Don't buy the warranty.....

[Silveroddo]

Its long been my belief that aftermarket RV warrantees are scams, but this week that perception has been solidified. I'm helping a family friend sell a camper van, and admittedly its oddball because its a Sprinter van with a Mercedes Diesel and a factory motor home build. The dealership she purchased it from sold her an expensive warranty and now prior to sale it needs a glow plug. Turns out no one within several hundred miles is willing to deal with it, not a shocker to me, but pretty disheartening to the owner.
Another buddy bought a "bumper to bumper" warrantee on a 2 year old bumper pull camper. Paid like $2k for the "coverage". Shortly after he bought it he started getting water into a seam in the front. Took it in for coverage and was told "Thats not covered". I told him I'd find that sales man and tell him to crawl his ass on the roof with a $20 tube of silicone or tell him what to do with that warrantee, sadly neither happened.
There may be somebody out there that has had one of these things pay out, but if you google the companies and check BBB ratings, they mostly all suck. People buy these things so they can feel warm and fuzzy if anything ever happens, but after you pay thousands of dollars for the coverage, you're just going to feel violated when they don't pay out.
Also if you have purchased one of these things, there is usually a provision for canceling it upon sale, or just cancelling it in general for a prorated refund.
Other people may have other opinions on the matter, but buyer beware, and do your homework.

 

[Rich M]

I found out that anything not issued by the manufacturer is crap.

We got hosed by local toyota dealer, went to use warranty and told it is from 3rd party and 3rd party would have to approve it. Never again.

 

[S-3 ranch]

It’s a gimmick to chisel out some extra money for the dealership imo on rvs and campers

 

[GSPHUNTER]

A few years back I got the extended warranty on a car we purchased, as it turned out, we had several rather small, but annoying issues, power window motors, wiper motor, wheel bearing and several other minor issues. which we had repaired no problem. I would say over the course of the time we owned the car, the warranty paid for itself. We did get warranty from dealer we purchased the car from, and all repairs were done throughout that dealer. All those repairs were done after manufacture warranty expired. We had the car for seven years.

 

[Sapcut]

Totally agree that aftermarket warrantys and the companies that represent them are scams. I was involved with it for a short time until I decided I couldn't stomach the fake, lieing and deceptive scumbags that sell them to car dealer. Especially those companies in the Arkansas and Tennessee areas. You have to be a special kind of mentally ill to be in that business.

 

[Yoder]

When I looked at a new Honda Civic a few years ago the salesman proceeded to tell me how Honda is the best, greatest, most reliable, amazing vehicle on the planet. When I sat down with the finance guy he proceeded to tell me how badly I need an extended warranty. I asked him "How could I possibly need a warranty on the most reliable vehicle ever made?" I never buy extended warranties for anything. The majority of the time they don't cover what you need or there is some loop hole to get out of paying.

 

[Dust Rider]

The best warranty we ever bought was on our daughters new I Phone. Paid for its self 3x over.
Car, RV’s, Truck = hard no.

 

[Silveroddo]

Totally agree that aftermarket warrantys and the companies that represent them are scams. I was involved with it for a short time until I decided I couldn't stomach the fake, lieing and deceptive scumbags that sell them to car dealer. Especially those companies in the Arkansas and Tennessee areas. You have to be a special kind of mentally ill to be in that business.

My mom is a salesmans dream, she'll buy anything. I've got a couple uncles that have been in the car business forever and one does finance. About 2 years ago she got a cancer diagnosis and its not a real good long term prognosis. A few months later she buys a new Chevy SUV and her jackass brother inlaw (my uncle) sells her the extended warrantee. Also he was well aware she hasn't kept a vehicle beyond 25000 miles in the last 15 years. Glad you had the awareness of what a racket that stuff is and quit participating, I totally know what you're talking about.

 

[Backpack Hunter]

Being in the RV business I am not particularly a fan of extended warranty plans. Having said that, complaining that the warranty doesn't cover general maintenance when it states it doesn't is hardly a reason to be upset. As to your comments about silicone, I really hope they don't have a EPDM roof.

 

[hunterjmj]

The best warranty we ever bought was on our daughters new I Phone. Paid for its self 3x over.
Car, RV’s, Truck = hard no.

My daughter somehow destroyed her iPad and apple care replaced it no questions asked. Most other warranties are a no go. I bought a $12 calculator at Office Depot and they tried to sell me a warranty on it. I told them If it broke id save $12 and buy a new one.

 

[Stalker69]

Warranties on most anything now days are worthless. Especially if you have to send an item back and forth several times, which also seems to be the norm. I really don’t consider a warranty when purchasing anything more. Hopefully I can fix it, you tube it to fix it or know someone that knows how to fix. Dealing with most of these companies after the sale, is a joke. Looking at a camera right now. “ comes” with warranty, can buy same camera for 350.00 less , no warranty. If I have an issue, I already have 350.00 towards a buying a new one, and can most likely sell “ broken one” for something

 

[Silveroddo]

Being in the RV business I am not particularly a fan of extended warranty plans. Having said that, complaining that the warranty doesn't cover general maintenance when it states it doesn't is hardly a reason to be upset. As to your comments about silicone, I really hope they don't have a EPDM roof.

Interestingly enough you are correct and I'm glad you pointed it out, glow plugs and about 900 other things aren't covered by the warrantee. We never got far enough with it to discuss it with anyone because literally no one would entertain the idea of honoring it. The company that sold it has a hotline to locate service providers, they also couldn't find anyone that would accept it. When it was sold to the older single woman that I'm helping, the salesman told her "Tires and oil changes", but as you alluded theres an actual section of the warrantee that goes through exclusions, and there are ALOT of them. I guess you don't get much for almost $7000
As for the roof comment I get it, but "Tell him to crawl his ass on the roof with a $20 tube of silicone" is a little more to the point than "Tell him to crawl up there with a 13.98 tube of self leveling lap sealant"
Its all semantics. If a dealer wants to push a warrantee that's 20% the value of the unit they're selling, it would seem like good customer service to spend 20 minutes and $10 to build a relationship with a customer, especially after they emphasized the words "bumper to bumper" while selling the warrantee.
We live in a buyer beware world, and if anything on this thread causes someone to read further into the fine print, that's the intention. In the couple hours since this was up I've already learned a few things, so thank you for that.

 

[Backpack Hunter]

Interestingly enough you are correct and I'm glad you pointed it out, glow plugs and about 900 other things aren't covered by the warrantee. We never got far enough with it to discuss it with anyone because literally no one would entertain the idea of honoring it. The company that sold it has a hotline to locate service providers, they also couldn't find anyone that would accept it. When it was sold to the older single woman that I'm helping, the salesman told her "Tires and oil changes", but as you alluded theres an actual section of the warrantee that goes through exclusions, and there are ALOT of them. I guess you don't get much for almost $7000
As for the roof comment I get it, but "Tell him to crawl his ass on the roof with a $20 tube of silicone" is a little more to the point than "Tell him to crawl up there with a 13.98 tube of self leveling lap sealant"
Its all semantics. If a dealer wants to push a warrantee that's 20% the value of the unit they're selling, it would seem like good customer service to spend 20 minutes and $10 to build a relationship with a customer, especially after they emphasized the words "bumper to bumper" while selling the warrantee.
We live in a buyer beware world, and if anything on this thread causes someone to read further into the fine print, that's the intention. In the couple hours since this was up I've already learned a few things, so thank you for that.

There are very few extended warranty plans that are worth much in the RV industry, and in my opinion none if purchased for an RV that is over 3 years old. Typically, if it pays 75 cents on the dollar, it is considered a top tier plan. Even these will have a list of exclusions included, but not limited to general maintenance, door seals, slideout seals, awnings, acts of God, etc.

 

[hunterjmj]

No wonder no one likes going to any kind of dealership. All they try to do is upsell garbage. Early in my career I worked for a residential A/C company. They could care less if you could fix anything, they just cared about the upsell or turning it over to a sales guy to sell new equipment. Got out of that crap asap.

 

[jessefoster81]

I never buy them, I’ll take my chances in a repair. They ain’t selling them to be nice


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[Sapcut]

Driving only Toyota Land Cruisers IS my warranty

 

[mistermystery]

I thought I got ripped off buying the extended warranty on a used SUV I bought from a dealer (my first experience with a car dealership). A few years later the rear coupler or something was leaking and thankfully I remembered the extended warranty I had bought. Didn’t pay a penny on a $1500 repair. I think this experience is more the exception than the norm but I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[william schmaltz]

I’ve always been taught to “self insure” stuff and never buy the warranty. I think that’s likely correct for 95% of products.

Sellers threw in a home warranty when we bought our house 4 years ago. First year had a $1500 heater repair and never paid a penny so I purchased the warranty for another year ($350). Had the washing machine go out and they replaced it no questions asked. Next year had another heater problem that totaled about $2000 and it was covered. House and appliances are about 15 years old and the warranties have already paid for themselves for dang near the next decade. So I’ll use the savings to keep renewing and will likely get a couple more claims in that time.

 

[KenLee]

My mom is a salesmans dream, she'll buy anything. I've got a couple uncles that have been in the car business forever and one does finance. About 2 years ago she got a cancer diagnosis and its not a real good long term prognosis. A few months later she buys a new Chevy SUV and her jackass brother inlaw (my uncle) sells her the extended warrantee. Also he was well aware she hasn't kept a vehicle beyond 25000 miles in the last 15 years. Glad you had the awareness of what a racket that stuff is and quit participating, I totally know what you're talking about.

He'd have toted a butt whooping.

 

[Rich M]

No wonder no one likes going to any kind of dealership. All they try to do is upsell garbage. Early in my career I worked for a residential A/C company. They could care less if you could fix anything, they just cared about the upsell or turning it over to a sales guy to sell new equipment. Got out of that crap asap.

My dad had ac issues this year. Used company that installed it. Guy said ac was strong and couldnt figure why it wouldnt cool at night…. Same for 2nd time…. 3rd time i spoke to his coworker and that guy told me what a crap unit it was, needs to be replaced. They gave me an estimate of about $8,000.

Called another guy, based off referral, first thing we did was change the batteries in the thermostat. He spent some time looking, said other guy had systematically disconnected all the “extras” and he saw no reason why it shouldnt work. Call me if it doesnt get better. Wouldnt let me pay him.

Been running fine since. A few good ones left.