On saturday a woman who was visiting her parents reversed out of their drive any drove straight into my car.(My house is oppisite to theirs & I was in the my house at the time). The drivers door has been well mangled.
Anyway, should be straight forward, her fault, insurance details swapped, etc.
Now this is the part I want to know...
I am covered 3rd party f&t so my insurance company said I have to take it to two garages and get quotes and send them in.
Today I got my first quote from fords and the guy there that helped my said I can choose what garage I want to fix my car, I don't have to send in 2 quotes, its my choice where and with who I choose to fix it.
Does anyone know if this is correct?
Cheers for any help.
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Beyond the fact that you have to tell your insurance company that there has been an 'incident' surely the input and instructions on what to do should be coming from her insurance co or is it that yours are taking on some of the work? I wouldn't have thought they would have been interested in helping you - if they are that's good!
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I think, (and I may be wrong here) my insurance company will sort it out then get the money off hers.
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Similar thing happened to me a couple of years ago. Dustbin wagon bashed my parked car smashing rear light cluster and bending metal on the boot lid and rear wing. I took it to the main dealer where they got it roadworthy (replaced cluster) and then sent the quote (from the dealer) to remove the dents to the body work to the councils insurer. All sorted in a few weeks.
I was told to provide 2 quotes but didn't and no one asked. I didn't tell my insurer and no one has asked since.
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The dealer is pointing out that you do have the choice which is correct, but increasingly insurance companies are doing deals with repairers and trying to channel all repair business through a limited number of bodyshops where they can control the costs
eg
I'm with a well known internet insurer and recently bumped my car (my fault) on other car involved.
My insurer said I have 2 options:
1) use their approved repairer (they allocate one based on your postcode) and the deal is: car collected within 4 hours, curtosy car delivered by repairer to your house, no need to get quote, Your car delivered back to you & curtosy car collected. they do everything
2) Use your own choice of repairer: Then you get quote, fax quote in (post or email not allowed), they take up to 21 days to approve, no curtosy car, if their inspector wants to view car
you must bring it to repairer (applies if you are still using car)at his convenience. They make it very difficult.
I chose 2) because I had used their nominated repairer the previous year when my parked car was bashed by a bus and although the repair looked ok when I came to MOT the car 3 months later it was found the repairer had bodged the refitting of the new headlight, the beam was incorrectly set and the MOT garage had to take out & refit the light and straighten some brackets etc at my cost of course.
2 weeks after faxing quote for the current incident I called
insurer to see if it's been approved. Suprise suprise they claim never to have received quote (despite me have dated/timed receipt)so start again etc. After complaing to supervisor I got it actioned quickly but definately felt that all staff were strongly discouraging me from choosing my repairer
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am covered 3rd party f&t so my insurance company said I have to take it to two garages
your ins co is being very nice to you. have they got an admission from the other party that they will pay for the damage to your car? ( remember, your claim is against the other party, as you don't have comprehensive cover and your insurance company cannot pay for damage to your car.)
it is up to the other party to put you back in the position you were in before the accident. you have to be reasonable in the way that you achieve this. but first you must get the other party to admit liabilty or be prepared to chase them for payment later.
jacks - what you describe is as per terms and conditions for the comprehensive policy with that particular company. insurance companies do not have to give you the choice: it is your decision to make sure the terms & conditions are what you want before you take their insurance.
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>>have they got an admission from the other party that they >>will pay for the damage to your car?
I have no idea. All I got told was get two quotes and they would sort out the rest.
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yes you do have the choice where it goes, id suggest maybe the dealers for the brand of car you have or a prestige dealer..it doesnt gaurentee a great job but it should be!!
simply obtain a quote for where you want it fixed and get another one thats higher.
the insurance will no doubt try to lean on you and say that you really should use their repairer ...only cus they get a hefty discount and the standard of work is often ajusted to suit
sounds like its too late, but id have let her company take care of all...my g/f had a similar situation at her company took care care of..trouble is when next years insurance comes around you rightly have to admit you had a claim and it still bumps up the premium!!
good luck
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As far as i am aware,you may get your vehicle repaired at a garage of your choice and convenience.
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also,having had bad experience with insurance companies own repairers(rejected repairs and respray work 4 times)i will now only use my own local repairers.
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