After failing to resolve an extended warranty issue on his own, Good Sam member Philip Turner of Riva, Maryland, asked Action Line for help:
I have an extended warranty from Phoenix American on my Class C motorhome. My generator broke down in January, and I sent the motorhome to the Cummins Onan repair facility in Baltimore, as directed by my dealer. Cummins Power Systems wouldn’t deal with the warranty company directly, saying that they’ve had too many problems with them in the past. After discussing the matter with Phoenix American, I elected to buy a new generator for $3,458.60. They sent out an adjuster, and he agreed that this was the best way to handle the claim. After the repairs were completed, I paid the full bill and submitted the receipt to them. They made me have the receipt changed to include the VIN number, which I understood. Now they want me to have it changed again to include mileage, which Cummins Power Systems doesn’t do, as they go by hours of generator use and the generator serial number. Phoenix American keeps giving me the runaround.
Action Line sent a letter to Phoenix American explaining Philip Turner’s situation and received the following reply from the company’s vice president, Paul Guelmes:
The payment in connection with the $2,018.53 approved amount was mailed to Mr. Turner by our auditing department on March 19. If you should have any questions or if I may be of further assistance in this matter, please let me know.
Since 1981, the Good Sam Club’s Action Line has helped resolve thousands of disputes between members and businesses. If you have an RV-related consumer issue and would like assistance, contact Action Line.
William Johnson
I am having a serious problem with Good Sam ESP which I have had since 2009. When the repair center called the ESP representative refrence an convection oven not working the ESP claims rep stated that electronics were not covered. The policy clearly states that it is covered if it is a factory installed item that came with the coach. My dash air also was not working properly. There is a very small hole in the condenser, The ESP representative refused to honor the repair.
In both cases the refusal was based on what possibly could have caused them to fail. They started pulling possible reasons that could cause Convection could have fail or what possibly could have put a hole in the condenser for the dash air and denied coverage on possibilities NOT the fact that they had failed. Is this a scam or what? If you read the advertisement on the website for ESP it say nothing about it is covered “UNLESS”.
Good Sam says: Please accept our most sincere apologies for the difficulties you experienced. The Good Sam Extended Service Plan is managed by a different department, so I have forwarded this email to their resolutions department for further investigation. We value your feedback and greatly appreciate that you took the time to make us aware of the situation and assure you that we will do all that we can to resolve it to your satisfaction.
Follow-up 8/6/12: We’re glad we were able to speak with you over the phone this morning. Pending additional paperwork from you, we will be sending this issue to our Claims Department and Review Board.
Joseph T Balek
I purchased an extented warranty when I refinaced from; Heritage Warranty for 3 yrs on Feb 11,2005 and after 3 yrs if you did not use it you could get a refund for what I paid, which was $2800. I called and e-mailed them with no success because they said they went bankrupt and are paying off as they got the money and in what order your claim was sent in. I sent in my claim right after the 3 yrs and have contacted Action Line on this and been calling myself since than and have not been able to get any satisfaction either way, I just check the form I have as to when I will get my refund, I am now put off from Nov of this year to Dec of 2014 !!!!!!!! I am boiling mad on the runaround I have been getting. Has anybody else had this problem with Heritage Warranty Service?????
Good Sam says: Joseph – we followed up on this with ActionLine. They appear to have checked into this already for you and you should’ve receive a letter about this. Unforunately, as a result of Heritage Warranty’s filing for bankruptcy, they will not speak with the Action Line regarding this. If you wish to pursue this further, the next step will be to contact a private attorney. We’re sorry for this bad situation and wish we could help out further. Thank you for being a Good Sam member, and we wish you the best of luck in your next steps!
HAROLD AND SANDY UMHOLTZ
WE HAVE HAD GOOD SAM EXTENDED WARRANTY AND THEY PAID ALL BUT THE DEDUCTIBLE VERY QUICKLY. GOOD SAM HONORS THEIR EXTENDED WARRANTY.
Cathe
There are more then a few things anyone who buys and “extended warranty” should be aware of.
1. They only pay about 1/3rd of the total parts and labor cost based on a “bible” they keep at their desk, minus the owner’s $250 deductible.
2. They always, always only pay 1 hour of diagnostic time, even if the repair facility can document 8 hours it took to find the electrical problem, and they will only pay 2/3rd of the total actualy repair hours up to a maximum defined by this bible they keep at their desk for each type of job.
3. If the unit is not totally inoperative when the claims investigator comes out, they will parse out every internal part even on a “sealed unit” and give you roughly 50% of it’s book value based on some “bible” the claims people keep at their desk. Even if buying the whole sealed component includes a new 2 year warranty. Rebuilding the unit would have taken more then a week, installing a new unit took 2 days for the shipper to get it to us. Neither of which was a consideration by the claims staff.
4. They will not pay “mobile technician” time and travel, even if the tech was directed by the claims staff to drive 45 minutes to come back to demonstrate to the claims investigator what the problem is. It was explained to me that all work is assumed to be taking place at a bricks and mortar repair facility where all technicians are available all the time, even if they knew at the start this was a mobile technician making the diagnosis and repairs.
I think the real problem is the false advertising and sales slogans that lead the consumer to assume that all repairs will be covered in full. There is not one extended warranty service that will pay what their advertisements lead the consumer to believe they will pay. Peace of mind and all that stuff is totally false when the time and energy it takes to deal with the claims adjusters gets one’s blood pressure through the roof, and a level of adversity only seen in automobile personal injury world.
And this all refers to the supposed cream of the crop: Good Sam’s Extended Warranty Gold plan. I don’t know if the leadership in the Good Sam Club know how their members are being treated by “their” representatives but it leaves a sour taste in one’s mouth at the end of the experience. I suspect that what the GS CSP is reporting is only the “bottom line” dollars saved. As with most of the financial industry these days it’s “My Profits are most important” and customer service with common sense is non existant.
But all of you should understand that no matter what type of “insurance or benefit” plan you pay for, the return to the consumer is always going to be some highly depreciated fractional value of the cost to the consumer to repair or replace it. Makes you wonder if we should all just “self insure” for the inevitable failures that are a part of the lifestyle of RVing.
Good Sam says: Please accept our most sincere apologies for this experience. We will like to check into it further. Please email [email protected] along with your member number and we will check into it right away. We’re continually working to improve our services every day. Thanks for your patience.
David Bauer
My wife and I have camped from Alaska to Fla. From Cal. to NC. We have camped in many providences in Canada. We have never been discriminated againsed for the type camper, Van, Truck. 5th wheel, untill we pulled into a Good Sam Park in Amarilo, Texas. The camp sites we were shown were not camp sites, but areas between campers, behind a tree, on the sidewalk and had to share the water and electricity, if they let us, with the campers on the sites next to us. For these “B” sites as they called them, we were expected to pay the same as if it were a regular camp site.
I brought this up with the Ar. and Texas Good Sam State directors but have not heard any thing from them. I also brought it up to an Good Sam Sambasador same. Nothing. I have been an Good Sam member since 1984 and feel like as long as you have my money your org. can egnore.
Good Sam says: David – thank you for that valuable feedback. We are working to improve our Good Sam RV Park network every day, and will certainly pass this along.
AL
I think that the warranty company should have picked up the full cost of the Generator! Most of these warrany companies are just ripe off and they never want pay what is fair! If I were Mr, Turner I would ask why they didn’t the full price. Especially since that was the way the warranty company wanted to handle it! They took more then a 1/3 off what they owned him. In my experience I never had more then a $50 deductable, and sometimes parts that were not covered, such as calking and seals. In my opinion that is some high priced extra parts!