anyone have a warranty from this company? They seem to be held in high regard in the motoring industry, but has anyone actually had to deal with them.

They appear to cover wear and tear, which for me seems a bonus, but are there any catches? For me this includes brake pads/discs etc which seems unlikely.

Thoughts welcome guys and gals.

[Jw Vw]

I believe that they have a good reputation but the price they quote can be an absolute joke. I was quoted something ridiculous like £700 on my Golf. I think they do cover big items like gearboxes and such so may be worth doing.

[Vixpy1]

Dealt with them years ago, like most warranty companies they wriggled out of paying

[rasto]

I asked a similar question last week:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I still haven't decided. Warranty Wise keep phoning me up offering me special 'deals', but the general opinion seems to be that they will wriggle out of paying if they possibly can.

[Jem0911]

Vixpy1 said:

Dealt with them years ago, like most warranty companies they wriggled out of paying

Same here. Keep the premium in the bank.

[scottyr]

Yeah, but on an S5, the 900 they are quoting seems pretty decent.

i presume a clutch comes under the wear and tear and I believe you could be talking nearly 2k for that after labour costs.

[Jem0911]

S5?
Not under Audi warranty?

[STW2010]

I had a policy with them which covered the ICE for my RX8. The CD changer stopped working, so I contacted Mazda who had dealt with them previously; helpfully Mazda contacted WD on my behalf to get authorisation to undertake the repairs. WD refused to pay as it was within the first 3 months of the policy and a CD changer is a 'wear and tear item' apparently. I hit the roof and raised a complaint over the phone, within the hour I had an email that the complaint had been logged and that I would hear back within 14 days. Another phone conversation meant that someone from their complaints department contacted me the next day.

I jumped through the required hoops, such as showing them the service history (apparently not servicing the car means that the CD changer stops working ), MOTs and all sorts of other crap. Eventually they did agree to pay out, but it took me a lot of complaining and using some degree of intelligence to mentally beat up the retard on the other end of the phone. The policy cost me £300, and the cost of a CD changer replacement from Mazda was £700 (CD changer being one of those in-dash types), so all in all it was very worthwhile for me. But a pain. Add in the fact that I needed to pay for the repairs and then claim them back from WD, which at the time seemed like a risk.

They are essentially an insurance company and they make money by people not claiming (or complaining). So the customer is not always better off.