Automotive Product Consultants

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2015/11/10) */
We sold a service contract to the customer for his vehicle on 10/1/2015. On Friday 10/2/2015 at 1:08 PM the customer called back to cancel the plan. We cancelled the plan immediately. We processed the cancel the next business day on 10/5/2015...

which was a Monday calculating a full refund. We issued the credit back to the card used to buy the plan the same day.
We generally process cancellations daily in the morning. By the time the customer called we had already processed the cancellation batch for the day thus it was processed the NEXT business day. The issuing bank of the credit card controls the posting of the credit which can take an additional day or two but is beyond our control. The customer was told at the time of cancellation the refund could take up to 3-5 days to appear on his credit card account. We had already processed the credit with our card processing merchant by the time we received this Revdex.com complaint. We contacted the customer multiple times to confirm receipt of the credit but the customer never called us back. We therefore assume the customer did indeed receive the credit we issued to the account.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2015/07/31) */
After receiving the complaint we sent the customer an e-mail explaining our marketing piece. We also added the customer to our suppression files so as to avoid an future solicitations being sent to the customer. We invited the customer to...

contact us if we had not sufficiently handled her compliant.
Unless we hear back from the customer to the contrary we will assume this complaint has been resolved.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 11, 2016/01/13) */
We left the customer a message today. We would like to discuss the complaint with her.We are awaiting a response from the customer. Once we get a response we can provide more information.
Final Business Response /* (1000, 18, 2016/02/04)...

*/
After several conversations with both [redacted] and the Administrator of the contract we were able to get the claim paid. The Administrator will be sending [redacted] a check for the total cost of the repair including the rental expense that exceeded the contract limit less the deductible.
The cause of this issue really stemmed from some failures on the part of the Administrator. We were able to show them where they had dropped the ball and thus they agreed to pay the claim. [redacted] was awesome to work with and was patient while our company stepped help to help her with this issue. At this point we believe we have taken care of [redacted]'s complaint.

After receiving this complaint we reviewed the recorded call with the customer to determine what representations were made over the phone. The plan we sold the customer was the most comprehensive plan available. The plan is exclusionary in that it covers everything on the vehicle for mechanical...

failure except for a small list of items that are not specifically covered. This was communicated in the call. The customer asked about ball joints specifically. In the call we did communicate that ball joints are covered. We contacted the administrator of the contract and confirmed that the plan we sold the customer does cover ball joints. The plan came with a 30 day 1000 mile validation period before a claim could be filed. Shortly after this period the customer required a repair from a dented transmission pan. The plan does not cover physical damage. We did not tell the customer physical damage would be covered in the call when the customer purchased. We did talk directly to the customer about the recorded call explaining that we never communicated physical damage being a part of the covered items within the plan on the phone. We gave the customer the option after explaining the results of the call review to either keep the plan and we would send a $50 gas card for the inconvenience or cancel the plan providing a full refund. The customer chose to have us cancel the plan for a full refund. We have cancelled the plan and submitted for a refund to be sent in two business days. The customer should receive the refund some time next week. If the customer needs anything else the customer can contact our customer service department directly for assistance.

We normally like to call people regarding all complaints to make sure we handle the complaint properly. However, since the complaint was sensitive about any further contact we thought an e-mail might be less evasive. We sent an e-mail to the customer explaining our company. We purchase some of our...

leads from the credit providers we list on our piece. We are required to have that particular disclaimer on our marketing pieces by the credit providers who we purchase leads from. The credit bureau providers are allowed to sell pre-screened lists to companies offering firm offers of credit and insurance which is what our offer entails. Most people are unaware of this exception granted to them.  The disclaimer allows customers to contact the credit bureau directly to opt-out of their program. Their opt out process merely opts you out of their ability to sell marketing data based on pre-screened offers of credit and insurance to companies. We are not the only company sending direct mail to consumers regarding the purchase of a vehicle service contract. There are dozens of companies that probably will market the customer besides our company. We have added the customer to our suppression files. However that is not to say that the customer will not get offers from other companies. Clearly the customer does not have an interest in these offers so our recommendation would be for the customer to contact each company when the customer receives an offer from a different company and ask to be removed from their marketing list. In addition, as explained above if the customer does not want the credit bureau providers to sell information for offers of credit and insurance the customer should consider opting out with them as well. Typical offers companies make using this data is credit cards offers, home equity loans and products of that nature.  Our company has been in business for 16 years and we also send similar direct mail pieces out on behalf of auto manufacturers, auto lenders, and auto dealerships throughout the country. It is not our intent to sell anyone something they do not need or want.   As stated previously we have added the customer to our suppression files. We hope that some of the insights provided will help eliminate any future offers the customer may receive from other companies. Our goal with any complaint is to provide as much insight as we can to consumers. I personally handle any formal complaint received by this company and make myself available for any customer who is unsatisfied with our business or our employees.

We received the complaint on April 25th. Unfortunately the first attempt by the Revdex.com to send this complaint was not received as it was not sent to the contact on file with the Revdex.com the first time. The complaint alleges that our company does not have a contractual relationship with [redacted] in...

Glassboro, NJ. This is an automobile dealership in New Jersey. We provide marketing services on behalf of dealers all over the country. In fact we do this for hundreds of dealerships. We do this pursuant to a joint marketing agreement. In this case, we have been performing services for the [redacted] dealership since June of 2009. Our agreement with this dealership was signed by [redacted] who is the President of the dealership on 6/4/2009. It is not unusual periodically for an employee of a dealership to be unaware for our program. The volume of transactions per dealership is low and with the passage of time sometimes they either are unaware if they are new or forget about the program. Our office in CA performs training at installation and training as needed over the course of time. They have been notified of this miscommunication to make contact with the dealership regarding the agreement for services to retrain the staff.The customer requested a refund. This refund was performed on April 7th. Although the credit was issued on April 7 it does take a few days to post to the customer's account. After receiving the complaint, we made a couple attempts to contact the customer directly to make sure the refund was indeed received. The refund was done electronically so we have no reason to believe it did not go through. However, we were unable to get a confirmation from the customer directly. Prior to the complaint being filed we had already fulfilled the customers request for a refund. At this point, unless we hear otherwise we will assume this issue has been resolved.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2015/11/05) */
We tried several times to contact the customer to make sure we handled her complaint to her satisfaction but we were not able to get a response. We added the customer to our suppression files so as to not send any future solicitations. The...

customer did make a reference to other companies and we would not be able to assist in this regard other than recommending to request removal from their lists in the event she receives a solicitation from a different organization. Our product is intended for people who did not purchase a plan from the automobile dealership when they bought the vehicle. If it is determined we sold a customer duplicate coverage we always refund the customer 100% of their money regardless of how long the contract has been in place.
Our company takes all customer complaints seriously. We requested the call to be reviewed by a manager and any disciplinary actions be taken if at any time our representative did not follow our rules and procedures. Our company performs marketing on behalf of hundreds of auto dealers, hundreds of credit unions, several large automotive finance companies as well as some of the OEM brands. These companies would not contract with our company if we were not following specific protocols and standards in our operations.
If the customer needs any additional assistance I can be contact directly regarding this complaint

After receiving the complaint we made a few attempts to contact the consumer. The consumer never returned our call. We did also send an email to the consumer explaining how the process works. In researching this complaint this inquiry appears to be from a mail campaign sent to the consumer in...

October of 2015. We purchased the consumers lead pursuant to a pre-screened firm offer of insurance from a credit bureau provider. Unless a consumer opts out directly with the credit bureau providers companies can purchase data offering firm offers of credit or insurance from the credit bureaus. The credit bureau does post an inquiry to the consumers report to track the offers the consumer qualified. We have no control over these postings as those reside with the credit bureau provider. We did included information on our piece with instructions for how the consumer can opt out of these offers. In our email we provided this same information again to the consumer. We also added the consumer to our suppression files to prevent future solicitations from our company. We hope this resolves the issue to the consumers satisfaction. If not the consumer can contact us directly.

We attempted to contact the consumer via phone regarding this complaint but were unsuccessful. The dialed the number provided in the complaint 5 times and in every case we received an error message from the phone carrier. Therefore we sent the consumer an email message. n the email we informed the...

consumer that we had removed them form our marketing database. We also provided some background information about our company. Unless we hear back form the consumer we assume we have satisfied there request.The message sent via email is outlined below:"We send solicitations to consumers offering them an opportunity to purchase additional coverage beyond the manufacturer’s basic limited factory warranty. Our solicitation informs customers that the factory warranty comes with a limited amount of time. We do not know whether a consumer has purchased additional coverage from a dealership at the time the vehicle was purchased unless we have a relationship with that dealer. We have been in business for 16 years. We do business with hundreds of dealerships across the county as well as several OEM brands. We can assure you we are not a scam. There are several companies in this industry using illegal means of contacting customers who may not offer products using the same standards in which we offer them. In fact, we explain this very point to the new car franchises we do business with on a regular basis. In the complaint it is mentioned that you already have coverage and a warranty through Toyota. We have updated our records to reflect this which will suppress any additional solicitations being sent from our company.We hope that this information satisfies your complaint and provides some background into who we are as a business. We take all customer/consumer complaints serious and make an attempt on every complaint to communicate directly with the customer/consumer to make sure we have resolved the complaint to their satisfaction. In this case we have removed you from our marketing database."

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2015/09/17) */
We contacted the customer after receiving the complaint. Our system does generate automated contacts via letter and calls for delinquent accounts. The notifications are a set process based on the duration of the delinquency.
We explained to...

the customer how the refund was calculated and the customer provided us with a more accurate mileage on the vehicle which resulted in a refund of $808.68. We sent the refund already and notified the customer to be on the look out for it.
We corresponded mainly by e-mail and will continue as such if there are any other issues.