ATLANTA — Channel 2 Investigates is looking into extended warranty companies that say they will fix your car when something goes wrong.
Customers told Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray that the warranty company did not want to pay out when they ran into car trouble, even after paying the monthly fees.
Channel 2 Investigates first aired an investigation into these extended warranty companies last year.
The extended warranties offered by the automakers themselves seem to offer good coverage. But we’re talking about the companies that call your phone or run ads on TV — the biggest name, CarShield.
CarShield is the company generating some of the biggest complaints.
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Levar Owens paid CarShield $110 a month for an extended warranty that was supposed to pay for repairs if the car broke down.
But the engine on Owens’ SUV is in pieces in the trunk.
“You got the heads and the exhaust right here,” Owen said. “I never expected this, I expected my truck to be fixed.”
Derrick Rice also pays $110 a month to CarShield. As his car sits at the shop waiting on CarShield, he’s been in a rental car for seven weeks now, but CarShield is not paying the bill, he is.
“The moment that you need support, you’ve been paying for months you get the run around. So I feel like I’m sinking fast in a pool. It feels like I might not be able to get out of,” said Rice.
For Owens, the wait has been even longer. He now keeps his vehicle under a tarp after it sat at the mechanic since October 2021.
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CarShield had the engine broken down twice which cost Owens $2,500. CarShield then refused to pay for the engine to be replaced as a mechanic repeatedly recommended.
Even when the mechanic repeatedly recommended CarShield pay for it.
“They don’t want to pay to fix cars,” said Owens.
That’s why in our original Channel 2 Action News investigation last year, mechanic Bill Rimmer said he refuses to work with CarShield and most extended warranty companies anymore.
Owens’ mechanic sent CarShield this email saying “this has now become a real problem,” and threatened to start charging CarShield for storage because the vehicle had been there for so long.
Rice said he spent more than 30 hours on the phone with CarShield.
“Every time we call it’s me or the mechanic we are on the phone two hours we get bounced from person to person,” said Rice.
We did reach out to CarShield. A supervisor told Channel 2 they could not talk about customer accounts.
We got in touch with another manager at CarShield who pledged to research Rice and Owens’ policies.
We will continue to share any new developments in this investigation.
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