CARCHEX, Jason Goldsmith, Royal Administration Services IF YOU HAVE A CAR WITH OVER 50,000 MILES, YOUR WARRANTY WILL LIKELY BE REFUSED DO TO "SLUDGE CLAUSE" FINEPRINT Baltimore Nationwide
17 March 2015
Jason Goldsmith, CEO Carchex
RE: COMPLAINT FOR OFFERING WORTHLESS SERVICE CONTRACTS
I purchased a service contract from your company CARCHEX and paid for the upgraded services as required under the contract.
Almost 2 months and 2,200 miles later, my family was being picked up outside the car and asked me about a sound coming from my car (it cannot be heard normally unless you are standing right outside the car). My response was to do as most people would do and take it in to a repair shop, in this case Tire Kingdom. The service manager Chris said the noise was coming from inside the engine and should be looked at immediately to which I requested that he take the information of my extended warranty and called your service center which I later discovered was an administrator for your company whose job it is to deny claims USING THE FINE PRINT IN YOUR AGREEMENTS. According to some previous complaints against your company, this “Administrator” gets owners to commit to disassembling the engine so that they can find an excuse to deny coverage leaving the owner of the vehicle with a damaged useless vehicle that he thought would be honored by a reputable company. When I bought your warranty the fact that the vehicle had over 114,000 miles was fully disclosed and the excuse that because it had a degree of what you refer to as sludge (a residue of oil on the outside of one of the cogs which is commonly present in virtually all vehicles with over 100,000 miles you would stick me with a bill for $2,611.63.
EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW THAT YOUR WARRANTY IS NOT WORTH THE PAPER IT IS PRINTED ON BECAUSE YOU CAN DENY ANY AND ALL CLAIMS USING THIS AND OTHER CLAUSES TO DODGE ANY CLAIM THAT IS MADE ON ANY VEHICLE WITH OVER 100,000 MILES (and many with less mileage), EVEN IF IT HAS NO EFFECT TO THE CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM.
I had appealed to your customer service representative to get a copy of the report on my vehicle which my mechanic read prior to faxing it to your affiliate Royal Administration Services, Inc. which stated that this was a valid claim. When my mechanic was called 2 days later by the administrator, he said he didn’t care about any claims the field agent made, he was denying the claim based on the service contract being fairly new (2 months and 2200 miles is not a new service contract as most mechanical warranties are only 30-60 days). When I appealed to Susanne and Sharon and ultimately Jason (CEO) at your customer service I was told that I could go to arbitration which I will agree to, because either you are knowingly not offering an honest service, or you need to get a new administrator to hopefully salvage what little credibility you have left.
After discussing and being threatened with an “Extortion” lawsuit for simply making a complaint stating that my warranty was not honored and disclosing the parties involved, CARCHEX agreed on the phone to payment in full (less only the $100.00 that I was responsible for under the coverage), you sent me a letter to not disclose any issues and offered only $2251.13 of the $2611.63 estimated by the repair facility, Tire Kingdom. This was never agreed to or even discussed.
After signing a full settlement and confidentiality agreement that plainly stated the amount to be paid to cover claims in the amount of $2611.63 within 3 days or the agreement would be invalid, CARCHEX declined to pay because the vehicle was recommended to be rebuilt or replaced due to previously undiagnosed and unknown issues which would result in additional costs of $4000.00, NOT TO CARCHEX, BUT TO ME (AS I ACKNOWLEDGED THAT I WOULD HONOR THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENT OF PAYMENT – UNLESS THEY REFUSED TIMELY PAYMENT ON THE AGREEMENT THAT THEY CREATED AND REQUIRED ME TO SIGN). What this clearly means is that the warranty I purchased was worthless, AND EVEN THEIR PREPARED LEGAL AGREEMENTS ARE WORTHLESS, and that unless someone were to disassemble their entire engine for inspection prior to buying a warranty, the customer will never know if he has coverage!
The only certainty is that you will be intimidated if you object to the company telling you that they will not pay for coverage, leaving you with a loss of $100’s to $1,000’s of dollars in payments for no coverage. I have since seen other similar complaint about these companies and I can tell you “I WILL NEVER DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE AGAIN!!!”
IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING AN EXTENDED MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT, FROM CARCHEX AND ROYAL ADMINISTRATION SERVICES, DON'T SAY YOU WERN'T WARNED!!!
3 Updates & Rebuttals
More Lies, More Stalling, and Absolutely No Effort to Resolve from CARFAX
#4Author of original report
Fri, December 04, 2015
Owner Jason Goldsmith and CARCHEX sent me a form to not publish my complaint, and in return he would compensate me for replacement of engine. After stalling me for over a month with requests for maintenance records and his own signed agreement which were forwarded, completed as requested, Jason changed his mind and chose the disonest path after receiving my signed agreement. I have given him every opportunity to redeem himself as a businessman to honor both the original agreement and his own revised agreement, but his refusal to respond only demonstrates that any agreement with Royal Warranty, CARCHEX or Jason Goldsmith is doomed to failure.
Perhaps it is the nature of most insurance to only take your money and never to uphold their commitment as with the now bankrupt US Fidelis, who had a very similar warranty contract that the US Government attorneys forced into bankruptcy because they would almost never pay out any claims, citing fine print exclusions that no one would ever consider reasonable, and you would never know if you have coverage until you pay someone to tear your engine apart. THAT'S HOW THEY GET YOU, so save your money for a good mechanic instead of wasting it with these thieves.
ONLY A FOOL WOULD GIVE THESE PEOPLE MONEY AFTER KNOWING WHAT THEY DO!!
#4Author of original report
Tue, October 13, 2015
Trying to resolve? Yeah, right. The only contact made since Jason's Rebuttal was made by me leaving messages trying to get CARCHEX to stop taking more money out of my account for the following 3 months after cancelling a contract that they refused to honor in the first place. Royal Warranty and CARCHEX are scammers that take your money and treat you like a fool. The only reason he wrote that he is attempting to reconcile is so he can extend his scam. Would you pay for a warranty that covered nothing? Well that's what you are paying for if you do business with them!!! Save you money and find a good mechanic, because these warranty companies are crooks always quoting fine print exclusions or going bankrupt to get out of their lawsuits.If you don't believe me, look up US Fidelis who did business this way for years before they were finally shut down. Don't be another victim, the only way to shut down these frauds are to not become another victim.
CARCHEX even offered me over $2,000 to not write these complaints and cover part of my $4,000 repair, and after I signed it they wouldn't pay that either.
Customer Support Manager
Baltimore,Maryland,
USA
Attempting to Reconcile
#4UPDATE Employee
Wed, April 15, 2015
We are happy to respond to Mr. Vogel’s post. Mr. Vogel purchased a vehicle protection plan from CARCHEX on 1/7/15. Just 13 days and 189 miles into the contract, a claim was filed with the Administrator of the contract, Royal Administration Services, on 2/25/15 for a timing chain failure. After an independent 3rd party inspection was completed, Royal Administration denied the claim for the timing chain based on the fact that the repair was due to sludge build up in the engine. A repair due to sludge, which is caused by lack of proper maintenance, is not covered under any vehicle protection plan.
Mr. Vogel contacted our offices and began working with our customer support team on 2/27/15. During these conversations, Mr. Vogel advised that he would be “blasting” CARCHEX all over social media if we did not pay his claim and told our CEO that this was something he had done in the past with success with a previous insurance related issue he had with another company.
In spite of his threats our CEO attempted to work with Mr. Vogel as he was adamant that this repair was not caused by sludge and he maintained his vehicle. Despite the independent inspection which included photos of sludge on the timing chain and despite the contract administrator denying the claim due to improper care of the vehicle, CARCHEX agreed to assist Mr. Vogel with the timing chain repair as a sign of good faith. When we attempted to fulfill our obligation of assisting with the repair of Mr. Vogel’s... timing chain, his repair facility indicated that further diagnosis had discovered that the vehicle not only had significant sludge damage but that the engine was not repairable. As stated earlier, sludge damage only occurs when a vehicle owner does not properly care for the vehicle, i.e. doesn’t change the oil. This eliminated any possible argument that the repair was needed due to anything but improper maintenance.
At this point it became clear that Mr. Vogel was trying to intimidate us to complete a repair that should not have been covered via his vehicle protection plan and furthermore an issue that likely existed prior to his purchase of the coverage. When this information was presented to Mr. Vogel, he returned to making threats. Should he decide to cancel his agreement we will be happy to expedite his refund.
CARCHEX will always do whatever we can for a customer in good faith to find solutions to just about any issue. Our CEO is active in speaking directly with customers when they have a concern of any kind. The exception is when a customer is caught trying to abuse the system.
Please feel free to contact our CEO, Jason Goldsmith at any time if you have any questions or concerns related to CARCHEX. He can be reached directly at 1-877-227-2439 Ext. 1449 or by email at jason@carchex.com.