xpl0sive

well i bought a warranty from NAC, their Pinnacle plan, which is supposed to have the best coverage. My car went into the dealership with multiple issues, I have attached the document which explains the required repairs and NAC's coverage.... I am in Canada and as many know, prices here are higher than prices in the US. NAC's contract specifically states that they cover repairs made in USA and Canada. So far in my claim, they are only willing to pay US part prices. Dollar is currently at Par, so no conversion applies. Bruce @ Beck's Imports is currently reviewing these issues, as he is the one that sold me the warranty.

1st item, was for a CEL, my SA found that the purge valve is leaking in the charcoal canister. NAC told him to clear the code and see if it comes back, they are currently not covering the replacement of the purge valve
The idler pulley they agreed to cover, but their part price is $440.00, whereas my dealer's price is $666.00.

2nd item, SRS Light
Harness and connector needs replacing, the parts prices arent much different, but NAC is only willing to cover 1.8 hrs labour our of 2.8hrs required.

3rd item isnt involved here, I will replace the battery myself.

4th Item is the driver side window regulator.
Not much difference there, just a $35 difference in the part price

5th item is due to gas smell inside,
NAC is willing to cover the part cost, but are only willing to cover 2.1 labour hours out of the required 3.8.

6th item are the door handles, they are willing to cover 2 out of the 3 that require replacement. they are saying that water entered the third one and they do not cover water damage. I will just get the two covered ones replaced, but their parts prices are Much less than the dealer, leaving me with a couple hunded dollars difference.

7th item is for a new cluster, difference in 0.5 hrs of labour.

8th item is for a failed GPS antenna, they are refusing to cover it due to water intrusion again.

9th item was for the trunk not closing sometimes, when i brought the car into mercedes, they were not able to replicate the problem, but by scanning my car with STAR, i was able to see that there is a short in the wire. NAC is not covering it to date.
They are also not willing to cover the taxes, which are 12% here.

What do you guys think of all this? I hope I can at least get NAC to cover the full parts prices, I know it will be hard to fight them on the amount of labour hours required...

Evolved8

Sounds like alot of your issues can be covered for less than 500 bucks from someone who knows what they are doing. Good luck with your claim

GregMB

How long has this warranty been in force?

Submitting a claim for $3500 on a brand new policy is going to throw red flags at NAC.... you might find that they will scrutinize every claim you make from now on.

I've got a NAC Pinnacle plan and they rarely cover 100% of the labor charges. They always cover the full parts costs, but seem to fight my MBZ dealer about the number of "book hours" that they charge.

I end up paying a little out-of-pocket even for covered items, but NAC pays the lion's share of my repair costs each time I've had an issue.

-G

benjamin4000

Have you "shopped" the part and repair cost with a local qualified Indedependent MB repair facility?

xpl0sive

This ia a fairly new policy, taken out in December. It was just my luck all these things went wrong at the same time, CEL SRS lights came on, speedo stopped working, car smelled like gas sometimes. Maybe I should have just done two separate claims and paid two deductibles instead of trying to lump it all into one claim.

xpl0sive

Well the problem with that is if I go somewhere else, the dealer will charge me for the diagnostic time, which is around 7 hours, at $130/hr...

novae500

I would have fixed at most 3 of the items, wait a few months later and do the rest. Doing all at once gives a red flag. But for the price you paid approx $4000 +/- is pretty much paid in this one visit. So they are in the negative from this point on with you.

I had an Easycare Stated warranty that i paid $5k for 48k miles. First time i used them was for both valve cover gaskets leaking, gas smell fuel sending unit bad, leaking windshield washer reservoir. I had to send EC documents of the prepurchase inspection from the dealer that i bought where none of the issues i brought up reflected it or not. Didnt show up on the ppi that the dealer did their 98 point inspection.

Ended up only covering my valve cover gaskets. Rest was out of my pocket $956 for the fuel sending unit/labor. I cancelled shortly with them and got back $4300!!! Thats sitting in my car fix acct.

rchase

I have heard it is a lot better to have your car worked on at a NAC dealer. They will side with you on a lot of grey area problems and work with them more... Could just be the dealer trying to get me to service my car with them but who knows...

Toadster

probably a good idea... this happened with our Denali, went in for a failed A/C compressor and ended up with 6K in failed parts which ended up in replacing the whole transfer case, front wheel bearings, and rear differential...

took us 2 weeks to get it finalized as well....

good luck!

xpl0sive

yup I paid, $4800 for this warranty. I added up their Approved parts and labour, that adds up to 4375.50. If I can get them to cover the parts prices in full, it should be around $4800, which means thay are breaking even.

xpl0sive

Do aftermarket warranties usually cover sales taxes? NAC told my SA they were not paying the tax

novae500

I think NAC is nickeling and dimeing every cost that they rather not pay and make the customer pay. Thats why i decided it was best to cancel my warranty after having it for 3 months. Wait any longer and i would be given the run around and end up getting less prorated $$ back.

CharlyE500

I would not buy Ext warranty anymore. If you have a good indy shop, those job is about half price $2400. I rather have the $4800 in my pocket fix what i want to fix without the hazard. Even I end up spending $7K in my pocket, trust me, I rather pay it than go through the ext warranty crap. Wasting time on phone and takes forever to approve. For my peace of Mind, I rather no go through ext warranty.

firstbenzforme

"yup I paid, $4800 for this warranty. I added up their Approved parts and labour, that adds up to 4375.50. If I can get them to cover the parts prices in full, it should be around $4800, which means thay are breaking even. "


They are breaking even 3 months into a contract which i assume has a considerably longer life ( i thought NAC had a 90 day cooling period where they would cancel your policy if you put in a big claim )....Sounds like you are making out pretty good on this. Anything further you can get them to cover is additive but if you are getting the work done at a dealership this is all normal. NAC knows how much dealers rape you (and them) on parts and labor. (i have NAC too so i speak from experience). You could prob get it all done at some other MB certified shop and pay a little less. If you want the peace of mind from having a dealer do the work, and you have to pay 500-600 bucks for a $5000 repair bill.... what's the big deal?
Your warranty just paid for itself in 1 use 3 months into ownership. There will be more down the road!

Oh and FWIW my shop's assistant does all the wrangling with NAC on my behalf

Becks Imports

I sold the warranty in this case, and hundreds of others, so let me chime in here even though I'm still digging into this:

1. I don't have a lot of Canadian customers. I am not sure if the claims rep at NAC has a lot of Canadian customers. So while it would be stupid, it's possible he's looking at USA prices and not realizing the allowance has to change on certain things. That's one of the things I am investigating.

2. The shop, through no fault of xpl0sive, LOADED UP the claim to NAC, including submitting things that they knew (or should have known had they looked at the contract) would not be covered. Understand that the total amount of the claim submitted to NAC including stuff not covered, two weeks after the 30 day no-claim waiting period ended, totaled $8900!!!! Can you say red flag? I'm amazed they are actually just processing it as a normal claim rather than asking the most basic questions like did the inspecting dealer actually inspect the car for warranty acceptance or not.

Put yourself in NAC's shoes for a second. You sell a four year policy for $4800 with a 30 day no-claim period. On the 45th day, you get a claim for $8900 for multiple unrelated problems. You've GOT to wonder what's going on.

I am not implying any wrongdoing on anyone's part...sometimes cars break and xpl0sive did put on plenty of miles in those 6 weeks. But c'mon, it does not pass the smell test. The shop really botched the claim by loading so much into it.

3. For those of you with the attitude of 'I would never buy an extended warranty.....not worth it, too much trouble, etc", take a close look at xpl0sive's math. NAC has already approved FOUR THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS 45 days into a FOUR YEAR POLICY for which xpl0sive paid $4800. How on earth can you say this is a bad deal??? He's going to make his money back four times over by the time the plan ends. Show me an investment that gives you a 400% ROI please, I'll take a million of them.

4. I am sure I will make some headway with this claim so the ultimate payment will be higher than it is now. On top of that, SRS systems are specifically exculded and they are paying part of an SRS warning light claim! (I won't mention that when I speak with them of course)

I have over 800 people with NAC, and everyone is pretty happy. Is it perfect? No, it's not, but neither is MB CPO, about which the forums have lots of complaints too. But again, look at the math here and the ROI opportunity over 4 years, and tell me this is not a fantastic deal overall.

Bruce

xpl0sive

Bruce, thanks for your post. I do agree that the warranty was a worth while purchase and I am glad I bought it. I am just hoping NAC agrees to cover at least the full parts prices. If I ever have a claim again, I'm taking my car to an indy shop, not the dealer. For some reason I thought NAC would prefer the work being done at the dealership, that way they would know the diagnostic was done properly.

Becks Imports

That's the right attitude..I'll help, we'll get closer, but look at the big picture. You just made a fantastic investment. Some people get caught up in nickels, and miss the thousands. Yes, it would be great if everything was perfect, but what is? They're not the first insurance company to require a little effort to get what you want, but as you mentioned, even if they approve nothing else you're still going to make out like a bandit in the long term.

I see your point about correct diagnosis, but insurance companies want to pay as little as they can while meeting their obligations. Dealers are almost always signficantly more money than is required to repair a given problem, as others have noted here.

Bruce

fly2nite

I didn't buy from Bruce, but I can independently confirm NAC has been nothing but A+ in my book. Bought my nac warranty last year from a local guy and this year have had claims on Sending Unit, entire fuel tank and driver's side keyless entry (door handle). All paid no fuss except a little on the keyless because initially they said they don't cover handles, but I called them and they decided to go ahead and cover that too. Paid 3750 for my 100k total mile warranty including $200 for a zero deductible and so far they've paid out ~3100 with no haggling or splitting labor or any of that nonsense. My total out of pocket? zero. I for one am completely satisfied and would buy their warranty again in a heartbeat.

xpl0sive

well time for a quick update,
Bruce was able to work some magic for me and got me another $1000 from NAC. Looks like in total, I'll be paying about $500 out of my own pocket. My car is still at the dealer waiting for parts to arrive from Germany. I will post the final invoice once I get the car back.
A+++ for Bruce's customer service

tbal

Good to hear Mike, keep us posted!

novae500

$500 out of pocket not bad at all for $3500!!!

Becks Imports

Actually it's even better...the claim was paid for $5300, not $3500!

Bruce

150shot

Bruce- is it common you have to get involved to "help out" in larger claims like this? just curious?

Becks Imports

If I had to take a guess, out of 1500 or so claims, maybe 8-9 times?

Bruce