My car finally went off to be repaired today. Well over a month since someone reversed into me. I’ve never made a claim like this before on my car insurance and had no inkling what an absolute farce and gaff it would be.
no wonder the premiums are so high with all the ridiculous messing about. Firstly, I had to repeat the whole story several times to several departments. Then they decided to farm out the claim to another company, who tried to get statements from the other party and the witness who was backing me up. I the end, this other company declined to take the case and it passed back to Hastings.
They got the statements eventually from the others and I finally got a call this week to say we could proceed. Meanwhile, they also put me onto a solicitor who deals with personal claims, even though I insisted I didn’t need one. That led to endless calls from these claim hunters, asking if I’d any injuries, etc, etc. I started getting cross with them after the third call…..
So, this week I have been through the whole process again. Time after time.
Story repeated again to Hastings, then to a company that were sorting out a courtesy car, then to the repair people, then to the hire car people!
I also discovered that there is a £100 excess to pay, which I have to claim back using the solicitor! So I phoned them back, they said they had no record of me, story repeated once more….
More calls from other ‘hunters’ followed. Despite there being a good repair shop around the corner from where I work, the insurers insisted on using a company based in Preston, A 2 hour drive away. They drove up from there and collected my car from home. The courtesy car, however, had to be collected from Penrith. They did send someone to pick me up as there was no way the paperwork could be done at home!
What a long drawn out, waste of time. They gave me a nice new Astra to use, but I still prefer my little Panda.
Barbara Murray Art 