snakebelly
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| posted on 26/1/14 at 06:27 AM |
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Claims Management Companies
Just venting but bear with me may be of use to someone!
Just before Christmas Wifey was driving back home in her new, to us, 04 plate C-Max with our 18 month old grandaughter on board, silly bint coming the
other way was stuck behind a slow moving lorry so thought it would be a good idea to give her 30 day old Skoda Yeti a bootfull coming out of a right
hand corner to get past without any idea what was coming the other way! Luckily Wifey had the right reaction and went off into the hedge to get out of
the way but the impact was still bad enough to write of both vehicles, close the road, ambulance, police etc. we were informed on the night that the
other driver had been "invited" for interview with a view to prosecution. Wifey and grandaughter both ok, shaken and Wifey had very sore
shoulders, forearms and wrists for a couple of weeks.
So next morning I contacted the claims management company affiliated with our breakdown cover provider to see what could be done, leave it with us
we'll look after everything etc etc etc. fair enough the next morning a hire car was delivered all the way from London buy a very nice man so
thought we had picked a goodun. Explained to them that we were due to be leaving on the 31st to go on our yearly pilgrimage to Sri Lanka from 5 weeks
and we were concerned about communications but were promised that email communication was fine and we would be updated regularly whilst we were
away.
Well then the fun began..... Sent emails no reply, sent emails no reply, called incurring international roaming charges, no news the other parties
insurers haven't accepted liability or arranged and engineer to inspect our vehicle yet. This has been going on for about 4 weeks now.
Eventually I got I fed up and called the other parties insurers direct to be told that they had accepted liability on the 30th and that the vehicle
was inspected shortly thereafter and an initial offer on the vehicle made! Enraged I called up again and got through to the MD (but only after
complaining as well to our breakdown cover suppliers) who advised that we could accept the initial offer of £2200 as an interim payment and argue over
the value of the vehicle when we returned, checked Wifeys account this morning and a deposit has been made but only for £1716 WTF!
So my question is ....anyone else had this sort of experience with a claims management company? Are we just unlucky? To be fair the injuries side of
things which is being handled by the claims management companies solicitors has been an ok experience with regular updates on the acceptance of
liability and am just waiting for an appointment for her to see an independent GP on our return for assessment, her wrists still hurt and its a
concern as she is a sign language interpreter by trade.
Rant over back to the beach .....
[Edited on 26/1/14 by snakebelly]
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v8kid
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| posted on 26/1/14 at 09:02 AM |
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Yup I had a very similar experience. They are incompetent twats who do not give a hoot what the outcome is. As you say there are two parts to the
claim car and injuries.
We were reccomended to accept the offer of £1500 for the car and refused my words at the time were " are you representing me or the other
side." We settled for £2500 in the end.
When it came to personal injury it was the same eventually I told the idiots who were representing us I was going to employ my own solicitor and claim
the cost back from my insurance company - he couldn't give a toss but we steadfastly refused every offer and insisted on going to court
eventually we got an acceptable offer.
These alleged legal professionals are working to a fixed price and after so many hours will just stop representing you. It would not be so bad if they
were competent hours 
Bad experience all round compounded by my wife not getting proper justice in the criminal courts as the other driver was only fined a few hundred quid
for nearly killing her. The court thinks more about the criminal than the victim 😬😬😬
Cheers!
You'd be surprised how quickly the sales people at B&Q try and assist you after ignoring you for the past 15 minutes when you try and start a
chainsaw
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stevebubs
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| posted on 26/1/14 at 11:29 AM |
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Where I used to work forced people to use the "approved" Claims Management Company
Absolutely useless, wouldn't touch one with a bargepole...
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Brook_lands
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| posted on 26/1/14 at 12:02 PM |
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I don't think you are alone I think there is whole self serving industry feeding off misfortune and the insurance companies are complict. Wife
out in her car with daughter had the classic shunt. She stopped at a give way junction, chap behind didn't. Major damage to the car, even from
the phone call description I knew it was a write off as there was a crease in the roof in addition to bumper, tailgate, bootfloor, quarter panel
damage.
This was nearly a year ago and it is still not sorted.
Called the Insurance Company with other chaps details. They said its a no fault accident leave it to us, we will pass you on to our claims management
company. Three words I wish I had never heard.
I recovered the car to home and said that if I send a few photos to an assessor the car would be written off, or if they really wanted to waste the
time and money to send someone out that was up to them. After that they could payout for the car and that would be that. In the mean time we had a
spare car which the wife could use.
I thought the priciples in law was that you were supposed to mitigate losses and that is what I was doing.
What really happened.
Within minutes of calling the Insurance Co. - calls from recovery and storage companies wanting to pick up the car and store it for silly money - all
declined, eventually someone was sent to pick it up and take it to storage even though there was no need.
Calls from car hire cos offering to supply exotic hire cars for a day rate which meant that the hire charge for a week was about twice what the
wife's car was worth - all offers declined as we had a spare car she could use. The following day a hire car was dropped off, apparently
requested by the CMC. Took 3 days of phone calls to CMC to get them to agree to get it taken away and another 2 days before it was collected.
Then the car was moved from storage to a garage, then an engineer was sent to look at it, and then 2 weeks after the event it was written off. Offer
was a bit light, I spoke to engineer and pointed out what my valuation was, he agreed.
Sorted I thought - No.
Another month of chasing Engineer, CMC and Insurance Co before payment (less excess) turned up.
In this 6 week period (because we had given insurance co my mobile number) I was getting 3 to 4 calls a day from personal injury claims companies. At
all times we had very clearly stated that wife and daughter had only suffered aches and pains for a few days and we would not be making a personal
injury claim.
Still getting letters and calls on this one, probably will until the 3 year limit is up.
Finally, as we had uninsured loss recovery on the policy, we ask about recovering the policy excess that was deducted from our payout. There then
ensued another long conversation to convince them that we did not want to calim for anything other than the few hundred quid excess.
One year on still no re-embursement of excess, having to call/ email/ write every couple of week to get them to do anything. They are constantly
asking for copies of documents that we have already sent or they have sent us in the past.
I'll tell you next time I'll do it myself, for a fraction of the cost, time and effort. I would have taken the car direct to the scrappers
and then paid £25 and gone to the small claims to get the rest off the other driver if they didn't pay up straight away and (given his age) I
bet that would have cost him less than the increase in his insurance premium when he next renewed.
Regardless of fault no one wins - except it would seem everybody else feeding off the accident.
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snakebelly
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| posted on 28/1/14 at 09:07 AM |
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Quick update, the difference in what we received compared to what we were told to expect is apparently the scrap value which the other parties
insurers wont release until we post them the V5... Another part of the puzzle the crap claims management company neglected to inform us about. At
least we know why and as were back on Sunday I can get it posted off Monday morning. Then it will be time to photocopy the service history and hit
autotrader to try and justify a final settlement more to my liking, not expecting much help from the claims management company though....
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r1_pete
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| posted on 28/1/14 at 10:11 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by snakebelly
Quick update, the difference in what we received compared to what we were told to expect is apparently the scrap value which the other parties
insurers wont release until we post them the V5... Another part of the puzzle the crap claims management company neglected to inform us about. At
least we know why and as were back on Sunday I can get it posted off Monday morning. Then it will be time to photocopy the service history and hit
autotrader to try and justify a final settlement more to my liking, not expecting much help from the claims management company though....
Dodgy one that, if you were selling, would you give someone the documents to the car before they had paid for it, nothing to stop them saying they
never received it.
Back in 2001 I had a bike written off and was in a similar situation, but, I was using a solicitor specilising in Bike accidents, the solicitor took
the documents and effectively acted in an escrow capacity, saying he would release them on receipt of full and final payment for the bike, oh and he
would be adding document holding fees after 7 days, they paid up. He then went on to recover costs of leathers, helmets, bike hire, medical costs and
on.... A decent lawyer is worth as many claims malingering ambulance chasers as there are in the UK.
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snakebelly
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| posted on 31/1/14 at 10:46 AM |
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Latest update.
So before we departed I made it very clear to the company involved that we would require a vehicle to get from Heathrow back to Shropshire at the very
least. Was promised that would be no problem and was even asked for flight details. Been emailing for the last 3 days to confirm where we can collect
it from, usual customer service, The MD has been off sick so my emails went unread, yeah right. Eventually called them today at £1.50 per minute to be
told that since we have accepted an interim payment they can no longer supply a car,,,,errr didn't think to mention that did you?
So arriving Heathrow Sunday night and looks like we will have to dig out of our own pocket for an airport transfer taxi at around £100.
I cannot stress enough what an inefficient, bumbling bunch of idiots this lot are. Have no problem naming and shaming:
Integrity Claims Management
22 Montague Road
Leytonstone,
London,
E11 3EX,
England
020 8556 6633
http://www.integritycm.co.uk
We only went with them as they are affiliated with GEM Motoring Assist who have been our breakdown provider for some years. Unfortunately a complaint
to them has also been totally ignored so GEM will not be getting a renewal out of me in the future either.
This industry needs a serious shake up.
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snakebelly
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| posted on 31/1/14 at 10:48 AM |
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Oh and a gem from their website:
OUR ROLE is to project manage each and every claim from first notification through to settlement representing our clients interests every step of the
way and ensuring that the whole process is managed and monitored.
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tul214
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| posted on 31/1/14 at 12:58 PM |
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have you checked google maps for that address ?
Looks like a back street garage!!
22
Montague Rd
1.6 Raw Super6 sold
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motorcycle_mayhem
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| posted on 31/1/14 at 01:22 PM |
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"Regardless of fault no one wins - except it would seem everybody else feeding off the accident"
This is my experience, I have had a lot of it. There's a sting in tail when you 'think' it's all over too, they (the various
intended and unintended parasites) keep calling, calling, calling.......
At least now, having hung up my leathers, crashes are now limited to bent metal, not bent bones. Last set of bent bones was a Smidsy event with a
stoned, drunk, unlicensed, uninsured, NFA yoof. This was the event that made me simply give up.
The last 'serious' Smidsy was enacted on my LWB white van while towing a Brian James white trailer box. He actually said "Sorry,I
didn't see it.." (!!!). The fact that the (facebook updating) yoof hit the trailer would've raised all sorts of crap that I just
wasn't into. Fortunately, the yoof's parents simply got out the chequebook. Just a Justin Beiber moment perhaps.
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