Thread: NWC - Extended Warranty Claim - declined

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Sorry, but fair wear and tear does not constitute failure. Ask any Service or Warranty Manager. The item has performed as required for a reasonable time or distance and is now worn out. The Sale of Goods Act covers goods that are not fit for the intended purpose and this was often the best means of taking action against car dealers who would hide behind the Motor Dealers Act. IMHO if the item has been in service for 7 years and 75,000 k's then it has performed its intended purpose quite satisfactorily.

I used to sell heavy plant and in a 24/7 operation like mines and quarries, often an in-frame engine overhaul would be performed within the 2 year extended warranty period (Normal warranty was 1 year). There was never any suggestion that this was a warranty matter. Some clients put upwards of 10,000 hours on plant in this time frame.

In the case of plant there is a maintenance schedule. If that schedule is spend X% of the purchase price on replacement parts to maintain it every year then you cannot claim on that cost. However, if you do this and it fails I suspect they would be having a different conversation with you.

Suspension pumps are a grey area. FAIR wear and tear wouldn't be covered. So tyres, exhausts, brake pads are known to wear out in a certain time frame and need to be replaced. I've had two batteries under warranty now as even though they are expected to be replaced, they failed early.

What is early failure on a suspension pump? We don't really have the same 100 years of history that we have on tyres, brakes & batteries to know how long they should last. As a result, unless it says in the service schedule, replace the pump every Y years then it can be expected not to fail within the warranty period.

If NWC feel that certain components can be covered by the new car warranty and not by their extended one they should be spelled out in the policy.

As I suspect that the LR schedule and the NWC policy don't mention the compressor, it should be covered.

Cheers, Steve

P.S. I hope not to be having a suspension pump life conversation with Allianz

Allianz have generally been good. Dan W on the UK site had problems with Austral? (or at least a Brizzie dealer) telling him Allianz warranty did not cover something. I think the dealer was thinking it was Alliance or NWC.
LR warranty covers compressor failure so should a warranty that claims to cover the same.

I didn't have any probs with the Allianze extended warranty on the D2.
They took my money & i never made a claim

Allianz covered the pump on my D3 no questions asked

My experience with extended warranties is that they are often not worth the paper they are printed on

.
Had my E-diff and Transfer Case replaced at 95k on extended warranty no questions asked.
More than my extended insurance price returned and will give the next buyer soon a little extra piece of mind with all the LR horror stories that get around.
Some stories (mine included) are warranted that I will not pass onto the buyer I have experienced in my four years of trying the LR brand for the first time that I had not experienced with past new purchases of other brands.
Maybe I had been lucky in past purchases as I know other brands do have some problems, but I have broken down more in the past four years than the previous 25 years.
I hope my potential future D3 buyer is not reading this.............but the extended warranty, was worth it for me.

NWC have mountains of complaints against them. They even cancelled a warranty because a car was in for repair and service logs hadn't been sent in. Because they kept denying the claim!

They also insist on the use of used parts. Which a lot of mechanics refuse to fit. Again, you're left with the bill or no car.

Do not deal with them. See notgoodenough.org.au for hundreds more tales of woe.

I can well understand the angst that people feel when their warranty claim is rejected but there are two categories to apply to these warranty crowds.

The first is to group the warranty organisations which are registered as insurance companies. These companies have a set legal criteria to follow and the person has mnay rights including the right of appeal to an independeant arbitrator. They are generally honourable but legally bound companies to deal with. I once purchased an extended new vehicle manufacturers warranty from an insurance company, In three years they paid out over $26G in repairs without blinking.

The other group of warranty providers are the warranty companies which are private companies and are not insurance companies. They are not bound by the insurance industry rules, regulations and legislation. It is these companies which usually cause people grief when a claim is made. Usually you will find a clause in their written blurb which states thay are not insurance companies but most people don't read their paperwork. If you see this then runaway - you are probably going to waste your money. These private warranty companies are legally a law to themselves and can legally deny a claim on a whim.

I once experienced this denial when I made a second claim against one of them and when they denied the claim I took legal action against them. I lost. The companys' submitted reason that they had already paid enough out on the warranty was upheld. It was lawful in that they had a non appealable "discretion to pay or not" clause in their paperwork.

The lesson for me is this. If the warranty is from an insurance company and is stated that it is an extended manufactureres warranty then I would buy it.

If any warranty is from a private, non insurance company then I would not purchase it.

But...isn't there always.....lol. I will make one exclusion here. I have purchased a major franchised car dealers own warranty product which kicked in after the manufacturers warranty expired This is still current and it has been fantastic. No claim has been refused.

Cheers all.
Grumbles.

theres a lot of stuff they dont have to cover.

anything that wears is not covered.

engine knocking because the big end bearings are worn out of spec... nope, not covered. engine knocking because a big end bearing has fractured yep covered.

Tcase melted down because the output seals were leaking from age, nope not covered.
Tcase melted down because the output seal split, yep covered.

in a lot of cases it comes down to the wording the mechanic puts on the paperwork as to if they'll pay out and its usually the first mechanics word that will be taken unless its obvious one is trying the diddle out route. This is a good reason to goto an independant, friendly mechanic who knows the game and have them do a written evaluation even if you have to pay for it yourself and then submit that with the claim form IF you're still going to claim.