www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motor...l
Read and learn I think is the only thing that can be said....
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Interesting.
The thread could have been entitled "The joys of dealing with breakdown and insurance companies when one has problems abroad," - if such a title had been short enough for the subject line.
The question it raised in my mind was "If one was being covered by a different breakdown or insurance company, would things have been any easier - or are they all the same?"
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The same thought occurred to me as well.
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The joys of Continental Motoring with a company car.
In the event of accident
1/ Dump car where it is.
1a/ Severely beat up man who tried to steal mobile phone.
2/ Phone accident management company in uk
3/ Pickup hertz hire car delivered to wherever i am.
4/ Continue holiday
5/ Two weeks after arrival in uk with hertz hire car, ask accident management team when they want it back and what they intend to replace it with.
Think I am joking? No it really can be and in my case, is that simple. It all of course goes pear shaped when someone is seriously injured, but then my medical insurance topped up with a temporary repatriation and expenses policy bought before departure helps here.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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No Telegraph for me today because our village is cut off due to flooded roads.
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Sadly while I don't think they deserved what happened to them they do sound like a rather clueless pair. Not to mention whiners.
"the only car then available was a Renault Laguna, which we really didn't enjoy driving"- my heart bleeds for them.
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I'm not sure if the mention of being given 'filter' coffee by the Gendarmes is a complaint or a compliment.
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"we ran over a pile of pebbles on the steep mountain road to our gîte and had to spend the next day searching for replacements for one punctured and one damaged tyre."
Interesting pebbles?
Also probably in breach of hire car terms and conditions driving on an unmetalled road!
They can count themselves lucky that they were not knifed if they attempted to struggle. The Cote d'Azure regularly suffers from similar attempts on tourists.
As a previous poster put it, clueless! I would use a less acceptable word.
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pmh (was peter)
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No Telegraph for me today because our village is cut off due to flooded roads.
You have missed NOTHING. I have bought it for years and this saturday is the LAST...................EVER. Too much waffle from Tamsin and the like and little solid content. Indy from now on.
MD
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You have missed NOTHING. I have bought it for years and this saturday is the LAST...................EVER.
Never bought it, the idiot driver in France is a typical Tele reader in my view!
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>>>Never bought it, the idiot driver in France is a typical Tele reader in my view!
If you've never bought it, how do you know?
Keep reading the Beano.
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TVM, not another accident surely?????
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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Not planning it no Bobby. Just musing on how it would happen if I did, based on the one I had.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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TVM - is this something you had happen to you? Would you have just ignored anything a local agent said then regarding what you could/could not do?
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surely if you receive a hire car abroad as part of cover you've paid for......the get told you should leave it at Calais, become a foot passenger with all your belongings and get another car the other side
the easiest thing to do is say 'yeah,yeah,yeah'........then totally ignore the advice and drive all the way home in the hire car....claiming ignorance if anyone moaned....(you were really stressed at the time and didn't take everything in, weren't you)
then leave it to the insurance company to sort out
that's what i'd do
(you could even run around for a bit at home in the foreign hire car, whilst yours is being repaired..... and not worry about Gatsos).....:-)
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What local agent?
It wouldn't happen to me - as explained. I have a company car. If it gets damaged in an accident, the accident mangement team take over. I just leave it where is is. Not my concern any more.
It happened to me in the UK, and thats exactly what happened. A hire car arrived the next morning.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Has anyone in your firm tested the "continuity" of the service overseas? Eg whether you really can blithley carry on driving all the way to your home in a foreign registered car? I would imagine you'd get into some issue with the docs at ferry port entry if the car does not match at all the booking? After all the booking is in your name in a private capacity? I presume you'd need some paperwork from the rental co to say they're happy for the car to be taken over to the UK (I'd presume they'd wriggle like heck to avoid letting their car get to the UK cos of the expense/difficulty of getting it back - it's not like the US where cars often end up in the wrong place but they hope some nice renter will just rent it the other way and bring it back...). I can see unless there is some "major arm twisting" (ie your the boss/relative of a major connection to say the car leasing firm/accident management firm...rather than just an employee) going on that there would be a few hiccups...
I think unfortunately overseas any major event like an accident or incident often shows up how "unjoined up" alot of things are in Europe. I remember when I did work in insurance for a company with operations in all European countries that the businesses were in no way linked to each other. Each European country repatriated its own vehs for repair with no contact or local repair offered. Every attempt to repair locally went pear shaped...
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Eg whether you really can blithley carry on driving all the way to your home in a foreign registered car? I would imagine you'd get into some issue with the docs at ferry port entry if the car does not match at all the booking?
I think you would be extremely unlucky to be checked for your car docs on entering the ferry port. Many carriers don't even ask for your car reg details and those that do have never complained when I turned up in a car with a different registration. The worst that could happen is you'd be told to leave it there so what would the harm in trying be?
Probably just a matter of driving on there and then leaving the foreign reigstered car parked next to the other one and transferring your belongings over. At least that's how I would proceed.
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The reason they do not ask for your registration number on checking in is because they have low level video cameras at the check in stations and capture the number by looking at a TV monitor. On return journeys, Norfolk Line do not even use your original booking reference, (they issue no paperwork on outward journey for the return). They just track by your registration number! I have yet to find out what happens if you 2 'open bookings' at the same time.
If you wish to avoid the number plate camera all you have to do is pull forward beyond the camera. They may not spot it if you give a false number. However scanning technology /ANPR may be used nowadays to prevent this! Test it by covering up your front plate on entry to the port.
ASFAIK the numbers are also passed on to HMCE (or whatever they are called now) who, (in addition to spotters on the ferrys) use the number tracking to determine which vehicles to pull on entry to the UK.
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pmh (was peter)
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There is no issue in turning up to the ferry/shuttle in a different car to that which is on the ticket. Done it many times all of them owned by leasing / hire companies. ANPR is only used to flag against a "watch list" You need to be "known" to be on the "watch list".
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I agree they're not the sharpest knives in the box. If you act the dumb tourist then you'll get treated as such.
Only needed AA 5 star once when the pinion bearing collapsed on the TR7 in Tours, France. The AA were fantastic, car & us collected to Renault garage where the guy investigated to see if it could be fixed, then when we'd decided it couldn't arranged trailer to get us to port. I drove it slowly onto ferry, who transferred our booking, then AA Relay wagon waiting at other side to take us home. Fantastic service & would've cost a fortune if not insured. Instead all for my £89 for the week.
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dunno what happened there.
I'd always be a bit worried in work situation if you ran up a massive bill/caused aggro by insisting on driving all the way home perhaps contrary to what you might have been told at picking up a rental car, that your fleet manager or Finance Director or boss might be inviting you in for a chat.....Sometimes those oh "I thought it was okay" things on expenses or company paying for it things can sometimes flare up into something not pleasant in front of your boss etc. Seen that happen with jolllies overseas or corporate events where people went a bit mad with the expenses which everyone thought would be okay.
I wonder who would pay for the repatriation of a car to France? Hertz? or would they send a massive bill/complaint to your accident co...?
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Its not "expenses" or a "jolly"
A company car is part of my compensation package. Thats the availability of a car at all times. The tax man stiffs me for it as well.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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They were a bit feeble. Why for example didn't they do a runner when the other driver did? Seemed like the sensible thing to do, since on his return the guy did damage to them and their car...
I imagine the whole thing took place in what the French call an area of 'high immigrant density'. Nothing against immigrants or foreigners myself but such areas are the ones where this sort of thing is most likely to happen. That said, cultural differences as small as the one between here and France can make the reactions of the other lot very surprising sometimes, especially in moments of stress.
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I dont fully understand all their fuss personally.
Travelled thousands of miles abroad (various countries) and its no different to areas of GB where you need to have your wits about you at all times.
Surely you work out how to get home in emergency before you go? Part of the breakdown cover/insurances etc?
And travel without the documents with you? Why? You have paid for the cover why not have the details with you?
Agree with tr7 1st comments!
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Nothing against immigrants or foreigners myself but such areas are the ones where this sort of thing is most likely to happen.
LOL! Yep, there's a high density of foreigners in France, that's for sure!
To be honest I probably wouldn't have reacted much different, i.e. pulled over and checked car and want to speak to the other driver.
Its a while since I have taken my own car overseas though. I never had a problem, but these days air fares and car rental is so cheap that its not really worth taking your own car, not even with three kids. Also its more time efficient, i.e. you don't lose two days of your holiday driving to the south of France and back.
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To be honest I probably wouldn't have reacted much different i.e. pulled over and checked car and want to speak to the other driver.
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Me too actually Aprilia. But I might well have regretted it, as these poor people did.
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I suppose I would just be cautious generally about running up a massive bill (that others not in the situation might think could be moderated if they were less bullish) that someone might rebound to the company you work for that's all, particularly when it was incurred in your private capacity and there was not a direct business reason for doing the trip in a specific way eg getting back in the foreign car....
I remember where I used to work a few people got in trouble for using their company cars alot in terms of private miles (one guy used to drive to Germany about every fortnight to visit his girlfriend) and or using the car for things that might be perceived to be damaging the car (one guy used his to tow a massive caravan alot and went thru about 3 clutches...). In both cases there were rather stern "stop taking advantage" chats that happened.
I just think sometimes in a work env it is wise just to not give the other side too much ammunition should anything occur in the future where u need some goodwill....
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I was just reading the article...
"Our French holiday was going well. Then we took a wrong turning off the A8 motorway in Nice and, "
then I looked down at the photo (showing the Arc de Triomphe). My first thought was how they ended up so far away in Paris. Hehe
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