Has anyone made a no fault claim with Albany Assistance? All advice much appreciated ......

[Pineapplechunks]

Yesterday morning, on the way to school, someone drove into the back of us, we were stationary waiting for the person in front of us to turn right so we're not at fault.

The damage to my car didn't seem to bad, just a few dents and scratches in the back and it still drives fine so after checking everyone was alright and swapping details we carried on to school(we were still on time!).

When I got home I phoned my insurance company(Kwik Fit) to report it. Albany Assistance administer claims for Kwik Fit (and a lot of other major insurance brokers too). It seemed to be being dealt with very efficiently, I was given a garage to go to and get a repairs quote and have been told I will get a hire car when mine goes in for repair-all this claimed back from the other people's insurance because they were at fault.

They said I would need to sign a vehicle repair finance agreement and an associated credit protection policy before they could authorise the repairs to my car.

I've just googled Albany Assistance and the results aren't good. Lots of people saying that they're inept and their claims took months years even and that Albany overcharge for the use of the hire car so the other insurance company refuses to pay (apparently they can if the costs are too high?).

Have any MNers had any experience of Albany Assistance or have any advice about whats best to do as I'm really quite confused?

Hi there, we understand your frustrations. However, insurers will not accept responsibility for accidents when liability is not supported by the circumstances and available information. We therefore cannot pursue claims where your insurer accepts responsibility. If you would like to discuss this matter further, please contact our customer service team on 0191 523 3354

Regards,

Sophie - Albany Assistance Online Team

you are correct in your appraisal of albany

albany employ people to gloss over their faults on these forums

Thank you for clarifying the nature of your involvement with insurance claims in your private message - We have been mislead by everyone we have spoken to regarding the exact nature of Albany Assistance's involvement and regarding your credit hire agreements.

I do not wish to send my reference number or personal information to you via an internet forum and am currently awaiting further information before contacting Albany Assistance.

As I said when the full extent and outcome of this situation is known I will be posting the full information on this forum so as to inform others of what I consider unethical practices by Albany Assistance. If the matter is resolved by yourselves then I will also include that information.

to answer albany assistance social, yes I have tried the number you gave, when I call they ask my name/reference/ then pretend that they are not available
emails get ignored also, its clear that albany employ staff to monitor forums, professional excuse makers, to purport to the public they are better than they really are.liability to my non-fault incident was ignored so you could manipulate the outcome of less expense for youselves, I had 2 witnesses the third party fraudulent claimant had none, you let it run 5 months, then colluded with aviva insurance to dispose of the claim in the cheapest way possible. I have letters from albany confirming you would pursue my £700+ uninsured losses, then you changed your mind. your claims operatives lied and said they had phoned me but the phone just rang out, with my phone its impossible to ring out, it answers to voicemail after 4 rings, no messages were left either, your claims handlers wrote a final 7 day notice stating that unless I objected to claim the insurance would pay out to the fraudster, I already had on record proof by email instructions from me to refuse this claim on many occasions, I further answered the 7 day ultimatum with another refusal, it was ignored and fraudster was paid out, the letter was a pure concoction for to make it look on your records that you had acted fairly, I think its clear to the public exactly how you operate, its your job now to concoct more hopefully feasible excuses for your company

Hello,

The online team are here to help and have sent a private message with contact details if you would like to discuss this further.

Regards,

Sophie - Albany Assistance Online Team

RE ALBANY ASSISTANCE: YES IM AFRAID ITS SADLY TRUE... this company are extremely corrupt. if you complain - they will not investigate it fully; what was a simple complaint with a blatant dodgy hire firm... they lied through their teeth in a response letter - ((YES LIED AND I AM STILL IN SHOCK.. EVEN THOUGH I HAVE TONES OF EVIDENCE AGAINST THEM INC CALL LOGS HISTORY (do these if idiots forget this with modem tech?)) received four wks after I logged a complaint (conveniently past the 14days). I still cannot believe how much they have lied... have the FSA even acknowledged the amount of complaints about this firm and how badly they operate?? - when THERE'S A PROBLEM BTW... my advice: find a good old fashioned local insurance firm !!!!!!!!! and (as we are) PLEASE change firms when your renewals are up.
All the best.
V disgruntled customer.
East Sussex
by the way the hire firm they provided FLEET SERVICES BASED IN BRIGHTON EAST SUSSEX - is a firm to STAY V V V CLEAR OR ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE FEMALE......... SO SAD IN THIS DAY AND AGE ............

FURTHER ADVICE - CHECK WITH (WHEN SETTING UP YOUR INSURANCE) WHO THEIR CLAIMS PROVIDER IS IN THE (UNFORTUNATE) EVENT OF A COLLISION (FAULT OR NON FAULT) AND WHO ORG THE HIRE CAR ... - DO NOT CONTINUE SETTING UP THE POLICY IF THE NAME 'ALBANY' IS INVOLVED - SPREAD THE WORD FELLOW USERS ... FIRMS LIKE THIS ONLY KEEP TRADING BECAUSE WE LET THEM ...

be aware-albany assistance are so bad they actually employ people to monitor this forum, they are paid to reply with damage limitation excuses for themselves, I have taken my grievances about them to the insurance ombudsman, you should too

Dear Blondieleo31,

We would like to apologise that you were dissatisfied with the service we have provided to you and we'd like to contact you in relation to the above comments and the fleet services branch complaint.

Our company is fully monitored by the Claims Management Regulator and all of our calls are recorded for training purposes should you need to revert back to the calls.

DumpedbyAlbany - the online team are here to help our customers with any queries they may have throughout their claims process.

Blondieleo31, we have also sent you a private message in relation to your comments.

Regards,

Albany Assistance Online Team

dear concerned people that have been abused by albany assistance, be aware that after every posting you make-albany assistance socialpays employees to respond to the forum in an effort to portray itself as a good company to do business with, whilst being quite the opposite, you will not all theI have sent you a direct message etc.....please phone us etc...comments from albany
but the fact is they never put anything right, they employ people to lie for them rather than correcting their terrible service

DumpedbyAlbany - we are not being paid to respond by Albany Assistance, we are employees of Albany Assistance and our aim in responding to comments on these forums is to deal with our customer's queries and resolving them as efficiently as possible.

We can only resolve these queries if we can contact the customer directly, which often means we have to use private message and email facilities to comply with Data Protection.

We have tried numerous times to contact in an attempt to resolve your complaint and we are more than happy to assist you now. Please email us at [email protected] with your reference number and we can get a member of our team to contact you.

Regards,

Albany Assistance Online Team

Dear all,

Currently battling with Albany Assistance, had an accident In December 2014 after the car being sent to an 'approved repairer' I had my vehicle returned to me - panels weren't aligned, loose components under the bonnet, parts missing and also still damage.

I returned the car to the 'approved repairer' which was a dealership who returned it to me once again after 14 days or so...
still with damage to the car which had been logged with Albany assistance and the repairer. I drove my vehicle approx 1/2 mile only o notice it pulled to the left quite considerably. A quick call to Albany who said get it checked by an independent. £25 later I have a geometric report that states the car is out of tolerance and technician said it's UNSAFE to drive.

The majority of the damage to my vehicle sustained by the accident was to the front and passenger side of my vehicle, the issue which is causing the vehicle be unsafe is to the rear passenger wheel and suspension. After supplying this to Albany they hid behind an 'engineers' decision that it was not caused due to the accident.

I received the vehicle back around 10days ago, still unsafe and was asked to get another report. This time I went to a specialist who provided a report for a further £50 and also stated it was unsafe to drive. Provided all this to Albany who, despite all my efforts still deny this was caused as a result of the accident.

Spent hours on the phone to various levels of customer services who now suggest I leaise with the financial ombudsman.
When I asked for my files from Albany, they insist that I pay an admin fee for these. I'm already out of pocket.

Since, I have spoken to the engineer who Albany stated had denied the damage had happened as a result of the accident, who's words to me were "I cannot say it wasn't as a result of he accident, but I cannot say it was a result of accident" I have the telephone call recorded.

So unless I can prove that the car was fine before the accident, they refuse to rectify a £8,000 vehicle which is Unsafe due to an accident which was no fault of my own.

Would hate to have to put this to further means such as media, sure they would have a field day with the posts on here dating back to 2009

I'm a genuine mn-er and have to say Albany processes our claim very fast. We had the cheque for our car within 10 days for a no fault claim. A drunk driver ploughed into ours when it was parked outside the house and police were involved so maybe it was resolved fast as there was no way any blame could be placed on us?!

Dear Ivytheterrible,

Thank you and we appreciate the time you've taken to leave your positive experience - it's great to hear from one of the many satisfied motorists we help each year.

Kind regards,

Albany Assistance Online Team

Ahhh really didn't want to come across this. I was given albany assistance through my car insurer today following a non fault incident.
I am now really panicking at the outcome of this :/

I am so glad I typed in this search. I was just about to send off the paperwork but was re-reading and wasn't liking the sound of some of the Clauses in their Agreement. Anyway now I've read all the horror stories, I am going to call Admiral and go direct with them. Any excess I have to pay they can claim back from the third party (non-fault claim) as I have legal protection cover on my insurance. Whats the point of having insurance with these companies if all they do is sell your claim to a third party who ultimately recover the costs from you if they can't recover them from the third party. What is the point of having all that legal protection in the first place. So thankful I didn't submit the paperwork !

Hi JMiles,

We feel these threads (which date back to 2009) are disproportionate of our service that we provide.

We deliver motoring assistance services to 9,000 customers each month and we feel it would be better for you to read some of our more current customer feedback from independent review sites such as Trustpilot, Review Centre and IRateISlate, which provides a more representative and up-to-date view.

We are also more than happy to discuss your claim directly with you. If you could email us at [email protected] we can get someone to contact you with any queries you may have.

Kind regards,

Albany Assistance Online Team

I have claim with Albany at present. I hope I don't have these issues I'm panicking now!!

Hi Sneddywife,

We'd like to assure you that we strive to provide our customers with a high-quality experience when they are referred to us, and complaints regarding our services are very low in comparison to the thousands of customers who are happy with the the service we provide (annual complaint levels are fewer than 1%).

If you'd like us to clarify any part of your claim we're more than happy to do this for you. Our email address is [email protected]

Additionally, if you'd like a more balanced view of our company - we are featured on independent review sites (Trustpilot, IRateISlate and Review Centre).

Kind regards,

Sophie

I'm in the middle of following a no fault claim . Insured with Hastings but claim was passed to Albany. My car has been written off so has now been passed to yet another company. They contacted me to say that a "scrap" company would be in contact about paying me the scrap value for my car and that they would then be in touch with regards to sending the rest of the money to me. It's now three weeks since the accident, I have no idea when I'm going to be able to get a new car so have to keep using the car provided by them. Not impressed with the service !

Hi Toothfairy22,

It can take some time for the insurers to finalise the payment, which is out of our control. However if you can email us at [email protected] we can have someone look into your claim and contact you directly.

Kind Regards,

Vikki

Hi had an acident on the 24/5/2015 my insurance company was Hastings Direct they passed my file to Albany assistance.
giving me a reference number.

Since then I have had nothing but grief.

All was progressing reasonably well Albany arranged Solicitor representation "Carpenters", collection of my vehicle to Albany's authorised repairers supplied me with a Reasonable replacement vehicle, through another company "Fleet Services", who were supposed to supply a vehicle with a toe bar for a holiday I already had arranged in a few weeks, if mine was not repaired in time ,but had no vehicles with toe bars available immediatly I arranged to swap it when they had one.

On the day before the swap was to take place Albany contacted me and stated that as the other driver had not admitted liability and was contesting the facts due to still photographs of the scene (without taking into account the movement of vehicles due to impact) and were therefore ceasing the hire on the vehicle and I had to contact my insurance company for a replacement vehicle and to get the repairs done on my vehicle.

Hastings made me aware that the garage my vehicle was at had not started the repair and Hastings wanted my vehicle to be transferred to another repairer which they use. Hastings organised and supplied me with a small curtesy car, to keep me mobile (wow nearly two weeks has gone past repairs not started) I will defiantly need a car with a tow bar in order to go on Holliday. what a waste of time and money.

Therefore My vehicle has been moved (Recovered) three times to different cities and i have had two curtesy cars who foots this bill? NOT I!!!!!. although Albany's Car Hire company Fleet Services have already charged me for petrol and damage waver on the first car.

I have had to spend an awful lot of stressful time, effort and an immense amount of telephone calls to manage the fall out from Albany

To add insult to injury yesterday I received an e-mail from Albany asking me to complete a customer Experience questionnaire you have got to be joking!!!
I have not had time to breath let alone fill out a questionnaire I am holding down a full time job as well as doing what they are suposed to do.

Fortunately eventually I have acquired independent CCTV footage of the incident hopefully this may go some way to sorting it once i have got it to all parties namely Hastings,Albany and Carpenters , by recorded delivery things are so complicated once you get accident management companies involved and then end up managing it yourself with the added complication of them being involved "Albany".

WATCH THIS SPACE

Hi DeanLaw,

I have passed your details and comments over to our complaints department, who will be in contact with you directly.

If you are able to edit your original post, I would recommend for your own security that you remove your case reference number.

Kind Regards,

Vikki

Albany Assistance Online Team

Hi All,
I came on here looking for advise as my partner was in a car accident were a person hit him whilst he was stopped in traffic on the 28th Jan 2014. His insurance company is Gladiator who put him straight through to Albany who said the costs will all be picked up by the other insurance company as he was not at fault.

They asked for him to draw a diagram of what happened which he did, then they asked for it again a few months later then again this year. He rang to find out what was going on and Albany asked for him to send the information again!! Then this week we have RECEIVED A BILL FOR £872.40 for car hire and engineer charges!!!!! There is no way we can find this amount of money we feel totally scammed!! It's not like my partner tried to claim off this accident like some scammers do he simply needed another vehicle whist his was being fixed otherwise he could not have worked!

This has caused a terrible amount of stress on our family and we don't know where to turn to.