WINTER PARK, Fla — “I kind of panicked, and you know, and I was trying to get some help,” Tom Saylor told Action 9.
Saylor claims he felt pressured into spending thousands of dollars for an extended warranty on his truck, then ran into all kinds of problems when he tried to cancel it. Even though he believes he took all the right steps to cancel, he turned to Action 9 when he still couldn’t get his money back.
These so-called extended warranties are really service contracts to repair your car or truck. Under the law in Florida, if you sign one of these agreements you have 60 days to cancel and get a refund.
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When Saylor met with the Action 9 team in Winter Park, he was still frustrated as he looked through the paperwork.
He said, “Real frustrating, because there was nothing I could say. They don’t answer my calls or anything.”
The service agreement is for his 2017 Ram pick-up truck. The 74-year-old old said he signed up on February 9th after Exclusive National Auto Club told him there were problems with the company he had a contract with, and they could put him in a better contract.
In the moment, he thought it sounded good.
Saylor said he was informed, “Anything going wrong with the vehicle, you’d be totally taken care of.”
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What he signed is often called an extended warranty, but it’s a service agreement that was set to kick-in after a 30-day waiting period. He paid more than $3000 up front, but in the days following, he had second thoughts since he rarely ever drives his truck.
“I don’t go very far,” he said.
Action 9’s Jeff Deal asked, “So, do you even need a policy like this do you think?”
Saylor replied, “Not really.”
He said that’s why he decided to cancel within the 30-day waiting period. When he tried to cancel with Exclusive National Auto Club by phone, the company told him he had to cancel in writing. It then sent him an email explaining what information to include in the letter. So, that’s what he did. He claims the company even acknowledged over the phone it received his letter, but he still had trouble getting the refund.
“They haven’t responded for several months,” he said.
Attorney Patrick Cousins specializes in lemon law cases and other car-related issues. He’s heard many complaints about service contracts over the years.
“I’m not saying they’re all bad, but in many cases the customer pays for something that they never get to take advantage of,” Cousins explained.
In his experience, warranty companies don’t always make it easy to cancel, but in Florida the law on these service contracts is clear “any service agreement is cancelable by the purchaser within 60 days after purchase.” The companies are allowed to charge up to a 5% administrative fee but otherwise must refund 100% of the premium paid as long as no claims were paid out.
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Cousins said, “The law provides that you can cancel within 60 days and you try and it doesn’t work, then the only other recourse you have is to bring a suit.” He said the problem is for the amount of money involved, it isn’t always worth it to go to court and the companies know that.
Exclusive National Auto Club has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau because of the number of complaints and some unanswered complaints. Action 9 saw complaints on the BBB website related to refunds and other billing issues. After Action 9 reached out, a customer service manager wrote by email: “All agreements made with our company were legitimate and authorized by the customer.”
In the email, the manager also wrote that the company did actually send a refund check in May, but Tom Saylor said so far, he hasn’t received it and he’s hoping this situation will be resolved soon.
Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal said to Saylor, “And the bottom line is, too, you just want your money back.”
Saylor said, “Yeah, that’s it you know?”
Jeff Deal asked the company to verify the check hasn’t been cashed, and if it hasn’t, to reissue the check to Saylor.