Car thread but need to vent/seek advice. About 2 years ago some scumbag pulled out of a pub, hit our car parked over the road, and then drove off. Lucky for us a witness noted the reg number and colour of the car. Needless to say, he denied all involvement, police had better things to do so we went through our insurers. They spent the best part of a year faffing around doing nothing. All of this time we never got our car repaired as we refused to accept a claim on our insurance. After about a year I chased them up and they said we could send the car in for repair. I specifically said I would not do this if there would be a fault claim on our part, but they said that to send it in as we had our witness and all would be fine wether they denied it or not. £3.5k later our car is sorted. Now another year on from then, just got home to find a letter stating Privilege could not recover the money and our no claims are gone. So infuriating as I would have personally taken the other driver to court rather than lose our no claims. We had a witness and everything?!? Strong phone call going their way tomorrow but what are my chances. I definitely want them to get the recording of the phone call where I said I would not send the car in if it went as a claim on us.
Friggin annoying I had a scrappy write my mg off last year outside my house! and had description of the van and young lads in it but no plates Police apparently kept a look out but found nothing even though a colleague at work had seen the pick up another part of town with same lads and pick up A few days later it was seen and the no plate given to myself so I took it to police station Of course they ran it and part of the plate bought up 300 of the same colour vehicle but the end of the reg didn't exist Because I didn't see the pick up myself it's hearsay apparently and nothing I can do unless I see it myself There is a scrap pick up running around on false plates with gypsies and police not interested Had to claim off my insurance and it now goes as an own fault accident!!!! Unbelievable!!! luckily swinton have a two strike policy and I kept my no claims But it's unfair that I'm penalised as it makes a difference to my insurance Rahhhhh
Complaint lodged. We'll see what they come back with. Ultimately the car went in to be assessed and came back repaired. We gave no instruction to do so and wouldn't have. Car was probably only worth £1k more than the repair cost at the time it was done.
Phone calls about important matters are unsatisfactory. Later on, in the event of disputes, you are left with no evidence of exactly what was said on each side of the conversation. You have just discovered this, so what are you going to do about it? Make a phone call. Eh-hmm. Here's a suggestion: take a piece of paper, write a letter, post it to them, and keep copies. Demand that they respond in writing - phone calls not acceptable. Maybe you should have done that in the first place. Whenever you have said or heard some important information in a phone call, you still have the option of immediately posting a letter recording what was said on the phone. Or you can just lie back and wait to be screwed.
Interesting to read this. From my understanding, by law after an accident both parties have to exchange contact details and/or insurance details. If you dont then its classed as a hit & run and you get taken to court. I know as when I was 17 I was charged with this and was hit with 10 points and a huge fine for an non existent "accident" where some chav claimed I had scratched the back of his stationary car as I drove past it. The fact the "damage" was rusty, there was zero damage to my car and the main "witness" (who was the other drivers best mate), wasnt even on the scene and to top it up, claimed that I was a woman (14 stone skin head bloke more like) all didnt matter. The 150 year old magistrate took an instant dislike to me and thought I should be hung from the highest tree. Anyway back to the insurance claim, sounds like privilege are trying to wriggle out of things. Why cant they claim the money back form the other insurance company. If they cant, it must be that the other driver had no insurance - again, huge amount of points & fine. So amazing that the police cant be bothered to pursue it. Typical example of how they would rather go after the "easy" cases such as speeders. Hopefully privilege get their act together, but I dont hold much hope. The last time I had to deal with an insurance claim was with the wifes car. The repair shop did such a shoddy job that we had to send it back 4 times for them to correct things. Even then, it came back with an engine management light on. In the end it turned out that whilst it was with the repair shop the head gasket had mysteriously gone on the car. This was a mint (pre accident) car with only 40k on the clock. After many many long phone calls with the insurance company, the end result was that they point blank refused to fix the head gasket as it was a "consumable" item. Even though it was perfectly fine before the crash, and suddenly went after the crash it was apparently our problem. We were then faced with the option of a £1300 repair bill to have the head gasket fixed on a car worth only a couple of grand. Or sell it for spares. The other thing to mention is that regardless of if you get your NCB back or not, your insurance will more than likely still go up as you will have made an insurance claim. As ridiculous as it sounds, the insurance companies dont care if a claim is your fault or not, statistically anyone who has made an insurance claim (own fault or not) is more likely to make another claim in the future and so is a higher risk to them.
I have the other guys details. They were on a letter we got from the police saying they weren't going to take any action. Feel like paying him and his car a visit with a bat.
You are perfectly right, they don't care if it's your fault or not. That is a side issue. But it's not ridiculous. Insurance companies are pricing the risk of something happening which will cost them money. It could be something which is your fault; it could be something which is not remotely your fault. If things keep happening which cost insurers money in the place where you live, or to the type of vehicle which you drive, or to people who share your occupation - well, insurers will price that risk and charge you accordingly.
Insurance companies make their decisions from actuarial data and with due regard to commercial concerns. They aren't that different from people who sell you pensions, cars or doughnuts - it's a business. Except - you aren't legally obliged to buy pensions, cars or doughnuts. You are obliged to buy insurance though, if you drive a car, run a business, etc. Government has stuck its nose into this and gotten involved . . . so why is insurance provided by the private sector? Why do we have to pay shareholders for the privilege of driving our cars? It's a puzzle!
I agree. It's outrageous that a service is made legally compulsory yet is available only from profit-making concerns.
As opposed to the smooth-running and openly transparent machine that is the current insurance market! :Hilarious: But yes, let's just beat the pubic sector bloat-and-inefficiency drum and ignore the private-sector greedy bastards who look after us so well
Well hooray. Complaint upheld as the recorded conversations show we only got the car repaired based on their say so. We keep our no claims and all is well. It's also being sent to us in black & white.
