Sainsburys van wrote my car off

[Wildflower1987]

On Dec 6th, my Sainsbury’s delivery van scraped down the side of my parked car. It caused significant damage and the car was written off.

It was an old car but running perfectly, but due to age and mileage the insurance payout was very low. It caused me immense stress sorting out the hire car and a new car just before Christmas and in order to buy another car I had to take out a loan.

I haven’t had any apology from Sainsbury’s at all even though I have notified them via complaints.

All the car insurance info was done through my insurer.

I’m a longstanding customer, and spend on average £4-5k a year with them. I feel like surely I should receive some type of goodwill gesture or compensation? AIBU?

YABU. Surely this is what car insurance is for?

A John Lewis ban hit my car about ten years ago, also in December!

I remember liaising with someone at JL. I didn’t get any compensation (I didn’t ask, u didn’t think it was necessary), but they were apologetic and helpful. They sorted out the insurance stuff, inc collecting my car, sorting out courtesy car etc.

I wouldn’t expect them so do anything other than get their insurance to deal with it.

It’s a car, it has insurance, it was a car accident.

They don’t owe you compensation or anything just because you happen to be their customer who’s car got hit by their van.

Might it have been nice to get a sorry bunch of flowers maybe but it dpd hit you would you expect free shipping or something ?

That's what your insurance is for. Should the driver of the car that ran into the back of me also provide me with compensation?

I don’t see what your annual spending with them has got to do with it. I don’t shop in Sainsburys but if they wrote my car off I would still be expecting them to acknowledge it. But as others have said it should be a no fault claim on your insurance

I would think any compensation or apology from sainsburys could jeopardise the agreement made by their insurer, so no, I don't think compo face will work..

My son broke a baby tooth on Sainsburys cereal (an extra hard bit of cereal!) and even he was given a little compensation!

(They only knew because I left a review of the cereal on their website and explained what had happened. They were very apologetic!)

YANBU to expect an apology at least

Did you want a ££££ lump sum, bunch of flowers or a £20 voucher or something?

They can't apologise, it makes them liable!

Let it go through insurance.

Sorry about your car OP, and what crap timing. Did your insurance not provide a hire car?
A few years ago a speeding Morrisons van hit my parked Range Rover. Driver failed to stop but he did slow just enough to give me time to run out onto the lane (I was in the garden) to take photos with my phone. He only came back because he saw me. He hadn't secured the handle on the rear door of his van and it was sticking out to the side and basically went down the side of my car like a tin opener. I wonder how many other cars he damaged before mine.
To be fair, Morrisons coughed up for the repairs without any quibbling (although they couldn't really argue with the photos I got).

You spend less than £100 a week there. You’re hardly a high rolling customer.

What do you want? Your insurance has paid and as you admit yourself the car was old. Be thankful you got some money for it before the engine blew up or it needed so much work it was beyond economical repair.

I think you'll find that it's deemed an admission of guilt so they can't.

Even if insurance deems them the party at fault, they as a business can't

Their insurance should pay up. I don't know why you would expect them to do anything more than this - if it was a random person would you expect them to compensate you on top of insurance? Change supermarkets if you want to.

That's what insurance is for, if you choose not to have gap insurance as well then the payout was always going to be less than the insurance payout.

It's frustrating

What happened was terrible but I wouldn't see it as an opportunity to get free groceries 😳

Car insurance typically only pays for a hire car while your damaged car is repaired, not in the event of a write off (unless it’s supplied by one of those dodgy claims management companies who charge you a fortune for it and then fail to recover the inflated cost from the at-fault party).

whilst I don’t think it’s down to sainsburys per se to offer compensation but the system needs to change.

We were in a similar situation a few months ago with the other driver at 100% fault. DH wasn’t hurt out of sheer luck. However the inconvenience to us isn’t compensated. Again we were lucky that the car should be able to be repaired (still in the garage) as we weren’t in the position to be buying a new car (ours with just over 110,000 miles, nearly 10 years old but we’ve had it since new/fully serviced/new cam belt/never had an issue with it but wouldn’t want to gamble to get a like for like..)

DH spent a whole day on hold to the insurance company, different departments, similar but different forms to fill in, police reports, same again for the garage, having to wait around for the car to be collected, initially out of pocket paying for a new car seat, waiting a week for a new car seat to be delivered, curtesy car a lot smaller than our car, having to pay initial excess for the insurance….

We don’t get any compensation for the stress of having to deal with all the admin, time wasted or inconvenience. Best case scenario they’re able to beat out all the damage the other vehicle caused.

Ironically I’m wasting my afternoon waiting for them to collect the curtesy car and for our car to be delivered. Not a penny for the inconvenience.

Both times I've had a car written off (neither my fault), I've had a loan car straight away (while they assess damage) and then kept the car until the write off amount money has arrived by cheque or in my account. This is with Admiral and Aviva, no dodgy claim management).

Did your insurer claim off their insurance since it was not your fault?

It is rubbish when a decent car gets written off. I bashed my own fantastically well running car and got a whopping £400. Next one was a lemon. It’s really frustrating but insurance is there for a reason.

The car insurance is the compensation.

They aren’t going to admit liability because of the possible legal repercussions.

If you are still angry (and I don’t blame you if you are), then change your supermarket. It won’t make a difference to them but at least you’re not giving them your money any more.

If it's an old car it's unlikely the OP would be able to have GAP insurance.

I do see where the OP is coming from. Not only has she had the inconvenience of her car being written off, getting a low pay out from the insurers and her premium will increase even though it wasn't her fault. I can also see why Sainsbury's wouldn't apologise and admit liability though.

This is an add on with my last policy with Sheila’s wheels so I got a hire car for 21 days after a write off. I think some policies may have it as standard though. Not all policies are equal

No, that's what their insurance is for.

Yes obviously the driver of the car that ran into yours should provide you with compensation, either in person or by proxy via their insurance policy.

I think car insurance should have policies like contents. New for old or at least of returning you to owning the same age/mileage car as what you’ve lost, not book price if you’ve broken car.

One of the few insurances where it’s not even a possibility. Our contents is all new for old, our old static caravan was even on a new for old policy.

Admiral definitely do outsource to one of the “dodgy” claim management companies. Either you had some sort of enhanced cover, or you did get a credit hire car as no standard insurer offers a hire car after it’s been decided the vehicle will be written off (although some do offer it as standard but often advertise it as a free upgrade sort of feature).

We’ve just had a claim with LV and were offered (and took) a credit hire car.