Well i thought id let you know whats happened to my pride n joy ( Life ) . Was in halfords two saturdays "15th march" ago buying some wet n dry as im polising everything under the bonnet at the mo and a till girl cam over n said a landrover has just hit your car. Started to leave and an old guy came in and said he had just hit it so we went out to have a look. He had hit the left side wing knocking the whole front end over bout 1/2" there is a hole in the left wing and cracks in the bumper and in the right wing + he has effectivly curbed the top 1/3 of the left front wheel.
He owned up streight away and seamed pretty upset bout it. He was a pretty old chap n he had come n owned up to it so there was no point giving him a hard time.
So the insurance assessor comes out yesterday to look at the car as hes been away on holliday. Thinks its repairable ( obviously ) but as its painted in a one off colour it cant be matched with in being a candi / pearl mix.
Not a happy bunny, took me two years to get it to this stage and now im gonna have to start all over again. The insurance company are mucking me about allready . Had to ring them after the assessor had been as he had to confirm that the car was undrivable ,( doesent go streight anymore ) . They said cos id taken 12 days to get it assesed they couldent give me a courtosy car as it had to be assessed within 10 days. Couldent believe this rubbish there assessor was on holliday I was available the whole time to have it assessed .
They are saying they will only replace the damaged alloy as well not the set which is no use to me as volk dont make the alloys anymore and i havent seen another set in this country either.
As you can tell im pretty ****ed off with it all, its totally blown my show season, was going to donny ( ISTS ) next week where the car was on a show stand and had track time booked :( as well.
IIRC you\'re perfectly entitled to have the car returned to it\'s original conidition prior to the accident..
This implies if the paint cannot be matched, then they should fork out for a complete respray in identical colours..
Similarly, they are within their rights to offer you one wheel, so long as it\'s part of your matching set. Otherwise they should replace all wheels..
Had similar years back in my escort, and they couldn\'t paint match the front bumper and so forked out for an entire car respray under their duty to return my car to a pre-accident condition..
Not 100% sure on legalities of it all, but he hit you and you should be entitled to claim any work necessary (unless they deem it\'s above right-off costs) to return the car to a pre-accident condition...
Really gutted for you mate. Who\'s your insurance with? Sounds like they are not doing stuff in your best interests.
AON , allways been with them cos of the club discount.
I was under the impression they had to return the car to its preaccident condition as well.
give a company called "help hire" a ring if its definatly his fault you pay 10 quid for an insurance against the loss the come get your car and take it from there then recover the loses with hire car did it for me a while ago very quick very helpfull
Quote from: yogibearAON , allways been with them cos of the club discount.
I was under the impression they had to return the car to its preaccident condition as well.
It\'s not AON who are/should be repairing the car - it\'s the old guy\'s insurance company.
Has he/they admitted liability yet?
If so, take it to a local garage(s) and get some quotes for back to preaccident condition (at least 3 quotes). I\'m pretty certain you can then go to the old guys insurance company and point out that you want the car "as was before he hit you and it it\'ll cost XYZ. Can you go ahead?"
Other option would be to put it in for repair, get it done, and then go after him via small claims court. You have to have tried all other means to get your car back to conditon though (through his insurance company) otherwise it\'ll get laughed out of the SCC..
Don\'t waste time talking to your brokers, once they have your money, their interest in you ceases. Get the name and phone number of the person dealing with your case at your actual insurance company and then phone them EVERY day to politely hassle them along. e.g. "Oh, you haven\'t had a chance to speak to Mr Landrovers\' insurers to check their progress yet? OK, I\'ll ring back in half an hour when you\'ve had time to give them a bell" It\'s amazing how fast they can move when they want to, ie to get rid of you! This is what I did when they wrote off my last FD, and I got it sorted within a month.
Also, don\'t let them fob you off with b*ll*cks about having to use their own approved repairers, this is just a system of backhanders for the boys. Make the point that no-one but an RX-7 specialist knows ****all about them, and insist on them using your own repairer. Same goes with the respray, especiallly if you know who it was who painted the car originally, make them take it back to him. And for god\'s sake, don\'t let them take it away "for evaluation" or any other spurious excuse, if they haven\'t already. There\'ll be tectonic plates moving faster than your case once they have it in storage (mmm, lovely £80 a day fees from their storage lot company).
They\'ll only have to replace the alloy with like if you declared it to them on the policy, otherwise you may end up with a standard one (if at all)!
Best of luck with it all, hope it works out ok. Should have had a go at the old fool anyway; if he can\'t negoitiate a Halfrauds car park without smashing into stationary objects, how the hell can he be fit to drive on the road, where things move about!
Chin up mate :)
Let us know how you get on.
Oh, and the fit on he RE A kits a second to none. If you go down the route of the new kit (as per email) then you wont find a problem :Thumbs-up
Chris
Insurance companies are complete bas********ards !!!! im still fighting for monies after almost 6 months ...
You have to keep at them . And if you got like for like they have to fix it.
So sorry to hear this. I know how you feel! :( :(
Bummer ....... yeh, what is it with carparks, my FD has been knocked twice in a car park, not as serious as yours though.
Surely if your paint job and wheels were declared then they have no case ........ they might have a case if they weren\'t ...... ????????
J.
Well I spoke to the assessor again today , not a helpful conversation. Hes saying he has to justify all of the repair costs and it cant warrent a full respray and they only need to replace to one wheel. Im taking legal advice of this as it just isnt on. I looks at this stage that this is gonna end up in court the way its going. Dont understand all of the body shops are saying they cant match the colour and it needs a full respray but they cant justify it.
Everything on the car is declaired, they were told when I took out the policy the paint job, the body kit , the wheels the whole lot . I insured it on an agreed value of 12K which they agreed to. I bought the car for 7.5K and ive put 8K into it in parts over the past 18months. All the work apart from the body work ive done myself fitting reurbed turbos blitz front mount c-west lights, If a vendor had been doing it for me the labour would probably have been 4-5K.
Heres a pic of what it looked like on the way to Fast & Modified 07 where the car was in the top 50 cars in GB to give your some kind of idea of what I had it looking like.(http://www.cruisewestcumbria.co.uk/images/fastandmod07/fast%20and%20mod%202007%20551.jpg)
Unlucky mate
If they cannot justify a full respray then tell them that you want the £12k that the car is worth!!! I\'m sure they\'ll quickly change their tune. Do not give in mate- hang in there.
I can see the way it is going ending up in a battle for me to get it repaired. They dont seam to understand how much time and money has gone into the car to get it to the condition it was in. I had been asked by Fast Car if they could feature it and Banzai were intersted in it as well. Gonna fight to get it restored properly, think it will take quite while.
so you are claiming directly from his insurance. if so they have to put the car back to original condition if you arent claiming from them direct why not??
the assesor works for them not for you. tell them you cant find a single wheel, give them the make and model so they can check it if they cant supply a brand new replacement they have to replace the lot.
i had a similar problem with a 200sx i got hit from behind.as it was low mileage in excellent original condition. they ended up giving me the full repair costs of my designated repairer less the vat and i got it sorted myself.
all i did to my insurer was inform them and then claimed and comunicated directly with the other drivers insurance.
remember it is there insured drivers fault they have to pay all you are doing now is argueing how much.
good luck, dont take any bull**** and if you need to get legal advice its worth the phone call (normaly you get this with your own insurance) know your rights and stick to them they dont have a lot of choice after that.
Took some legal advice this afternoon on the matter. Solicitor has said that if the insurance has to cover the diminished value of the car if they do not give the car a complete respray and replace the alloys.
going to get in touch with them on monday and see where it gets me.
Also the solicitor has said they have to supply a coutosy car as the vehicle is undrivable. Also the fact that they didnt get it assessed within 10 days is there problem as i provided the vehicle for inspection with in a reasonable period of time.
Quote from: yogibearTook some legal advice this afternoon on the matter. Solicitor has said that if the insurance has to cover the diminished value of the car if they do not give the car a complete respray and replace the alloys.
going to get in touch with them on monday and see where it gets me.
Also the solicitor has said they have to supply a coutosy car as the vehicle is undrivable. Also the fact that they didnt get it assessed within 10 days is there problem as i provided the vehicle for inspection with in a reasonable period of time.
Surely if it was the old stiffers fault and he has admitted liabilty your insurance company should be doing all they can for "you".Personally i am fed up with insurance companies,you pay your hard earned to be legal then when you want to make a claim they dont want to know,just last night a girl reversed into my little runaround busting the bumper and denting the rear,just waiting for the excuses when i phone someone tomorrow:Grrr
Was offered £3200 for the total cost of repairs this morning.
The repair quotes from garages are talking around £9000 the car needs a respray to match the colour but the insurance company arent preparred to do a full respray even though it wont match. They cant replace the wheel thats damaged but they will only pay for the cost of one new one not the full set as theres nothing wrong with the other three. The body kit is no longer available and theres suspension damage.
Gonna talk to my solicitor this afternoon as they are totally taking the ****.
jokers!!! Keep on it and them mate - you will have your redemption.... chin up #;o)
In addition, how about this lot for food for thought:
I know it\'s a one off paint colour but have you any reference to the original formulation and application details??!! Because if your have the paint formulation, ie: which base coat, pearl, candi used, etc..... there\'s a good chance it can be matched close enough to achieve a good blend repair....
Who painted it and which paint brand did you use?
Re: the kit... what do you need? I know I have a v similar front bar ( Re-A right ) ad facer II?! So I\'m pretty sure you\'ll be able to get a replacement one of those.....
Rims..... surely you can get some v similar these days to what you want.... take the money..... then hows about a new set n poss sell the your other 3 to compensate?!
Suspension - obviously you can replace / fix....
just a few ideas......
Phil
Quote from: yogibear;500621Was offered £3200 for the total cost of repairs this morning.
The repair quotes from garages are talking around £9000 the car needs a respray to match the colour but the insurance company aren\'t prepared to do a full respray even though it wont match. They cant replace the wheel thats damaged but they will only pay for the cost of one new one not the full set as theres nothing wrong with the other three. The body kit is no longer available and theres suspension damage.
Gonna talk to my solicitor this afternoon as they are totally taking the ****.
as said don\'t wait for your insurance to chase - cos they won\'t...
be careful what you start demanding though, cos the book price of an RX7 (is there a defined price for your car) may mean you write it off if you need too much doing...
The amount to insure it against is not the same as the write off value IIRC.
insurance legalised robbery trying to get mine to pay out after damage and everything said ok sending cheque that was a month ago ******s can i get hold of any one NO !
The car has an agreed value on it of £12000 so they wont be righting it off , before this it really was one of the cleanest fd\'s around. Was in discussions for it to be featured in Fast Car Magazine.
Spoke to my solicitor this afternoon and he has advised me to go to the Companies Chief executive, basically take it streight to the top. If that didnt get me anywhere then to go to the insurance ombudsman with my complaint. Im so cheesed of with them. The paint job is listed in the policy as are the wheels so how they can say what they are saying I dont get. Basically the insurance ive paid for doesent cover me, tis a joke.
I used to work in insurance, answering complaints is expensive business and in the grand scheme of things 9k is not that much to an insurance company.
Keep pushing surely soon you will become cheaper to pay off than to fight.
dam thats unfortunate, keep on at them!!!
looks like you\'ll be going to sky next year then?
9K may not be much to an insurance company but the cost of any claim does not influence their response does it. If it was 900 they would still be wriggling.
They so rarely ever actually answer a complaint it is hard to have any sympathy for them over the cost of doing it. Presumably it accounts for why they spend so much time fobbing people off. The cost of that is obviously lower since you only need to employ someone capable of licking the monitor where the excuses are displayed. The cost to a customer of obtaining a satisfactory outcome are, in the main, magically excluded from any calculation yet all the advice given above is for the unfortunate customer to keep hassling them to do what they have already been paid for?:confused:
A product you are obliged to buy by law, the price of which is set in accordance with rules that are not universal or open to scrutiny, ring fenced with conditions intended to discourage you from ever obtaining the service for which you pay. In the event that you do claim, your view of circumstances is automatically disregarded and an alternative reality, based on an assessment by an employee or agent of the provider, is used to calculate a "true" measure of their exposure. Well that seems fair.
If motor insurers sold \'things\' as opposed to mandatory cover they would have no customers at all because no one would do business with them. There is no alternative to the cartel because, for very good reasons, there are rules about who can set up an insurance company. If you qualify - you automatically join the cartel...well you would wouldn\'t you! The only mystery about insurance is why motorists do not campaign for an alternative system of providing secure cover for everyone that does not involve writing a blank cheque to an industry that spends so much time trying to avoid honouring the promise it made in the original contract with its customers. :(
In the interests of balance - as said before - If there is anyone reading this who could mount a coherent defence of the system of car insurance as it operates now...I would dearly love to hear it. :Nono! Polite Warning: Any person suggesting insurers make no money from motor policies risks being bludgeoned to death by the information commissioner\'s report on the commercial value of personal information collected in business and/or a selection of company annual reports....from the insurance industry.
What\'s that nurse? Time for my medication...again?
Hear hear! They are, put simply, cynically thieving scumbags who shamelessly exploit legalised extortion. Since they are essentially unregulated (the Ombudsman will do less than nothing, even if invoked: I know, I\'ve tried) they basically do as they please. It\'s long past time that strong regulation was inflicted on the robbing b*st*rds!
None of which helps Yogibear of course. Like I said earlier, when I wrote my Rex off last year, I basically adopted the technique of phoning both my broker and the case file handler at the actual insurers every day, sometimes more than once and essentially making myself such a PITA that they paid me to go away and leave them alone. It was very annoying (for everyone!) and you shouldn\'t have to, but it did get a full value settlement sorted in about a month! It is the only way to get them to do anything, if you just ring once in a while and ask them to sort stuff out, they\'ll forget that you exist as soon as you hang up. You really have to tell them what to do, and do it a lot! You\'ve paid them good money, and a contract is a two-way thing; they expect you to be honest about the car when taking out the policy, the least you can expect is that they do their job when called upon.
Update
The insurance comapny made me a cash offer of £3200 so I sent them a letter of complaint which was quite comprehensive. They contacted me back and have upped the offer to £4200 due to the cost involved in me getting in transported to be repaired.
Im getting very sick of the whole situation now and have decided to put the car up for sale as it is and pushing the insurance company for a little more cash and start over again with a new vehicle. Fighting insurance companies is pretty demoralising.
Got told by the insurance company that for some reason I dont have an agreed value policy either, apparently the AON have no record of recieving the valuation documentation even though it was sent in with the policy and the rest of the forms so they are saying now the car is insured for market value. Getting even more of a joke.
Had fuor policies on my verious RX7\'s and they have all been agreed value every time. Also from advice ive been given it is looking like I have been missold the policy in the first place. I asked wheen I took out the policy what would happen if the body work is damaged and was told the car would be resprayed to match the colour as long as it was declaired which now it turns out is not the case as Royal Sun Alliance will only respray the damaged areas. Considering the car was a show car with a faultless paint job I dont think thats on.
Hope pete sparrow isnt insured by them with his spectraflare paint job cos they wont payout for the car to be resprayed so it matches.
So the car is up for sale as it is, Im looking for £6500 but am open to offers. This may seam a lot still but it has had a haywood engine rebuild less than 5K ago, Rebuilt turbos 1K ago , Respray and refurbed alloys 1.5K ago. New Apexi PFC 500miles ago.
Put it on rollers and it made 292BHp running the apexi base map and with the turbos only running 0.6Bar which shows how fresh the engine and turbos are.
Yogi mate, it is heart-breaking to hear the amount of s**t you\'re being put through over this. As said earlier - insurance companies are essentially legalisded robbery. If you\'re not happy with your service and you can\'t get any joy with either the chief executive / parent company and/or the ombudman - go straight back to your solicitor. From the sounds of it you were mis-sold your policy which is a crime in and of itself.
Don\'t lose faith though mate, just think of when you get the Rex back to her former glory - the smile on your face as you drive repeatedly back and forward in front of AONs HQ will be epic!!! :p :p
Go to the ombudsman. I\'ve wasted month\'s with an insurance company trying to get some sense out of them, no-one in insurance companies ever seem to know what\'s going on or they figure that if they d1ck you around enough you\'ll just give up. Get the ombudsmen involved and they\'ll make a decision that the insurance companies have to follow...
To Add insult to injury bought Fast Car today and theres a pic of it from 5 days before it was damaged looking perfect, had spent all day cleaning it and polishing it.
At least it happened after that though, or you\'d have missed the feature too... Small consolation but you have at least one decent record of its full glory.
It\'s a ****ty situation you\'re in there :(
Had a e-mail from AON today. They turned round and said they ahd never recieved the indipendent valuation of the vehicle when the policy was taken out so the car was on market value only. I forwarded the valuation that Clive had done for the car dated back in March. There email today said after careful consideration they have declined the valuation and the claim well be settled on a market value basis only.
Think the insurance ombudsman is gonna be getting a call cos im sick of the whole thing now. Also AON mysteriously cant find any record of the orgional quote I recievied where I queried what would happen if the car was damaged and the paint couldent be matched to which the reply was that the car would have a full respray.
The only people who have been helpful and got back to me and returned my calls has been the appointed solicitors but they cant give me advice against AON or Royal Sun Alliance. Free legal advice unless theres a conflict of interests.
Spoke to the head guy at my broker on tuesday. Asked him how he would feel if I reversed into his car then in 4 months time his insurance company offered him less than half of what it was gonna take to put right. Was a bit of mumbled reply that he wouldent be very happy.
Gave them 14days to settle in full before I start the ball rolling with the insurance ombudsman.
Im saving more than a small fourtune not running the car though lol.
hopefully the result your after then in sight now #;o)
Quote from: yogibear;509517Spoke to the head guy at my broker on tuesday. Asked him how he would feel if I reversed into his car then in 4 months time his insurance company offered him less than half of what it was gonna take to put right. Was a bit of mumbled reply that he wouldent be very happy.
Gave them 14days to settle in full before I start the ball rolling with the insurance ombudsman.
Im saving more than a small fourtune not running the car though lol.
How you getting on yogi? any updates or progress?
Good luck,
Not really a lot to report. Friday was the two week notice id given to AON and to Royal Sun Alliance to get it all sorted out. Royal Sun Alliance have been talking to me but AON havent.
They have sent me a cheque for £4220 but this is not final settlement.
There is quite a bit of confusion at the moment as AON sent me a letter saying that RSA were not preparred to accsept the Agreed valuation and the the claim would be settled on an market value but when I brought this matter up with RSA there man had no idea what they were talking about as its AON that make the agreed valuation decision.
Read out the whole letter to him over the phone to which he said he was going to have to make further enquieries because it didnt make sense and it certainly seams like AON havent been telling the truth to be honest.
Going to be setting the ball in motion for going to the insurance ombudsman on monday.
Thanks for the update yogi, just out of interest do they state anything about Agreed value on the policy?
Just a quick note as this seems crazy to me...
My mate last year crashed his modded Supra all mods declared but had no agreed value on it, long story short, was told that they\'re only giving him 6k, he then declined and went back to them with 3 other cars that were up for sale that were close to the mods that he had and were on sale for around 12k, which he beleived that was the value of his car... they were then chase and hounded and shortly after was given a cheque for 12k....
You may not have an agreed value for the car but as the car is modded and insured as modded they can\'t offer book price as its not a reflection of what is insured, otherwise why declare mod at all?! so should give you what the value of the car is in its current state (before hit)... just need to give them some evidence as they wont go looking for it... Don\'t sell up at 6k, get what the car is worth and from the insurance company. Always go fighting with ammo... try and cover everything they might try and throw at you to get out of what you want/think you should get!
my 2p.... its always easier being an outsider giving advise, and much harder to put in practice... but good luck!
Hows it going Yogi? any news?
Spoke to my solicitor today and he has reomended I take it to the ombudsman so thats whats happening next. Been trying to get through to the person at AON that I was dealing with but they havent returned my calls that I made surprise surprise. Recieved a letter from AON the other day saying they were looking into what was said when I took out the policy but have been unable to locate anything so far as they were moving offices at the time.
Basically not got anywhere and they have wasted more of my time
Sorry to hear of your problems with no resolution as yet, I\'m beginning to wonder if it\'s worth paying extra for an \'agreed value\' it seems meaningless, do they ever cough up!
Hope you can make some progress soon,
Just read through this thread... What a nightmare!! That\'s a beautiful Rex you\'ve got there (maybe not quite at the mo\', but you know what I mean!). Can\'t believe how long they\'ve been dragging it on for, b******s.
I\'m gutted for you, but I really hope you get it sorted. Keep fighting!!
Have you cashed the cheque they sent for £4,200?? I have a funny feeling that if you do, then that is taken as acceptance of the compensation offered.
There is a leason to be learned here for everyone. Get everything you require from your insurance company in writing. It is far to easy for them to lose records when it works in their favour!
Sorry for all your hassles yogibear. I\'m not a big fan of those wings you have, but it is still a beautiful example!
Thanks for the support guys. No end in sight at the moment. Still ringing up all the time trying badger them in to settleing. Checked with my solicitor and the cheque was not full and final settlement so there was no problem cashing it.
The essence of what they are saying is that they never recieved the agreed value documentation for the policy, they also failed to tell me this untill I was 3/4 months into the claim.
Im gonna be sending clive a message bout this to see if he is able to be of any further help and also to say I dont believe the club should be recomending them in future. When I first signed up with them 3 ish years ago there was a dedicated guy there who knew what you were talking about and rang you back and was generally helpful but the people that ive been dealing with have to have everything explained to them and dont seam to grasp the cost, value, time , effort that has gone into the car.
The way they have delt with my claim doesent make it hard to understand why there are so many fradulent claims made against them.
Any updates on this
Phil