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Yes, the trouble is, my own insurer have no interest in putting me back on the road. They have made an offer and you can tell from the tone of the call centre people's voices that they really can't be bothered.
I intend to bypass them and get straight on to the third party insurer, or I will, as soon as my solicitor answers the phone.
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Good luck is the only thing I can say!
I was in a similar situation about 7 years ago when my top spec. Passat was written-off. Insurer offered me at least £500 below book and when I asked where they got their prices, (Autotrader) they were all basic spec. models with at least 20K more miles "because spec. makes no difference on secondhand cars" ............... yes, right!!!
I think I managed about another £250 after nearly giving-up the will to live, but the daft part is the extra car hire charges they paid whilst we were at an impasse, ..........it's a crazy world.
Insurers also have no interest whatsoever in trying to fight your case when liability is not 100% clear-cut, afterall, they are going to put your premium up anyway.
Edited by nick62 on 10/12/2013 at 15:22
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I think being shunted by a Public Service Vehicle with brake failure is very clear cut ineed!
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Insurers also have no interest whatsoever in trying to fight your case when liability is not 100% clear-cut, afterall, they are going to put your premium up anyway.
Insurers have no interest in fighting your case if it is 100% clear-cut in your favour - your insurer will get nothing out of it because any settlement cost will be passed straight on - they just want to minimise their admin costs by doing as little as possible.
If you've got legal cover on your policy, they'll take it up for you.
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It may be worth approaching the PCV operator directly rather than going via your insurers. Most of the larger bus companys self insure for blameworthy collisions, and they prefer to sort things out quickly to keep hire car costs etc to a minimum. If you approach them or their claim handler with proof of how much a like for like replacement vehicle will cost, they may pay you much more quickly than if your insurer was dealing with it.
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When exactly did you purchase your car?
When exactly did you have the accident?
Are you claiming directly from your own Insurer eg the settlement will be minus your policy excess?
If you could answer these I may have the solution to the problem
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Do you know what the values Glasses', CAP and Parkers give for your car?
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Thanks everyone. Let me try and answer y'all.
The trade-in for my car according to my friendly local dealer is about £1000. Retail is £1950.
I bought it in July and it's had a cambelt done for £300. I know in advance that the engineer will say this makes no difference. But I, being the astute fellow I am, have already pointed out that the four autotrader adverts I provided make no mention of cambelt changes and at least two of them look like they are due or overdue. I will try and remain calm when the time comes to explain that of two cars, identical in every other way, the one with the new cambelt will be worth more than the one that needs it doing.
My insurer are interested in one thing only, that is, getting me off the phone. I'm told it will be about a week until the engineer gets round to replying.
I forwarded the FAQ above to my solicitor, about going direct to the bus's insurer, but no luck there, they just want to concentrate on the injuries and leave the settlement for the car to my insurer.
I found out today that they haven't even "clicked on the links" to look at the ads I sent in.
Raaaaaaa!
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the car doesn't appear in Parker's I don't think, as it's too old.
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Just to play the devils advocate ,
A neighbour of mine recently had a no fault accident in her 99 T Toyota yaris ,60k miles .
The car was one owner but looking a bit scruffy with minor parking dings and a short mot . The car was declared a cat c write off although the accident only caused minor panel damage . Retail value £500 / £750 .Without haggling the insurance company offered and paid out £1200 .
Not the usual tale of woe !
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Nice one Tony. Now then - the insurer has been absolutely dreadful, no contact, and they "forgot" to "raise" the cheque for the £350 excess, until I went olympic on them. I made a complaint and the next day, well, Jan 2nd, hey presto, the offer has gone up from £1399 to £1880! Anger and relief fought for mastery amongst my emotions. That's quite a jump and in my eyes an admission that the engineers are on a mission to offer the least it's physically possible to do.
And all I got down the phone, no matter what I said, was 1) "okay" and 2) "not a problem".
Calm...
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Now I just need to find a £2k car with leather that can pull a caravan. Yay!
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hyundai sonata / kia magentis
bullet proof reliablity provided you get the belt changed.
tows a caravan with ease.
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thanks Davey it's appreciated.
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Someone hit my Pug 306 in 2010. The insurers quickly offered a "market value" price based on Glass's guide, which means nothing in the real world unless you're a motor trader who wants to give a customer a really lousy PX price.
So I printed out a few Autotrader and Ebay classified listings for cars the same year, engine, fuel and in the same condition and they quickly raised their offer.
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And all I got down the phone, no matter what I said, was 1) "okay" and 2) "not a problem".
You've been around long enough, Bananastand, to know that officers in negotiation start with an offer just above unacceptable or derisory, to use trade-union jargon. The end result then depends on which party gets fed up first. You clearly held out for long enough, so well done. Give 'em stick.
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Thanks Andrew as soon as the final cheque comes I'm going to make a proper complaint. If I was a vulnerable person the engineer would have got a pat on the back for reaching his target for ripping off LV's customers.
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Once again I am in a rage.
On January 2nd I got a call from a supervisor who apologised for the outrageous lack of service and the fact that absolutely nothing happened unless I rang up again and again to prompt the call centre staff into action.
She told me that the offer had been increased from £1399 to £1880, a leap of £481. I was startled as you can imagine and accepted, to put an end to the hassle.
Two complaints:
I rang on Saturday 11th Jan, and the very bored woman on the other end said no-one had dealt with it and the cheque hadn't been "raised". I asked if I hadn't rung up, when would it be? That appeared to be above her payscale. That's the standard of service I've had all through. VERY POOR.
NEXT- as I said above, a garage owner I know said the glass's guide retail for the car was £1950. In my view the engineer was relying on me being vulnerable, daft, or weak, so that I would accept his insulting offer. To me a sudden increase of £481 (!!!) is evidence of his tactics. No-one can tell me that engineers are not incentivised to keep offers low! Did he realise he'd been rumbled? I was expecting an improved offer of about £100!!
So there you go, them's me complaints.
Cheers!
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I insure with the NFU Mutual. When I have a claim I speak to staff in this country, in fact I can go to their office and talk to them directly.
I will not deal with companies who have call centres in foreign countries, I want to talk to people in English who I can understand. I changed from Orange to Zen for my broadband because of waiting for so long to speak to someone who I could not hear properly. The Zen call centre is in Rochdale.
Keep at it and good luck trying to get the true value for your car, then when you get your replacement insure with a firm with British call centres.
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Thanks Quiz, however this call centre is in Bournemouth. That might still qualify for your description. We are talking about LV by the way.
I have never heard staff say "OK" and "No problem" so many times in response to me. I ended up yelling "WILL YOU STOP SAYING IT'S OK. IT IS NOT OK!!"
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I have heard good reports of LV, they come with NFU Mutual as being the best car insurers in Which. Yes Bournemouth is OK, I can just about understand the Dorset bur!
My advice is still to keep at them, could you ask to speak to their supervisor? This sometimes helps.
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Yes I've been dealing with the supervisor but I think my complaint is serious as they deliberately tried to rip me off, or, more accurately, gave me a stupidly insulting offer
**just to test whether I'd be weak enough to accept it**
So I'm taking it higher.
That's separate from the complaint about nothing happening unless I rang them up til I was blue in the face,
Cheers!
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Anyone want to give me marks out of ten for this? I was angry when I wrote it:
As discussed these are the points we wish to complain about:
1. Consistently since the accident it seemed nothing happened unless I rang up and pestered LV. Liability was accepted the day after the accident (as the third party kept ringing me up to tell me) but it took days and days for LV to pick the phone up and establish it for themselves - after I pestered you to.
2. The excess cheque for £350 was "forgotten" and only raised when once again I got on the phone to ask for it.
3. The engineer initially refused to increase the offer. Again nobody thought to tell us until I rang up and found out for myself.
4. I rang up on January 2nd and found out the offer had gone up by £481. I accepted but rang again on Saturday the 11th only to be told that, once again, it had been "forgotten".
I have found the staff at LV to be disinterested and lacking in any sense of prompt customer service, with the exception of ****** ******. No explanation has ever been offered for the lapses in service. But, the most serious question we want answering is this:
5. The initial offer was £1399. On scouring Autotrader I found several vehicles that approximately matched ours but were inferior in trim, miles, service history, and so on, but were mostly higher in price. These were dismissed. I went to a local trader I happen to know and I saw with my own eyes that the Glass's retail for our car was £1950. I don't think there is any excuse for such a discrepancy. I eventually found another Autotrader advert and the engineer increased the offer by an astounding £481.
To me this huge discrepancy represents, at best, a mistake. A cynic might think that the engineer wasn't making a fair offer to start with, but merely opening negotiations with a policyholder who might, as far as you knew, have been in a weak or vulnerable or even desperate position. If she had felt there was no option then the engineer may well have congratulated himself on saving the company close on £500. I think that is a totally wrong way to go about dealing with policyholders who are entitled to be treated fairly and should be happy to place their trust in you.
Are the engineers under pressure to make low offers? I'm willing to bet they are certainly not allowed to make inflated offers. If there is a margin of error which way will it fall? I will not have it that the trade guide in your possession was completely different to the trade guide I saw. I therefore await your explanation.
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9/10 - when I'm writing letters / emails such as these, I like to selectively quote the insurer's (or other company's) advertising slogans to highlight the contrast between the promise and the reality.
I've no idea if it has any effect on the other party, but it certainly makes me feel better :)
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Looks good - you've resisted the temptation to go to excessive lengtth which disgruntled customers so often do.
9/10 because in point 4 you meant uninterested (not caring) rather than disinterested (impartial).
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Thanks chaps, I take the point about "disinterested", being a pedant myself. I learnt the art of concision by getting letters into the print version of the DT. Any waffle, and you've no chance. There was one that I was particularly proud of, now it went something like this, (cont. p94)
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Mind you, the people at the insurance company won't know the difference....
If (as I think it does) LV stands for Liverpool Victoria, why would their call centre be in Bournemouth?
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They wouldn't want a scouse accent on the end of the phone line, it would put the punters off. Much better with a nice southern voice!
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They wouldn't want a scouse accent on the end of the phone line, it would put the punters off. Much better with a nice southern voice!
Well we don't want any snobby people ringing us anyway. It's hard for us to listen to their ridiculous accents.
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Mind you, the people at the insurance company won't know the difference....
If (as I think it does) LV stands for Liverpool Victoria, why would their call centre be in Bournemouth?
Because Liverpool Victoria took over Frizzell Insurance who are in Bournemouth with nice offices so LV moved Head Office there.
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Had a call from a supervisor who thought she was some kind of alpha customer services genius. She certainly won the gold medal for evasiveness and cramming the word "okay" as many times as possible into every sentence. Have now got a letter from the supervisor of supervisors. Will report back after he responds to my complaint!
Don't you hate it when you ask a question of someone, and they give you an answer to a question that they think you should have asked?
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Don't you hate it when you ask a question of someone, and they give you an answer to a question that they think you should have asked?
Politicians' standard procedure - or hadn't you noticed? They are prepared with a set of ready answers, and if the matching questions don't appear, the answers follow anyway.
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To conclude: I had a conversation with a manager - what payscale, I couldn't say - and apparently the engineer has been reprimanded, and "words" have been had with the UNinterested operatives who couldn't have cared less about my cheques not being posted.
AND
By way of apology a cheque for £100 is now on its way. Not a fortune, but - you know.
Cheers!
Spencertheartist (that's me name)
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nearly had a fit. The car hire bill for 55 days came to over £7k. Worked out to £140 a day. This was for a 12 year old merc C class with 70,000 miles on it (yeah right). Now I know why the rental guy put private reg plates on his motors - to hide the age. I found out by putting it into webuyanycar. Not to worry though - the solicitor swore it won't affect me or my compo claim.
In fact he said the rental man was a cheeky ******* and that he won't get all he was asking for. But he added, "you wanna see the size of his house".
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