CarShielde Review
CarShield is an insurance service. With the high prices of car repairs, CarShield claims to be the answer. You pay a monthly fee, and they fix your car. But my experience wasn't pleasant. It took weeks to get approved and only for certain things. They really nickel and dime you when it comes to what they will fix and what they won't. Plus they want to see maintenance records for your car before they make a repair, so you have to be super organized. For me, it was a BIG hassle.
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Value5
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Customer Service6
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Price6
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Quality7
This review is a real-life situation where I decided to purchase CarShield for peace of mind and help during a breakdown. My thinking was simple: If I purchase their monthly plan, I’ll be covered if my vehicle (A 2014 Kia Sorento) broke down sometime shortly; I saw it as an indirect extended warranty.
I gave them a call and spoke to the salesperson who convinced me that without CarShield I would certainly be lost.
“I’ve seen this company put new motors in vehicles and save the owner thousands of dollars,” the salesperson said confidently as if they were reading it off a script.
When I had second thoughts about the investment, they scorned the decision making it sound foolish that I wanted to be careful with how I spent my money.
FTC sends checks to eligible people who paid for a vehicle service contract
“It will be the best decision that you’ve ever made.” The sales person assured me.
I finally agreed with the terms and gave them my credit card information.
We were off to the races, and now all we needed was a breakdown to test out how reliable this company really was compared to their overdramatized sales speech on the phone.
The Day of the Break Down
The day I actually needed CarShield was several months later.
I’m not going to turn this article into a life story or anything, so I’ll get right to the point.
My wife was driving to get some groceries when the Sorrento began to flicker lights on the dashboard. It didn’t take long before the car died safely on the side of the road.
My wife gave me a call and I ran out to see what the trouble could possible be.
I gave the car a boast but to no avail. I immediately thought it must be a battery issue, so I purchased a new battery and installed it the same day. The car started but wasn’t charging the battery
“It’s the alternator!”
I drove the car to my garage and explained to the owner that I had CarShield, and according to them, it’s going to be a breeze to have my car back on the road again.
I thought for a moment that maybe that annoying salesperson was correct, insisting that I purchase their plan and that it was going to save me a ton of money.
That moment passed and would never return.
CarShield’s Response
When I reported the claim (Remember that I didn’t have a car), it took them weeks to finally make a decision on whether or not they were going to cover my vehicle.
They wouldn’t cover the full cost of labor and they refused to pay much for an alternator. I kid you not, they were going to send the garage their own alternator that they could get for a cheaper price. This would take weeks and weeks to get done.
This forced the garage to choose a cheaper alternator than they wanted but didn’t want to wait for them to ship their own.
When everything was said and done, I had to pay the $100 deductible and the extra price for labor which came to about $250. I had to $250 above what the MY insurance company was willing to cover.
The whole process took far too long. We didn’t have a car for about 3 weeks because CarShield was dragging their feet, doing everything that they could do not to pay – a typical insurance company but far worse.
My story gets better – or I should say worse (at least for me).
A couple of weeks later, my car dies again. The alternator that was installed (a Re-man Alternator) wasn’t compatible with my SUV. I was told that I had to purchase an OEM Kia Alternator to correct this problem.
I contacted CarShield again and told them of the situation. I said that I was now in this mess because they demanded to have a cheap alternator installed in the car.
I said that I never used the towing feature or rented a car and that they should pay the difference to have the Kia Alternator installed in my SUV.
Guess what they had to say? They said that they would not be doing anything about my situation and that it was between me and the garage. I had to pay for the repairs myself in the end, and CarShield did absolutely nothing.
I had to wait 3 weeks for a car; they refused to put good parts on my vehicle and then refused to correct the issue when everything fell apart.
Does it sound like I’m a fan of CarShield? They are a perfect company when your car is working, but if your car needs to be repaired – you better put your boxing gloves on because it’s going to be a fight.
My Opinion
If you are considering purchasing CarShield or any car repair insurance company, then there are a few things that you’ll want to understand about these types of companies before you start opening your wallet to them.
They are an insurance company, and they don’t like to pay you money. They love it when they’re grabbing from your wallet each month but hate it when they actually have to pay something out.
They are cheap. They will ensure that the cheapest parts are installed on your car. They have a cap for everything that they do – parts, labor, rentals and tow. Everything is capped and it’s all capped at a low amount.
They require a lot of paperwork before they will do any repairs. If you’re not an organized person, it’s probably not a good idea to join. You’ll have to keep a copy of oil changes, repairs, and other regular maintenance records. If you don’t have regular maintenance proof, they will not help you (Yet, they will always take your money).
They are slow. They give you a small amount for a rental, but sure take their time in repairing your vehicle. It took them over 2 weeks to finally give the garage the okay to do the work.
In my opinion, this is ridicules.
The fact that we didn’t have a car for that amount of time was hard and unnecessary.
Also, they are not interested in helping you. They only want to make sure that you’re monthly investment is more than the amount they spend on you.
You can tell by their follow-up that you’re just in the way and when you demand that they do something to help you – they just raise their hands in the air and say that there isn’t anything they can do.
“I talked to my manager and he said that we can’t do anything,” was what they told me.
It’s absolutely a load a hype. Why did I need them? I ended up paying for it all anyways?
You Best Solution
Your best solution is for you to be them.
What I mean by that statement is you should take the amount of money that you would spend on CarShield or any auto insurance each month and put it away for a rainy day.
When car repairs come up, you take that money and use it for the repair.
You have the choice of which products you choose to put on your car, the garage to have the repairs done, and it’s going to be completed in a fraction of the time for them to finally give you the green light to begin.
Save yourself the frustration and avoid the HYPE.
Save your money and your sanity.
7 Comments
Why haven’t they been exposed on TV I dropped my membership because I read all about them
Amen!!!
TV and Radio stations should be held in full liability for these scammers on programs ran at times hyped to sell their lies!
Remember this!
If it sounds too good to be true.It’s most likely a lie and scam!
After all they have your money and you have what?…
car shield is a full blown SCAM. People DONT fall there scare tactics, They need to shut down for good
Jerry I had a similar experience and dumped them after they screwed me. wish I had seen your article before i purchased a policy and i would have not signed up at all. I live in Alaska, I have 1 vehicle and it’s winter. I lost my right front drive on my 4 wheel drive dodge ram p.u. and it took out everything including bearings and rotor, cv joint assembly. I had the car towed to my garage of choice, which was certified per car shield standards. the garage went to work and picked up the repair parts at the local auto zone and I was back on the road a day later. then began the nightmare. the bill was submitted to car shield and immediately they denied a portion of the cost of the repair parts because they could have supplied them cheaper by mailing them to Alaska which could have taken weeks. they denied a portion of the labor charges, because the cost exceeded what was in their lower 48 lower labor cost book. they only approved 700 dollars of my 1400$ repair bill. and to top it off they only approved 125 dollars of 140 dollar tow bill. that’s their max. I’m glad I only live 15 miles from the garage. I’ve broken down before 100 miles from home during the winter in another vehicle and the tow bill was 700$. I recommend you skip car shield and set aside what they would charge you for coverage in a separate account each month and be your own insurance. they offer no value unless you enjoy getting the shaft with bad service and poor policy that doesn’t match their advertising! it’s a scam!
you can trust Auntie Vivica.. Ice-T .. and Ric Flair… Haaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaa! They were like.. I don’t give F.. pay me for my commercial.
Thanks a bunch for sharing your experience and sparing the rest of us from potential heartache. Hope you managed to cancel that policy! Your advice to stash that cash for an inevitable rainy day is golden!