General Chat

My daughter and I are at our wits end with a certain insurance company who shall remain nameless but as a hint they are always advertising on tv and radio.
My daughter had her car stolen at the end of SEP 2010 it was found locked minus the keys , as she didnt have a spare her ins took her car in order to change the locks. It was FEB 2011 before she got her car back .Almost 5 months it took to change those locks. she was passed backwards and forwards on the phone from one dep to another , 3 times the AUDI garage doing the lock change promised her the car would be ready the following day, each time they cancelled it at last min. Lie after Lie they spun. It wasnt till she put in a complaint higher up that her car was returned within days.

Two days before she was due to collect her car she borrowed my car. A bloke came down a one way road the wrong way ,round a corner smack into my car. Daughter , grandaughter age 8 taken to hosp in ambulance, no serious injuries though.
My car a write off. Other man admitted fault, police said he at fault and charged him at scene. I was made an offer on my car a month ago ,and still not been paid out.
This naff ins company wont insure my daughter for her car again now it needs renewing, said its because both cases still open, not only that they have wiped off her 4 yrs no claims even though none of the incidents are her fault. Can she Insure her car with some one else, not a cat in hells chance because the naff ins company wont provide her with her no claims info. Result she having to sell her car because she cant ins it and she could loose her job as a community carer .

I have seen her in tears on a few times while on phone to these loons. Not only that we never receive anything in writting or phone calls letting us know whats happening etc. We have to do all the phoning , I have been driving 35 yrs and have never ever had such utter bad service from a car ins company.
Other car Ins companies she has spoken to said knocking 4 yrs no claims off is ridiculous when none of it is her fault. She really has had enough now.

Have you contacted Ombudsman?

Yes chris she contacted ombudsman almost a month ago on phone and then by letter , heard nothing back off them yet.

Amokavid I know how your husband felt or should I say my daughter does. That is disgusting and quite scary that drivers are being tret in this way. Has your husband had luck insuring his car els where?.
I will name and shame our Ins company its CHURCHILL. Worrying thing is I have my house ins with them too.

AES have you considered writing to the Financial Mail (Daily Mail). Write to them and send a copy of the letter to the insurance company. Might 'encourage' them to get a move on with the details required.

Thank you all so much for your kind advice.

When my son was having endless problems and no satisfaction with BT, and was being batted backwards and forwards, he set up a Twitter account and 'tweeted' about how rubbish they were. Had a phone call the very next day - what a coincidence!!

Worth a try as well I should think. Good luck.

We have founf LV to be very good. But then we would say that I suppose as son works for a branch of LV (Not car insurance though.)

Unfortunately insurance companies will point out it’s a no claim not a no blame bonus; if they have been involved in processing a claim they figure they have incurred expense.

Like most people I have had more than one run in with them.
I do find that an old fashioned letter (sent recorded delivery) addressed to a manager will get better results than a phone call, and always include the magic phrase at the bottom “Copy to BBC Watchdog” strangely it often seems to focus the mind of the recipient somewhat!!

Good luck,
Mayfield.

The same happened to a friend of mine a few years back.

It doesn't matter which company you are with, if you have an outstanding claim. then your policy is "flagged'' and you won't be able to re-insure with another company until it is sorted. You will not be able to get a no claims cert either because there is a claim in progress and therefore you don't qualify at this point in time.

Like it or not, this is the way the system works, all companies operate in the same fashion.

One way or the other you need to contact the company. preferably by recorded / registered letter if it can't be resolved on the phone and agree with them how the matter is to be closed. This is where some companies are better than others in sorting things out.

Still think that sounds weird Joan, if you are insured with AA and your paperwork is AA how can it have changed? Sounds like a computer error to me.

About 3 years ago changed car insurance - Saga came up with best deal but when paperwork arrived it was AA! Yet AA had quoted us higher.

Surely he is bound by law to let him know who he is insured with - after all if police stopped him and he said I don't know - he would then be in trouble!

From the AA Insurance site. This tells you which companies they use to provide their services - it is outsourced.

http://www.theaa.com/insurance/pdf/aa-car-insurance-about-us.pdf

P.S.
It seems that both Saga and the AA use a company called Acromas for much of their cover.

http://www.acromas.com/

The details should be shown at the bottom of your Insurance Certificate, at least it is on my Saga Cert.

My partner, having had the monthly installments debited regularly,found he was not insured at all as the agent had never forwarded a document.

Yes JC, that would appear to be the case.

e.g. from Saga's main site (not specifically to do with insurance, but shows the connection)

Saga Holidays is a trading name of Acromas Holidays Ltd (registration number 2174052) and Saga Shipping is a trading name of Acromas Shipping Ltd (registration number 3267858). Both companies are subsidiaries of Acromas Travel Ltd.

Edit....PS
And, to confirm (from Wikipedia)

Acromas Holdings is the parent company for the merged Automobile Association and Saga Group. The company was formed in May 2007, ahead of the merger the following September.[1][2]

The company also owns Drakefield Insurance, which the AA acquired in May 2007.

The company also owns the British School of Motoring which it acquired for 1 pound after BSM went into receivership at the end of January 2011.

From the Acromas website

Acromas brands

* AA
* AA Getaways
* AA Ireland
* BSM
* ClaimFast
* DirectChoice Insurance
* Drakefield Insurance
* Great Getaways
* MetroMail
* Nestor Healthcare
* SAGA
* Spirit of Adventure
* Titan Travel