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AA GOLD COVER WARRANTY HAVE MADE ME SUFFER FINANCIALLY AND EXTREMELY MENTALLY

I would like to share my experience with AA Gold Cover Mechanical Warranty I.E Motorway Direct, I purchased a BMW 3 Series with AA Gold Cover Warranty in January 2017, as I was purchasing the vehicle from Cargiant UK I had full intentions of declining the offer of the warranty which their sales advisors speak so highly of, due to the fact of all the reviews and personal feedback from all my friends and family I had made the decision to decline the offer up until the sales advisor answered all my questions and reassured me that if anything mechanically went wrong then I am covered hence why I went ahead and bought the cover for three years for £800+. The warranty is so carefully worded in their Terms & Conditions which is not available to anyone unless you request it personally from a AA sales advisor. (Basically any sudden mechanical failure is covered HOWEVER if it was caused by a part that had been worn out then the claim is rejected.Once the claim was raised AA advised me to take the car to my local Halfords however from my knowledge of motor vehicles and parts I knew for certain Halfords would not be able to fix it. And guess what, I was right, so imagine I were to pay £100 for a tow truck to take it there only to waste my time, AA would not be liable to pay for my recovery costs even though they reassured me that they can fix it. (I called Halfords personally and confirmed they are unable to look into it as they do not have specialist tools needed for this particular job)I had a timing chain jump 7 weeks ago. On my model BMW with an N47 engine it was a very well known problem that the timing chain jumps suddenly (it was on Watchdogs for that exact error), now as soon as the chain jumped (Sudden mechanical breakdown) I was so confident and reassured by AA advisors that it is something they cover within their warranty, so they had to get MY approval for my garage to authorise a strip down of my engine to locate the exact error which approximately took 12.25 hours and the reason they had to get my authorisation for the engine strip is due to the fact of if it is a problem that is not covered under the warranty I am liable for all costs.The claim was raised on the 19th March 2018, AA have turned around and declined the claim on the 14th May 2018 purely based on the fact that my timing chain had been stretched which has caused my chain to jump and decided to decline the claim leaving me a total bill of £2500 to pay with no contribution at all.However after a very informative conversation with BMW themselves I was advised that when a timing chain jumps it happens suddenly as you do not get warned by any prior breakdowns nor a warning light on the dashboard. The timing chain is kept behind the engine and in order to even see it you would have to strip the entire engine as well as the gearbox, now my vehicle has been serviced brilliantly on time and looked after very well in excellent condition which I have proved to AA after they requested all my invoices and full service history which I happily provided reassuring me that it should be fine. ( All calls are recorded). My issue is that they did not seem to compensate me whatsoever nor did they even offer a penny of contribution towards the total cost. I would like to warn everyone on Trustpilot who seeks reviews that the warranty is absolutely not worth the hard earned money. Majority of parts on a car is wear and tear as soon as you start driving them so how are you meant to claim on a ‘sudden mechanical breakdown’ if that’s the case? I would do everything in my power to ensure all my friends and family as well as all my colleagues avoid buying this warranty and just stick to Manufacturs warranty as that is the only one that is worth it. I have complained to the warranty company awaiting a response but I am certain they will not give me the outcome I want hence why I am awaiting my final response letter in order to take it to the Financial Ombudsman who I work close with in my current job role. I have written literature by BMW themselves who can confirm my situation which can help my case against AA (Motorway Direct) strongly. I actually would have been happy if they at least paid for half of my bill however this is not the case. All of the viewers here if you are purchasing a vehicle that has high maintainance or rather costly parts you do not want to purchase this warranty, as you can imagine Warranty companies would go through every avenue to ensure they have completed their enhanced checklist before paying you out. In my case a 6 week claim and at the end having their contracted ‘specialist vehicle assessors’ coming to my garage to do a site visit to inspect my vehicle only to say ‘my timing chain is stretched’. The service has been 50/50 as they are well trained to empathise with customers. However I have had sleepness nights and suffer from anxiety only due to this claim as I have been worrying so much about the claim rejection which I was so shocked by. I am so prepared and confident ready to open my case with the Ombudsman with all the literature I hold at the moment.Good Luck to all purchasing this warranty and think about all possible outcomes and also ensure you read the T&C’s carefully.I will most definitely update this review once AA have come back to me with a final response.Mohammad Chowdhury Croydon

Date of experience: May 18, 2018