ComplaintsforAutomotive Product Consultants, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  08/29/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I was contacted by ***** ******, a representative for this company in July of 2022. He was selling warranties for continued coverage of my Lincoln MKZ. In his sales pitch he led me to believe that he was representing the Lincoln Dealer in my area and stated specifically that this warranty would basically be a continuation of my existing warranty and give me the same coverage as my current warranty with Lincoln, and that the most I would ever have to pay would be a 100$ deductible charge. He sent me a letter that demonstrates his dishonesty as he implies that he is representing ****** **** *******, my local dealer. Upon taking my car in for a covered repair I find out he does not represent my dealer and that my charges for this covered repair amounted to $1098. I am asking for a refund of $900 and that this company be cited for fraud in their sales pitch.

  Business response

  09/20/2023

  We have been working on this complaint since we received it. We are waiting to provide our final response once we connect verbally with the customer just to make sure we have handled everything to his satisfaction. We have connected via email and took care of the issue with the claim.  We will post an update very soon with more details.

  Business response

  09/21/2023

  We finally connected with the customer. We explained what happened with the shortage on paying the claim. The short story is that the dealer had raised the posted labor rates and the service contract company had not updated their system for the new labor rate. We did get this fixed and the administrator of the contract informed us they mailed a check to the customer for the balance shorted, $1,098. The administrator took full responsibility for the issue and apologized to both the dealer and our company for the shortage. They have informed us the labor rate in the system has been fixed. We also explained to the customer that our company does business with over 3,000 new car franchise dealers and if someone at the dealership informed him we had no relationship to the dealership that information was incorrect since we have a contract with ****** **** *******. The stores do have turnover and we have an office in CA that trains the stores on our program when these miscommunications occur. We submitted a request for retraining to our CA office for this store. We also told the customer we would review the call recording to make sure our sales rep did not mislead the customer in anyway. We sold the customer a plan that is the most like the current factory warranty and is the most comprehensive coverage one can buy that is outside the factory warranty. The customer did buy the best plan and the same plan that is sold inside the dealership. We also told the customer should he have any problems with the plan in the future that he could call the President of the company directly as we want his experience going forward to be impeccable. 

  Customer response

  09/21/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ******* ******

• Initial Complaint

  08/16/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I signed up for an auto warranty with this Company on August 8th. They told me repeatedly that the I could cancel within 30 days and that the contract would not be valid until I looked it over and signed it. Instead I received a contract that had already been signed on my behalf. IN addition, the company can look at the call logs as I see that is their mode of response. I called once and asked them to email the fine print so my wife, who is a lawyer could look it over. I never got that email. I then received another call from them ironically shortly thereafter. However, the contract that arrived does not have any signing by me, and the cancellation option involves me writing into the company to inquire about how I can cancel. Even if they read me the service contract notice, it says you can cancel at any time for a 30 day for a full refund. What they don't say is that to cancel I would need to write in just to find out how to cancel and then I have no idea if they will call, mail or respond. The holder notice is basically fraudulent. If that was laid out there is 0% chance I would have said ok send me the documents. What a joke. I am sending in the full cancellation tomorrow via mail per their instructions. In addition, the sales agent provided "a number that I could call him back to cancel". That number does not work. I have never heard of a business asking to write in for instructions to cancel. WHat is the most infruirating part of it is that they said oh it is so easy to cancel. You will need to get the final contract, etc. But what is the point of getting a final contract to review if you are claiming I already agreed to all the terms. This coverage doesn't even cover what I would need it to cover. What a waste of time. Also has no license number or phone number for the so called "agent" that acted on my behalf.

  Business response

  09/07/2023

  After receiving the complaint, I personally, the President of the company, reviewed the 3 recorded calls between the customer and our staff. The calls are not reflective of what was put in the complaint. First, it appears that the complaint was filed prior to the customer contacting our customer service department which was the same day this complaint was filed. After reviewing the call, it became evident the customer called us after this complaint. In the call the customer asked how to cancel the contract. We told the customer on the call we flagged it for cancellation, and he would get a full refund in 4-7 business days. We did not tell him he needed to send us anything in writing at all. The refund was issued later in the day the same day he called. Also, I researched the language in the contract regarding the need to send something in writing just to get instructions on how to cancel as that seemed very odd to me having been doing this for 23 years. There are actually two options on how to cancel listed in the contract. The sentence reads "To cancel this Service Contract contact Offeror or CWS in writing for instructions." Our company is the Offeror and we listed our information on the contract in the Offeror section. W also provided all of the necessary contact information in the cover letter sent in the contract package the customer received in the mail. Moreover, when I reviewed the sales call, we specifically told the customer all he had to do is contact us directly to cancel. We never said to contact CWS. We also provided our customer service number in the call during our scripted wrap-up. The only reason the contract provides the second method of cancelling, by sending something to CWS, is in case the Offeror goes out of business. CWS does not cancel the contracts. The Offeror cancels the contracts. 

  In reviewing the calls, we have the ability to review our representative's computer screen since it is also recorded at the same time as the audio. Our representative did send both a quote and a sample contract via email and even informed the customer to check the junk items if he does not see it come through. The customer explained the situation with his wife to our representative stating she may want a new car. He stated: "If I was to buy it right now and in a month I am like Oh shit we're actually gonna sell this car." Our representative told him that the contract has cancellation policies where within the first 30-days a full refund is provided as part of the "free look period" and if the contract went past 30 days a pro-rata refund would be provided. The customer's response was "yeah, why don't we go ahead and I'll put it on a credit card."

  We also communicated to the customer in the wrap-up the following:  "Since I am your licensed representative I will go ahead and sign the Service Contract on your behalf, there will be nothing for you to fill out or send back, just a copy of the plan for you to keep and put in the glove box is that okay?" The customer then replied "Yep".

  Everything in quotes is straight from the call recordings. I tried reaching out to the customer to go over my findings, but he has not returned my calls.  The customer bought the contract and agreed to everything on the phone as I have described in this response and when he called to cancel, we cancelled the contract and refunded him the same day without a need for anything in writing. 

  If the customer did not receive the refund or is in need of anything else all he has to do is contact our customer service department.

  We have been providing programs on behalf of thousands of dealerships and several OEM's for over 20 years. I am very proud of our business practices and our team. It is my belief that our team did a great job. I think the one line of the contract that is the secondary means of cancelling just threw the customer for a loop resulting in this being escalated beyond what needed to be if he would have just called us immediately when he got his package.

   
  

• Initial Complaint

  06/07/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have been charged monthly for a couple of years (apparently) on my credit card by a company called Paylink. I didn’t know what this was for, but was busy, but from time to time tried to find out more. Today, I got fed up and spent hours on the phone to question why this company was charging me $260 a month for so long, and after multiple phone calls of long duration, first with my credit card company, then with Paylink, and finally with Automotive Product Consultants, I was told they would email me with a form to fill out to cancel. I was not happy to have to fill out a form in addition to all the time I spent on the phone with them, but they insisted I needed to fill out the form so I gave them my email. At this time, I still have received no such form. I fear I will have to cancel my credit card to stop the bleeding, They acted as though this was “my warranty” on my vehicle “through the dealership.” I have no reason to believe that is true. They acted surprised when I told them that I don’t even know how these charges started— saying “didn’t you get your packet.” No I did not get any packet, and I think they know that. This is a scam. People who see this on their credit card should act immediately.

  Business response

  06/22/2023

  We contacted the customer after receiving the complaint. The customer did not have any recollection of the transaction. However, we pulled the two calls in which the customer talked to our coverage representative. One call was about 6 minutes long, the other was about 9 minutes long. In this first call the customer is asking our representative for an estimated price but did not have her current mileage which can have a significant impact on the price. Our representative provided the estimate using the estimated mileage. Our representative contacted the customer for the second call and asked if it was a good time to talk to her in which she replied it was as she was sitting in her car at that moment and could provide the exact mileage on the vehicle. While on the phone with the customer I played back a portion of each call to demonstrate to her that she did indeed purchase a plan from us 2 years ago. The customer still wanted to cancel the contract. When the customer called to cancel, as outlined in her complaint, our representative did indeed cancel the contract that same day. The customer is correct in that we do request the cancellation in writing because the company administering the contract requires such documentation. I informed the customer on the call that her contract was cancelled the same day even though she did not submit a cancellation request. I had our team expedite the processing of her cancellation and we used a lower mileage in processing the cancellation than the actual mileage on her vehicle in order to provide her with a larger refund. We also expedited the refund check sending it UPS rather than standard mail. The check was sent last week. I called twice this week and sent an email in order to verify receipt of the refund check by the customer but did not get in touch with the customer or a reply to the email. If there are any other issues regarding the purchase and subsequent cancellation the customer can call our customer service department and they will take care of it promptly.

• Initial Complaint

  06/02/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I keep recreiving mailed letters about an extended service contract on my 2022 Malibu that I purchased in September 2022.These letters look like they are coming from the dealership *********************, but they are faking the letterhead.I want NO further contact from this company. I have not done business with them, and I never will.This is deceptive marketing!

  Customer response

  06/12/2023

  Today I received a phone call from this company. They want explain their relationship with my Auto dealership *********************.

  I do NOT want to hear from them again. I am asking them to stop all contact with me. Take me off their mail, phone and any other lists they have advertising their warranty.

  I do not need a warranty on my car, it is still under warranty.

  Business response

  06/22/2023

  After receiving the complaint, we tried contacting the consumer via phone to no avail. After 2 attempts we sent an email. In the email we explained to the consumer that we have been providing services to ********************* since 2014. In fact, the President of the dealership is who enrolled the dealership in our program by signing a contract for our services. We perform marketing and call center services for over ***** new car franchise dealers throughout the United ****** as well as several Original Equipment Manufacturers.  We requested from the consumer more information as to why the consumer felt we did not have an actual relationship with the dealer. Our reason for requesting this information was to determine whether it was an assumption, or if the consumer may have been misinformed by someone at the dealership. Once in a while an employee at our partner dealerships will mistakenly misinform a consumer. In a case such as this, we have a team of trainers that contact the dealership staff to retrain them on the program. The consumer's reply was that they did not care and just wanted us to stop bothering them with all of the solicitations. In reviewing our records, we actually only sent two solicitations to the consumer. The consumer may have received other offers for mechanical repair coverage but those would not have come from us.  We did inform the consumer in our email we added him to our suppression files so as to never market the consumer again per his wishes.  

  Customer response

  06/23/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

• Initial Complaint

  04/12/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I received an email from ********************************** on February 13, 2023 stating that my vehicle service contract was expiring and that I could call them at ************ to see if there "may still be time" to "obtain additional coverage". I called the company several times in February, March, and April of 2023 and the representatives told me various things such as that they "promised' they would call me back to discuss if my vehicle was eligible, and then during later phone calls that I made to the company to try to find out about this coverage, the representatives telling me that my vehicle's warranty was expired so I was not "eligible". The company gave me fraudulent information because my vehicle's warranty does not actually expire until April 26, 2023 so this would not be a legitimate reason to deny me "additional coverage". The representatives also tried to tell me that perhaps my vehicle was a salvage vehicle so thus would not be eligible for coverage, even though I explained to the representatives that my vehicle was definitely not a salvage vehicle. The company also caused unnecessary stress and worry by saying each time I called that someone would get back to me with further explanation or information but not following through on this. The company should not be in business.

  Business response

  04/28/2023

  We contacted the customer regarding this complaint. Prior to calling were able to determine the issue that caused the inability to price the vehicle. The customer had a plan currently in place that was set to expire in April of 2023. We sent a mailer to the customer informing her of the forthcoming expiration. Our company provides marketing and sales services for new car franchise dealerships. We must follow the rules provided to us as to product eligibility as provided by the dealership. In this case the dealer made a decision to limit the vehicle eligibility only to vehicles that are under the original factory warranty. The issue is we had already sent the customer an expiration communication. The pricing engine is supplied through a technological data integration. Thus, our sales reps could not understand why prices would not show up for her vehicle. The rep though that possibly the vehicle had a salvage title but was able to look that up and determine that was not the case. Moreover, once it was identified that the new eligibility guidelines were causing the issue the customer was confused by the difference between the original factory warranty versus the extended coverage she had purchased which did not expire until April of 2023. Her vehicle was still covered, but not by the original factory warranty which was the new eligibility guideline. We went back to the dealership and were able to get them to open the eligibility back up considering the customer's vehicle was still under an active plan. We explained all of this to the customer and actually sold her a very deeply discounted plan as a result of the confusion caused by the sudden change in eligibility.  I just talked to the customer, she was very appreciative of how quickly we jumped on getting the issue resolved and more importantly getting back into a new plan prior to the current plan expiring. 

  Customer response

  04/28/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

• Initial Complaint

  02/21/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I was contacted by APC Automotive sales agent **** who inferred that due to the change of dealership from ***** ********* which sold to ********** ***** I would need extended warranty auto coverage purportedly upon the advice of new owners ***** ********, Vice President of ***** ** ********* *******. The APC Automotive warranty coverage deposit of $200 was charged to my credit card 12/19/22 obtained for a 4 year, 90,000 mile protection plan. There was to be a 30 day or 500 mile waiting period before the plan took effect. In the interim I contacted **** ***** from which I had a 6 year, 75,000 mile plan *********** purchased with ***** ********* on 9/20/17. They assured me that my plan was still in effect thru 9/19/23, thus this new plan with APC Automotive was not necessary. When I called to cancel the APC Agreement #********* on 1/26/23 at 3:40 pm, ****** was discourteous and transferred me to **** who gave me a cancel confirmation number of ******** stating my $200 would be refunded to my credit card. I received a letter dated February 14, 2023 from APC Automotive charging $50.08 cancellation fee and a guestimate prorated mileage for the $149.92 balance leaving me with a $0.00 refund. This is theft as there was no coverage for the first 30 days or 500 miles. APC Automotive does not deal truthfully with consumers. I demand $200 be refunded as previously stated.

  Business response

  03/03/2023

  We provided the customer with a full refund. We identified a failure on the part of our customer service representative. The window for a full refund is typically 30 days. Our representative thought the consumer had cancelled 7 days after purchasing when in fact she had called 37 days after purchasing. Our representative read the purchase month incorrectly in the system.  Our representative told her she would receive a full refund and therefore did not enter miles at cancellation into our system. When this occurs our system generates the communication she received so that we can gather that data for a proper refund calculation. However, because we told her she was entitled to a full refund we have now provided her a full refund. The customer was awesome to work with and we sent her a $50 gas card for her inconvenience. 

• Initial Complaint

  02/16/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The company came to see our car before we ever signed on for a warranty with them. They accepted the car. This company was taking $280.00 out of our account every month for a car warranty. We were having problems with the car. We took the car to the dealer because a light came on. When the dealer called the warranty company, they told them we didn't have a policy. We asked to speak to a supervisor. They told us that the inspection didn't pass; the car wasn't in good enough condition to write a policy. But they took three payments of over $250 out of our account. The repair for the car was over $900.

  Business response

  03/03/2023

  We gave Mr. **** a full refund. We reviewed our internal process for failed inspections and we identified some process enhancements. We contacted the customer directly and he was very satisfied with how we handled the complaint. At this point we confirmed his receipt of the refund. The customer was very understanding of the situation and happy with the resolution. 

• Initial Complaint

  02/01/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Warranty was to expire on 12/28/2022 for my 2012 Range Rover. Honestly, I forgot I had the warranty because I contracted it 4 years earlier. On 12/21/2022 the air suspension failed on the Range Rover. Land Rover quoted me a $10,000 repair bill. I declined. On 12/22/2022 I found a local repair shop that made the repair for $1900. On or about 12/26/2022 I received a letter from APC reminding me that my warranty coverage would expire on 12/28/2022. I called the number on the letter and described the recent repair I experienced and that I had forgotten that I paid for a warranty. They encouraged me to send the documentation to the claims center and I complied. On 1/31/2023 My claim was denied because I didn't receive prior authorization. While technically correct, I found their response ethically bankrupt given the circumstances outlined. I drastically reduced the cost of the repair and was guilty of forgetting I had warranty coverage (never filed a previous claim!). I bought the policy at a Land Rover dealership and apparently they forgot too! A reasonable company would reimburse the repair minus an appropriate deductible. Ironically they want me to renew the policy

  Business response

  02/14/2023

  After getting the complaint we contacted the customer. We had the customer send the two RO's he had received from the two different shops. After reviewing them we were able to determine that all of the work included in the RO's was for maintenance items which is why the reimbursement was denied. The items needing repair were specifically contained within the "Excluded items" section of the contract. After explaining this to the customer he understood. As a gesture of good will we offered the customer either $2,000 off of a new plan or $750 in reimbursement. The customer chose the $750 direct payment. 

  We already dropped the check in the mail. The customer indicated they will likely sell the vehicle and contact us once they purchase a replacement vehicle.

   

   

  Customer response

  02/15/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I was more than pleasantly surprised by APC's response. Hat's off to ********************* for going above and beyond the call of duty. Great company...will do business with them again! THANKS!!
  *********************************

• Initial Complaint

  08/03/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I keep receiving letters from ****** **** to purchase an Entended Warranty on a car that we sold them when we purchased a new used car. Have tried to call and get them to stop sending the offers but they keep coming.

  Business response

  08/05/2022

  We see that we have sent marketing communications to the customer. However, since we are an outside provider assisting the dealership with these offers we do not have a record of the customer calling us off of the communications to update the information. I have updated our records that they vehicle has been sold. More than likely the customer contacted the dealership and they failed to let us know to update the marketing database. We have updated the database to avoid any future communications. We apologize for the confusion.

• Initial Complaint

  04/29/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  United Automotive Services sent me a letter that says the coverage on my car is going to run out. I don’t own a car, nor have I driven the model listed. I would like to know where they got this information about what vehicles I own from.

  Business response

  05/16/2022

  We contacted the customer after receiving the complaint and got his voice mail. We let the customer know where we received the information, a third party list company, and once in a while data does come over with accuracy issues. We have suppressed the record on our side. We also notified the list company of the inaccurate data. They have informed us they have suppressed the record on their side as well. We asked the customer to call back if he had any questions. We have not yet received a call back.

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