Get Gephardt: West Valley woman says her extended car warranty claim was denied unfairly
Mar 28, 2024, 10:20 PM | Updated: Mar 29, 2024, 6:49 am
WEST VALLEY CITY — Her Nissan’s transmission shifts fine now, but fixing it cost Bona Rose $7,000.
“It acted a little weird when I tried to pick up speed real quick,” she said of the moment the transmission began to act up.
So, she drove real quickly to a repair shop, where she learned the transmission needed to be replaced. But it’s a good thing Rose got an extended auto warranty!
“He said, ‘Oh yeah, you know, they should cover it. It should be fine.’”
Rose is paying the extended warranty company, CarChex, $130 a month to cover potential repairs. But when she filed a claim, she was told, no, they would not cover her transmission. Despite never inspecting the car themselves, CarChex apparently determined the transmission ran without fluid — a violation of her contract’s terms.
But it’s not what the mechanic found.
“There was adequate fluid,” she said the mechanic told her. “It was not dry.”
Despite her numerous appeals, Rose said CarChex refuses to reconsider.
“I feel like I shouldn’t have got the warranty…if it’s not going to do me any good,” she said.
So, her next call was to the KSL Investigators.
This time, we reached out to CarChex for Rose and asked them to explain why she was wrong.
A spokesperson responded by email, saying — “We have been in contact with the contract holder directly and have resolved this claim.” A short time later, Rose emailed us, writing “This complaint has been resolved.”
It’s been crickets since.
In my experience, when this sort of drop in communication happens, it can mean that the customer was told they would have their problem resolved only if they stopped talking to me and signed a non-disclosure agreement. Is that what happened here? We don’t know. It has not been disclosed.
We also don’t know the solution in Rose’s case. What I can tell you is her case was apparently resolved after we contacted CarChex.
In our interview, Rose told me CarChex sold her that warranty without even looking at her car, let alone inspecting it. And, when it comes to claims, a warranty company typically reviews a car’s entire service history. So, if it’s a used car, you could easily pay for a previous owner’s neglect even if you bought a warranty.
