Re: Visa extended warranty

Hi Burt,

Interesting scenario of which you post.

I was one of the people who was describing my experience with MasterCard's insurer. I have "had" to use them twice now. Once was a hard drive, the other a router. In each case they made life very difficult regarding estimates. Finding someone in my area willing to write a note the cost of repair on these items was difficult because they are not items that normally are considered repairable. The insurer
did everything in their power to deny the claims. They ended up telling me my claims were invalid because the items were "not repairable" and therefore violated the intent of the policy, which stated they would only pay for cost of repair, or at their discretion, if economically more logical, replacement. I finally found a service local (on the router) that would provide a statement that the cost of repair would be considerably greeter than the cost of replacement, which was obviously the case. Even the company that made the product told me they do a direct exchange on failures and scrap the failed unit.

It was all a dance to try to make me give up, but on principle I resisted throwing in the towel. In both cases I was eventually paid, but not without a lot of calls, threats and antagonistic bullying.

Now, on the other hand, I had some goods stolen from our car, and since they were just purchased by my Visa card, they were covered under their 30 day theft protection plan. The only thing I found a bit invasive was they required I send them a copy of the coverage section of my home insurance policy. They only cover things not otherwise covered by other means. However, once the paperwork was done, the cheque was quick and complete. Compared to MasterCard's underwriter, Visa was much better, and now I have started placing my extended warranty items on Visa.

Art

Burt wrote:

Someone had posted a message, several months ago, about difficulty receiving compensation for a credit card extended warranty. I just received a check from United Milage Plus Visa for a Canon printer that malfunctioned some months after the original warranty was over. A few tips - 1) Either save your receipts and the literature that shows the manufacturer's warranty or, in the case of my card company, use their option to register the product soon after you buy it. 2) EXTREMELY important that you pay for the entire purchase with the credit card. I had purchased the printer from Amazon. They had automatically applied a small credit from my account that I have left from a gift certificate. I didn't realize that a condition of the extended warranty was that the ENTIRE amount had to be paid on the credit card. My claim was initially denied, but I wrote a letter indicating that the credit was about $5 on a $150 purchase and had been applied automatically. I also noted that the wording in several areas of the description of their insurance was not as clear as it could be on this issue. Although the insuring company denied the claim based on this issue, the credit card company honored it anyway and paid the claim on a one time basis. I would have avoided the hassle if I had acquainted myself with the terms of the extended warranty Remember that this is an insurance policy, a contract with specific conditions under which a claim is paid. It was my lack of knowledge that caused the delay and not Visa or the insurance company.

Everyone dealing with my claim was friendly and helpful. On the initial call I mentioned that just taking the printer to a repair facility would incur a cost, and the rep told me that they would cover this cost IN ADDITION to the cost of repair as long as the repair cost was no more than the original cost of the printer, and the evaluation cost would be reimbured to me in addition to the original purchase price if the cost of repair was more than the purchase price. There was some difference in handling purchases that were under or over $100, as I recall. I think you had to present them with a receipt for the replacement product for items under $100. At any rate, for anyone who has this benefit on a credit card I would suggest that you read the details of the policy (not just the description on the brochure that is used as an inducement to take the credit card) so you will know what claims would be honored and how you apply for the claim.

I found that there was a real benefit to being knowledgeable about the product. I was able to describe the problem I was having with the printer over the phone with a technician at a repair facility and he was able to give me an idea of repair costs. They were potentially higher than the cost of a replacment. He was very accomodating in faxing me his estimate so that I didn't have to run all over town to find someone who would either repair it or give an estimate to use for the claim.

This benefit is something about which I had forgotten. For a device with a limited life, as we know inkjet printers can have, it is invaluable. Hope this message helps others to replace a glitchy printer, especially when the cost of repair approaches the cost of replacement.


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