Insurance company car repairs

[MarcD]

I'm just wondering if this has happened to anyone else recently.

On Tuesday I had a confrontation with a concrete bollard in a carpark. The damage was bad enough to claim on the insurance so reported it to our insurance company. So far so good. They organised for a third party to pick up the car, assess it and if deemed repairable a hire car would be issued. They then said it would be a week before they could pick it up. Went back to the insurance company who sorted out someone else to pick the car up and take it to be assessed by the third party. Then the third party said they had no record of the car's arrival. Even though we knew they had the car. The repair people are now saying it could be a week before anyone can look at the car, so no hire car until then. Which leaves either me or the wife not being able to get to work etc. probably not a problem if you live in a urban environment with public transport but out here in the sticks major issue. 

Any thoughts of what we need to do next, very welcome.

 

Marc

[cctransuk]

2 minutes ago, MarcD said:

I'm just wondering if this has happened to anyone else recently.

On Tuesday I had a confrontation with a concrete bollard in a carpark. The damage was bad enough to claim on the insurance so reported it to our insurance company. So far so good. They organised for a third party to pick up the car, assess it and if deemed repairable a hire car would be issued. They then said it would be a week before they could pick it up. Went back to the insurance company who sorted out someone else to pick the car up and take it to be assessed by the third party. Then the third party said they had no record of the car's arrival. Even though we knew they had the car. The repair people are now saying it could be a week before anyone can look at the car, so no hire car until then. Which leaves either me or the wife not being able to get to work etc. probably not a problem if you live in a urban environment with public transport but out here in the sticks major issue. 

Any thoughts of what we need to do next, very welcome.

 

Marc

 

Just keep on at the insurance company - and on - and on ......!

 

They have the responsibility to provide the service offered when you signed-up; if their nominated contractors fail to match what they promised, it's the insurance company's problem.

 

Threaten to lodge a formal complaint with the Insurance Ombudsman - and do so, if necessary.

 

Basically, be a pain in the butt, and don't take 'No' for an answer.

 

My personal approach would be to find the name of the insurance company CEO, and fire off an email to him / her, marked 'For the personal attention of .......'.

 

They don't like being bothered with what they perceive as trivia, and a*ses get kicked into action in double-quick time!

 

CJI.

[Innerhome]

Your contact is with your insurers - so if the policy says you are entitled to a replacement car - you should go back to your insurers in the first instance.  Presumably the issue is that if they deem the car a write off you're not entitled to a replacement car. I would have thought your policy said you were entitled to a replacement on day 1.

If insurance company refuses to do anything you could tell them that you're going to hire a car and will seek to recover the cost from the insurers either through the small claims court or by going through the insurance ombudsman - I think both routes are low cost (small claims) or free (insurance ombudsman) - but will take a very long time - but it all really depends on what your policy says.   

[Bernard Lamb]

Sorry ot hear about your problem. However it might get worse. You will probably get a bill for the damage to the bollard. Either from the car park people or the council depending on the terms of the contract. If it was seen by the camera they will be after you.  I hope your insurance provider deals with this more efficiently than the current problem.

Bernard

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Sorry ot hear about your problem. However it might get worse. You will probably get a bill for the damage to the bollard.

 

Unless of course the car was stationary when the bollard hit it 😁.  It does happen ... herself had a claim for a bollard on a roundabout which got knocked off its perch by a lorry coming the other way, landed under the wheel and damaged her steering!

 

Good luck with the insurance company - they are notorious for trying to wriggle out of their side of the contract.

[MarcD]

Luckily the bollard looked like it hit on a number of occasions in the past and it doesn't look like I did any damage to it.

Still waiting to hear.

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, MarcD said:

Luckily the bollard looked like it hit on a number of occasions in the past and it doesn't look like I did any damage to it.

Still waiting to hear.

You mean you didn't hit the bollard, but something else! 😉

[MarcD]

Definitely the bollard. There must have been at least 10 paint shades on it. Didn't know there was an organisation.

Edited December 14, 2023 by MarcD

[njee20]

Read your policy and understand exactly what you’re entitled to. Go to your insurer and be very clear on that, with a timeframe. If you’re unhappy with their conduct (as may well already be the case) then you need to raise a complaint to your insurer. 
 

The ombudsman will not entertain complaints if you’ve not been through the  complaints procedure of the insurer. It’s a nuclear option, not a first port of call. 
 

Likewise going straight to a CEO at this point is unlikely to yield a result. Time and a place for that, but you’re not there IMO.   

[MarcD]

An update on the progress with the insurance company and their subcontractors.

They still haven't assessed the car and it is unlikely they will have assessed it before Monday. Their excuse is that there is a lot of cars needing assessing and it is taking longer than expected to be done. When asked about claiming for loss of earnings etc they said they couldn't say anything.

[Torper]

Maybe it's time you named and shamed this insurance company.

[MarcD]

Not going to name them but I will say there there is a connection to command at sea🤔

[Michael Hodgson]

Insurancy pirates!

[cctransuk]

On 14/12/2023 at 21:17, njee20 said:

Likewise going straight to a CEO at this point is unlikely to yield a result. Time and a place for that, but you’re not there IMO.   

 

I agree that it should not be necessary, but ...

 

.... when it clearly apparent that you are being given the run-around by an employee who can't be @rsed, my experience is that it is VERY effective!

 

Case in point - National Government Agency; told by local office that, because THEY had not processed my application within the prescribed deadline, I would have to submit my application all over again.

 

Email, for personal attention of the National Director, as suggested in my post above, resulted in :-

 

a) immediate response by phone from Director's PA;

 

b) same day contact from local office, with profuse apologies for delay and incorrect statement;

 

c) complete, satisfactory resolution of issue within a couple of days.

 

Sometimes, it is pointless dealing with idle minions!

 

CJI.

Edited December 16, 2023 by cctransuk

[chris p bacon]

I would have had a private assessment first before contacting the insurance co. Many garages have a small runabout you can use while they make repairs for less than a hire car.  The insurance will seek to recover their costs one way or another so unless it’s written off it might not be worthwhile claiming. 
 

on a slightly different topic we have been waiting for 2 months for a power steering pump as supply of some car spares is the proverbial nightmare at present. 

Edited December 16, 2023 by chris p bacon

[njee20]

10 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

I agree that it should not be necessary, but ...

 

.... when it clearly apparent that you are being given the run-around by an employee who can't be @rsed, my experience is that it is VERY effective!

 

Case in point - National Government Agency; told by local office that, because THEY had not processed my application within the prescribed deadline, I would have to submit my application all over again.

 

Email, for personal attention of the National Director, as suggested in my post above, resulted in :-

 

a) immediate response by phone from Director's PA;

 

b) same day contact from local office, with profuse apologies for delay and incorrect statement;

 

c) complete, satisfactory resolution of issue within a couple of days.

 

Sometimes, it is pointless dealing with idle minions!

 

CJI.

Totally, I had a similar result with Amazon some years ago and the UK CEO, but it’s more likely to be effective when you’ve complained already and it’s not satisfactory.

 

I used to be the executive assistant for a senior director of an insurance company, so got a bit of experience on both sides here 🤣

[MarcD]

An update on what is happening or no in this case. We are now at day 6 and we still haven't seen a hire car.  We were told that the delay in having the car checked was due to the bad weather in the place where the car is being assessed. Which is very strange as we live 35 miles away and apart from a little bit of rain there has not been any bad weather in the last 2 weeks.

We have been told that our car will be assessed today, but then the insurance company engineers might have a review their assessment which could also take a few days. So I'm not putting any money on getting a hire car before Christmas.

We have started a formal complaint but that could take 8 weeks to process. Our policy is up for renewal at the end of the month we will be looking elsewhere.

[MarcD]

Phoned the insurance company again this morning. I was told a different story from the one yesterday. Today's story was the repairer's hadn't finished the report so their hands were tied. 

However within 5 minutes of the phone call ending I was sent a txt saying that the car was being repaired. No mention of a hire car. So phoned the repair company who have now outsourced the hire car to enterprise who should be contacting me shortly.

Watch this space for the next installment as I expect to hear that they have run out of cars.

[MarcD]

I'm going to stop joking about things. There is no cars available until tomorrow unless I pay an extra £5 a day.

[RedgateModels]

back in August I stupidly backed my Impreza into a parked car, trashing the rear driver's side quarter.

and so started the long and torrid saga of trying to get it fixed. Now, I am insured with Adrian Flux on a modified car policy, so they should get this sorted no problems yes?

No, the policy was farmed out to AXA who don't know a modified car from a coffee cup. They immediately went down the total loss route and even said that someone was coming round to take my car away!

I told them to stick their claim where the sun don't shine and resolved to get the car fixed myself. Got a quote for £1500 from a local bodyshop which included completely respraying the rear bumper that badly needed it anyway.

A few weeks later I got an automated email from AXA to do a survey about how my claim had gone. I let them have both barrels.

A phone call then happened from a nice lady at AXA wanting to follow up.... she said email her the quote and they would have another look.

Which I did.

They referred the damage to a third party assessor, who after receiving all the info again from me ...........

said it was a total loss, as the bodyshop had increased their quote to £3500 as it was now an insurance job!

I told them to stick the claim where the sun don't shine.

Assessors then agreed to send out an engineer to actually have a look at my car. To be fair, he was decent, knew what he was looking at and left after about 15 minutes.

After chasing up the assessors, who told me that the claim had been approved and questioned why AXA had not been back to me I finally got my car booked into the bodyshop at the end of October.

It really should not have been that hard. Can't see me staying with Flux/AXA next year.

[Quarryscapes]

9 minutes ago, RedgateModels said:

back in August I stupidly backed my Impreza into a parked car, trashing the rear driver's side quarter.

and so started the long and torrid saga of trying to get it fixed. Now, I am insured with Adrian Flux on a modified car policy, so they should get this sorted no problems yes?

No, the policy was farmed out to AXA who don't know a modified car from a coffee cup. They immediately went down the total loss route and even said that someone was coming round to take my car away!

I told them to stick their claim where the sun don't shine and resolved to get the car fixed myself. Got a quote for £1500 from a local bodyshop which included completely respraying the rear bumper that badly needed it anyway.

A few weeks later I got an automated email from AXA to do a survey about how my claim had gone. I let them have both barrels.

A phone call then happened from a nice lady at AXA wanting to follow up.... she said email her the quote and they would have another look.

Which I did.

They referred the damage to a third party assessor, who after receiving all the info again from me ...........

said it was a total loss, as the bodyshop had increased their quote to £3500 as it was now an insurance job!

I told them to stick the claim where the sun don't shine.

Assessors then agreed to send out an engineer to actually have a look at my car. To be fair, he was decent, knew what he was looking at and left after about 15 minutes.

After chasing up the assessors, who told me that the claim had been approved and questioned why AXA had not been back to me I finally got my car booked into the bodyshop at the end of October.

It really should not have been that hard. Can't see me staying with Flux/AXA next year.

 

Flux are just brokers, they don't care about your modified car, I ditched them a while ago when the horror stories started to emerge. Our IT guy at work rolled his heavily odified Land Rover a couple of weeks ago - insured through Flux on an agreed £17k valuation. The track rod broke, which was a standard item, and they refused to pay out because it was not upgraded. They have also written the car off as Cat B, so he's got no payout, and no car, well and truly dumped in it.