To wonder why I'm paying hundreds for car insurance

[SEmyarse]

I have an expensive specific car insurance policy because I do delivery work and need to be covered for multi drop. Some of the people who I work with don't think this is necessary and just deliver on SDP policies.

On 7th Jan, one of the other couriers accidentally reversed into my car at the depot. He is one of the people without a specific policy. He is trying to claim it was 50/50 but I'm not happy with that since I was not moving at the time. I reported the incident and obtained a quote for repair within an hour of it happening.

I phone the insurance company about once a week to see what's happening, but they just say permanently that they're waiting for a response from the 3rd party. They did at one point say the third party was going to contact me directly, but that didn't happen. When I next phoned they said that the third party had disputed liability so they couldn't do anything else, basically accepting their account. Why are they not trying to argue my case when they originally said the onus was on the person reversing?

So they reluctantly said I should send in a diagram (which I offered to do at the beginning, but they said they didn't need). I sent this in.

i have just received a letter from them saying they are closing the file since they have not had any response from me since the incident!! What?? I've just phoned them up and told them how many times I've tried to chase it up. They said they'd not received anything from me and then 10 seconds later claimed to spot it all on a colleagues desk!! So now they've apparently reopened the file and we are now again waiting on a response from the 3rd party. What exactly is it that i'm paying the insurance company to do each year??

MyArse, if you put a complaint in the company will be able to find out who you spoke to because him accessing your claim in the IT system will require him to leave a footprint. Just note the time you called, that he was male, his accent (if notable), they'll know who it was.

That's very wrong that they wouldn't let you speak to a manager.

Consider making a data subject access request, in writing, it costs £10 and takes 40 days but you will then be able to see what they have been doing and you can escalate the complaint that way, you shouldn't have to do that but the handler is behaving really badly. They have to let you complain!!

Is there a separate complaints number, can you go directly to them and cut the handler out. There will be recordings of the calls which they can listen to.

You were stationary, how can it have been your responsibility!

I don't think you can speak to the other insurer. This is why you pay your company.

so raise merry hell. Set up a twitter account if you haven't got one already and flag it up there. repost every hour until something happens. Also go through the official complaints procedure.

it will take ages but you've nothing to lose. The other guy doesn't have a leg to stand on, he reversed into a stationary object.

I've had to claim twice in the past 4 years when others have hit my stationary and unattended car. In one case the other party was with another insurer, who were more than happy to minimise claim costs by organising me a hire car themselves (a Mercedes 4x4 for 4 weeks), paid my mileage to and from the repair centre I chose to do the work for the quote and to drop off/pick up, plus a discretionary payment because the hire car was much less fuel efficient than my car. I informed my insurer for info only and had little stress.

The second guy was insured by the same company as me, but they handled it as a third party claim with no hassle for me. Again I chose the repairer myself, they supplied a hire car and covered my mileage for the quote and drop off/pick up.

It's a much much simpler route. The third party insurer usually appreciates the opportunity to control the claim costs themselves.

Next time you phone get the call handler's name before you tell them what you're phoning about. Have you looked up your insurer's complaints procedure yet?