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?

Insurance companies sort out the costs. Not sure what else you want from this. You won’t get extra compensation. 🤷‍♀️

But that’s a risk we knowingly take when we buy a car. The OP is just being grabby and hoping to get ‘compensation’ as the vehicle just so happened to belong to a public facing company. Unfortunately, it’s simply ‘tough shit’.

When my DH had an altercation with an Asda van I got a voucher for a month of groceries.
When my DS got side swiped by a Domino’s driver he got a free pizza a week for a year.
I’m on the hunt for an Ann Summers delivery lorry…

It's not "grabby" to want full recompense for the (vicarious) actions of Sainsbury's. The OP has a legal right (in theory) not to be put out of pocket at all, to be back in the same position as she was before they rammed into her car: with a functioning elderly car.

The financial recompense should come through their insurance. But once the insurer has accepted liability and paid out then IMO Sainsbury's should also apologise just as a neighbour would who scraped your car.

It’s up to her insurance to ensure that she is adequately ‘compensated’. If a neighbour scraped my car, and insurance paid out, I wouldn’t then be seeking compensation from the neighbour.

Many years ago my Maestro was written off after being rear ended.

I got a surprisingly good settlement on the basis that while the car was old it had been my parents before it was mine so was a known quantity whereas if I went out with £350 I could get a heap of odure

What?

It's not up to her insurers. Her insurers are doing the negotiations and admin for her as part of the service (possibly badly) but Sainsbury's are the people who have wronged her and owe her the money.

If my neighbour recklessly breaks my greenhouse with a football then they owe me a replacement greenhouse. If my neighbour recklessly breaks my car with their car then they owe me a replacement car. The fact that the latter transaction probably goes via their insurer and possibly also via my insurer doesn't change who's liable to pay.

They won’t do anything that shows them actually admitting liability. They will go with the insurer judgement. The worry is if they accept liability then down the line you instruct one of those ambulance chasing scumbag firms they are to pay a lot more.