I received a letter asking if I would like to re-apply for an extended warranty for my Kitchen Aid dishwasher. It is a little over ten years old and I figured it might be a good idea. The telephone pitch was that I had to wait 90 days for it to take effect and that if I had a repair that service would come out and fix it. They were well aware of the age of my machine.
The first repair was fine. The second call for repair was about 5 months later. We were shocked to hear that the repair was 'not cost effective' and that they would offer us a dollar settlement for a new washer. We said that we just wanted the repair and not new washer, but it was now too late.
What we found out the next week when Assurant called with the settlement that we only qualified for a 25% payout based on the age of our machine. I now realized that it is in the terms, but I just wanted a repair. I don't think it was that big of a reapair, the dish soap dispenser in the door would not flip open when it was supposed to. Now, I had to either take the settlement or get nothing because my warranty was now cancelled. I couldn't even get a simple repair if I needed it. I had no choice but to take the offer.
The warranty is an insurance policy intended to protect the insured. It's the chance that the insurer takes that nothing or little will happen. To void your warranty because they fear loosing is like a 'stacked deck' in my opinion.
If I could have found a another company that I thought was better to sell me an extended warranty, I would have taken it.
My advice, read the fine print terms and be careful, many times they are businesses without a heart.