Yup, it happened… last saturday a lady knoked over my bike while reversing out of a spot.
damage is just superficial. bent cluch lever and scratches/cracks to the plastics, but nothing serious. we exchanged details, called my insurance and started the claim. after a few days I get a call from Gemini Vehicle solutions, handling my case with third party insurance and started talking about repairs.
first off, her insurance already admitted responsibility so it’s already 1 point for me.
i took the bike to yamaha dealer to get an estimate. since my bike is an import, ordering new parts here in UK will result in different shades of paint (as per the dealer). he suggested to have the bike fixed and repainted by Dream Machine superpaint.
I honestly would not mind going this way. After 5 years of trusty service, a whole paint job to original shine seems the way to go. problem is that it’s a slow process that will take about 1 month.
I accepted the dealers suggestion, and got a replacement bike by Plantec Holdings. now comes my question: at 100£ per day, the insurance will be billed £3000 only for the bike hire, plus all the costs related with repaint/remounting labour. which I expect to be in the £2000 ball park. i’m afraid that at the end of the day it will be worth same or maybe more market value of my bike £5500, which will mean a write off.
I don’t want that to happen. I’m more interested in having the bike fixed properly. if this bike hire will cause the total bill to go over budget and eventually a write off, then maybe I shall return it. I wonder if I can talk them into getting me a month worth of Oyster to get to work. it would be a 30 times cheaper!
I’m curious to know your opinions. if anyone dealt with either Plantec Holdings, Gemini Vehicle Solutions oft Dream Machine Superpaint, please share your experience.
I just moved to the UK and I might not be fully aware of all UK rules on the matter.
If you pay for your travel (oyster) and keep receipts, most brokers will reimburse you for them as its cheaper to do that than do bike hire… Then get the argument you’ve spent more on fuel than normal blah blah blah
yeah that could be a possibility, but i will end up having half bike looking brand new and half all scratched up… a properly done paint job seems the way to go
The cost of the rental bike doesn’t go toward the write off decision. If the bike is worth 5500 and the repair is 2k, they will pay for the repair AND pay for the bike hire.
Accepting a courtesy/hire vehicle for the time your vehicle is in for repair is one thing and should be covered, but check carefully as it is not always the case. Accepting a hire vehicle while a claim is in the process of being settled most likely won’t be covered by your insurance and therefore you’ll probably struggle to get the hire costs reimbursed as an uninsured loss.
i have an email that states that third party insurance admits responsibility and will pay 100% repair costs and courtesy hire.
having said this, i’m a bit iffy of having this bike for a whole month, as I’m responsible for the first £600 excess in case of bike damage or loss. I think i will return it and ask them to get me an oyster instead.
this is the letter:
96 800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:“Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:“Times New Roman”; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}We refer to our recent conversation regarding this accident. Asdiscussed Tesco Insurance believe that they may be responsible for theaccident, and have asked us to handle your claim on their behalf.
We may be providing you with a replacement vehicle whilst thedamage to your own vehicle is resolved. The car will be sourced by Gemini, or acourtesy car will provided by the repairer when your vehicle is taken in forrepair. If we are arranging the repairof your vehicle our nominated repairer will be in contact with you shortly ifthey haven’t done so already. This will all be provided at no cost to you and yourown policy will not be involved.
Our aim is to help you get back to normal as soon as ispossible, we will keep in regular contact with the repairers of your car, andwill telephone you to check its return date so that we can organise collectionof the replacement vehicle without delay.
If you have notified usof any injuries resulting from the accident, we have asked the nominatedadviser to contact you to discuss whether a claim can be made against the otherdriver for compensation.
If you have advised thatyou have not suffered any injuries as a result of the accident, please be notethat this has been recorded on your file. Should you subsequently feel that you do have an injury resultingdirectly from the accident please contact us immediately to make the necessaryarrangements.
Thank you for using Gemini Vehicle Solutions. Whilst we willkeep in contact with you during the hire, please contact us if you have anyaspects you would like to discuss.
As far as I can make out you have a letter from one company offering to sort repairs and give a courtesy vehicle during repair, but you have decided to use a different repairer and take a hire bike from another company. Be very careful you have a duty to mitigate your losses. If using your own repairer add costs and extra hire that may not be covered. If other insurer want to sort repairs and provide hire vehicle why not let them do it?
With our claim we were totally not at fault, we wasn’t even in the vehicle! The guy was 100% at fault and we were fully comp allowing hire van replacement. We had the hire van for nearly a year even though we kept asking for them to take it back, they even swapped it after 3 months to a newer reg.
In the end they took the hire van back then we were suddenly told that the other guys insurers would not pay for the hire van. We were told we were liable for the years cost of £21k!
This was going to court as neither insurers would back down, our insurers had a mini cab booked to pick us up at 5am to take us to court in Liverpool the following morning. It was something like 10pm the night before Court when we got a call to say the other side backed down and were paying all costs.
Something like this could so easily have led to us having £21k of debt because we were forced to have a hire vehicle when we didn’t actually want or need it. So if you can avoid having one, do so.
Credit hire claims are a mine field but there is something about agreements only lasting 90 days so maybe that is why they swapped the van after 3 months so they could submit a new agreement with the new reg
Ok, **** this ****. I’m returning the bike on Monday!
Glad I posted the whole
Story here. It smelled
Fishy from the
Beginning, I don’t
Want to
Have Anything To Do with it
From what I’ve heard about them over the years, ‘Dream Machine’ & ‘properly done’ are mutually exclusive…
Sound to me like the dealer is pushing this as they’ll get more comission from DM than they’ll make on supplying the genuine panels, probably a cut of the bike hire too.
£5-6K for a couple of damaged panels & a bent clutch lever?!?!? :crazy:
And people wonder why insurance premiums are going through the roof…
As the others have said avoid bike hire. It’s more hassle than it is worth, and how they can justify a charge of £100/day that is £36500 for the year! You could buy three BMW R1200GS for that and still have change left over, for what? The most you’d get is a Bandit 650 or a ER6f.
If I was you I’d get an Oyster Card.
