BMW Warranty Claim - PCH

BMW Warranty Claim - PCH

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Discussion

T1P0

Original Poster:

46 posts

83 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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Hi all,

Hoping someone can offer some insight on my current predicament.

I've been leasing the same car for a few years now as prices went crazy post covid, this is the 4th year. The car is self maintained and has been serviced as per the lease agreement terms.

I have an extended BMW insured warranty with comprehensive cover.

The car recently lost power and broke down. It was taken to the nearest BMW dealer. They have diagnosed turbo and DPF failure. They have also noted excessive amounts of swarf in what's left of the oil.

The local BMW dealer have been liaising with Insured warranty who have asked a lot of questions. Earlier this afternoon they gave their final decision and will not pay for the repair, their reason for this is based on the following:- because I extended the lease past the original 2 year contract I am now essentially 'renting' the vehicle on a monthly basis. They have advised me to check my policy book and terms but I can't see anything that is relevant to this.

I can't believe I'm the 1st human on this planet to claim on an extended warranty with a PCH car.

The car is a 69 plate 320d.

I would really appreciate feedback from anyone else that's been in the same position.

Cheers

VeeTenM

681 posts

121 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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Sounds like BS to me, ask them to show you the T&Cs

twokcc

882 posts

184 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
quotequote all
yOU SAY
The car is self maintained

The terms of the insured warranty are that the car can be serviced outside of the network but must be by a VAT registered garage-which sounds reasonable to me.

If you mean by self service that you have actually done the work yourself the insurance will be void.
Only possible small(very) is if you could prove that fault was due to failure of a genuine BMW part- not sure if applicable to your car but oil filters have been reported as breaking apart in service not sure what year / models this applied too and you would need receipt for the genuine BMW oil filter








NelsonM3

1,718 posts

178 months

Thursday 16th November 2023
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I take self service to mean you’ve serviced it yourself. You’ve voided the terms of the warranty. Best you can hope for it a refund of the price you paid for the warranty.

T1P0

Original Poster:

46 posts

83 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
I meant it's self maintained. Which means I'm responsible for paying and arranging the servicing.

I've done all that and followed the rules, eg the garages have used all original BMW parts and the service summary shows all the part numbers.

I've had work done on previous lease cars that was covered under the manufacturers original warranty without issue, I'm struggling to see how this is any different. Admittedly the claim value is a lot higher.

To me their argument is flawed and essentially means you can get cover for leased vehicles, unless i'm missing something.

No reply from BMW UK customer services or Insured warranty after logging a complain 48 hours ago.

d_a_n1979

9,674 posts

79 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
T1P0 said:
I meant it's self maintained. Which means I'm responsible for paying and arranging the servicing.

I've done all that and followed the rules, eg the garages have used all original BMW parts and the service summary shows all the part numbers.

I've had work done on previous lease cars that was covered under the manufacturers original warranty without issue, I'm struggling to see how this is any different. Admittedly the claim value is a lot higher.

To me their argument is flawed and essentially means you can get cover for leased vehicles, unless i'm missing something.

No reply from BMW UK customer services or Insured warranty after logging a complain 48 hours ago.
In that case IMO they're taking the piss; you need to go to the dealers and sort this with them in person

I've had zero issues having warranty work done on my F31 this year; they've not once asked in-depth questions about its prior servicing etc; it's just been inspected and confirmed what works needed; I've authorised the work and paid the excess etc

T1P0

Original Poster:

46 posts

83 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
d_a_n1979 said:
In that case IMO they're taking the piss; you need to go to the dealers and sort this with them in person

I've had zero issues having warranty work done on my F31 this year; they've not once asked in-depth questions about its prior servicing etc; it's just been inspected and confirmed what works needed; I've authorised the work and paid the excess etc
Is your F31 a lease (PCH) if so how old is it?

The dealer has tried to help. They shared all the correspondence they've had with Insured Warranty but were told to basically go away. Insured Warranty won't speak to them again and advised the dealer to tell me to complain!


twokcc

882 posts

184 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
T1P0 said:
Hi all,Earlier this afternoon they gave their final decision and will not pay for the repair, their reason for this is based on the following:- because I extended the lease past the original 2 year contract I am now essentially 'renting' the vehicle on a monthly basis. They have advised me to check my policy book and terms but I can't see anything that is relevant to this.
Sounds like a load of B.S. to me.
If that was the case wouldn't this apply to every car that was on PCP -where the leased company retains ownership and driver is renting vehicle from the leas company.

Ask for specific clause in contract as you wish to make a complaint to the Ombudsman. . Should give you a final letter that complaint is rejected.
Presume you have e-mail address for the warranty.

d_a_n1979

9,674 posts

79 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
T1P0 said:
d_a_n1979 said:
In that case IMO they're taking the piss; you need to go to the dealers and sort this with them in person

I've had zero issues having warranty work done on my F31 this year; they've not once asked in-depth questions about its prior servicing etc; it's just been inspected and confirmed what works needed; I've authorised the work and paid the excess etc
Is your F31 a lease (PCH) if so how old is it?

The dealer has tried to help. They shared all the correspondence they've had with Insured Warranty but were told to basically go away. Insured Warranty won't speak to them again and advised the dealer to tell me to complain!
Sorry no I bought it outright...

But tjay shouldn't matter really. If the cars under warranty and it needs warranted work, then surely it should just be carried out

T1P0

Original Poster:

46 posts

83 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
twokcc said:
T1P0 said:
Hi all,Earlier this afternoon they gave their final decision and will not pay for the repair, their reason for this is based on the following:- because I extended the lease past the original 2 year contract I am now essentially 'renting' the vehicle on a monthly basis. They have advised me to check my policy book and terms but I can't see anything that is relevant to this.
Sounds like a load of B.S. to me.
If that was the case wouldn't this apply to every car that was on PCP -where the leased company retains ownership and driver is renting vehicle from the leas company.

Ask for specific clause in contract as you wish to make a complaint to the Ombudsman. . Should give you a final letter that complaint is rejected.
Presume you have e-mail address for the warranty.
I have done exactly that. Awaiting a response.

Trevor555

4,504 posts

91 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
Ah, Bmw not wanting to do warranty work again.

I had a 7 month battle with them, they went into silent mode.

Bmw UK were useless, full of promises that someone would look into it, to no avail.

I wish you luck, they were by far the worse experience I've had as a consumer in my whole 35 year motoring life.

Never again, and I suggest you "never again" also

Sheepshanks

35,039 posts

126 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
T1P0 said:
Earlier this afternoon they gave their final decision and will not pay for the repair, their reason for this is based on the following:- because I extended the lease past the original 2 year contract I am now essentially 'renting' the vehicle on a monthly basis.
I wonder is the lessor would agree with that, and pick up the bill? I somehow doubt it.

T1P0

Original Poster:

46 posts

83 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
Trevor555 said:
Ah, Bmw not wanting to do warranty work again.

I had a 7 month battle with them, they went into silent mode.

Bmw UK were useless, full of promises that someone would look into it, to no avail.

I wish you luck, they were by far the worse experience I've had as a consumer in my whole 35 year motoring life.

Never again, and I suggest you "never again" also
What happened in the end? Did you involve the ombudsman?

ConnectionError

1,946 posts

76 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
T1PO

You have not expanded on the "Self maintained" comment in your original statement

Trevor555

4,504 posts

91 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
T1P0 said:
Trevor555 said:
Ah, Bmw not wanting to do warranty work again.

I had a 7 month battle with them, they went into silent mode.

Bmw UK were useless, full of promises that someone would look into it, to no avail.

I wish you luck, they were by far the worse experience I've had as a consumer in my whole 35 year motoring life.

Never again, and I suggest you "never again" also
What happened in the end? Did you involve the ombudsman?
This is what they suggested, but I got my own diagnosis in the end, and then gave them a deadline to pass to the FCA, luckily I took Bmw finance.

Was told ombudsman was slow process.

My case is different to yours in that it was a vibration, and Bmw said "it performs as expected".
Even though they'd had one attempt at a repair.

But it was their whole behaviour that was truly awful.

Not what I expected from Bmw.

T1P0

Original Poster:

46 posts

83 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
ConnectionError said:
T1PO

You have not expanded on the "Self maintained" comment in your original statement
It’s further up the thread. Self maintained means the servicing isn’t included in the lease. I’m responsible for arranging and paying for that. I used a garage that used original parts, I didn’t do the work myself.

d_a_n1979

9,674 posts

79 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
ConnectionError said:
T1PO

You have not expanded on the "Self maintained" comment in your original statement
See the OPs post at 11:39 this morning...

nw942

459 posts

112 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
Without wishing to be pedantic, have you used this phrase 'self maintained' with the dealer it has been recovered to i.e. they think you have serviced it yourself and passed the message on?

Clearly it would not take much for them to check the history on the computer, but perhaps they've conveniently forgotten to do this.

ConnectionError

1,946 posts

76 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
T1P0 said:
ConnectionError said:
T1PO

You have not expanded on the "Self maintained" comment in your original statement
It’s further up the thread. Self maintained means the servicing isn’t included in the lease. I’m responsible for arranging and paying for that. I used a garage that used original parts, I didn’t do the work myself.
Sorry missed it.

Did the garage manage to upload the services onto the online record?

survivalist

5,872 posts

197 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
I’ll preface this by saying that I’m not a lawyer. However my better half is a consumer credit lawyer.

Based on what has been posted in this thread it seems the (insured) warranty company are saying that they don’t have to honour the claim because the car is leased and therefore not the OPs property.

If this is the case they are on very shaky ground (not a legal term, as far as I know) unless they made the OP aware of this limitation at the point they purchased the warranty.

Even if there is something relating to ownership somewhere in the terms and conditions it’s not likely to be enough to refute a claim - the argument would be that this is a pretty common occurrence (a lease and/or finance model that has a longer period that the manufacturers standard warranty) and as such any reduction in liability should have been clearly highlighted at the point of purchase.

As an insurance product it should be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), with any appeals / complaints being made through the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). There is currently a huge focus on whether terms are clear to the average consumer and also fair to the average consumer. So, again, even if there are terms relating to ownership, the warranty company would have to be able to show that their risk / cost was different for a warranty on a leased car compared to a car that was purchased outright.

By the sounds of it, so far the OP has been communicating with the warranty company via the local dealer. If I were in that position I’d ask the dealer to confirm their final position and that they aren’t willing / able to escalate further.

Once this has been confirmed I’d contact the warranty company directly and outline the points above, making it clear that if the claim is not escalated that the next step would be a formal complaint to FOS.

That’s all based on the main requirements of the warranty being met - serviced in line with manufacturer requirements and at VAT garage with genuine BMW parts.