I don't know whether my insurance company is behaving in a reasonable manner, wondered what you think.
On Feb 19th I skidded off a moor road on the snow and unfortunately wrote off my pride and joy. It was declared a write off 6 days later. I promptly sent the insurance company all the requested documentation. They then sent an investigator last fri, who asssured me he was going to send his report straight to them on the saturday (he was happy everything was above board). Its now thurs, and for the second week running they have said they're awaiting my license details from the DVLA. Last week I was told they were waiting for it, only to recieve a letter the following day telling me I needed to talk to their investigator. They are now saying they're still waiting for the licence clearance and it will be "next week".
All the time Im left with no car. Is this normal behaviour or are they stalling?
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You are having the cheek to try to get money off them instead of the other way round and they don't like it.
Slightly more seriously, a month is a short time in insurance payout terms from what I've heard.
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Ive heard some horror stories aswell, but this case is very straight forward. There were no third parties, no personal injuries, no damage to signs/barriers or anything. The investigator thought it would be very quickly settled.
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I get the feeling I'm being hopelessly naive here, but:
Surely while their actions are keeping you in a situation where you're carless, they should be continuing to pay for a hire-car?
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Surely while their actions are keeping you in a situation where you're carless, they should be continuing to pay for a hire-car?
Wouldn't that depend on the small-print of the insurance policy?
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Hire car is only available when your car is off the road and another party is responsible i.e. they are paying for the hire car.
Courtesy car is usually provided by the repair garage - there isn't one when written off.
Martin
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What does your insurance say about temporary replacement vehicles ?
If you haven't paid for that add-on, then you haven't got it.
However, if you feel they are being unreasonable then a letter or telephone call saying that if they do not deal with this in a reasonable time frame then you will be seeking compensation for exacerbated losses might hurry them along a bit.
Just don't get fobbed off by the person on the phone. And askign the person on the phone their name, and to put what they just said in writing, can have quite an electrifying effect.
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Thanks for the replies. Indeed, there is no courtesy car, since it is the repairing garage that provides it. As for paying extra for one, I dont think there was an option with this company. (Also Ive checked others, its only for 14days anyway!)
I will call them later to clarify matters, and ask for anything they say to be sent to me in writing.
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"Just don't get fobbed off by the person on the phone"
I use this trick. At the end of any call like this I say
"And you will confirm that in writing"
(pleasant and firendly voice on)
"Thank you, you have been most helpful and pleasant, can I take your name and the name of your supervisor?"
They normally come up with the correct name for both in an instant as they think a compliment to the boss is on the cards!
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"Thank you, you have been most helpful and pleasant, can I take your name and the name of your supervisor?"
I sometimes use that approach, but it's not always enough.
I had one encounter with a large and reputable organisation, where the written confirmation I received was pretty much the inverse of what we had agreed.
So I wrote to complain, citing time and date of call and name of person I had spoken to. The reply was "no such person working here" and "our records are clear". I asked them to check the recording, but they said "we don't have one".
In the end, there was nothing I could do, so I took my business elsewhere and chalked the loss of a few hundred quid down to experience.
I wish I had an easy way of recording these calls at my end, but without it I'm now very wary of dealing with any of this sort of business by phone.
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PR,
I have had similar behaviour from an insurance company (not sure which as it was through a broker and was almost 10 years ago).
Basically my car was stolen, I was warned by broker that it might take 4-5 weeks to pay up. During this period I was asked for (and sent) both sets of keys, all documentation, receipt for purchase (from a main dealer less than 12 months previously).
Next thing I knew was that I had a visit from a loss adjuster, all ok he explained that he is basically checking that the car is not sitting on my driveway having been miraculously returned.
Anyway after 6 weeks I called the broker who only then indicated that there might be a problem. It seems that the final check that was made was for outstanding HP. It turned out that the car had been sold to another private individual using finance from the main dealer, then partexchanged back to the same dealer for a larger car after 3 months. The main dealer had then sold the car to me (cash sale).
While technically I had no comeback at this point other than sueing the main dealer, the insurance co were rather suspicious of the antics of some of the salespeople at this dealer and decided to pay me in full and took the main dealer to court which took a number of years. Three years later I heard through the broker that the file had been closed after a successful court case, unfortunately I dont know the full outcome.
Moral, for a writeoff, the insurance co will check everything however irrelevant, even outstanding HP when you bought the car for cash. While they are doing checks they will probably not bother contacting you. This all adds up to delays where it appears that nothing is happening.
StarGazer
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Not only that, there is some statistic that says 95% of the cars that are finally recovered, are recovered in the first 6 weeks. (I made those figures up, but its something like that).
Consequently they will try and wait for as long as possible.
That doesn't mean you have to let them.
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NW if you want to record a call but don't have the facilities try:-
www.registeredcall.com/Default.asp?cat=2
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Insurance companies will take as long as possible, you really have to keep nagging them to get some response. A few years ago, I was involved in an accident that was no fault of mine. One stalling point was the insurers sending out someone to take photos of the place of the accident to (dis)prove the existance of a bus lane (among other things, but this was a key defence issue). I kept asked had the photos been taken over several weeks, and they still hadn't. So I got off my backside and took them myself (despite being 60 miles away from where I live), and drew up the road layout diagram and so on; basically doing all their work for them. From this action, I got my payment within a couple of weeks. It probably would have carried on for several more months if I hadn't had done this.
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Update....
Its now nearly 5 weeks since the incident and I still haven't recieved any offer. Chased them up (again!) this morning to find they have now got the DVLA licence check, and are awaiting the investigators report. I then called the investigators who told me it was posted on the morning of the 21/3 so they should have it by now!
Nearly 5 weeks to be even made an offer on an incident not involving any third party/injuries or damage to signs etc.. is scandalous
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Update (again!)
It will be 6 weeks tomorrow since the incident, still no sign of an offer. Im now getting conflicting dates from them as to when they've recieved the required "stuff" from the DVLA, the latest being 2 days ago. I have everything written down, including dates. I think this may be one for the ombudsman.
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