As you may recall, one of our cars got thumped by a Turkish Artic a little while ago.
I just wanted to write about the outstanding service we got.
Firstly the accident. The Police turned up, sorted out the traffic mess, made sure all details were exchanged both ways and left. Polite, efficient and welcome.
Rang Norwich Union, no claim form required, all details taken over the phone by a very pleasant young lady.
About 2 hours later Carbody of Banbury turned up, took away the damaged car and left a replacement. They even managed to dig out an automatic for us.
The car was repaired when they said it would be, cleaned inside and out, and polished. I cannot even find where the damage was, other than conspicuously clean/new pieces of plastic & chrome trim. As far as I can see it is perfect, and for sure if I was buying the car I wouldn't find the repair.
Norwich Union Overseas Claims later rang and gave me all the details I needed for the foreign insurer and advice on how to deal with them.
All in all, given that I would rather not have had the accident in the first place, Norwich Union and Carbody of Banbury could not possibly have been more efficient, polite or helpful.
Highly recommended, the pair of them.
Presumably everyone knows how to contact Norwich Union and Carbody are;
Carbody (Banbury) Ltd
Thorpe Lane, Overthorpe Industrial Estate, Banbury.
Telephone: 01295 273945
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Mark,Will you be making a claim directly against the presumably Turkish insurers,or will Norwich Union do this on your behalf?
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Joint effort. Them for their claims and me for my excess. It was only a small excess, but these things need to be done.
Both insurers tell me that there is no issue.
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Mark
Your obviously a man who knows what he is talking about and in particular know your way around the Insurance field. Does this equate to a better service than us who are not so well equipped thereby allowing the insurance Companies to have a field day?
Just a thought.
DVD
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NU are known for their good claims service and I think most of the other large insurers now only need verbal details of the claim, unless its really messy or possibly dodgy. Its good customer service and they've cottoned on to the fact that it reduces their costs.
The 'Approved Repairer' scheme does have its faults, not least of which is that most of the repairers are outside of the franchise dealer network. If you have a premium car its worth checking to see if they will allow it to be repaired by the Merc approved bodyshop etc, because this can affect second hand values and possible warranty claims. On the plus side they won't want to upset the insurer so you can be reasonably sure of good service. Again this saves the Insurers money as they can negotiate a good deal, and ultimately saves on premiums.
Any other comments Mark?
Simon
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Simon,
The car concerned was my wife's 3 year old Omega CD estate, so not exactly a premium car.
As for the franchise dealer network, its not something I ever concern myself with. Partly because I think the whole thing is over-rated, and partly because we tend to buy cars and run them until they *have* to be replaced, at which time who the service history is from, or indeed whether or not there is a service history, has little effect on the value of the car.
I do understand that if my Merc or Ferrari were damaged, I might worry about it more, but I am not sure how much it would bother me even then, given that most of the main dealers sub-contract the work anyway.
Certainly, given the standard of the repair by Carbody then I'd probably trust them with most things, although perhaps not the Ferrari.
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DVD,
I didn't need any expertise at all, it was all done for me. It would have been the same whoever they were dealing with. All I did was be polite.
Mark.
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Mark - You're right about the sub-contracting bit, people up here put their Mercs in for repair at the local Merc dealers and they send them to the place where I got my Fiesta fixed, and add a little bit to the cost for the privelege! :)
Of course it was unusual for them to deal with a Fiesta, their usual trade is almost all Mercs... I just went directly to them...
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