Extended warranty

[Juan Sheet]

I agree with you 100% in this case.

The diagnostics have led to a valid claim under the warranty and you should therefore have those costs covered under that warranty. Stick with it and stand your ground.

It seems that the dealership are trying to clawback some diagnostics labour time that either is something they themselves are unable to claim back, but regardless your warranty booklet is very specific and you should be covered for ALL these costs. The dealership are trying it on. I doubt they will want to go to an ombudsman for this, but speak to the warranty company directly as if they have authorised the costs, then that is that and the dealership should NOT be charging you.

[robkenyon]

Thought I’d give an update regarding my complaint on my diagnostic costs for the Citroen Extended warranty!

I was very sorry to learn of your dissatisfaction, having investigated your complaint in full, I would like to explain that the retailer charges diagnosis as a set fee of £125 irrespective of what the failure is, but we pay in units of time. What this means if diagnosing a fault takes up to 1 hour we only pay for that 1 hour.

We agreed 0.5 hours diagnoses at £57.22 per hour, the failure was a door lock and 0.5 hours is more than reasonable to diagnose that failure.

‘I would like to explain your warranty conditions state the following:

“Excessive or unreasonable diagnostic time or any diagnostic time which doesn’t result in a valid claim (Reasonable diagnostic costs for valid claims will be covered).”

Conclusion

Taking all of this into account, I am unable to uphold your complaint on this occasion.’

Definitely doesn’t state any of that in the warranty booklet or terms and conditions! So thinking of going to the financial ombudsman….

[Juan Sheet]

Whilst it does not go into the units of charging you mentioned above, the warranty booklet only mentions this:

Taken from Stellantis's own booklet:

https://www.stellantisandyou.co.uk/addi ... m-warranty

However, on the face of what you have typed above:

We agreed 0.5 hours diagnoses at £57.22 per hour, the failure was a door lock and 0.5 hours is more than reasonable to diagnose that failure.

This is time in hundredths. So 0.5 hours is therefore 30 minutes! And further, if he is saying £57.22 is per HOUR then 0.5 is half an hour, so would be £28.61 for 30 minutes.

In the next sentence he is saying that 0.5 hours (30 minutes) is more that reasonable to diagnose a faulty lock, which is 30 minutes.

So in other words:

• The warranty company are paying diagnostic charges at a rate of £57.22 an hour
• They are saying 0.5 or 30 minutes is ample time to diagnose a door lock
• Therefore they have included £28.61 diagnostics charge as part of the costs
• This response may be challenged as these specific unit costs are not explicitly stated in the warranty booklet issued to the customer. It plainly states

  excessive or unreasonable diagnostic time or any diagnostic time which doesn’t result in a valid claim (reasonable diagnostic costs for valid claims will be covered).

So it could be argued that Citroen have unreasonable diagnostic rates at a £125 flat charge if their own warranty company are essentially stating they are excessive to diagnose the item in question.

Even so, according to your original post, you mentioned they told you there is a flat rate of £125 across the network. If that was the case, then why are they asking you for the full amount of the diagnostics when clearly, the warranty company have already allowed £28.61 (by my reckoning as above) for diagnostic fees. So if the parts and labour are covered, they should be knocking of at least £28.61 off the bill as this is at odds of what the warranty company have stated.

So one of your arguments to the warranty company would be 'if you have factored in some diagnostic time as part of the settlement, then why are the dealership asking you to pay for a full diagnostic charge'? It should be £125 less £28.61 already paid by the warranty company.......

Lastly, I have checked my own 'Policy Document Booklet' and it states the same as the above, plus the following on page 16 under the 'How To Claim Under Your Warranty' section:

• Repairs in the UK
  1. If you wish to make a claim under the terms of your warranty, we recommend you contact your local Citroën dealer, who will agree a suitable time for your vehicle to be inspected and repaired.
  2. Please take this handbook, Welcome Letter and service record with you when delivering the vehicle to the dealer.
  3. You should agree that you will pay the diagnostic costs and any repairs that are not covered by the warranty.
  4. Having established that your claim is valid, they will contact Citroën Warranty Administration for authority to proceed. This authority MUST be obtained prior to any repair work commencing.
  5. Citroën Warranty Administration reserves the right to examine your vehicle and ask an expert to assess it before any repairs can begin. It shall be clearly understood and agreed that in the event of any dispute arising as to the extent of the liability, the decision of the assessor shall be final and binding on both the Administrator and Warranty Holder.
  6. Should you take your vehicle to a non Citroën dealer they must contact Citroën Warranty Administration for authority to proceed before commencing any repairs. All repairers must be VAT registered.

All the above aside, if it was me I would be standing my ground and complaining.

[robkenyon]

So a little update on the warranty situation.

Following my complaint to the warranty company about the diagnostic charges and their decision not to uphold it I decided to take it to the financial ombudsman.

Yesterday I was informed that the FO has decided to uphold my complaint against the warranty company and have advised them to reimburse the money for the diagnostic costs and also pay interest of 8%.

Not a bad result really, I’m sure the warranty company will now probably change the wording on their policy now!

[Juan Sheet]

Well done on that score!