Claims Assessor

javadude · December 16, 2002

My insurance company is sending a claims assessor to check the damage on my car tomorrow. I guess they found the £1300 bill for paint+labour plus new door and new alloy wheel a bit high.

I guess they'll try to change it to a new door skin only, refurbished wheel and ditch spraying the front door to blend the respray into the existing paintwork... :(

Botch job here we come

Loz · December 16, 2002

We have all been there JD!

I remember when in 1994 my Corsa got stuffed by a hit and run taxi and I was taken to jimmys as my one and only ride in an Ambulance... My Insurance company offered me £7k for 4 month old car that had cost £9.5k. I read the fine print and exersised my right to ask for the car to be written of and replaced new for old.

They agreed no fush!

But then as the limited addition was no longer available I asked for a TDI version with the same spec. Roof, C/L, Spoiler, CD player, immobilisor, metalic and they coffed for it!!

List price was now some £2.2k over my original car but they did it. my insurance then was £47pcm. when I got my New Corsa I cancelled with 6 months left to go and took the YEARS FREE FULLY COMP INSURANCE with the Corsa!!

Then to add insult to injury, a year later with the newercar being a better trade in, I checked out the insurance and it was cheaper to trade up for another Corsa with a years free insurance again which I did.

Then that year I went back to silly cars and got a Jag and a Calibra. following year I was a Merc fan and the rest is history.

Insurance? Never let them beat you.

Loz :arrrggg-matey:

javadude · December 16, 2002

Insurance? Never let them beat you.

Sounds like you didn't do too bad!

I'll make sure I stand my ground if they try to take the mickey. :arrrggg-matey:

Chris.S · December 16, 2002

Don't let them fob you off mate with a cheap job

Matthew_McNally · December 16, 2002

jd - read my thread on my 3 month battle with tesco.

do not settle for anything you are not happy with.

if their engineer tries to cut corners, refuse to accept his report.

do not accept anything the engineer says unless you are 100% happy with it.

if you cannot reach that stage - still do not accept the engineers report.

get your own engineer - I would completely recommend RAC for this.

I have the mobile number of the RAC engineer who did a superb job by me - but doubt he'll be any use to you down in Slough.

do not take any ***** off them mate - fight them all the way until you get the result you want.

its not fun - but you can do it.

BTW - name and shame the company(s) involved. tell them that you are posting the details here (i believe the stats are 40,000 visitors a month, most from the UK will be reading about how crap service you are getting - how will that damage new business).

good luck - and let us know how you get on.

javadude · December 17, 2002

The assessor's just been and checked the damage. I think he might try to get them to refurbish the wheel which is not a problem as I'm planning on replacing them anyway. Apart from that he seemed happy but I'll see what happens.

Interesting that he checked the tread depth on all my tyres, presumably as a matter of course. :o There've been times when I've not realised the tyres were illegal until a car's been in for a service etc. Fortunately these days I religiously check them myself once a month (countdown to new alloys!) so I knew they were OK. :P