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.
“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.
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?…
They are ALL SCAM ARTIST, EVERY SINGLE HOME AND CAR WARRANTY COMPANY!! They look forbways not to pay!!! If you have one of these worthless WARRANTIES, get ready to be PISSED OFF when theybdo NOTHING to pay for the repairs, but will still have the BALLS tobadk for the monthly premium!!!
Car Shield cars go farther. I read that on the internet.
I agree also have had bad experience with them. they should not be allowed to run the false commercials. Even suggested repair facilities told me they were terrible at covering claims.
Finally got my Xterra back today, albeit after 4pm, and 20 days after I first dropped it off at the shop for the AC repair.
But I don’t fault the shop for the delays. That fault rests with American Auto Shield, AKA CarShield.
I dropped it off back on August 25th, 2021. The shop diagnosed that the AC compressor was seized up on August 28th. Because that was on a Saturday the shop submitted the claim to CarShield on the following Monday (August 30th). If CarShield had approved it on that day, or by the next day, I would have gotten my Xterra back by the end of that week, or about September 3rd, 2021.
Instead, because CarShield made the shop jump through a bunch of hoops the claim was not even approved until September 7th, and it was only approved because I was calling CarShield and complaining about the delays and I had left them 3 bad reviews on Trust Pilot.
Then, instead of letting the shop order the proper compressor CarShield told the shop they would order it and have it sent to them. They could not even do that right because they sent the wrong compressor to the shop, which added another 4 day delay.
I have been paying CarShield since 2019, and when I filed my first claim with them in 2021 THEY FAILED.
Even though they finally got the repair done, it was 13 days too late, and it cost me possible income. I am self-employed and don’t get a steady weekly paycheck. I live sale to sale and CarShield interrupted that. When I first contacted them about the repair I told them that I could not be without my vehicle for more than 7 days, 10 tops. They obviously did not care about my needs as the customer.
Because of their foot dragging for the repair approval and their incompetence with handling the part order, which should have been left to the shop and not them, I am going to cancel them and sign up with Endurance as soon as I can save the money needed for Endurance’s down payment.
I have been monitoring CarShield’s BBB profile for any new complaints ever since I ran into this hassle with them. There were 2157 complaints against CarShield when I first found their profile on the BBB back on Sept 3rd. As of September 8th, 2021 there are now 2193 complaints, so the complaints are still rolling in.
And if they don’t cancel my contract when I call them tomorrow I will add my complaint to that list.
And on a side note, CarShield did not cover the idler pulley for the Compressor. I had to pay for that even though it says in the “covered parts” section of the contract that belt tensioners are covered. They said that they did not cover it because it is not a belt tensioner. I found that absurd because this pulley puts TENSION on the AC drive belt. Without this pulley the belt would fall off. This is another reason I am cancelling them. I cannot stand warranty companies that nitpick over parts.
total scamming bs
Hard to say with certainty. I suspect they haven’t been exposed because they buy a lot of TV advertising. Companies that advertise a lot on TV do have a large lever they can use against a TV network if they don’t like the news coverage. Don’t believe me? When was the last time you heard any negative news story about a pharmaceutical company. Their products kill more people than any war we’ve ever been in!
I foolishly filled out the quote form online just to look into it. My phone started ringing immediately and is still ringing. I had already figured out that I will simply put $100 a month in my savings account rather than deal with this nonsense. I am glad I read this. I kinda figured.
I still hold hope not EVERYTHING is a scam but really, we all know better.
This is true of RV warranty companies. Don’t waste your money on any extended warranty.
All the 5 stars come from people paid to put false reviews on for Car Shield.