Insurance company problems

[scooters]

Dear all, on the 6th September an older member of society and a member of the bowling club round the corner backed his 7 series into the back of my camper van - this knocked the nearside bumper about 4 inches back and into the body of the van trashing the bumper and causing a great deal of damage to the body of the van.

 

He admitted liability and when i got back on the 12th was put in touch with his insurance company - Saga who were intially great in getting everything sorted. Due to the age of my vehicle they didn't have an approved repairer who could handle it so asked me to find one. I did, a local repairer who have a first class reputation for honesty and quality. This was the 13th September - they assessed the damage, sourced the parts and sent in a quote for £800 for the repair - not unreasonable when you consider the cost of the bumper alone (hens teeth) is around £160+VAT. Anyway nothing happens until I get a call from my coachworker asking me if I had heard anything - I said no and called Saga on Monday tio be told that no records were on file despite my coachworker having sent them over twice in the last month. They asked me to get him to resend them and they would be back to me in 48 hours - 48 hours later - still no word so I yet again telephoned them - 40 mins on hold to be told that they had received the quote but that the engineer at their end was questioning it and wanted to send out an assessor to examine the vehicle - oh and by the way, what was the vehicle's make and model again.......at this point I lost my temper and asked them:

 

i/ why they were asking for this information when details had been provided by myself and by my coachworker inlcuding the sourcing of parts which so far has been done by me with no assitance from the coachworker or from Saga

ii/ why the onus is on me to constantly chase them up when I am a no fault 3rd party who had been assured about thier seemless process when it happened

iii/ why was I going to have to take a day off to wait for an assessor and if I have to then I am considering adding the cost of my time to the claim

iv/ lastly, they had let out the bag as they thought I was the policy holder that they had signed off £2k worth of repairs to the 7 series and turned it round in record time - the old fart was back on the road in a week!

 

They are going to speak to the engineers and call me back - that was 34 miutes ago

 

anyone any ideas how I can get this moving properly - my insurance company, Chaucer told me at the outset that if there were any issues to contact them....I'm not sure what they can do though

 

I am getting very cheesed off - I need the repair sorted because the damage has compromised the rust proofing of the vehicle and water is getting into the ladder chassais

 

[Albert Ross]

Chaucer were faultless with me. I reversed my Land Rover into a Merc S class a couple of Christmasses ago, the car went in on Christmas eve, and was out by 3rd January. £1100 of damage to a door skin and a wheelarch. No damage to mine, and no extra premium the following year. Keep on at saga..... The name should tell you all.... A long drawn out tale in a foreign language!

[Marshall]

If you have motor legal protection I would suggest using it, especially for recovering costs of time off work/hire vehicle etc.

[Alpineandy]

Have you asked Saga for the contact details of their complaints dept?

If not, do so.

[Autoplas]

I work in the Insurance industry in a senior management position (not going to disclose who for as I know how much you all love insurance on here ) and some years ago worked as a claims manager mainly dealing with uninsured loss recovery and PI.

 

Saga are normally pretty good but unfortunately not all claims will run smoothly (as in any in industry or service). If you are insured TPO or TPFT Chaucer will obviously have no interest in the repairs to your vehicle even if it wasn't your fault. They may well out of goodwill make a call or two to Saga though on your behalf to harry them along.

 

Did you purchase legal expenses cover with your policy ?. If you did you really need to give them a call 9am tomorrow morning and put the matter into their hands - they will handle all of the communications with the Third party insurer and arrange a courtesy car while your vehicle is being repaired.

 

If you don't have Legal Expenses nil desperandum - give Chaucer a call tomorrow morning, explain what has happened and see if they will contact Saga for you. If they aren't interested advise Saga that you will leave the car with the garage for inspection & repair and they can provide you with a courtesy car in the meantime of a comparable type (ie not a Ka or Corsa). If the problems persist tomorrow send me a PM and I will advise what to do next..............

[Marshall]

I also work(ed) in insurance. Hence why I would agree with Autoplas. As I said "If you have motor legal protection I would suggest using it, especially for recovering costs of time off work/hire vehicle etc."

If you have paid for it then use it. As said though, if not, all is not lost by any means.

[scooters]

thanks and thanks for the expert advice.

 

i did buy legal cover but in my ignorance of how it all works haven't actioned it. Chaucer have been pretty decent and have made a few calls for me. Upshot is Saga realise they have cocked up - and admin cock up rather than anything malicious and there is now a single point of contact. Due to the age of the vehicle they are sending over an assessor next week who has been unoffically told to 'green light the repair'. I have told saga that I will give them until next wednesday to sort a firm date for repair or i will hand it over to legal.

 

I was offered a courtesy vehicle - amusingly enough it would have been a camper van - but declined as being a shitter I have enough issues with the neighbours and with 3 other working vehicles and no plans to go camping i can cope.

 

hopefully all will be resolved now - senoir manager at Saga called me and was very apologetic -= Chaucer had pointed out how reasonable I had been - fingers crossed!

 

There is a subtext here which I will explain later but which means the good will of Saga is preferable

[Albert Ross]

If you need a similar one for valuation, one has popped up round here for sale..... 1978ish with the cab in that "Ochre" colour and chrome bumpers .... I think they want £3750 for it or so.... Maybe get them to write yours off, take the money, keep your original one, and buy this one! Then you get TWO to piss the neighbours off with.