CarShield? More like…thanks for nothing! 😤 The mega car repair contract company promised customers financial protection for car repairs. 💸 However, a recent lawsuit proved that wasn’t always the case.
A recent Washington Post article covered the brawl for it all between CarShield and the FTC. Here’s all the tea you need to know. ☕
Here’s Five Fast Facts on car repair contracts:
- 🥴 Fool Me Once - CarShield got a major slap on the wrist by the FTC for deceptive and misleading advertising practices. It also got slammed for their telemarketing practices. To settle the charges, CarShield agreed to pay $10 million.
- 🔍 The Fine Print - So what’s the big deal? According to the FTC, consumers weren’t given the details on the exclusions, terms, and conditions associated with their contracts until after a purchase. This resulted in customers having to fork over hundreds, even thousands of dollars in repairs that they thought were covered by CarShield.
- 🧑🔧 Shopping Around - One of the biggest customer complaints was not being able to find a repair facility that accepted the CarShield program. Many repair facilities said no to CarShield because the company required a ton of annoying requirements, like submitting lengthy maintenance records and allowing a third party to inspect their garage.
- 🚙 Labor of Love - In many cases, CarShield also failed to completely cover labor costs, even for approved repairs. Translation: customers were on the hook for the cost difference. Another major CarShield L.
- 🚘 Thanks, It’s a Rental - Rounding out the CarShield fail train is their crappy rental car process. According to the FTC, CarShield didn’t approve rental car coverage until they authorized a repair claim, a process which can take up to weeks. That’s a long time to be out of a car.
🔥Bottom line: Not all car repair contracts are awful, but make sure you know what you’re getting into. Read the fine print before signing and ask a ton of questions. To make a sale, companies may try to rush you into making a decision. Don’t let them! Speaking of cars, uninsured drivers are a big reason for high insurance rates. Read all about that here.
Did you buy a car repair contract?
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