Complaint Review: National Dealer Service Of America Warranty Finance LLC-WFC - Chicago Illinois

Contrary to the information posted by a previous complainant/former employee, this company HAS NOT as of this reporting, gone out of business. This company in collusion with National Dealer Service of America perpetrated what I can only call the scam from hell.

First I received an automated call on August 12 2008, from National Dealer Service of America with a person on the phone telling me that my warranty was about to expire and I had the option of extending the full warranty covered under my expiring lease (I was about to purchase the car from the dealership). As he had the fact that my lease was expiring I thought surely he was an affiliate of Volkswagen Credit from whom I was leasing a car. I returned the call and gave him my OK to extend the warranty and gave him my credit card number, which he later used to bill me. The total would be $3,009. My guard was down since I thought I was dealing with my leasing company, or one of it's affiliates coincidentally, I received their call two months before my warranty was to expire they got lucky. I wasn't at all suspicious and didn't take his name.

In late August I received a notice from Warranty Finance with an account number and a PIN# to access my online account.

When I received my credit card bill in the mail in September, I saw a charge for NDSA for $195.00 as agreed.

By March, I thought it odd that I didn't have a contract of any kind explaining the benefits of any warranty. I read my credit card bill and saw deductions from my credit card for a monthly transaction fee of $156.33 for Warranty Finance, LLC. I searched for the account and pin# from the earlier notice from Warranty Finance to see if there was any information. But when I accessed the website for an account link, there were no links for accessing ANY accounts at all.

I contacted Koepel Volkswagen, the dealership that I leased my car from and asked about this warranty company. They told me it was a telemarketing scam. I had received no other documentation from Warranty Finance LLC WFC, or National Dealer Service of America until I stopped paying and disputed the bills. None of their mailings were ever signed.

I went online to do a Google search of these companies. What I saw were numerous complaints from consumers in my same situation: Among them:

That many of them (like myself) had never signed, received, or viewed a contract of any kind.

That those who DID, found that their vehicles would not be covered unless they could produce EVERY receipt for any servicing or maintenance ever performed on the vehicle (tell me who keeps records like that!): So even had I received such a contract, it would have been utterly worthless to me since I cannot produce those receipts and am thus disqualified for reimbursement to begin with.

That calls to the company were frequently wrong numbers, callers were ignored, or they were put on hold.

That their service contracts if they ever got one (I never did) allowed for the installation of rebuilt, refurbished or even used auto parts and could only be performed by garages (butchers) approved by the warrantor: Thus any mechanic who would guarantee his own work simply would not even honor this type of a contract. In effect it was worthless.

By federal law, a warranty can only be issued by the manufacturer so it is merely a service contract: They do not call it one.

As per the Federal Trade Commission - pursuant to the Magnuson-Moss Act: Three basic requirements apply to any warrantor:

Section 102: As a warrantor, you must designate, or title, your written warranty as either full or limited.

16 CFR Part 701 The Disclosure Rule: As a warrantor, you must state specified information about the coverage of your warranty in a single, clear, and easy-to-read document.

16 CFR Part 702 The Pre-Sale Availability Rule: As a warrantor or seller, you must ensure warranties are available where your warranted consumer products are sold so that consumers can read them before buying.

These FTC rules apply to ALL written warranties on consumer products costing more than $15.

Also, as per the Magnuson-Moss Act Section 102 ( c ): Tie-in Sales Provision: Such a provision would require the purchaser of the warranted product to buy an item or service from a particular company in order to be eligible to receive a remedy under the warranty. This is illegal.

Other Statutes:

FTC Act 16CFR Part 239: Deceptive Warranty Advertising is Unlawful: NDSA claimed that this was an extension of my existing factory warranty with bumper to bumper coverage: An outrageous lie.

National Dealer Services of America and Warranty Finance Co, LLC violated ALL of these laws. The former company according to WFC went out of business. WFC claims to be only a financial service but they made the deductions to my credit card in violation of every law stated above. NDSL did the dirty work of robbing me WFC drove the getaway car. That's their relationship. I was only able to get back 60 days worth of payments to my credit card even though this was clearly a fraud.

The practice of advertising an extended warranty using the tactic as above has since been made illegal. I lost $195.00 to NDSL and $468.99 to WFC. The preponderance of evidence suggests that the two of these companies acted collusively to engage in mail and wire fraud.

If you contemplate ANY transaction involving Warranty Finance Company, LLC be forwarned.

Alfromastoria

Astoria, New York

U.S.A.