adeybambam
Member Since: 25 Sep 2010
Location: Skipton, North Yorks
Posts: 71
 
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| Warranty Direct and Glow Plugs |
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Given that we will soon be getting towards winter, I thought i'd just record my experience with Warranty Direct and replacing glow plugs. This happened in the early part of this year. My car is a 2006 SE with about 83k on the clock at the time.
The usual sysmpyons started: struggling to start when air temp below zero and a big plume of smoke once it did. Using the forum I knew striaght away the glow plugs were at fault. Given I had a an extracare warranty with Warranty Direct (which specifically covers glow plugs), I booked in at Green Oval garage.
Brian confirmed it: all six glow plugs were dead. I therefore asked him to make the claim with Warranty Direct. Knowing about the likelihood of them snapping, and thus the body needing to come off to remove the head and drill them out, I asked him to make sure that they would cover all that if anything snapped.
The answer was that they would cover the replacement glow plugs but should they snap I was on my own! Obviously this left me in a really difficult position. Do I go ahead and tak the risk of a huge bill, or simply not bother?
Their argument was that the reason the glow plugs snap on removal is that they are corroded and the warranty excludes failure caused by corrosion. I immediately complained.
The gist of my complaint was this: (1) the glow plugs are covered (2) they have failed not due to corrosion but due to electrical defect (3) therefore they are covered (4) that once it is established that a covered part has failed due to a covered defect, the fact that it is a pig of a job to remove it is Warranthy Direct's problem and not mine. In short, given that the corrossion had no link to the failure of the part, they could not rely on it to get out of paying the claim.
Happily, a manager responded straight away apologising and agreeing with the points I had made. He therefore confirmed that should any of the plugs break on removal he would approve the subsequent claim for the costs of removing the body etc.
Anyway, the inevitable happened and the body had to come off. Warranty Direct approved the claim (which ran to £3k plus) albeit I had to stump up for oils and consumables.
I hope this helps someone. Obviously it is bad that you only appear to get anywhere with complaining, but equally Warranty Direct recognised the issue and immediately rectified it. Also a huge thanks to Brian and Green Oval who were patient whilst all this resolved itself.
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 14th Sep 2013 5:51 am |
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disco3wannabe
Member Since: 12 Jun 2009
Location: UK
Posts: 360
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Well done, they are slippery characters and my experience is they expect most people to roll over and take it rather than fight.
Each time I got the financial ombudsman involved with the reasonable view as per your experience I.e. defect is electrical not due to the corrosion, the act of removal being difficult not related to the fault cause, they then changed their tune and agreed to pay.
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| 14th Sep 2013 8:01 am |
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CDS
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Member Since: 12 Oct 2009
Location: Cornwall & most of the UK!
Posts: 3344
 
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Certainly a helpful for post for those like me, who's glow plugs are not what they should be and have WD 
Thanks for sharing!!
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| 14th Sep 2013 8:38 am |
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DiscoJake
Member Since: 23 Aug 2013
Location: Hereford
Posts: 1429
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Morning chaps, do you guys recommend Warranty Direct then?
Not even bought my D3 yet but looking at pricing up warranty with the deal, not sure what the dealer is offering regarding levels of cover but might be better to get my own instead.
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| 14th Sep 2013 10:12 am |
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DiscoJake
Member Since: 23 Aug 2013
Location: Hereford
Posts: 1429
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EDIT:
Didn't realise there was a dedicated forum section just for Warranties (doh-I'm new here  )
Will have a look myself thanks 
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| 14th Sep 2013 10:34 am |
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JimmyP
Member Since: 26 Jul 2013
Location: Walsall
Posts: 218
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Good to know, cheers Adey.
DiscoJake - I've just signed up for a WD policy which is due to start in November so I've no experience of dealing with them other than a series of emails negotiating the price down and level of cover up. You'll get some on here who swear by them and some who think they're the spawn of Satan - at the end of the day it's down to you and the peace of mind you think you'll get. Good luck!
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| 16th Sep 2013 11:10 am |
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