In October of 2014 I purchased a 3 year 50,000 mile Gold Card Membership Contract which was the Delux Plan to cover my 2004 Toyota Sienna.The salesman was very polite, informative and assured me this was the best plan available on the market. I paid $1149 for the plan which was a special for a one time payment.
In August of 2015 I purchase new tires for the car and was at that time advised by the installing mechanic that my power steering rack under the car was leaking steering fluid. He advised me to get it repaired asap since loss of fluid means loss of power steering, an obviously dangerous situation.
I took the car to my Toyota dealer who confirmed the diagnosis and he prepared an estimate of the cost to replace the steering rack. He then filled out the computerized input for requested by Stanley to get authorization to proceed with the repai.This was on a Wednesday and in spite of several attempts to get authorization to proceed (phone calls were not answered or even acknowledge) and in spite of my personal emails to the claims department, no authorization cam ethrough. Finally, on Thursday I told The service manager to proceed with the repain since I needed to have the car back.
On September 9 I called and was able to talk with Mr. Sam Moss in the claims department.I explained to him what had happened and and he said just send the invoice by email to the claims department and they wouls send me a check.
I sent the invoice on that day with a receipt showing that I had paid $1666.42 There were 3 items on the invoice and the first item covered the rlacemtn of the steering reack at $1008.67. The 2nd item covered 3 leaks that were repaired by repacing gaskets and I did not expect Stanley to pay for those, The 3rd item was for a wheel alignment which I was told by the garage is a necessitry when the steering rack is replaced, That item cost $72.17.
Between submission of the invoice on Sept 9 and October 1, I tried to get information by phone several times and either got no answer or was told the claims department was working on iit and I would hear from them shortly. I also sent 6 emails dueing that time and got no answere to any of them. Finally, on October 1 I was able to talkwith a fellow named Carmine. He chked my file and came back to me saying "the bad news is that we don't pay for leaks but the good news is that the clains department was going to send me a check for $250 because I was such a good customer!
By that time I was so fed up with their terrible customer service that I told him quite franly their story about not paying for leaks was BS. He thn told me that if I was going to swere at thim (which I was not doing) he was going to tell the adjuster to tear up the $250 check. Then he hung up on me!
At this point I wish I had never haerd of Stanle Warranty company.
Phil Ames