Claims Management

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 14:35
Claims Management - Dodge

A warning to all!! If you have an accident do not involve any claims management companies. You must contact either your insurance or the other blokes. Do not and this is especially so if you used a broker follow their instructions to involve the above. We were involved in an incident and contacted Swinton who are a broker, they sold on our details to a company who turned up the next day to remove our damaged vehicle.

Beware once they have your vehicle your stuffed. They will drag the whole thing out by deceipt and in our case lying about the status of the claim. The other parties insurance tried several times to settle the claim but the management company blanked their phone calls. We have still been fiddled out of the salvage value of the car and have had to involve Aviva the other blokes insurance who have tried to help.

Beware I repeat do not involve these people and do not let them take your vehicle!!!!

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 14:37
Claims Management - unthrottled

What possessed you to use one of these sharks?. Wouldn't have been greed perchance? Perish the ignoble thought!

Edited by unthrottled on 22/07/2011 at 14:38

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 15:18
Claims Management - Dodge

I guess most of your thoughts are ignoble. Does your wife know about these thoughts?

I now know that there are some weird people on these forums!!

We were placed in the hands of an accident management company by our brokers. At the time we were not offered any other help. Our mistake.

I only offer my experience to the forum.

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 15:34
Claims Management - jamie745

You'll have to forgive unthrottled. He takes a different view of everything from the top of his high horse.

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 15:39
Claims Management - Bobbin Threadbare

It's all those dirty, ignoble thoughts.

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 15:50
Claims Management - unthrottled

The rarified air up here sometimes clouds my judgement.

But it's hard not to be cynical. Surely your contract is with the insurance company and not the broker? I don't see why it would be in your insurance company's interest to use the services of an accident management company since it inflates their costs. Accident management companies usually lure people in with promises of courtesy cars and compensation.

Within my wider family there have been three accidents in the last couple of years. Two of those accidents were the other parties' fault. We agreed to settle both of these incidents privately for very modest amounts (a few hundred). The third one was a fault claim. The other party claimed. The total amount was well over £1500-for a car with no visible damage. But the driver felt entitled to claim and clearly milked it.

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 15:54
Claims Management - jamie745

So would i. A friend of mine recently sold me about how when he got back to his home, he parks on the street outside his house, someone else was in his space, reversed out at high speed and smashed into the front of his car. The only damage being a crack in the bumper so in his view wasnt worth going any further, shook hands, said sorry and they went on their way.

When he told me i told him in no uncertain terms he's lucky i wasnt in the car at the time, because if i was i'd have very suddenly come down with a severe injury LOL!

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 15:56
Claims Management - unthrottled

You are joking?

Whiplash claimants need horsewhipping not compo.

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 15:57
Claims Management - jamie745

Whiplash? Thats for amateurs mate. I'd have suddenly had a broken neck, severe emotional damages, fear of travelling, loss of earnings etc. In fact i wish i was in the b***** car. I told him he's far too nice to people and they're lucky i wasnt in the car.

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 16:09
Claims Management - unthrottled

I'd happily break the neck of anyone claiming for an unfalsifiable injury!

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 16:11
Claims Management - jamie745

So long as you phone for the solicitor before the ambulance im not bothered.

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 16:17
Claims Management - unthrottled

I'd phone my soliciter before your ambulance. ;-)

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 16:33
Claims Management - Bobbin Threadbare

Boys!!!

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 17:03
Claims Management - unthrottled

But Jamie started it!

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 17:09
Claims Management - bathtub tom

Time for his Ritalin?

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Mon 25 Jul 2011 10:48
Claims Management - TeeCee

There is a precedent for a mechanism to knock all this on the head once and for all. Take the easy cash percentage rakeoff out of it.

Back in the late eighties / early nineties when RSI claims for "mouse wrist" were all the rage, the Australian (?? - from memory) government came up with a stonking solution to the problem of their industry being bled white by ambulance chasers.

They legislated to ensure that while RSI was a recognised medical condition and that treatment was available, you could get stuffed as regards compo claims. Reported cases dropped by somewhere north of 90% overnight and the specialist claims farmers went bust to a man.

Now, if only HMG would do the same for "whiplash"........(!)

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 20:15
Claims Management - Avant

As someone should have said earlier, thank you very much, Dodge, for this reminder: it may save some people from hjsaving to find out the hard way how counter-productive these outfits are.

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Fri 22 Jul 2011 22:39
Claims Management - daveyjp

Unfortunately most insurance companies now use these associated accident management companies and they can't be avoided.

The one I had with an LV claim was excellent - accident to full repair and liability admitted by 3rd party in 6 weeks.

My wife had an accident in Feb - car was hit whilst parked by a neighbour reversing out of drive, open and shut case. Due to the involvement of Swintons Accident (mis) management company it has taken until now to get the car repaired. We refused their very overpriced hire car and their allocated bodyshop which was miles away. As a result the AM company have missed out on a lucrative kick back form both so weren't interested in our claim.

I will now find out which AM company an insurance company uses before parting with any cash for a policy.

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Mon 25 Jul 2011 00:08
Claims Management - stivvy

We had a claim for minor damage while parked up, other party admitted liability but it took nearly 12 months to settle due to resistance to pay hire charges from the other party's insurers. All this involving my insurance company, Claimfast (claim management company), Enterprise Car Hire and finally a firm of solicitors acting on behalf of Claimfast. Ended up with wodge of paperwork, numerous phone-calls,threats of legal action to recover car-hire costs if the other party didn't pay up, possible Court appearance and endless questionnaires. Cost of this? Rough guesstimate, £2,500 for my side plus costs of the other party, probably the same, Cost of repair ? £425 !!! Be warned about these "courtesy car offers", you could be signing a legitimate Credit Hire Agreement and be legally responsible for settlement. None of this was pointed out to me at the time of signing the car-hire documents. In my ignorance I assumed as the arrangements had been made by Claimfast, all I was signing for was to confirm the condition of the car etc. I only located the relevant clause in very small print on the reverse of the forms after receipt of a 3-page letter from Claimfast bringing the likeliehood of this to my attention.

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Mon 25 Jul 2011 09:11
Claims Management - WellKnownSid

Cost of repair ? £425 !!!

Which might itself be an over-estimate. When my wife's Picasso was damaged by animals, I took it to the local Citroen authorised bodyshop. They came out and measured everything, put it all into a computer, and a big printout ensued with details of every part of the job including stripping the front of the car off. Cost? £1300 plus VAT, and the vehicle was to be off the road for a week.

A colleague used a local chap for all their company car repairs, so I went to see him. £185, dropped off early one morning so he could order the paint, and picked up the following afternoon.

Given the purpley-silver metallic on the car, I had doubts about the colour matching, but it was incredible... you literally couldn't see the join!

Edited by WellKnownSid on 25/07/2011 at 09:12

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