Car insurance - Auxillis Limited

[Waderider]

Apologies don't know which forum to put this in, hope this one is okay.

 

I had my first bump in 28 years of motoring yesterday; an elderly gent came out of a side road into my motor. No fault of mine, I hope he is being honest with his insurers.

 

I’m insured with Hastings Direct. At the end of the call they put me through to Auxillis Limited, apparently a sister company, that I ‘must’ use to organise the repair and a courtesy car.

Is this true? I’m having to read pages and pages of terms and conditions and it looks like I’m creating a contract with Auxillis.

 

I’ve only claimed on insurance once before, my house imsurance versus a third parties car insurance. One phone call wrapped everything up then – that was for a 3rd parties car crashing into my garden. This time I’m struggling to read pages of legalese and am being pushed into a contract with Auxillis.

 

Any knowledge out there? Should I just roll with this?

 

My car is a Volvo V70. I bought it about a year ago. It took me ages to find one with the spec I wanted, and I've done all the precautionary servicing such as replacing geartronic autobox fluid, belts, tensioners etc. So a supplementary question; how do I ensure when it disappears to the bodyshop they don't decide to write it off, and I never see it again?

[LessThanEqual]

Best of luck, my mate's miss is with hastings and they binned their 2012 V40 on a mini roundabout last week. They're a pain in the arse. Even managed to lose the car after it was towed away.

[Scruffy Bodger]

I had my ZX written off by someone else some years back that was 100% not my fault and found to be that way after their initial investigation even though the fat twat tried to claim against me. I stated from the start that it was my car, not my fault and I wanted to buy the car back after it was all sorted. In the end they offered me £300 for the car as they couldn't find another to compare prices against, I refused their offer and they came back with £700 which I accepted, less £100 to keep the car. Should've taken him for whiplash too as he bounced me properly off the window but I'm too stupid and honest.

 

Never, ever accept their first offer if they deem it's a right off.

 

 

[outlaw118]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here, but my company use an accident management company called FMG, who are owned by Redde group, as are Auxilis, and the whole experience was a massive PITA.

 

Incident: Silly bint hits company van, minor damage, rear bumper and light lens, something I could have repaired my self (if I had the bits) in 90 minutes, including a fag break and a cuppa tea. Company rules are ring FMG. On the phone for 20 minutes explaining everything. Repair scheduled for the next week, Auxilis will be in touch with hire car details/booking.

Next week comes, van collected Tuesday a.m. 8.15am by bodyshop, told it'll be 3 days....WTAF?.... Hire car turns up 10.30am. I don't care, I'm being paid, but it'd be a massive pain if I wasn't.

 

Fast forward to Friday am, I ring the body-shop, no van's not done.....it'll be mid week as part (bumper) on back order. 

Monday 2pm, call from Auxilis asking why I'm not at home for them to collect the hire car......told them to call FMG.

Wednesday 4.00pm, another call from Auxilis, "We need to collect the car" - apparently FMG rang them at 2.00pm to say the van was fixed, who then didn't think to phone me.....

 

TL:DR Good luck, they couldn't organise a pissup in a brewery.

[Dave_Q]

This seems to be getting quite common.

 

As your insurance company are quite happy it's not your fault, they have referred you to a claims management company (possibly one they own, possibly they just get a fee for referring you and offload the admin of dealing with your claim)

 

On the face of it these companies are OK, ambulance chasers in effect. They will have you in an overpriced credit hire car straight away and will get your car repaired then claim the costs back from the other parties insurance.

 

The main issue with this is a moral one. Their bills for hire cars and probably also for repairs will be excessive, and this just fuels ever increasing insurance prices (example, I caused some minor damage to a Ford focus by reversing into it, total bill for this was £7700 which was mostly about 8 weeks of credit hire)

 

A colleague had a no fault claim handled by such a set of shitehawks, it dragged on for years as the 2 insurance companies contested it through court. She was asked to provide various bits of evidence for the court case and threatened by the accident management Co. that according to their T&Cs she could be liable for the 4 figure hire car bill.

 

If I was you I would not engage the accident claims company and instead contact the other partys insurance company direct. Most likely they will bend over backwards to accommodate your wishes as anything they do for you will still cost much less than the inflated claim from the ambulance chasers.

[mercrocker]

Apologies don't know which forum to put this in, hope this one is okay.

 

I had my first bump in 28 years of motoring yesterday; an elderly gent came out of a side road into my motor. No fault of mine, I hope he is being honest with his insurers.

 

I’m insured with Hastings Direct. At the end of the call they put me through to Auxillis Limited, apparently a sister company, that I ‘must’ use to organise the repair and a courtesy car.

Is this true? I’m having to read pages and pages of terms and conditions and it looks like I’m creating a contract with Auxillis.

 

I’ve only claimed on insurance once before, my house imsurance versus a third parties car insurance. One phone call wrapped everything up then – that was for a 3rd parties car crashing into my garden. This time I’m struggling to read pages of legalese and am being pushed into a contract with Auxillis.

 

Any knowledge out there? Should I just roll with this?

 

My car is a Volvo V70. I bought it about a year ago. It took me ages to find one with the spec I wanted, and I've done all the precautionary servicing such as replacing geartronic autobox fluid, belts, tensioners etc. So a supplementary question; how do I ensure when it disappears to the bodyshop they don't decide to write it off, and I never see it again?

 

 

How bad is the damage?   Is it feasibly possible to repair it on your own account?  

 

My only experiences with insurance-related bodywork and hire car contracts have been miserably poor and ended up with me putting the courtesy car back in the middle of their yard, retrieving my own vehicle and having it repaired myself..... 

 

You can then bin off your insurance company, telling them exactly why you feel aggrieved at renewal time.  

 

 

 

Edit --- Or just go to one of the accident claim hyenas....

[Tamworthbay]

This seems to be getting quite common.

As your insurance company are quite happy it's not your fault, they have referred you to a claims management company (possibly one they own, possibly they just get a fee for referring you and offload the admin of dealing with your claim)

On the face of it these companies are OK, ambulance chasers in effect. They will have you in an overpriced credit hire car straight away and will get your car repaired then claim the costs back from the other parties insurance.

The main issue with this is a moral one. Their bills for hire cars and probably also for repairs will be excessive, and this just fuels ever increasing insurance prices (example, I caused some minor damage to a Ford focus by reversing into it, total bill for this was £7700 which was mostly about 8 weeks of credit hire)

A colleague had a no fault claim handled by such a set of shitehawks, it dragged on for years as the 2 insurance companies contested it through court. She was asked to provide various bits of evidence for the court case and threatened by the accident management Co. that according to their T&Cs she could be liable for the 4 figure hire car bill.

If I was you I would not engage the accident claims company and instead contact the other partys insurance company direct. Most likely they will bend over backwards to accommodate your wishes as anything they do for you will still cost much less than the inflated claim from the ambulance chasers.

We did exactly this when a woman hit my wife’s Mazda. They took the car two days after the accident, provided a hire car, then returned the car completed a couple of days later. As little hassle and fuss as it could be. The only minor issue we had was that we didn’t have any idea how much the repair cost and were asked for this at renewal time even though it was a non fault claim. I just got an estimate for the cost and kept to that value thereafter.

[Dave_Q]

We did exactly this when a woman hit my wife’s Mazda. They took the car two days after the accident, provided a hire car, then returned the car completed a couple of days later. As little hassle and fuss as it could be. The only minor issue we had was that we didn’t have any idea how much the repair cost and were asked for this at renewal time even though it was a non fault claim. I just got an estimate for the cost and kept to that value thereafter.

I only know how much the repair to the 3rd party cost in my case because when getting some bike insurance set up a year or 2 later the company I used actually kept me on hold while they checked my claims record.

 

I had said £2000 based on the estimated cost the guy got from the bodyshop (he lived on my road) but they came back with £7700.

 

The repair to the focus was fairly minor (front bumper and wing and a bit of paint /filler to the sill) but the guy was in the hire car for ages, something like 8-10 weeks, so I can only conclude that the credit hire focus he was in cost about £5000 or £5-600 a week.

[Lanciaman]

Just going through the very same thing. Without going into boring detail did not like the auxillis set up and the contract they force you into. Other party insurance company now dealing with everything- which will no doubt throw up different grief

[drewd]

Yeah, as has been said it's a partner company designed to rinse as much money from the system as possible.

 

Back in 2013 I had a transit connect plow into the back of my Audi when I was stationary. The guy driving the transit admitted fault, so I called Swinton, who I was insured with at the time to notify them Id been in an accident, but did not want to claim off my insurance. Straight away the guy on the phone launched a claim, which was referred to their claims management team. They took months to take my car and assess it, and when I declined the hire car they tried to get me to see one of their doctors so I could have a medical and claim for damages. In true shite fashion my car was worth sub £500 so they were trying to make additional money from ambulance chasing and storage fees. 6 weeks later they decided my car was a write off and worth all of £325, payed me my cheque, then sold my details so I got calls every 6 months about 'the accident I had'.

 

If I'd played along with them I probably would have made more money out of an injury claim, but I hate the way insurance companies do that, so walked away with not much cash and a clear concience.

 

In short, for a quick resolution just contact their insurers, otherwise go with your own insurers and auxillis.

[Waderider]

Thanks folks. I'm going to ring the other blokes insurers tomorrow and deal with them direct.

[Mad Cyril]

I've been here very recently. My own insurance company (RAC) and the claim assistance company (Innovation Group) were nothing but a drawn out pain in the arse to deal with and seemed to only be interested in having my car written off and setting me up for a meaty personal injury claim.
Their refusal to use the bodyshop I wanted put the final nail in the coffin so I cancelled my claim and went direct to the third party's company.
They were absolutely wonderful and things really couldn't have gone smoother.
If I was in a similar position again then I'd definitely not waste time with my own insurer (although I've now told them (RAC) to stick their renewal and gone elsewhere (who would probably be just as bad)).

[Flat4]

Similar experience with a claims management company. Tried to write off a limited edition Legacy over a wing and a wishbone. Mechanic had it fixed in an afternoon and they said it needed like 5 grand of repairs. Most annoying thing was, I wasn't even in the car when it was hit! Some old guy in a Rover went speeding into it while parked, claiming he was blinded by the sun. They spat the dummy as soon as I said the car was fixed and wanted to collect their hire car even before I'd picked up my own again.

 

If you're going through insurance, go through your insurance, not the claims management company.

[Mad Cyril]

 

If you're going through insurance, go through your insurance, not the claims management company.

 

That's the problem though. These insurance companies don't have their own claims teams. They pass the case onto a claims management company.

 

On a more positive note, My other half's year old Duster was slugged up the trumper a couple of months ago. Churchill fobbed the case off to Auxillis, they arranged everything and the car was back, fixed perfectly within a week. No hassle. No problems.

 

[Jerzy Woking]

I had a near head on when the other driver had a momentary lapse of concentration and came into my lane. I was lucky that as I swerved to.my left, it was into a slip road so I just got side swiped. 20 yards back the kerb was 10 inches high.

 

It wasn't my car, but a mates. Insurers were fantastic, I wasn't hurt, car wasn't badly damaged, but old, so almost instantly written off. My mate didn't want a hire car, but did want her car.

 

She got her car back and paid out very quickly. I was never bothered by the "you've been in an accident" crowd, so presume my details were not sold on.

 

Incidentally the car bounced off of the one I was driving and hit the newish Audi A8 that was behind me. He hit the kerb and smashed the wheel and front suspension hanging off. As was most of the right side of the car.

[Broadsword]

I had my old XJ40 rear-ended last May. Other party took full responsibility. It was all a new experience to me, but looking back at it, I was fortunate it was all sorted out easily. Where it clearly gets complicated as this thread demonstrates is if it's a car you have lots invested in. In the case of the XJ40 it had serious body-work damage and I knew they were going to write it off. A real shame as it was a good car, but I hadn't started investing in it yet so a narrow escape in other ways. It was never going to be right after the crash.

 

The practicalities were as follows. I didn't call my insurer. This was because the other party was really quick of the line claiming on her's. Within two hours of the incident her insurer (Direct Line) called me and asked about the situation, driveability of the car, do I want a hire car now etc. I kind of put it on the back burner for that day (a crash can shake you up a little), but learnt that if I kept driving the car I would have to drive miles and miles away to be evaluated. On top of that there was a six week wait for such and appointment, plus the time wasted waiting for them to declare the obvious.

 

So the next day I said I'm not driving around in a car with the rear end caved in as I don't think that is safe, bigger damage could lurk underneath and the police could pull me. This was the right thing to do because the day after that the Jag was on a flat bed lorry, and I had a free hire car (had that for weeks on end). Within a week the price had been settled on my compo, which left in a satisfactory position. I realized no-one really evaluates the crashed cars. When they get to the recovery place there is just a check list and some photos are sent to the expert. This gave me ample leverage on negotiating the price, it wasn't too hard to do though because the insurance evaluator was a Jaaaaaaaag man, so there was sympathy.

 

So if you are in a position where there is a crash and the other party takes full responsibility, my experience suggest do the following.

 

1. Do not rush to call your insurer, they WILL jump and destroy your NCB just for fun! Tell them after the claim has been settled, then there is nothing they can do!

2. Make the other party's insurance company do the work. Say you want the car collected immediately (they will have to if you don't think it's roadworthy), then you are straight in the free hire car. It seems they have to comply.

3. Insurance evaluator will try and low-ball the value of the car and they will pay much more than the initial offer. If you drive rare chod like many of us simply illustrate how much it would cost to get a replacement at retail that day on eBay. Make a real fuss if you have extensive service history and expensive receipts for work carried out on the car.

 

But I feel for you since you have cherished the Volvo. They will probably write it off so be firm getting your money's worth compo! You should get the car bought back at about 10% of what the payout is and they might even deliver it back to you! This was offered to me.

[Waderider]

A small update, I guess for those who search for this topic in the future as much as anything else.

 

So Auxillis were wanting to punt my car into a distant repair shop which seems to repair posh motors from a relatively modest address, but not specifically Volvos. The at fault parties insurer the AA seems to be using a company that is part of Innovation Group, and liability has been admitted on that side. They are offering me a repair at a Volvo bodyshop of my choice, a courtesy car, and recompense for the time and fuel to drive to the bodyshop for an initial estimate.

 

So far so good with the at fault parties insurance then.

[Dan_ZTT]

Sounds like that should work out alright, good to hear.

[Waderider]

A late update.

I had the car repaired via the at fault drivers cost, At a Volvo approved bodyshop.

I changed insurance to a more moral company - NFU.

Car still with me with spangly fresh paintwork down one flank.

Only issue is the odd trim noise from the door trim at the impact zone - turns out the trim clips aren't even available direct from the Volvo dealer - I tried - bad form Volvo.

Moral - avoid ambulance chasing bastards

[sierraman]

If it’s over 10 years old and it’s fixable yourself then take it on the chin. Once you involve the accident management companies, it’s scrap economically speaking.