Great Lakes Warranty Corporation rip-off! Auto warranty claim not paid even following verified (by 2 of their own employees and written contract) company procedures. Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

I'm going to be in the market for an extended warranty, can you give me the names of some of the good ones so I can start shopping around? It's for a 2004 Cadillac CTS, if that helps.

thanks

This is for Dwight who wrote about greatlakes warranty.

My sister had a similar problem, but it was with the car dealership who uses greatlake warranties. They sold her a lemon. Here car started having major problems after a week. She paid $5000 for her car and they are giving her a big hassle about fixing things that were suppose to be fixed.

Her 30day warranty is up, and they told her she would have to pay $300 dollars to get a 30day extension. I called and asked why it would cost so much for 30 days, they told me its the warranty company.

The dealership also said they never heard of a warranty for cheaper. She cannot afford to pay that. She has already missed a week of work just taking the car back in forth to get it fixed. I think the dealership and the warranty company are working together to take advantage of the little guy.

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Keep in mind that the 30 day warranty is usually something the dealer backs himself on the car. You must be aware that in most cases this covers only the power train (transmission,axles...)Some only pay 10% of parts and labor if it covers more than that. What you need to do first is find out what was covered in the first 30 days and if the dealer actually covered what went wrong with your sister's car in that first 30 days. Hopefully you have it in writing!

As far as it goes in regard to the cost of the extension and Great Lakes Warranty, Great Lakes has set pricing to the dealer. The dealer marks up the cost for profit(hopefully within reason). Nothing wrong with that since he is in business to make a profit. Even though $300 does sound high, cost of coverage is kind of like buying other products in bulk. It gets cheaper by the unit the more you get at one time. I assume the dealer offered a more extended coverage at the time of sale.

I encourage every consumer to think carefully before turning down additional coverage. Too many consumer advocates make blanket statements about this kind of coverage being a rip-off (It only is when you have a company like Great Lakes breaking their own written contract). The consumer advocates mean well but of course they aren't there to write the check for the consumer when the $2500 bill for the transmission comes due.

The case with my daughter also involved a breakdown within the first 30 days. However she knew that she had coverage if not through the dealer then through Great Lakes. She couldn't blame the dealer because the problem that occurred was internal and there was no way the dealer could have known.

In your sister's case Great Lakes is not responsible because she had apparently not purchased the coverage at the time of sale or prior to the breakdown. As for the dealer's responsibility, that would have to be determined based off the coverage actually provided on the car for the first 30 days. If it was a covered item and you have it in writing from the dealer then I would say go after the dealer. Remember you don't have to have an attorney for small claims just enough evidence in writing for a judge to make a good decision.

I spent under $2000 on a Great Lakes Warranty and they at least that in repairs. Only major issue I've had is that they pay with a check instead of a credit card. Otherwise they are pretty good. Not as good as a bumper-to-bumper factory warranty, but they are fixing my car with over 100,000 miles on it and I still have a couple of years to go with no mileage limit.

If you are looking for a complete no hassle warranty then buy a new car, but if you are buying a used car and want protection against any major expenses for up to four years it has been a good deal for me so far and would definitely get a warranty from them again on my next used car.