Insurance – a nightmare
There are some serious lessons, flaws, and unscrupulous companies to be learned about here. I hope this is not too long, but if you are not in the habit of having accidents some of this might be new and very helpful to you.
On the 5th May I phoned up Carole Nash to insure my bike. I asked for it to start on the 12th. The policy came through dated the 5th, but they did manage to get my debit card details right! I phoned back; they said they would amend it. The policy came through dated the 17th. I phoned back; they said they would amend it. The policy came through dated the 12th. Then the next day I got another policy sent to me. The fools I thought! But unknown to me, the policy had the wrong registration on it, so the bike shop had phoned up to get it amended without telling me, so that they could tax the bike. I had deleted the last email, which was the only one with the correct certificate – or so I thought. The next error comes to light later….
Heading out of Lydney I went to overtake a car which had remained slow from leaving a roundabout. As I was alongside he proceeded to do a “U” turn straight into our side.
The bike was unrideable and I proceeded to phone the RAC, membership I had with our new Triumph. The bike was picked up, but it seemed to take 3 days getting 30 miles to Cheltenham, despite numerous phone calls. I guess someone was clocking some extra storage charges along the way.
The RAC also invoked their extremely helpful “Accident Care lady” Informing me that I had legal cover as part of the membership and invoking ambulance chasing solicitor number one with his standard “no win no fee” deal. This could also read “win and pay”, but actually the forms are a night mare and if things go wrong you are technically liable. If I had legal cover why were there these “no win no fee” forms?
The whole topic of “no win no fee” or CFA (conditional fee arrangement) as it is technically known is a whole subject in itself, which I advise people to read up on independently, especially as it does not appear possible to do anything without going this route anymore.
I advised Carole Nash of the incident. They referred me to their ambulance chasing CFA solicitors (New Law). The girl I was to be appointed to sounded about 16 years old and not exactly overflowing with brain cells. The forms I received were even more alarming than the last ones I had seen. I phoned up Carole Nash to point out that I had legal cover and didn’t want a CFA. “This is how it is done”. I was powerless to invoke the legal cover. I will be taking this up with the insurance ombudsman – but he is an insider – so that will be a waste of time, or maybe the county court for a refund. The trouble with all these people that you complain too, is that you think they will do some good, but actually, as they are financed by that particular industry, they simply act a good part for the public and quench the complaint at the same time.
During the conversations with Carole Nash they informed me that I was only Third Party (fire and theft). I was shocked. Looking through the various policies not only did the start date change (as expected) but the cover also changed from Comprehensive to TPFT!
As I arranged recovery to the bike shop, they advise I use McAms accident management service as they were a one call do all. Sounded tempting…. Enter ambulance chaser number 3.
Trawling the internet and trying to decide what to do with regard to my claim I emailed the legal adviser for MCN. Along came CFA ambulance chaser number 4.
After reviewing all the paperwork, how people appeared on the phone, and my situation, I decided to use the RAC solicitor, but (as mentioned earlier) as soon as I was informed I only had TPFT cover, and the RAC solicitor could not deal with the vehicle side of things I decided I would use my right to cancel and put the case with McAms. I was worried what I would do if I had a silly offer for the bike, dealing with the third party solicitor direct.
Then suddenly Carole Nash phoned me up and advised I did have comprehensive cover afterall!
Having put the case with McAms, I decided to have a hire bike as I was inconvenienced transport wise. McAms are very quick and efficient at phoning you up when it comes to giving you the bike (well they all probably are). This is their main money spinner. My 600 hire bike was £139 a day plus delivery and some other things. However I could not use it for a week due to a lack of helmet. They said they would put a credit behind the counter at the bike shop, but despite phoning every day this took a week. I have never had one phone call or email returned by them. After 2 weeks McAms announced that they could not handle the bike case as it was on HP. This they knew from the onset. I phoned up and told them they could have the hire bike back. It took 6 days to be collected. I asked the chap collecting the bike if he worked directly for them, saying that they seemed a bit slow at returning calls. He said “they are bloody useless”.
It is worth pointing out that although I arranged delivery of the rental bike for 12, it did not turn up until 2 and the delivery driver seemed to know nothing (or care) about any arranged time.
I started contacting the solicitor appointed my McAms directly. I did happen to mention that they seemed to be useless, and seemed to get a degree of “professional” agreement type grunt.
I now had the bike part of the case back at Carole Nash, and they reported that they would be contacting Aviva. After a week I chased both Carole Nash and Aviva. It appeared that Aviva had put the case on their “back shelf”. I now started phoning up Carole Nash every day to get a status. Sometimes they tried to do nothing, stating that they were awaiting Aviva, sometimes they said they would phone Aviva and get back to me, and sometimes they even had some feedback. After about 1 week of this Carole Nash just seemed to pass me to Aviva.
Eventually the case started to seize up. Aviva stated that I had a “new for old” as the bike was less than 6 months old, but they could not buy one as the HP Company would not instruct them. The HP Company would not instruct them as Aviva would not tell them what they were going to source. Stalemate! A stalemate induced by Aviva, and using the small print “if agreed by the Finance company”. However Aviva did not have to buy the replacement, they simply had to find one and inform the HP Company what it was, and then they would have got the ok to buy it. So be careful, Aviva will apply this tactic to block the “new for old”.
I gather that Aviva are renowned for this tactic. I also gather that the finance companies are rather cautious about dealing with them.
In the end I gave up and took the pay out, £7500. This would have been £7000 by their engineers assessment, but luckily I had the valuation of the (near new) second hand bike, both from the bike shop, and from an independent assessor (McAms, who valued the bike before they realised they could not do it). I must also state that the Aviva Engineer was most facetious when I tried to talk to him about his valuation. He also did not put the report in when he stated he would!
Now the funny thing here, is that the insurance company could have bought a new replacement bike at trade price for less than this. I got one from the original dealer, who were damned if I should be out of pocket for less than £7500. As I had to restart the whole process again, I had to restart the HP, and now that it is £15 a month less, I will be £500 better off in 3 years time!
LESSONS In no specific order of importance:-
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You need to start a diary immediately! Perhaps an A5 pocket note book. Big enough for the info, small enough to keep with you. In the back keep lists of people, phone numbers, ref numbers etc. In the front start the diary. Write down everything, with the date. That is phone calls; To whom, time, outcome, expected feedback. Injuries, time off sick, taxis, medicines, quotes etc. .
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Everybody wants to make money out of you. This happens in 2 ways, firstly the injury, and secondly the hire bike.
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Solicitors are unlikely to take on the bike repair/replacement on its own, but will take on the Injury.
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Hire bikes are rented out at perhaps £140 a day (600cc), and if the third party refuse to pay for some reason (excessive price being one) the bill will come back to you. These rental companies will do anything to drag the case on, it is their income. Be careful!
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If you take out legal cover you might not be able to use it.
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You can easily become deluged with Ambulance chasers and vehicle renters. You might be best to simply use your insurance company to keep down the number of parties and amount of information.
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The insurer (or underwriter) repairing/replacing the vehicle are highly likely to undervalue it, and/or try to prevent replacement of new for old.
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The Insurance Ombudsman wants 8 weeks from your letter of complaint, to taking up the case. It is worth noting the number of complaints against Aviva on the website. Around 600 in the last 6 months.
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“No loss of excess” is often branded by Accident Management Companies. Well they only take your case on if they think they will win, and on those cases you can claim it back from the third party anyway.
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For some reason Mcams (and maybe other accident management companies) cannot deal with cases involving HP.