Complaint Review: SquareTrade - San Francisco California

SquareTrade refused to honor my warranty and is legally obligated to cover my device per the contract terms under the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act.

I am appealing a decision by the SquareTrade Claims Department to not cover my product under the "SquareTrade 3 Year Computer Accident Protection plan ($900-$1000)" terms. Per the terms of my contract with SquareTrade, my manufacturer refurbished Dell XPS 12 (9Q33) laptop (purchase date: 08/27/2014) is eligible the warranty I purchased from Amazon.com (purchase date: 09/04/2014) for my spouse (as named in the warranty with SquareTrade).

As requested by SquareTrade, my receipt for the Dell XPS 12 laptop was emailed to the designated address on 09/17/2014. On 10/12/2015, I contacted SquareTrade via telephone to verify that this item was still covered under warranty. The SquareTrade employee assured me that the item was in fact covered under warranty and sent me email confirmation. On November 4th 2015, the laptop experienced water damage a claim was filed immediately.

On November 6th 2015, I contacted the claims department to assess the progress of my claim. At that time, I was informed by a courteous supervisor (at extension 1371) that the laptop was ineligible for coverage under the ADH Warranty (see ticket #0011720502 for additional details). The stated reason for this decision to deny my claim is that the laptop was purchased from eBay (as newly manufacturer refurbished), and the warranty was purchased from Amazon. According to the supervisor, the product would have been eligible if the SquareTrade ADH Warranty was purchased through eBay instead of Amazon.

The courteous supervisor, verbally agreed that SquareTrade should do what they can to make it right. So, he contacted his Assurance Team Manager, who declined to hear my case and stated that the decision of ineligibility was going to stand (This individual refused to speak with me about this despite my earnest request) The courteous supervisor offered to fully void and refund the warranty. I declined cancellation at this time, stating that I would first contact the legal department and see what recourse was available.

It is clear that SquareTrade failed to dispute warranty eligibility of this laptop on several counts: at the point of purchase (09/04/2015), registration (09/17/2015), or verification (10/12/2015). On the contrary, SquareTrade assured coverage of the laptop under the warranty in every interaction until the point at which a claim was filed. SquareTrade is legally obligated to cover this device per the terms of my warranty contract under the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act. The Warranty Contract provided to me does not describe that the warranty must be purchased from the same seller as the laptop. Per the terms of my contractual agreement with SquareTrade, my product is warrantable under the "SquareTrade 3 Year Computer Accident Protection plan ($900-$1000)". Legal proceedings will be initiated if SquareTrade continues to avoid meeting it's contractual obligation.