Car insurance woes!!

[Nick69]

Ive got a little story for you and would like your opinions.

On the 5th of Jan my wife had an accident in her car, due to weather conditions the car was not collected until the 14th Jan. This meant she was without a vehicle from 5th January.
After MANY phone calls to the Insurance company and the garage carrying out the repairs we finally got a courtesy car on Wednesday 10th Febuary.
We paid the extra premium for garanteed courtest car on the policy.
She had the courtesy car until Saturday 13th Feb when she collected her car from the garage. After driving the car home there was a loud banging from the back end, she thought this was the spare wheel and jack as they had not secured them in the correct location. After arriving home she re-positioned the spare wheel and jack in their correct locations. She took the car out on Wednesday 17th Feb and noticed the banging was still there. She asked me to take it for a drive so I could hear it, when I tried, the car was dead and now seems to have an electrical problem and wont start. It also is clearly now 2 different colours, the sides of the car are now green NOT metallic blue/Silver which it should be. On the garage repair document the colour of the car is stated as Metallic Blue yet they have sprayed it Metallic Green.
The insurance company were informed and we were passed back to the garage who asked us to get the car to them. After a complaint they agreed to collect the car on Tuesday 23rd Feb. They were reluctant to give a courtesy car but eventually agreed to bring one in exchange.
The car had only just had a full service and MOT and 2 problems were noted and were not expected to be repaired as they were not part of the accident damage. One was a faulty drivers window switch/regulator and the other was a very loud rear wheel bearing. The reapir garage noted the window problem but NOT note the wheel bearing which shows they DID NOT take the car for a test drive after the so called repairs.
Up until the accident we had a car that would start first time, every time, but now who knows!!??
From the time of the accident we have been without a vehicle for 39 days. It states in Aviva's Comprehensive Policy Booklet that a Courtesy Car or Hire Car will be provided in 1 working day or the following monday. This has clearly not been the case.
This had made it VERY difficult to get to work or anywhere as we live in a rural village with no bus service within 45mins and the nearest train station is 2 hours walk.

Thats what has happened since the accident and I wanted to see what you peeps thought about the whole ordeal?
The car is a 2004 Renault Laguna II 1.9dCi Sports Tourer btw.

We have put in an official complaint to the insurance company about their service and the quality of the garage repairs. The garage repair cost was £3000 and they didnt fix the car so now what?
Will they fix the car? will they write it of?

Has anyone had anything like this happen to them?

Nick

Oh and just to top it off the car will not lock now, it is permenantly open, the insurance company have been informed about it though.

[Green Aura]

What a catalogue of disasters

No advice I'm afraid, just a . I don't understand how these people live with themselves - I couldn't do such a bad job if I tried (I hope ).

I hope your wife's OK - not just the bump but then realising you're driving a potentially dangerous vehicle but have shaken her up a bit.

Hope you get it sorted.

[Nick69]

Wife is fine thank god just angry its been such a balls up!!

[marshlander]

You have our sympathy too. Can't believe how your insurers are passing the buck.
You may have to consider going to the insurance ombudsman if you can't resolve the situation with your insurers.

We're so lucky to have a skilled and trustwothy mechanic in the village.

[Nick69]

We do too but they wouldnt use him, only their 'Authorised Repair Centre' ! lol

[JulieSherris]

Oh, I'm groaning here!!

I had a bump several years ago - I was stationary at the time, so the other driver had to assume 100% of the blame & all should have been quite straightforward...... you would have thought.....
Anyway, trying to get things sorted took us just over 6 months, the car was a write off, but it was the headaches of dealing with the automated systems of the insurance comapny... etc etc

Anyway, apart from renewing our policy every year & having MOT visits, we've had nothing to do with insurance or mechanics ever since... until last year.
The state of the roads over here means that you get stones thrown up & we had a crack in the windscreen which was the whole way across the screen. This should have been covered on the policy - so I call the windscreen folks & and they can get our windscreen in, but not for 6 days..... now, hubby has a 60km drive to work each day, so he didn't want to wait... call the insurance folks & get called back... 'get a windscreen from who ever you can' they say, 'but don't go over 1200 euros'.
So, I call a local guy who comes round the following morning, fits the screen for 450 euros... then tells us to pay him when we've been paid out by the insurance!!!

Needless to say, when we had to have some work done on my little car & Gail's (my daughter) little runaround, we call the same guy - he gets his transporter, collects my car, fixes it, drops it off at Gail's & picks her car up - then we collected her car 3 days later & paid his bill in full, with no charge for the transporter - what a superstar!

Nick, I would call the insurance ombudsman & give them the full catalogue of woes - if you don't, then the system will never ever change - although why it should be THAT complicated in the first place is beyond me.

[paul123456]

Hello there ,

me thinks you will always loose , insurance companys are bad just like govt's.

Lived in Ireland once , a German woman who thought she was in the 14 th province of Germany, driving on the wrong side of the road hit me frontal , the Irish police (hahahahah) a sheep farmer covered in sheep sh@#
cameand was worried that the stupid woman was hurt !
4 weeks later a bunch of French Pr@$#$ ran in to me , the Irish insurance surely fuc@# me , that was a reason to
leave the bloody country , so the insurance is always like the biggest dog , it always f*** ,

regards ,

paul

[Jessiebean]

My advice is never never give up- we had our rental property trashed by tenants and there was some damage to the shower meaning it leaked in to thgarage below, appliancees attacked and some painting to be done(a few extra little jobs as, would have taken OH and myself a week at worst to fix) this was nearly two years ago and the we signed off on the work being completed two weeks ago! we have had FIVE builders, two complaints to the ombudsman and they have had to pay nearly two years of loss of rent becuase they were incomptetent. Our theory of insurance companies is they will always say NO, then if you persist they will muck you around, please please keep persisting as most don't-these are the people who lose out on insurance claims- those who give up! Just keep at them, threaten them with regulatory body complaints(ours is The Ombudsman- yours is too?) threaten them with media coverage, just keep at them and commuicate via email if you can to keep a written record. They will balls up at some stage and will have to pay out! Just keep at them!