We are offered them for cars, plane tickets, and electronics. You might even have gotten a hundred calls to let you know that yours is about to expire even though you never purchased it. Warranties, protection plans and service plans are everywhere. But are they worth it?
Felipe shares his story of trying to get a windshield replaced by a warranty and how those events unfolded. Three years and a cracked windshield later was it a good deal? Or did he forget a very important component to personal finances. Always read the fine print!
We are offered them for cars, plane tickets, and electronics. You might even have gotten a hundred calls to let you know that yours is about to expire even though you never purchased it. Warranties, protection plans and service plans are everywhere. But are they worth it?
Felipe shares his story of trying to get a windshield replaced by a warranty and how those events unfolded. Three years and a cracked windshield later was it a good deal? Or did he forget a very important component to personal finances. Always read the fine print!
Welcome to Talk Wealth to me, a Safe Space podcast where we chat about anything and everything related to personal finance. The information contained in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute as accounting, legal, tax, or other professional advice.
Chase Peckham:Hello everybody. I'm Chase Peckham and joined by my cohort Felipe Arevalo. Felipe, how was your week, bud?
Felipe Arevalo:It's turning out to be an interesting week. It started last week with, uh, well I guess it was a couple weekends ago. Uh, we were driving home from visiting my sister-in-law in Tucson, you know, that desert and those big trucks and something came up and just popped, hit my windshield and then you got a little crack. That's been slow.
Chase Peckham:Did it? Whoa. Was it a crack like right away or was it, did you see it right away? It's one of those usually a big, it's a big loud crack and you go, but I don't see anything.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah, it was definitely one of those, the ones where you hear that loud crack and you look around and you're like, Oh, there it is.
Chase Peckham:Oh boy.
Felipe Arevalo:And it was about six inches from Right, right from the edge of the windshield. Um, my first thought was,<laugh>, just under the deadline, we're gonna get a new windshields for free. Um, and then that turned out
Chase Peckham:Why would you get a windshield for free?
Felipe Arevalo:So when Sarah got her, her, uh, Forester about three years ago, uh, the sales team at the dealership we're, uh, very excited to tell us about this great program that they have great coverage in the event. It's like a windshield protection plan. Where
Chase Peckham:Oh geez.
Felipe Arevalo:In the event your windshield is cracked, they will replace it for free and all you gotta do is pay this upfront cost and then you don't have to worry about your windshield for the next three years. Because I don't know if you've had to replace a windshield on a car that on a newer car,
Chase Peckham:Well, in a newer car, they're gonna be more expensive. It's hard to find. They're, they're, they're not making resales in the molds of those yet.
Felipe Arevalo:Well, it's not, it's not actually that. It's the technology that the newer cars have. Lane keep assist, uh, front collision avoidance systems.
Chase Peckham:Oh, that's right.
Felipe Arevalo:When you replace the windshield, every one of those systems has to be recalibrated. So you can't just go to the junkyard or to any old repair place. Even the ones that'll come and do it at your house on their commercials won't come And do those at your house,
Chase Peckham:Are those like the windshields where you can see like the speedometer and the windshield and all that kind of stuff? Like you can see things.
Felipe Arevalo:It's not even that fancy. It's just the one, it just has the lane keep assist that a lot of newer cars have where if you start to drift, it'll beep.
Chase Peckham:Okay.
Felipe Arevalo:Kind of bring you back. And then it has.
Chase Peckham:That's in the windshield?
Felipe Arevalo:No, the sensor is at the top where, where the, where the rear view mirror is. But because that's right next to the glass, you changed the glass, you've messed up the calibration and you have to go get it professionally calibrated.
Chase Peckham:Man. It's always something.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. So we went in, made an appointment, everything was great. Everyone's saying, Oh yeah, come on in, we'll take care of you. And you know, I was dropping it off and it needed some other things. Regular maintenance, uh, oil changes and they needed
Chase Peckham:While you're there. I mean, why not just, you know, do everything,
Felipe Arevalo:We get it all done. Exactly.
Chase Peckham:Which you Should been on your ways on your own, since it's been three years since you took it in to get any kind of maintenance outside of the oil change?
Felipe Arevalo:No, I'm pretty good about maintenance<laugh>, uh, I follow the schedule. The, I'm actually like panicking because my car is like a hundred miles overdue, um,<laugh>.
Chase Peckham:Oh no,
Felipe Arevalo:exactly. And um, but we brought it in. Everything was great up until we were gonna leave it. And the lady says, Okay, so the glass is going to be 1300 plus calibration. And I was like, Wait a minute. It was covered under the thing. And she said, um, I don't know. Told you that. Let me look into it. I'll give you a call later. She calls us later and says, No, what you purchased was protection against little chips, not against crack and replacement.
Chase Peckham:Oh. For god, why would you, why would anybody,
Felipe Arevalo:why would would you pay for that?
Chase Peckham:Right. Why would you pay for a little chip?
Felipe Arevalo:You can get that things for like$20 at the gas station
Chase Peckham:Yes. They fill it really easily in one of those little places and they have those little, they look like old photo mats back in the day when they're really little.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:And they're like windshield repair. And they go in and they fill it and all that stuff costs like 20 bucks
Felipe Arevalo:In like 20 minutes.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:It, it's not a, Yeah, I would've never paid for that. But when we were in there buying it, um, the guy sold, I didn't wanna do it. I was like, Come on Sarah. No, let's just, And she's like, Yeah, cuz the windshield. And she had just had to replace the windshield on her Corolla and they're telling her how expensive the windshield is on this new car, which they weren't lying. And so we got it. Didn't read the fine print, didn't ask to see it in writing. We just took their word for it.
Chase Peckham:Ugh.
Felipe Arevalo:And you the
Chase Peckham:You heard the word replace,
Felipe Arevalo:They told us if it cracks will replace it and, and all that. But that was three years ago and we didn't get anything in writing and I didn't take the time to say, Well let me see the paperwork. Had I seen the paperwork that now I have seen it clearly states for chips and dings and all, but not nec. They might even replace your wipers for you but not replace the whole windshield, which is the.
Chase Peckham:Replace tou're wipers for you. I just bought wipers Felipe, because it's been so long since it rained out here. When it did my<laugh> windshield wiper, like literally frayed into like a hundred pieces. And my kids are like, What is that noise? Um, I
Felipe Arevalo:Was it hitting the window.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. I went and bought new, uh, windshield wipers, cost me 50 bucks.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. And did it yourself. And it probably took,
Chase Peckham:Yes! It took five seconds.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. Funny story about wipers on that same trip out to Arizona. Um, I had bought some wipers. I bought cheap ones that were$10 and that was my fault.
Chase Peckham:Yeah, don't do that.
Felipe Arevalo:Um, they survived this giant thunderstorm on our big road trip a few months ago through Idaho. Apparently they can't handle, uh, dust storm in Arizona though. It went to go clean the windshield cuz you get a million bugs and the wipers just went, flew right off.
Chase Peckham:No way. It flew off
Felipe Arevalo:<laugh>, it flew off completely on the highway.
Chase Peckham:Oh boy.
Felipe Arevalo:<laugh>. And the worst part is you keep getting those little flash flood warnings and you're like, I'm gonna get hit with the thunderstorm. I'm down a wiper. I don't even know what to do.
Chase Peckham:Was it on the driver's side or the passenger side?
Felipe Arevalo:It was on the driver's side.
Chase Peckham:Oh great.
Felipe Arevalo:And the way Sarah's car is, is designed, the driver's side windshield wiper is 26 27 inches and the one on the passenger side is a much smaller 17 inch wiper. So the driver's side one does most of the work and.
Chase Peckham:Oh boy.
Felipe Arevalo:And all of a sudden I was like, I stopped at a few gas stations. Obviously they don't have, you know, they have lots of stuff. Motor oil and
Chase Peckham:That would be a day, there was a day when they would've had windshield wipers
Felipe Arevalo:A day. Yes. A long time ago. They would've
Chase Peckham:A long time ago when they were called service stations.
Felipe Arevalo:Exactly. And they had, uh, the option to do it yourself or full, uh,
Chase Peckham:Right.<laugh>.
Felipe Arevalo:That was a long time ago though.<laugh>. So I tried to get the back windshield wiper and move it to the front so at least I had something but different size. Um, luckily we didn't get rained on the whole way to Tucson and then I just went into like a Walmart and uh, bought another one, uh, that didn't fit. And then I went to three auto zones because they kept telling me that it wouldn't fit until one guy said all of these would fit. Just don't buy the cheap ones. And, and that was the solution I bought. They,
Chase Peckham:They've gotta, I mean they punch it right into the computer. Oh yeah. You know.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:We know what date this is.
Felipe Arevalo:Exactly.
Chase Peckham:Or what type this is.
Felipe Arevalo:The first two AutoZones sent me to the next AutoZone until one guy said, if you buy any one of these, not the dirt cheap ones, because they won't have the adapters, they all will have a little adapter pack for all the different cars. So I bought those, I was super excited. Finally got my, the car ready to go. And then we got hit with a windshield with a rock or something. I didn't even see it.
Chase Peckham:Oh Geez. But it was it a loud crack? Like so you knew it. Got you.
Felipe Arevalo:Oh, it was a it was a loud one. Yeah.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. That.
Felipe Arevalo:Full contact. And, and I looked up, started looking around and then I saw the little crack. And as you're driving, you know, that next hour and a half, two hours that we were still on the road, we could see it kind of like, we marked it a little with our finger on the inside.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:And then we just see it kind of move its way like, Oh, now it's by that bug. Oh, now it's past that bug.<laugh><laugh>.
Chase Peckham:Well Yeah, and that sucks cuz you know that even, you know, that's dangerous eventually and
Felipe Arevalo:It's gotta be fixed.
Chase Peckham:Um, and you're like, be I'm, I'm a little bit, uh, uh, o c d when it comes to, uh, imperfections in my vehicles and, and things like that. So I I get that, that would bug me a lot. Uh, if especially cuz that's something that you're peering through and looking at on a constant
Felipe Arevalo:You see it all the time.
Chase Peckham:Basis. Yeah. And just gonna irk you. Um, and yet you paid for that. Do you even remember how much you paid for that?
Felipe Arevalo:I didn't remember, but I looked it back up because I was looking for the paperwork and it was$900.
Chase Peckham:What?
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. Apparently it also protected my tires in the event I scuffed the rims, which I haven't done yet.
Chase Peckham:Oh my. So, all right, so this is the conversation that we do have with people that, you know, think they're doing the right thing by buying the extended warranty all the time. And I just ran into this, they didn't call it a warranty, they called it insurance, but I was buying airline tickets for my daughter's, uh, volleyball tournament in February that we had to buy already, um, to make sure that it wasn't all sold out.
Felipe Arevalo:Well, you get better rates too.
Chase Peckham:You do.
Felipe Arevalo:You're doing it early.
Chase Peckham:You do sometimes. Sometimes. I mean, flights right now are not super cheap anyway, but, you know, I'm going through the whole process and finally we decided to, to stop and get'em through United just, I literally paid$300 more than I would've at Southwestern Airlines or Southwest Airlines, uh, and Delta because the flights were just so much, I they weren't gonna be nine hours to get from Kansas City back to San Diego and vice versa to Kansas City and then back,
Felipe Arevalo:Like the three hour layover and
Chase Peckham:Right. It was gonna be a three hour layover in Seattle. I mean, I'm like in Kansas City to go to Seattle to go to, I mean like, Oh my God. So I, I just decided on some much simpler, uh, one stop in Denver. Um, just five hour trips versus the nine hours. And so I decided, you know, look, I'm, it's worth it to me to pay$300 more total to get there at a decent, and also it was getting there at 10 o'clock at night the night before we start. Anyway, as I'm going through the whole list of things to, as I'm purchasing these tickets for Avery and I, it's, it's, do you want to ensure your flight? And I'm like looking into it. I'm like, why would I want ensure my flight? And it's literally, they're selling insurance for, I think it's$60 or something like that. Maybe even a little bit more per ticket. Uh, if in case we, uh, miss a, if, if there's a malfunction or we miss.
Felipe Arevalo:a connection?
Chase Peckham:A connection, and I'm like, Wait, I have to buy something extra in case you screw up my connection. I you are late and I miss a connection and I'm paying you to pay me so I get a new flight. That doesn't make sense to me at all. So I looked it up, I'm going through this and I know that, you know, this is something that we know about. Uh, and, and everybody I talk to said do not, do not because airlines like anything else, the airlines are trying to upsell us on everything.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Right? There's plane tickets and then when you go to pick your seats, you know, we're not talking southwest here, but even Southwest does it in a different way.
Felipe Arevalo:Oh I do it.
Chase Peckham:But it's, you would like to sit in a little bit of extended, you know, a little bit more leg room,
Felipe Arevalo:Two inches, more leg room,
Chase Peckham:Two inches, two inches more leg room. And um, that'll be an extra$45 a ticket. And if you want to go into semi business class, you know, every airline calls it something different.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:But then you go into pick your tickets and they're color coded. And I went to go pick and I wasn't even thinking I was just picking seats and I clicked on the seat and it said$75. I'm like, wait a minute. I'm like, Dang it, Unclick, go find the back of the plane. And I find those tickets. So these Warranties and these upsells, that's just the way they're doing business now. Everyone. And when you buy a car, like you went through that situation, you go sit down with the financeer and even if, let's say you bought that car cash, they're still gonna sit with you and they're gonna ask you to sign a piece of paper or initial it that you don't want it. There's like 15 things they're gonna offer you. Right? Including all of these extended warranties and everything.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:And on the surface, these extended warranties can be great. You know, there are certain things that maybe buy in a warranty makes a lot of sense. But the thing is, is a lot of times we think that we are getting this warranty through an, let's just say in your case Subaru. Right.
Felipe Arevalo:It's not,
Chase Peckham:But you're not, they are third party businesses. Right,
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:That they, that they partner with and that they get. And then Subaru gets a kickback from that company because they're offering their product.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:So you buy all this stuff, but you gotta read the fine print as you just found out,
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Because,
Felipe Arevalo:and it, and it,
Chase Peckham:The the big fixes that you want, that's what you need to cover. If it doesn't cover that, what is the point?
Felipe Arevalo:Right. And and I told, you know, I was telling Sarah that, that that was on us. We should have definitely read. I mean, what are you gonna do three years later? Uh, and you know,<laugh> bad customer satisfaction survey.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:<laugh>. But other than that, you know, which they keep bugging me. I was like, you really don't want my feedback on this visit. Uh,
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:Stop sending me emails. This is gonna be bad feedback. Uh,
Chase Peckham:Absolutely.
Felipe Arevalo:It's just, just it is something we should have read. Uh, but they offer warranties or insurance on everything.
Chase Peckham:Everything.
Felipe Arevalo:Even like sporting event tickets,
Chase Peckham:Everything. Yes. In case it's rain out or in case it's Yes. Protect yourself. Yeah. I mean it's, you
Felipe Arevalo:Which now I'm gonna miss the, my second straight Wave game. I'm gonna miss<laugh>.
Chase Peckham:Why?
Felipe Arevalo:It's this weekend. Well, unless I start testing negative.
Chase Peckham:Oh, you got covid. I forgot about that. Sorry about that. You sound great by the way.
Felipe Arevalo:It just started. I, I, I tested yesterday and it was negative, but it's definitely positive now. But you know, it, um, so I guess I'll have to
Chase Peckham:Welcome to the club my friend. Welcome to the club.<laugh>. You, you, you made it a long time.
Felipe Arevalo:We were overdue. We.
Chase Peckham:You made it a very long time.
Felipe Arevalo:Longer than like 90% of the people I know.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. I mean, I just got mine in in July. I got, I got my first bout of the Covid, uh, over the, uh, in July when, when Kerri was in the hospital. Terrible timing for that. Um, I mean, shoot, there's even warranties on the hospital stays now. It's, it's crazy.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:What, what you'll find now, let me just, let's be clear about this though. Uh, an extended warranty can be a very smart thing and.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:And obviously if you are buying a warranty when you are making a very large purchase, um, when, Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:Which one I really think is important.
Chase Peckham:What's that?
Felipe Arevalo:Home warranties?
Chase Peckham:Yeah. Well,
Felipe Arevalo:Oh, like when you buy a house in California, I believe you have to add the previous insurance. The person selling it when another person's selling it does like the one year's worth of warranty on it.
Chase Peckham:Yep. And, and that's for stuff like your, your dishwashers and your
Felipe Arevalo:ACs, all of it refrigerators. And trust me, as much of a pain as it was to get our refrigerator fixed, I was glad I didn't have to pay more than$75. But
Chase Peckham:Again, how long did that take you? How long was the pain in the neck to go through that extended process?
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah, had they sent us the first technician instead of the second one, the first time, it would've gone fixed much, much faster. But the first guy unfortunately mis misdiagnosed what was wrong with the fridge. So he fixed something that didn't need fixing, but,
Chase Peckham:Well, and I mean there, they train their people too to not necessarily find the exact problem. They want to find that it was something else that's not covered by their warranty.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:That's why when you're gonna, you know, you talk about, you're right when you buy a home or things like that. Like you buy a, a car, let's just say these days, cars, trucks, whatever it might be. You buy a newer car, there is a, you know, technology, there is so much computer stuff in them. I mean, we've talked about how you, you know, it's very difficult to maintain your car on your own now, um, outside of going to an expert.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:Because, you know, you don't have the the tools to, to hook it up, up to a computer system to, to figure out what it is. And even then you don't have the right part for it. Uh, now these warranties when
Felipe Arevalo:I mean the dealerships, don't have the right part.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:They gotta order everything.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. If I hear it's a supply chain thing, one more time, I'm gonna lose my mind.<laugh> there will that creating supply chain chain issues,
Felipe Arevalo:I know
Chase Peckham:It serves their purpose. It's not our fault. We're gonna up the price, everything else there anyway, it's conspiracy theory on my end. But anyway,<laugh>, um, you gotta just, you have to understand what the warranty is. Is it a bumper to bumper warranty? Is it a bumper to bumper warranty for, and a lot of times two years and 65,000 miles. Look, if you drive even semi-regularly, you're gonna drive more than 65 mi 65,000 miles in two years.
Felipe Arevalo:No
Chase Peckham:It's gonna go quicker.
Felipe Arevalo:65,000?
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:That's a lot.
Chase Peckham:Not, it's not a lot. I go through that.
Felipe Arevalo:65,000?
Chase Peckham:I go that in a year that.
Felipe Arevalo:That's like 30 something thousand miles a year. I mean, when we used to go to presentations.
Chase Peckham:Right? That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Maybe nowadays it's not like that. Um, but you can't, let's just say it's 65,000 miles, two years, 65,000 miles bumper to bumper. You want bumper to bumper. What does bumper to bumper mean? That means if anything goes wrong with this, and then they're gonna say outside of brakes that need.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Need maintenance. Right. Those are just, those are parts that just go.
Felipe Arevalo:Brakes tires,
Chase Peckham:Brakes, tires, um,
Felipe Arevalo:Windshields,
Chase Peckham:Windshields,
Speaker 2:<laugh>.
Chase Peckham:Well they're gonna say that's nature that caused that. Right. That's not manufacturers breaking issue. Right. Um, those kinds of things. Um, that's, that's a decent deal cuz you don't know what can go wrong. But if it says like a lot of these will say powertrain warranty, what the heck does that mean?
Felipe Arevalo:Engine transmission,
Chase Peckham:Just mechanical.
Felipe Arevalo:And that's it.
Chase Peckham:That's Right. But if something like your AC goes out is something like your radio, or even right now something I'm dealing with where there's, there's some kind of issue with the wiring, but my backup camera is all of a sudden it works sometimes and all of a sudden it's scrambled. Uh, there's some kind Yeah. It's some kind of something that's, that's not covered. You're gonna have to go fix that. So how expensive was this powertrain warranty that you purchased?
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:You've got to do your research on this. Now there are other companies too that are really good, um, that are very, very good. That will, um, that, that you can buy that will cover maintenance now. Right?
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:But look, they're not gonna lose money. Right. They, they didn't come up with these products To lose Money. It is not gonna be super simple for you.
Felipe Arevalo:No. Right, Right. And, and, and, you know, you mentioned air conditioning. So the other thing that, one of the other things we brought it in with her air conditioning. Sarah's air conditioning was making some funny noises. Um, so we brought it in, it was gonna be 180 something dollars for a diagnostic check. Um, but if it was a component that broke or something like that, it would all be covered. If it was my kids putting a goldfish down there, then that wouldn't be covered. Uh, thankfully it was like some fan, something broke and they fixed it and that was free. So from that aspect, you know, that saved us a lot of money. Um, it was just the windshield, so we had a win and a loss<laugh> at the same time. Um, but you know, it was just, if, if you don't do the research and, and all this could have been avoided if I had just asked when we bought it and said, Hey, let me see the paperwork where it says what is covered. And if I see that it says replacement for cracked windshield, then yes, we will purchase it. If I don't see that, that that point, they would've had to have brought it in and be like, Oh, I'm sorry it used to cover it, but it doesn't cover it anymore. My apologies. Or something along those lines. And then we wouldn't have purchased it.
Chase Peckham:Did you, was that Car Shield by chance?
Felipe Arevalo:I believe it was Car Shield. Yeah.
Chase Peckham:Wow. They get a f rating at the bbb. Just so you know, um, there's a big article on something called The Drive and, uh, it's called the drive.com, and they do reviews of all these different things. And it says, uh, and I'm gonna quote,"Unfortunately, Car Shield has earned an unfavorable reputation that concerns the drives editors enough to not recommend the company's services." And so some of the biggest complaints that there are, uh, and this is that the BBB have found out, um, not only have they identified advertising issues with car shield's, business practices, but it also noticed a pattern of complaints, including failing to cut, failing to cover customer claims, failing to adequately explain mileage and timing components of coverage, not counseling PA policies on time, not returning agreed upon refunds, delaying maintenance, or paying out claims to ensure customers how a working car as well as poor customer service. Wow. That's a lot of stuff,
Felipe Arevalo:Right?<laugh>.
Chase Peckham:And yet that's, everybody knows the, I mean, everybody has heard of car shield.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. So I think it's just important to us as consumers to say, show it to me in writing. And I know this,
Chase Peckham:But the thing is,
Felipe Arevalo:I'm not new.
Chase Peckham:Is by the time they get to us on this, especially when you're buying a car, it has been so long, you're, you're just like, I've, I'm the, you're just tired because you're emotionally like, Should I be buying the car? Do I really? Yes. I really want the car. And you're sitting down and you're going through all this and by the time they go through all this stuff, you just want to get out of there.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:<laugh> and they know that.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:It's nuts. You know, you're just like, you know, like, well, with my wife it was just No, no, no, no, no. You know, I'm a little bit like Sarah. I would've been like, Well, does it make No, no, no. And if you think about it, if you just put, let's just say$900 that you put on that, now we forget about that because they just put that into your loan. Oh yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Usually it's just Part up,
Felipe Arevalo:An you only see it go up another$15 a month.
Chase Peckham:But if you just put away$20 a month that you know that eventually you're gonna have to replace a car, a windshield, or breaks, then you've gotta taken care of it already.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Why do that? And, and you have to deal with the fricking people to tell you whether or not that you're, your claim even is going to be honored.
Felipe Arevalo:Right. Cash is honored most of the time, unless you're at a cashless venue,
Chase Peckham:Companies don't go into these businesses to lose money. They just don't.
Felipe Arevalo:Right. And you know, initially I thought maybe the, the win for them is numbers because we, it was about to expire. You know, she got her car in November of 19, so it's got one month left. So had that rock in the windshield happened a month and a half later, we would've never even known that it wasn't covered. We just would've assumed, Oh man, it expired before we broke a windshield. Uh, cause it was a three year coverage. So, you know, I'm sure they'll call, Hey, you wanna extend it for another two? So you're not making car pay<laugh>. I hope they call and asked to extend it. Uh, but you know, it, it, it's just, it was my fault. I should have stuck with the No, and I should have said, show me where the paperwork is that shows that you'll replace the windshield.
Chase Peckham:Right. And even then you're gonna have a deductible on it. So.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:I mean, and, and if the deductible's$200, still you've paid$900 for this thing. Right. Then you're paying an extra 200 that's$1,200, you might as well just bought the windshield.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:It makes no sense. I i i, it just frustrates me. I think we all think that because we don't wanna deal with it.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:When we don't like the initial, um, ouch. That hurts. You know, I don't want to write a check for$1,300 for your windshield, but at the same time you're paying for it and you're not having to deal with all the pain in the.
Felipe Arevalo:Right. And you can pick and choose where you go get your stuff fixed.
Chase Peckham:Exactly.
Felipe Arevalo:Like I went online, I found two or three different places all cheaper than the dealership. Um, I do have to bring it in. They won't do it. You know, they have all the commercials where they're replacing everyone's windshield at home. But.
Chase Peckham:yeah,
Felipe Arevalo:if you have any kind of technology that's no longer available, uh, you have to actually bring it in because they have to calibrate it in a controlled environment or something like that. Right. Uh, so
Chase Peckham:I mean, look, it, you can get these for anything. Cell phones, This is a big one. A lot of people, you know, because they're paying$800 for a cell phone and they're, they're,
Felipe Arevalo:yeah.
Chase Peckham:They're doing a payment plan typically.
Felipe Arevalo:Getting that new iPhone?
Chase Peckham:And they, and they did I what?
Felipe Arevalo:Are you getting that new iPhone?
Chase Peckham:No, no, I'm not into that kind of stuff. I don't really care. Um, I, I'm sure my kids will, you know, when they say, Hey, you're due for an upgrade, here's a free phone. Then, you know, possibly.
Felipe Arevalo:Commercials are everywhere.
Chase Peckham:Like I never even, I've, I've never had a warranty on my phone. Uh, and I, but I take care of my phone. I'm, you know, I the warranty for my son who, you know, has a ADHD and loves to flip his phone in the air and he drops.
Felipe Arevalo:Throws it in his bag.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. Neither of his cameras work right now. He dropped it, things don't work. He's like, Hey, can we get this fixed? I'm like, No, there's no reason. You're just gonna do it again.
Felipe Arevalo:Break it again.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. Um, but you're right. There are a lot of things like TVs, people buy TV on, why would you ever buy a warranty on a tv? They're so cheap now.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. It's just, they're always gonna be on sale
Chase Peckham:And it would take forever for them to fix it. And they're gonna say that we don't have the components. There's a supply chain issue again,
Felipe Arevalo:And they lose value. So if you wanna buy a used tv,
Chase Peckham:Technology moves too fast.
Felipe Arevalo:Yes. That TV's gonna be dirt cheap to replace it.
Chase Peckham:Right now.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:I mean, everything's snow blowers. I mean it's, it's amazing how many things that they, they do this for, but it's literally, you can buy the warranties on anything. Now, um, Apple, right? They've got their, um, uh, it, it's Apple Care, right?
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:You can pay for that and you can learn anything and you can cover, you know, I mean it's, it's expensive and, and if you really just learning how to use the computer, then maybe Apple cares right? For you. But man, I mean, it, it Just keep adding up.
Felipe Arevalo:The important thing to remember is that some things have some sort of warranty already built in. Like if you're, if you buy an iPhone, don't buy the AppleCare and some kind of component falls in there. There is a limited warranty offered by Apple on all their products. I see some of these little videos on Instagram of some lawyer lady who, um, will read the fine print,
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:And, and then do like, Oh, Delta your, your flight was delayed. This or that, or Apple. Yeah. Oh, I didn't buy the warranty, but it's still covered.
Chase Peckham:Exactly.
Felipe Arevalo:So, you know, some of those things, new cars have usually some kind of manufacturer warranty that's built in. Um, you know, you don't have to buy extra. And also important thing to remember, because we do deal with credit cards, is some credit cards as a feature will offer you extended warranty on electronics.
Chase Peckham:Yes.
Felipe Arevalo:That you purchased with that credit card. Some of them may even offer you some of that trip protection,
Chase Peckham:Roadside assistance, trip,
Felipe Arevalo:Roadside assistance, lost bag, all those kinds of things.
Chase Peckham:Correct.
Felipe Arevalo:And if you don't read the terms and agreement that, you know, let's be honest, most people don't read, you won't know which card to use and you won't know which card's gonna get you that extra warranty or that extra loss bag protection or anything like that.
Chase Peckham:Exactly. Well, I mean, bottom line it, look, if, if you're the kind of person that wants to be, you know, you like convenience, um, here's the thing though. It's convenient when you buy it and you have peace of mind, and that's the way they'll sell it. Right. They'll tell you have a peace of mind, but you, you really need to understand that. Read the fine print, read it.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Is it worth it? Because chances are, um, it, it's just not gonna work out the way you think it's going to.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Um, and case in point, what you've just had to deal with for the last week. So.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah exactly.
Chase Peckham:You know, I'm sorry, you've had to go through that. And, um, I gotta ask, did, did Sarah, is she eating any kind of crow?
Felipe Arevalo:<laugh> Yeah,<laugh>. Because because she, she was the one who was, she's, she's really upset at them, but she was the one who pushed for it. And I was like, No, I don't think we need it. And, and she was like, Yeah, let's do, I was like, I've been driving for I don't remember how many years at the time. Like 20 years. I've only replaced one windshield. What are the chances we'll have to replace one in the next three years? And apparently high, but,
Chase Peckham:Well, you Took a, You took a trip across the U.S Right?
Felipe Arevalo:This wasn't even the long trip.
Chase Peckham:So spend that much time on the road. That's a long trip. You drove all the way up to like North, South Dakota, Montana.
Felipe Arevalo:No, that was the road trip. That didn't happen on the road trip. This happened on a weekend trip to Tucson.
Chase Peckham:Oh, All. Well, that's okay. Yeah. Well you're still in the desert.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah, you are. Those, lots of those trucks and
Chase Peckham:Oh, yeah. Yeah. That 10 freeway. The eight, Yeah. That's just, yeah. That's crazy. Well, anyway, do your research. Some of them can be good, some are legitimate companies. But look, do your homework like this podcast, please leave us a, uh, a five star rating. We love that. It's good for those of us that are in the podcast world, um, enjoy all of the different lineup of podcasts. We are in our, in at least 150 plus now. So, um, like us, uh, share us on social media, all of those things, and we'll see you next week.