Chance of any recourse?
Discussion
Sheepshanks said:
Bearing in mind the way it works is you pay the bill and then claim it back, once the garage had done the strip and diagnose and it was realised the bill was going to be £17K, did you have a discussion with WD about a cash settlement?
Yes I did, as I just assumed the car would be written off and I would be paid the £15k cash. They flat out refused to do it that way and said their policy is to only pay out for repairs, they don’t do cash settlements. I argued about the fact that it doesn’t make sense to spend £17k repairing it, and the fact it’s going to cost me £2k plus myself, but they wouldn’t budge.
I almost feel guilty about moaning as wd were so good otherwise and ultimately they paid out £15k for me (which is one of the reasons I didn’t make a complaint at the time).
ging84 said:
I'm not sure I quite understand.
Would the company have paid out £15k and written off the car, or would they have only paid up to £15k if it was repaired, and nothing if you could not afford to make up the difference ?
If they'll pay out as a mechanical write off then the limit makes sense, but if not it seem somewhat of an arbitrary choice but then perhaps if the policy is priced on the car value then it makes sense.
They would only have paid out £15k if the car was repaired and I had an invoice to prove it. Would the company have paid out £15k and written off the car, or would they have only paid up to £15k if it was repaired, and nothing if you could not afford to make up the difference ?
If they'll pay out as a mechanical write off then the limit makes sense, but if not it seem somewhat of an arbitrary choice but then perhaps if the policy is priced on the car value then it makes sense.
If I couldn’t afford the extra £2k myself than Bmw wouldn’t have repaired the car, and wd wouldn’t have paid out anything to me.
As you can see, I really did not have much choice other than to go ahead with the repair!
ASONI said:
Yes I did, as I just assumed the car would be written off and I would be paid the £15k cash.
They flat out refused to do it that way and said their policy is to only pay out for repairs, they don’t do cash settlements. I argued about the fact that it doesn’t make sense to spend £17k repairing it, and the fact it’s going to cost me £2k plus myself, but they wouldn’t budge.
Well, if the policy doesn’t offer that option (and it doesn’t look as if it does) then a cash settlement was never going to happen.They flat out refused to do it that way and said their policy is to only pay out for repairs, they don’t do cash settlements. I argued about the fact that it doesn’t make sense to spend £17k repairing it, and the fact it’s going to cost me £2k plus myself, but they wouldn’t budge.
Sheepshanks said:
Well, if the policy doesn’t offer that option (and it doesn’t look as if it does) then a cash settlement was never going to happen.
I’m not an expert in the legal side but surely a term can’t be unfair, especially if it has the potential to cause financial hardship to the customer? Only paying for repairs makes sense in 99.9% of situations where it’s fully covered by warranty co as it’s less than value of car. But my repair was more than value of car and I had to pay a significant amount towards it, surely that term than becomes a bit unfair and would be more sensible to scrap the car instead of insisting on repairing it?
Just my opinion of course and it’s done and dusted now I guess. Just wanted to get it off my chest more than anything.
Edited by ASONI on Monday 9th December 00:44
I wouldn't call £2k for a dealer-supplied engine, fitted and ready to go, significant - I'd say you got off very lightly.
In circumstances where it would cause hardship I'm sure the ball would roll the other way and they'd look at it - but it clearly hasn't and you've now got a brand new engine for the price some pay for a sofa.
Win win, enjoy the car.
In circumstances where it would cause hardship I'm sure the ball would roll the other way and they'd look at it - but it clearly hasn't and you've now got a brand new engine for the price some pay for a sofa.
Win win, enjoy the car.
mattyprice4004 said:
I wouldn't call £2k for a dealer-supplied engine, fitted and ready to go, significant - I'd say you got off very lightly.
In circumstances where it would cause hardship I'm sure the ball would roll the other way and they'd look at it - but it clearly hasn't and you've now got a brand new engine for the price some pay for a sofa.
Win win, enjoy the car.
I don't think it would roll the other way, if they're not required to pay out, they wouldn't.In circumstances where it would cause hardship I'm sure the ball would roll the other way and they'd look at it - but it clearly hasn't and you've now got a brand new engine for the price some pay for a sofa.
Win win, enjoy the car.
I would not be surprised if there was even a possibility that had he not been able to cover the shortfall and the dealer refused to complete the work, the warranty company might have turned around and said we're not covering anything, including the work already done.
JxJ Jr. said:
What are the T&Cs around choice of garage? Warranty Direct appear to have a 'network of garages' and a labour rate limit. Going to a BMW authorised garage with a third party warranty perhaps leaves little room to argue about things working out a bit costly.
You choose the level of cover when you take out the policy. I had full dealer rate cover on my Merc, but WD would still push for a lower price with the dealer. Although I had a spring break and of course they'll only pay for one (MB warranty is same) but the dealer did the other cheaper for me than they charged WD.If it's one of WD network then the bill is sent directly. If it's anyone else then the normal drill is you have to pay and reclaim it. Maybe with such a large bill it might be possible to get it paid direct.
I do think it's all very well saying the OP got a new engine for £2K but that's probably not any particular benefit to him - you don't normally expect engines to fail so it probably doesn't add any value to the car. It might even put some people off.
Sheepshanks said:
I do think it's all very well saying the OP got a new engine for £2K but that's probably not any particular benefit to him - you don't normally expect engines to fail so it probably doesn't add any value to the car. It might even put some people off.
Edited by Graveworm on Wednesday 11th December 12:33
Graveworm said:
The OP went from a car worth scrap value to a car worth market value (in this case 15K. With a new engine. If they sold it tomorrow they are 13K up which only cost WD a maximum of 12.5 K
Not really, because he'd taken the precaution of insuring against the event that happened. WD weren't doing him a favour. He bought, for not a trivial amount, one of their policies.
ging84 said:
It does sound like they charged full rate, which would have been heavily discounted had it have been BMW warranty work, and probably could have been negotiated down.
They did give me a big discount as i negotiated as much as possible, that was the bottom price they would do. JxJ Jr. said:
What are the T&Cs around choice of garage? Warranty Direct appear to have a 'network of garages' and a labour rate limit. Going to a BMW authorised garage with a third party warranty perhaps leaves little room to argue about things working out a bit costly.
They do have their own network which would have been cheaper no doubt and I probably wouldn't have had to pay anything extra. But in my defence, I pay good money for a warranty and quite reasonably assumed the repair costs would be covered, so why shouldn't I take it to BMW and get the benefits of main dealer (2 year warranty on work, nice courtesy car etc etc).
However, I obviously didn't expect the bill to come to £17.2k (who does!?) which is not just a 'bit costly', it's insane and well over the value of the car.
Even if I did go with their approved garage (which could just be a bog standard garage), what are the chances of them being able to carry out such major work? It's possible that I would have ended up having to take it to BMW or an independent specialist anyway, once the required work became apparant.
Edited by ASONI on Thursday 12th December 12:03
Sheepshanks said:
Not really, because he'd taken the precaution of insuring against the event that happened.
WD weren't doing him a favour. He bought, for not a trivial amount, one of their policies.
Exactly, it seems some are suggesting I should count my lucky stars, accept what I got and be grateful of any payout as if it were some kind of bonus or lottery win. WD weren't doing him a favour. He bought, for not a trivial amount, one of their policies.
I'm grateful it went smoothly and I didn't encounter the usual problems when dealing with 3rd party warranties but that's about it. Why should I be grateful of the payout? They haven't done me a favour, only what they were contractually obliged to do in return for the good money I pay for having an insurance with them.
Just to re-iterate to others, I don't have a gripe with the £15k payout, only with the fact they insisted on the car being repaired despite the fact it makes no sense, makes zero difference to them, and costs me £2.2k in the process.
Edited by ASONI on Thursday 12th December 12:02
ASONI said:
JxJ Jr. said:
What are the T&Cs around choice of garage? Warranty Direct appear to have a 'network of garages' and a labour rate limit. Going to a BMW authorised garage with a third party warranty perhaps leaves little room to argue about things working out a bit costly.
They do have their own network which would have been cheaper no doubt and I probably wouldn't have had to pay anything extra. But in my defence, I pay good money for a warranty and quite reasonably assumed the repair costs would be covered, so why shouldn't I take it to BMW and get the benefits of main dealer (2 year warranty on work, nice courtesy car etc etc).
Even if I did go with their approved garage (which could well just be a bog standard garage), what are the chances that that they would have been able to carry out such major work?
yeah, I know...) then go for the brand's official extended warranty, not a third party's.ASONI said:
Just to re-iterate to others, I don't have a gripe with the £15k payout, only with the fact they insisted on the car being repaired despite the fact it makes no sense, makes zero difference to them, and costs me £2.2k in the process.
But it does make sense in a lot of ways. Even if they paid the garage 15K, which I doubt, it would only cost them 12.5K net. Paying you would cost the full amount of the payout. Leaving aside the potential problems that getting an expensive estimate, from an expensive source or even a friendly garage, then having the work done elsewhere. Who would own the "Written off" car would the warranty company need an infrastructure to manage all these cars?
Graveworm said:
But it does make sense in a lot of ways. Even if they paid the garage 15K, which I doubt, it would only cost them 12.5K net. Paying you would cost the full amount of the payout. Leaving aside the potential problems that getting an expensive estimate, from an expensive source or even a friendly garage, then having the work done elsewhere.
Who would own the "Written off" car would the warranty company need an infrastructure to manage all these cars?
But because I used my own garage, they paid the £15k directly to me so whatever the actual cost of that to warranty direct is, it would have been the same regardless of whether I actually repaired the car or not. Who would own the "Written off" car would the warranty company need an infrastructure to manage all these cars?
Edited by ASONI on Thursday 12th December 12:53
JxJ Jr. said:
I appreciate your position, but trying to give you an objective view from the outside looking in (and likely from the other side), the obvious retort is if you want main dealer level of service and competence ( yeah, I know...) then go for the brand's official extended warranty, not a third party's.
I understand, but for any other situation where the repair costs less than £15k (which is just about anything that could go wrong with a car, apart from, obviously, the engine!), it would have covered the full costs even if using BMW main dealer. yeah, I know...) then go for the brand's official extended warranty, not a third party's.Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff