GREENSBORO, N.C. — When you buy a high-mileage SUV, you probably know there’s a good chance you’ll be paying a repair bill soon. So, when Nathan Alberty found a 2001 Ford Expedition for a good price, he made sure to buy a maintenance warranty along with it.
“Me being on disability and everything, I figured the best way to do it [buy a warranty] rather than take a big chunk [repair bill] out of my pocket at one time,” Alberty said.
The SUV, certainly for the price, was working out rather well. Alberty liked the SUV and didn’t have any issues with it for several months.
All that changed when he started to hear some noises coming from under the hood. Alberty took the SUV in to see what the problem was.
“The transmission was messed up,” Alberty said.
Just like that, Alberty thought it was a good thing he bought that warranty. The repair cost was going to be around $2,200. Alberty told the shop he had a warranty and to call the company to file a claim. A few days later, Alberty received a call back that the claim was denied.
“They ended up not paying for it and I ended up with a truck and no transmission in it,” Alberty said.
Like most maintenance warranties, there are dozens of stipulations. If any of those parameters aren’t met, then the claim could be denied. In Alberty’s case, it involved a service checkup.
“The manufacturer warranty calls for the transmission to be serviced at 180,000 miles,” Alberty said.
The SUV never received the 180,000-mile service that was required, so the claim was denied. We contacted the warranty company, and it confirmed the service was never performed on the SUV, so the claim for a transmission repair was denied.
After talking with the warranty company, we had Alberty send us a copy of his warranty contract and all the documents associated with the SUV when it was purchased.
We immediately noticed something on the service contract. When Alberty bought the SUV and the warranty, the SUV had 180,200 miles on it. So, while the SUV was required to have the transmission serviced before 180,000 miles, Alberty didn’t own it at that time.
“It was just a big screw-up,” Alberty said.
We reached back out to the warranty company, and it acknowledged the mix-up. The company, however, was still not willing to pay for a replacement transmission because the original transmission wasn’t serviced properly.
After a few more discussions, the warranty company agreed to refund Alberty for all his warranty payments. Alberty was refunded a little more than $1,000.
“God bless you all. I hope you keep on helping people,” Alberty said. “I think y’all have done a good job and I appreciate all you’ve done.”