Warranty Refund

[Scottchp]

Hey everyone,

I know this topic has been covered before as I did a search and found some similar posts, but I didn’t think they were quite the same as my situation so thought I would post anyway to garner opinion before I go into Attack Mode with the OPC I bought the car from...

I purchased a March 2017 GTS in June 2019 from Solihull. 9 months of the original warranty was remaining and they told me that as they are obliged to supply a used car with a minimum of 2 years warranty, I would be getting another 24 months added to the remaining 9 months as they could only add full year increments. Win for me!! Yaay.

Fast forward to December 2020 and I decided to change direction with my cars and sold the GTS to Prestige Performance Yorkshire as they smashed my local OPC offers out the park. Lovely guys by the way - very courteous, knowledgeable and payment & collection from my home was super-fast.

So my calculations mean that there was 15 months warranty remaining when the car left my ownership. I didn’t sell it to a private individual who can take over the remaining warranty nor trade it to a franchised dealer who can also make use of the remaining warranty and top it up.

So I spoke to Porsche GB and they confirmed a refund was appropriate, but I must do it through the supplying dealer as they took the payment and it was their job to sort for me. I followed this up by calling the salesperson I had dealt with and explained the situation. He seemed pretty unsure of what to do and said he’d never dealt with this situation before. We agreed he would seek further clarification and get back to me. A few calls and an email from me chasing and he tells me that Management have confirmed that I’m not entitled to a refund as I didn’t extend the warranty with a one off payment, but instead it was included in the price of the car.

At this point I can feel my hackles going up so I called Porsche GB back and they yet again agreed that I should get a refund and they would put me through to Solihull. I changed tack by asking for the Service Department and explained the story to them. I also expanded the conversation to say that it was my understanding that a warranty was effectively an insurance policy, and as it was no longer in use or required then I should be entitled to a pro-rata refund. My calculations put the 15 months warranty at around £900 so it’s definitely worth the discussion. Especially as now the warranty no longer needs to be honoured on the car.

Whilst I appreciate I didn’t pay for the warranty separately from the vehicle, the OPC’s always say their cars are more expensive as they have to put warranty on them so I did effectively pay a premium for having it. One dealer ( Leicester ) even offered to sell me a car during my search without the extended warranty as he was trying to make the deal work due to us not agreeing on a price.

Curious to have some thoughts and experiences from the group if anyone has had similar experience of this situation whether successful or not. May provide me with ammunition or talk me down...

Cheers,
Scotty

[PaulB]

I haven't had a similar experience but i did purchase warranty as part of the deal (included within the total amount payable). Therefore, my opinion would be that if a finance agreement was signed for that amount (please excuse me if this wasn't the method of purchase) then i would see it as a refund wouldn't be entitled?
Either way, good luck with hopefully getting your money back.

[Beaverman]

Hi,

First post here as just put a deposit down on a lovely specced petrol S from an OPC that is less than 3 years old.

We negotiated on a price that was inclusive of a 2 year warranty that begins after the 3 year manufacturers warranty ended, so in effect I’ve got a warranty of around 2.5 years. There was mention of only 1 year being added so this would back up that not all cars are sold with a 2 year warranty. When the invoice came the total price was correct but I noticed that the 2 year warranty and breakdown were on their own lines on the invoice which would point towards these being a separate part of the contract with consideration charged for these items on their own.

I’d say if you have the same on your purchase invoice your in a strong position but if you don’t then it will be difficult to argue.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Beaverman

[Deleted User 3895]

Do you have a document that relates to the extended warranty, probably called "Terms and conditions of your Porsche Approved warranty"? I do, but I purchased the warranty in the normal way, after the factory three year one had expired. Anyway, my paperwork states the premium paid, and the start and end dates of the Approved Warranty. Have you got such paperwork? I'd imagine that you need some stand alone documents for the Approved (extended) Warranty in order to claim, otherwise how would one determine the refund due?
Just a few thoughts (which probably don't help!) and I can entirely see your point. Your situation must be pretty common I'd have thought. Good luck.

[Guy]

^ I too was going to ask whether you had a stand alone policy document relating to the extension.

As stated in another thread, when I applied for my refund (self purchased warranty), I had to supply:

• Signed warranty policy document
• Invoice showing when warranty policy was purchased
• Invoice showing when car sold to trader

I would think that in this case the dealer is probably now applying for the refund but intending to keep the money. (You helpfully told them that the car is sold!) Perhaps ask this question of them, and suggest that they may wish to refund a significant proportion of that refund back to you (minus an 'admin fee' to keep them sweet). You could go to the Financial Ombudsman (this is very quick and easy to do online), but that will take plus of 8 weeks and I am not sure of their jurisdiction when the warranty supplier is actually a German Company. Good luck!

EDIT: I just checked my records and in my case the Financial Ombudsman actually predicted 4 months before a case handler would get in touch! I had initially raised a complaint against Porsche Cars GB (not the dealer) because it was taking so long to refund the warranty balance. I dropped the complaint when the money arrived after two months.

[Guy]

Actually, thinking about what I have written above, the dealer might need your proof of sale to trade (invoice to PP Yorks) in order to claim a refund, so perhaps you could negotiate with that!

[Madelvic]

Interesting. Did the sales invoice from Solihull reference the extended warranty? And at what cost? Does it boil down to who paid for the warranty? If the dealer did at internal rates, then I could see no refund; conversely if it is on your invoice and a costed part of the purchase then I can see you should expect a refund.

Makes me wonder - how much does it cost the dealer to put on 2 years warranty? It won't be what we punters pay, surely?

Let us know how this pans to, and good luck.

[bennachie]

Surely if the vehicle was bought 'used' from OPC it has a 2 year warranty included in the sale price, no refund will be available if then sold on...........

[Scottchp]

Food for thought here - thank you. I. Think I may try and contact Porsche Warranty people. Unfortunately i disposed of all the paperwork I no longer required after selling the car so I don’t have anything left. Could some kind soul tell me if there is a contact telephone number on the Warranty paperwork that comes through with the car?

[Guy]

Could some kind soul tell me if there is a contact telephone number on the Warranty paperwork that comes through with the car?

Front pages of mine only have Porsche GB and my OPC contact details. But page 11 has this: