Help Urgent Update

[riber3]

Hi everybody,

First of All I would to thank evryone who helped me in regard to my dilema. The current situion is this I have been offered £3000 less my car and less the cost of returning it to me.

When I started this post I still didn\'t have my car back that was of 10.00 am this morning. Its now parked outside my house god knows how I am going to get back in the garage. But for those of you who like a good story and are thinking about buying classisc car insurance I suggest you take a read and then make up your own minds!!!

By the waydoes anyone know of a good independent assessor  in the South West and how much it costs?

My story

January 17th 2006

Hi there,

Can someone please call me asap preferably this morning on 111 1111 to let me know what is happening with car

With regards,

Paul Ribera

Jan 30th 2006

Hi Marilyn,

I have provided the following information in support of my claim and |I have attached as a word document as well to make it easier to print off.

With regards,

Paul Ribera

Dear Marilyn,

Thank you again for your help and advice and I have prepared the following statement and I have included or attached as much supporting evidence as possible in regard to my case.

To Whom It May Concern:

Claim Ref: MC05094483

I do not accept your current offer of £2500 and my car returned to me as a Category D for me to work on.  I find this offer insulting and well below my car’s true value. I also think that in comparison to the above offer that Mr Roger Cuss proprietor of the Cuss Car Centre stated that he was more than happy to carry out the required work and the estimate he provided to your assessor Neville of £3000 was over priced because he had over estimated the price of the parts required Mr Cuss informed Neville and I of this on the day Neville did the Assessment of my car on Wednesday 11th January 2006.

Therefore as a comparison between the two I suggest you get Cuss Car Centre to commence repairs on my car with immediate effect.

I need this matter resolved as soon as possible and preferably before Friday 3rd February 2006 when I expect my car to either be repaired by your approved repair centre or returned to me in the condition in which it was taken before Cuss Car Centre collected i.e., battery charged and fully running.

Even though since the vehicle has been with them they have added further damage and left it outside exposed to all sorts of weather conditions and prone to further damage in their yard.

I want my car fully rectified in time for my Birthday 16th February 2006.

I have been asked to provide further information in support of the value of my car despite providing Neville with a lot of information already but in additional support please note the following.

1   Currently for sale in the magazine Classic Car Mart Vol 12 issue 3 January 2006 there is a bog standard 1984 Mazda RX7 i.e. without a bodykit or specialised alloys etc for sale at £5650.00 the sellers telephone number is 01362 858101.

2   Mr Carl Haywood of Haywood Rotary a well respected and specialised Mazda  restoration and servicing company has asked me forward the following statement to you and his contact details

“To the insurer in respect to the vehicle Mazda RX7 registration number B47 YSU that has been involved in an incident  with Mr N Whiting of BLAH Gardens who is clearly at fault.

The above mentioned vehicle which is insured as a classic vehicle and has recently been damaged is worth far more than your offer as a write off.
I would strongly suggest that it is worth around the £5500.00 mark as it is in exceptionally good condition, An average model for the year would be worth between  Â£3500.00.to £6500

I strongly think that you should reconsider repairing the vehicle instead of writing it off as it is a reasonably rare car now and extremely difficult to find one in such good condition.

I am a Mazda rotary specialist and work on and see quite a number of these cars so I am very familiar with the model in question.

Since Mr Whiting was clearly at fault, at the very least you should be trying your utmost to get this matter resolved as soon as possible and get the present owner’s car fully repaired and returned to its previous concourse condition.

If you wish to contact me further about the vehicle and it\'s value please do so using the information provided below”.

Regards

Carl Hayward

Hayward Rotary


3   I have no idea why Neville your assessor upon contacting Matt at RX Motors of Blandford did so under the pretext of being my mechanic to obtain prices for the parts needed for the repair of my car? However when I spoke with Matt on Friday 27th January 2006 when I was informed of this I was also informed that Neville requested a price for a new chassis rail?  For any car a new chassis rail is extremely difficult to obtain and can be very expensive let alone trying to source one for a classic car but it could be construed as a good excuse to write off a car that is causing too much trouble for the assessor to evaluate!

4    I am reasonably sure that is not the case and I am also sure that a new chassis rail is not required as only the mounting point for the anti-roll bar is damaged but again is repairable. Nevertheless if a new chassis rail for a classic car was needed I would suggest that the following option be undertaken. Get a sheet metal press company to take a either a mould or use existing drawings of the chassis rail and make a new one. This would be more cost effective and save time trying to source a very difficult component.

4   Here are two suggested companies that can be contacted in order to do chassis pressings but there are many others first there is:

A:   RnR Services in East Yorkshire tel 01964 501207 mobile 07710314662.

B   Chrysalis Services Ltd Unit 2 Morley Rd Staple Road Bristol tel 0117 9574846.

5   In reference to fibre glass mouldings a UK company called JPS Mouldings supply the bodykit for my car and the parts can be obtained. A new front wing would cost approximately £180.00 plus vat.

6   In reference to my alloy wheels they are a set of 7.0x17 Alloys 2154517 fitted with tyres, purchased on the 5th June 2005 I have a receipt to confirm this. I did provide details to Neville earlier but I hope this additional information helps.

7   As for the specialised engine and gearbox plus all the ancillaries these would cost well in excess of £2000 pounds to replace. I have emailed requests to the specialists to help you further.

Finally I would like to re-iterate again that from the outset I declared all the modifications to my car upon taking up my policy with yourselves and I even supplied you with photographic evidence to show why my car is valued so highly.

I have been informed that there have been many difficulties in establishing contact with Mr Whiting’s insurance company Norwich Union I suggest alternative methods should be used with immediate effect as their professionalism is definitely in question and they are certainly not making me happy!

If you require any further information please do no hesitate in contacting me on 111 1111. I also want to be contacted via this number as soon as further updates occur.

Yours truly,

Paul Ribera

February 4th 2006

Hi Marilyn,

I am sorry I missed your call please could you call me back on Monday I will keep my phone ready.

I don\'t understand what exactly is being stated here in terms of what is being offered?

You now say that the assessor has completed his report and I am to be offered £3000 but what does this entail?

is this £3000 and my car returned to me? and under what category?

Can\'t the money just be paid to your repair centre so they can get and fix it?

For the money being offered why don\'t your company just fix my car? as it worth more than that.

When Will the car be returned to me? and I want it returned to me in its former running order before being returned i.e. battery charged and engine running .

When can I have my car back as I will be away from 13th February to the 17th Febraury 2006 so I need this resolved asap as stated previously.

I apologise that you are having to deal with the brunt of this but at the end of the day I get the impression that your company finds it easier to write a car off rather than have it repaired and is certainly making me feel very wary about future classic car insurance with yourselves.

With refernce to the hire car until this matter is resolved and has reached a satisfactory conclusion.
I suggest you bill Mr Whiting and his insurance company until this matter is resolved.

With regards,

Paul Ribera

February 6th 2006

Dear Mr Ribera

We can confirm that our engineer has deemed your vehicle beyond economical repair and subject to all vehicle documents being in order, we are prepared to offer £3,000.00 on a total loss basis, the policy excess has been waived as we have had admission of liability from the Third Party Insurers.

When we spoke you advised you wanted to retain the salvage of your vehicle, as advised there are a few requirements. Most of the procedures are there to protect individuals against fraud.

As you are retaining the salvage a deduction of 4% will be made, £120.00.

As discussed, after a lengthy investigation by our inspecting engineer into the repair process, he has recommended the vehicle be registered as a Category B total loss. It has also been referred to our Regional Engineer for a second opinion who has agreed it should be a Category B. We understand that you were present at the time of inspection and spoke at length with our engineer about the damage to the chassis. Damage to the off-side chassis, off-side outrigger and tie rod mount was evident.

We do not wish to offer further cover on the vehicle and have notified our underwriters to invoke cancellation of your policy.

Before you can sell your vehicle or apply for any further Road Fund Licence you will have to put your vehicle through the VIC (Vehicle IDentity Check) scheme at a cost of £36.00. If you require further information about the scheme or to find your local testing centre you can call the VOSA/DVLA on 0870 6060440.

Now that your vehicle has been deemed beyond economical repair it will appear on several databases. This information will be available to other insurers, the Police and HPI.

We cannot stress enough that we feel it would not be safe to repair your vehicle although we understand that you have invested much time modifying the vehicle.

You will need to arrange for the collection of your vehicle from Cuss Care Centre.

You have requested a payment be made direct to your bank acoount, we will make the necessary arrangements to do this.

Should you have any further queries or wish to contact us please call us on 0870 240 1895.

Thank you

Jenni Tweedale
Claims Customer Service Assistant
ext 494

February 6th 2006

Dear Mr Ribera

Further to our earlier correspondence we have been advised by our Regional Engineer that storage charges will begin very shortly. Therefore as you are chosing to retain the salvage of your vehicle you should arrange collection by Thursday 9 February 2006 to avoid being responsible for additional charges.

Should you decide not to retain the salvage we can arrange for removal and disposal of the vehicle.

Many thanks

February 7TH 2006

FIREBOND

AT THIS POINT I CONTACTED FIREBOND TO STATE  IWAS VERY UNHAPPY WITH GROUPARMA  WHEREAS FIREBOND HAD ALWAYS BEEN HELPFUL. I WAS ASKED BY FIREBOND TO FORWARD ALL CORRESPONDENCE ONTO THEM AS THEY STATED THEY WOULD NOT LIKE TO REPRESENT A COMPANY THAT DID NOT LOOK AFTER ITS CLIENTS PROPERLY.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I called your office yesterday afternoon and spoke to a gentleman called Gary regarding the problems I have been having with the Grouparma Insurance Company with whom I was insured with through yourselves.

I find their offer and methods throughout this ordeal totally unacceptable. Their assessor is not experienced or competent enough to assess classic cars and they have continually kept me in the dark over certain matters.

There only saving grace was one of their customer services agent called Marilyn Small who at least attempted to help me.

I will be forwarding on copies of all the emails I have to yourselves as requested for you to evaluate.

I FORWARDED ALL CORRESPONDENCE ONTO THEM YET EVEN THOUGH I CALLED THEM 2 DAY’S LATER LATER  TO CHECK THEY HAD RECEIVED THE INFORMATION. THE PERSON I SPOKE TO WAS A LITTLE INDIFFERENT AND BASICALLY THEY WERE NOT DOING ANYTHING AS IT WAS UP TO THE INSURERS TO SORT OUT??? SO MUCH FOR THEIR CUSTOMER SUPPORT.

February 7th 2006 23.30

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have made 14 calls to Cuss Car Centre in the last 24 hours and thier failure to respnd to my calls is giving grave concerns.

I have only had one call returned to me and even though Mike Cuss apologised and stated they were really busy I cannot understand why they will not give me a straight forward answer in regard to having my car returned to me.

My last call to them was at 17.35 this evening when I was promised that Roger Cuss would call me this evening in reference to my car.

It is now 11.23pm and I have not recieved any calls from him or anyone else from Cuss Car Centre.  I am extremely worried that they are hiding something from me as they have already damaged my car further whilst in their care and I am worried that something further has happened.

They have left me no other choice but to go to their garage tomorrow to find exactly what is going on and perhaps providing them in a training on what a telephone is used for.

I am disgusted by the fact that I have to do this as no one seems to care about me or my car and more disgusted by the fact that this company and Grouparma think that treating their customers in this manner is acceptable

With regards

Paul Ribera

February 8th 2006

I went to Cuss Car Centre checked and photographed my car then saw Mike Cuss and paid to have my car returned to me and he promised me faithfully in front of witnesse’s that my car would be with me by lunchtime that day.

1.30 no car called them again to be told a truck was returning from Yeovil and on its return to site would pick up my car and return it.

16.30 â€" STILL NO CAR OR EVEN A PHONE CALL!!!

16.35 I call them again and was about to be palmed off again with their phoney call back routine at which point I told them if no one in authority would speak to me now and explain why my car had not arrived that I would return today to their site and it would not be pleasant.

Mr Roger Cuss then came to the phone reused to answer my question and hung up.

I called back immediately and got him straight away he finally told me he was awaiting a release note from Neville the assessor which Mike Cuss had already informed me had done Monday.

I was also told I would not be charged storage and my car would be returned asap.

January 17th 2006

Hi there,

Can someone please call me asap preferably this morning on 111 1111 to let me know what is happening with car

With regards,

Paul Ribera

Jan 30th 2006

Hi Marilyn,

I have provided the following information in support of my claim and |I have attached as a word document as well to make it easier to print off.

With regards,

Paul Ribera

Dear Marilyn,

Thank you again for your help and advice and I have prepared the following statement and I have included or attached as much supporting evidence as possible in regard to my case.

To Whom It May Concern:

Claim Ref: MC05094483

I do not accept your current offer of £2500 and my car returned to me as a Category D for me to work on.  I find this offer insulting and well below my car’s true value. I also think that in comparison to the above offer that Mr Roger Cuss proprietor of the Cuss Car Centre stated that he was more than happy to carry out the required work and the estimate he provided to your assessor Neville of £3000 was over priced because he had over estimated the price of the parts required Mr Cuss informed Neville and I of this on the day Neville did the Assessment of my car on Wednesday 11th January 2006.

Therefore as a comparison between the two I suggest you get Cuss Car Centre to commence repairs on my car with immediate effect.

I need this matter resolved as soon as possible and preferably before Friday 3rd February 2006 when I expect my car to either be repaired by your approved repair centre or returned to me in the condition in which it was taken before Cuss Car Centre collected i.e., battery charged and fully running.

Even though since the vehicle has been with them they have added further damage and left it outside exposed to all sorts of weather conditions and prone to further damage in their yard.

I want my car fully rectified in time for my Birthday 16th February 2006.

I have been asked to provide further information in support of the value of my car despite providing Neville with a lot of information already but in additional support please note the following.

1   Currently for sale in the magazine Classic Car Mart Vol 12 issue 3 January 2006 there is a bog standard 1984 Mazda RX7 i.e. without a bodykit or specialised alloys etc for sale at £5650.00 the sellers telephone number is 01362 858101.

2   Mr Carl Haywood of Haywood Rotary a well respected and specialised Mazda  restoration and servicing company has asked me forward the following statement to you and his contact details

“To the insurer in respect to the vehicle Mazda RX7 registration number B47 YSU that has been involved in an incident  with Mr N Whiting of BLAH Gardens who is clearly at fault.

The above mentioned vehicle which is insured as a classic vehicle and has recently been damaged is worth far more than your offer as a write off.
I would strongly suggest that it is worth around the £5500.00 mark as it is in exceptionally good condition, An average model for the year would be worth between  Â£3500.00.to £6500

I strongly think that you should reconsider repairing the vehicle instead of writing it off as it is a reasonably rare car now and extremely difficult to find one in such good condition.

I am a Mazda rotary specialist and work on and see quite a number of these cars so I am very familiar with the model in question.

Since Mr Whiting was clearly at fault, at the very least you should be trying your utmost to get this matter resolved as soon as possible and get the present owner’s car fully repaired and returned to its previous concourse condition.

If you wish to contact me further about the vehicle and it\'s value please do so using the information provided below”.

Regards

Carl Hayward

Hayward Rotary


3   I have no idea why Neville your assessor upon contacting Matt at RX Motors of Blandford did so under the pretext of being my mechanic to obtain prices for the parts needed for the repair of my car? However when I spoke with Matt on Friday 27th January 2006 when I was informed of this I was also informed that Neville requested a price for a new chassis rail?  For any car a new chassis rail is extremely difficult to obtain and can be very expensive let alone trying to source one for a classic car but it could be construed as a good excuse to write off a car that is causing too much trouble for the assessor to evaluate!

4    I am reasonably sure that is not the case and I am also sure that a new chassis rail is not required as only the mounting point for the anti-roll bar is damaged but again is repairable. Nevertheless if a new chassis rail for a classic car was needed I would suggest that the following option be undertaken. Get a sheet metal press company to take a either a mould or use existing drawings of the chassis rail and make a new one. This would be more cost effective and save time trying to source a very difficult component.

4   Here are two suggested companies that can be contacted in order to do chassis pressings but there are many others first there is:

A:   RnR Services in East Yorkshire tel 01964 501207 mobile 07710314662.

B   Chrysalis Services Ltd Unit 2 Morley Rd Staple Road Bristol tel 0117 9574846.

5   In reference to fibre glass mouldings a UK company called JPS Mouldings supply the bodykit for my car and the parts can be obtained. A new front wing would cost approximately £180.00 plus vat.

6   In reference to my alloy wheels they are a set of 7.0x17 Alloys 2154517 fitted with tyres, purchased on the 5th June 2005 I have a receipt to confirm this. I did provide details to Neville earlier but I hope this additional information helps.

7   As for the specialised engine and gearbox plus all the ancillaries these would cost well in excess of £2000 pounds to replace. I have emailed requests to the specialists to help you further.

Finally I would like to re-iterate again that from the outset I declared all the modifications to my car upon taking up my policy with yourselves and I even supplied you with photographic evidence to show why my car is valued so highly.

I have been informed that there have been many difficulties in establishing contact with Mr Whiting’s insurance company Norwich Union I suggest alternative methods should be used with immediate effect as their professionalism is definitely in question and they are certainly not making me happy!

If you require any further information please do no hesitate in contacting me on 111 1111. I also want to be contacted via this number as soon as further updates occur.

Yours truly,

Paul Ribera

February 4th 2006

Hi Marilyn,

I am sorry I missed your call please could you call me back on Monday I will keep my phone ready.

I don\'t understand what exactly is being stated here in terms of what is being offered?

You now say that the assessor has completed his report and I am to be offered £3000 but what does this entail?

is this £3000 and my car returned to me? and under what category?

Can\'t the money just be paid to your repair centre so they can get and fix it?

For the money being offered why don\'t your company just fix my car? as it worth more than that.

When Will the car be returned to me? and I want it returned to me in its former running order before being returned i.e. battery charged and engine running .

When can I have my car back as I will be away from 13th February to the 17th Febraury 2006 so I need this resolved asap as stated previously.

I apologise that you are having to deal with the brunt of this but at the end of the day I get the impression that your company finds it easier to write a car off rather than have it repaired and is certainly making me feel very wary about future classic car insurance with yourselves.

With refernce to the hire car until this matter is resolved and has reached a satisfactory conclusion.
I suggest you bill Mr Whiting and his insurance company until this matter is resolved.

With regards,

Paul Ribera

February 6th 2006

Dear Mr Ribera

We can confirm that our engineer has deemed your vehicle beyond economical repair and subject to all vehicle documents being in order, we are prepared to offer £3,000.00 on a total loss basis, the policy excess has been waived as we have had admission of liability from the Third Party Insurers.

When we spoke you advised you wanted to retain the salvage of your vehicle, as advised there are a few requirements. Most of the procedures are there to protect individuals against fraud.

As you are retaining the salvage a deduction of 4% will be made, £120.00.

As discussed, after a lengthy investigation by our inspecting engineer into the repair process, he has recommended the vehicle be registered as a Category B total loss. It has also been referred to our Regional Engineer for a second opinion who has agreed it should be a Category B. We understand that you were present at the time of inspection and spoke at length with our engineer about the damage to the chassis. Damage to the off-side chassis, off-side outrigger and tie rod mount was evident.

We do not wish to offer further cover on the vehicle and have notified our underwriters to invoke cancellation of your policy.

Before you can sell your vehicle or apply for any further Road Fund Licence you will have to put your vehicle through the VIC (Vehicle IDentity Check) scheme at a cost of £36.00. If you require further information about the scheme or to find your local testing centre you can call the VOSA/DVLA on 0870 6060440.

Now that your vehicle has been deemed beyond economical repair it will appear on several databases. This information will be available to other insurers, the Police and HPI.

We cannot stress enough that we feel it would not be safe to repair your vehicle although we understand that you have invested much time modifying the vehicle.

You will need to arrange for the collection of your vehicle from Cuss Care Centre.

You have requested a payment be made direct to your bank acoount, we will make the necessary arrangements to do this.

Should you have any further queries or wish to contact us please call us on 0870 240 1895.

Thank you

Jenni Tweedale
Claims Customer Service Assistant
ext 494

February 6th 2006

Dear Mr Ribera

Further to our earlier correspondence we have been advised by our Regional Engineer that storage charges will begin very shortly. Therefore as you are chosing to retain the salvage of your vehicle you should arrange collection by Thursday 9 February 2006 to avoid being responsible for additional charges.

Should you decide not to retain the salvage we can arrange for removal and disposal of the vehicle.

Many thanks

February 7TH 2006

FIREBOND

AT THIS POINT I CONTACTED FIREBOND TO STATE  IWAS VERY UNHAPPY WITH GROUPARMA  WHEREAS FIREBOND HAD ALWAYS BEEN HELPFUL. I WAS ASKED BY FIREBOND TO FORWARD ALL CORRESPONDENCE ONTO THEM AS THEY STATED THEY WOULD NOT LIKE TO REPRESENT A COMPANY THAT DID NOT LOOK AFTER ITS CLIENTS PROPERLY.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I called your office yesterday afternoon and spoke to a gentleman called Gary regarding the problems I have been having with the Grouparma Insurance Company with whom I was insured with through yourselves.

I find their offer and methods throughout this ordeal totally unacceptable. Their assessor is not experienced or competent enough to assess classic cars and they have continually kept me in the dark over certain matters.

There only saving grace was one of their customer services agent called Marilyn Small who at least attempted to help me.

I will be forwarding on copies of all the emails I have to yourselves as requested for you to evaluate.

I FORWARDED ALL CORRESPONDENCE ONTO THEM YET EVEN THOUGH I CALLED THEM 2 DAY’S LATER LATER  TO CHECK THEY HAD RECEIVED THE INFORMATION. THE PERSON I SPOKE TO WAS A LITTLE INDIFFERENT AND BASICALLY THEY WERE NOT DOING ANYTHING AS IT WAS UP TO THE INSURERS TO SORT OUT??? SO MUCH FOR THEIR CUSTOMER SUPPORT.

February 7th 2006 23.30

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have made 14 calls to Cuss Car Centre in the last 24 hours and thier failure to respnd to my calls is giving grave concerns.

I have only had one call returned to me and even though Mike Cuss apologised and stated they were really busy I cannot understand why they will not give me a straight forward answer in regard to having my car returned to me.

My last call to them was at 17.35 this evening when I was promised that Roger Cuss would call me this evening in reference to my car.

It is now 11.23pm and I have not recieved any calls from him or anyone else from Cuss Car Centre.  I am extremely worried that they are hiding something from me as they have already damaged my car further whilst in their care and I am worried that something further has happened.

They have left me no other choice but to go to their garage tomorrow to find exactly what is going on and perhaps providing them in a training on what a telephone is used for.

I am disgusted by the fact that I have to do this as no one seems to care about me or my car and more disgusted by the fact that this company and Grouparma think that treating their customers in this manner is acceptable

With regards

Paul Ribera

February 8th 2006

I went to Cuss Car Centre checked and photographed my car then saw Mike Cuss and paid to have my car returned to me and he promised me faithfully in front of witnesse’s that my car would be with me by lunchtime that day.

1.30 no car called them again to be told a truck was returning from Yeovil and on its return to site would pick up my car and return it.

16.30 â€" STILL NO CAR OR EVEN A PHONE CALL!!!

16.35 I call them again and was about to be palmed off again with their phoney call back routine at which point I told them if no one in authority would speak to me now and explain why my car had not arrived that I would return today to their site and it would not be pleasant.

Mr Roger Cuss then came to the phone reused to answer my question and hung up.

I called back immediately and got him straight away he finally told me he was awaiting a release note from Neville the assessor which Mike Cuss had already informed me had done Monday.

I was also told I would not be charged storage and my car would be returned asap.

SO THERE IT IS I STILL DO NOT HAVE MY CAR BACK AS YET AND IT HAS BEEN A TERRIBLE ORDEAL SO CLASSIC CAR INSURANCE SEEMS TO BE NO BETTER THAN ORDINARY!!! SO CHOOSE WISELY MY FRIENDS