Dealer Warranty Cancellation Shenanigans

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Dear Hackers,

Buckle in, this is going to be a type-fest.

In December of 2022 I purchase a 2023 C8 from a dealership in southern Illinois. I finance the vehicle through GM Financial, and also purchase a 10 year extended warranty through the dealership (I know, I know…) for $3700. The warranty is through CNA.

Roughly a month into my loan (i.e. January of 2023) I refinance with a credit union that had much lower rates than GM Financial. I then move to North Carolina in October of 2023.

Fast forward to November of 2024 and I decide to cancel the extended warranty. I reach out to CNA and find out that cancellations have to be initiated by the dealership that sold the warranty. Problem is, the dealership no longer sells CNA products as they are under new ownership. After a few back and forths between the dealer, CNA corporate, and myself, I am finally able to secure a cancellation on December 20th of 2024.

It’s now January 24th and I still haven’t received a check. I call the dealership, get transferred to accounting, and they tell me they haven’t received a check from CNA. I call CNA, who calls the dealership, and I receive a call 10 minutes later from the same person I spoke to earlier from the dealer’s accounting department. Apparently they DID receive the check and then sent the refund to GM Financial. She promises me to research where it all went wrong and have a resolution within the next week.

I have 2 questions:

  1. is it normal procedure for a dealer to send warranty cancellation funds to the lienholder if the warranty was purchased using funds from the loan? Why wouldn’t they just refund me directly?
  2. Is there anything I can do to make the dealer sweat a bit? This ordeal has been very frustrating because it has taken a bunch of calls (and time), the dealer is disorganized and comes off as somewhat dishonest, and the sum is not trivial (close to $3k). I can obviously leave a bad review, but it’s not that I want to punish the dealership as much as to give them a kick in the ass to get moving and to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Also, assuming they pay off the lienholder, I’ve accrued a bit of money over the delay in loan interest - is it rational to ask them to reimburse that?

Appreciate your help.

Renaughty93

2

Short of lawyering up and sending the lawyer letter, you have done pretty much all you can do and you should probably forget about the minimal interest accrual as well.

At this point if you really want to go he next step to get it expedited with zero out of pocket you should contact the dealer principal/owner, explain all of it in detail, and state that at this point you have waited long enough and have contemplated contacting the Illinois AG, Department of Insurance, etc. but you would rather get it resolved amicably instead.

That email or letter from you to the dealer principal/owner should get things to where they need to be.

2 Likes
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Check with GMF if they received it and applied a credit to your account. Typically when this happens it will credit toward your remaining payments.

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Yeah, fortunately I no longer have the GM Financial loan as I refinanced with a credit union at a much lower interest rate a month after getting the car. Somehow that didn’t register with the dealer and now need to figure out how to get the money back from GMF.

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Let the dealer get the $ back from GMF as that is their issue. The dealer needs to make you whole and it is a piece of cake for them to cut you such a small check - small at least for them!

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You can cancel a warranty 2 years later? Out of 3k how much would you get back?

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Most extended warranties can be cancelled at any time, and you are given a pro-rated amount back based upon the date you shut it down. Some will not let you cancel if you have used it, or if it you are past the manufacturer’s initial warranty, etc.

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I originally paid ~3,700 for it and should be getting ~3,000 back (based on the car mileage at cancellation and the length the contract has been in effect)

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Haven’t used it and the vehicle is still in the manufacturer’s warranty period. Unfortunately, CNA doesn’t make it easy to cancel as you have to go through the dealer, and this was even more complicated because the dealer no longer had access to their account on CNA’s platform as they no longer sell CNA products.

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