Advertising GAP insurance on Facebook upsets Car Salesmen/women

[David@GAPInsurance]

So... we regularly advertise GAP insurance on Facebook... Admittedly we do so somewhat aggressively in terms of highlighting that Motor Dealers have, on a nationwide scale historically mis-sold and/or overcharged for GAP insurance - a view that's been enforced by the FCA's recent Market Study in to GAP insurance (amongst other "add on" type policies) in which they conservatively estimated that Motor Dealers were collectively overcharging the UK consumer for GAP insurance by £76 Million per year, which in turn, led to them introducing a 4-day deferred opt in period for Motor Dealers selling GAP insurance, since the 1st September this year.

 

Our Facebook adverts regularly attract comments from Car Salesmen/Women. Some of whom, will attempt to slate us or our policies along with claims that GAP insurance from them is somehow the better option.

 

Now... I always defend our position against these folk and I always invite them to compare policy terms & conditions and prices to see if they can actually backup their claims, of course the majority of them give me the silent treatment when I challenge them and it quickly dawns on others that they're not going to "win" and so delete their comments.

 

But some of them (and admittedly I probably look forward to these guys a little too much), really go to town in trying to justify their misconceptions about the GAP insurance policies they sell and a full on debate ensues... usually ending with them realising they're out of their depth, deleting their comments or, them going silent on me.

 

Ben Sutherland of Sparshatts SKODA (Botley) is the latest Car Salesman to attempt to slate us and our policies and a full on debate unfolded yesterday.  Given that we're sponsors of this forum and that in the conversation we've compared the official SKODA GAP insurance policy with ours, I figured it's not impossible that some of you may well be considering or might even have purchased the SKODA policy (you may even be dealing with Sparshatts) and therefore you might be interested to know how our policies compare (Although it's worth noting that Ben does claim within the conversation that Sparshatts don't sell the official SKODA GAP insurance policy - this may or may not be true).

 

See the conversation by way of a series of screenshots here

 

Ultimately, we'd like to know... when you bought your car (or during the process of buying a car that's still ongoing)

 

• Were you offered (or did you buy) the official SKODA GAP insurance policy?
• How much did you pay for it?
• Do you feel you got good value for money?
• In reviewing my conversation with Ben, do you think I was too harsh on him?

 

Thanks in advance.

[LGM]

"This is a personal issue I have with your business", I wonder what that's all about.

I dont recall being offered the GAP insurance last year when I got my Fabia VRS but I did a few years back when I got a Monte Carlo but declined.

[David@GAPInsurance]

"This is a personal issue I have with your business", I wonder what that's all about.

 

I wondered the same... e.g. was he inferring that he'd been a customer in the past and that we'd somehow upset him?  However so far as I can tell, we've never had anything to do with him at all other than this conversation.  I think therefore that he was trying to say that he had a personal objection to us being so "aggressive" towards Motor Dealers with our adverts.

[GeoffH]

I bought from GAP insurance for my wife's Pug 2008 and was impressed with the product and delightful staff I dealt with. I am ex motor trade myself ending up as sales manager at an independent Volvo dealership and appreciate there are times ( and brands which depreciate very quickly ) you must buy GAP insurance.

The reason sales persons don't like this Company is simple.... They have so many targets they must achieve which affect not only their own income, but branch profitability..... The profit on dealership GAP insurance is very high... A bit like all the paint coatings the sales personnel try to sell you. They are just trying to make a living. However I used to tell my sales personnel to concentrate on " The features and benefits " of our products and never to "slag off" the opposition.

The dealer has targets for GAP insurance from the marque they sell.... On my Tiguan, which was pre Yeti, I vehemently refused to take their GAP insurance..... After the usual visit by the salesman to see his manager, he came back and asked if I didn't mind he'd put it in for free! ...... Obviously they needed it to achieve the dealers target / quarterly bonus!

So my advice is check out the dealership GAP on offer if you must, then contact these guys and buy the same product from them!

[LGM]

Just got a quote on your website and for £68 for 3 years you can't complain so I purchased it.

[20vKarlos]

I've just purchased GAP insurance with progress Skoda in Northampton..

Price was £399 and I pay it over 12 months.

Can you give me a better deal if I cancel it with them?

I suppose I should have shopped around?

Thanks

Karlos

[David@GAPInsurance]

Just got a quote on your website and for £68 for 3 years you can't complain so I purchased it.

 

LGM - Sorry! I missed this. As a BRISKODA member you were entitled to 10% discount. PM me your policy number and I'll refund the discount retrospectively.

 

I've just purchased GAP insurance with progress Skoda in Northampton..

Price was £399 and I pay it over 12 months.

Can you give me a better deal if I cancel it with them?

I suppose I should have shopped around?

Thanks

Karlos

 

Karlos, I just replied to your other thread :-)

[LGM]

LGM - Sorry! I missed this. As a BRISKODA member you were entitled to 10% discount. PM me your policy number and I'll refund the discount retrospectively.

Champion! Couldn't find anywhere about a discount so I just purchased. I'll PM you now

[Jcb05]

My dealer has quoted me £399 for GAP insurance for 3 years on a £20000 Fabia Monte, with £15000 cover so that it will cover till the end of the 3 years, you just quoted me £192.. what would be the implications or drawbacks of yours over the Dealers? 

 

I haven't paid for it yet, as I will be paying when I collect the car. 

[David@GAPInsurance]

My dealer has quoted me £399 for GAP insurance for 3 years on a £20000 Fabia Monte, with £15000 cover so that it will cover till the end of the 3 years, you just quoted me £192.. what would be the implications or drawbacks of yours over the Dealers? 

 

I haven't paid for it yet, as I will be paying when I collect the car. 

 

Ok a few things here...

 

If we quoted you £192 for a 3yr policy with a £15,000 Claim Limit based on a £20,000 purchase price, something has gone wrong - we're not that expensive!

Our prices are as follows:

Invoice GAP insurance = £108.46 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £97.61

Replacement GAP insurance = £145.08 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £130.57

In terms of any implications/drawbacks of our policy over the dealer's, well... after saving at least £268.43 and getting a better policy in the process, you'd have that ever so problematic issue of having to decide what else you could spend your money on. :-)

To be fair, we get asked this all the time because Motor Dealers try to instil a belief that because their policy is more expensive, our policy must somehow be inferior and this portrayal by Motor Dealers does of course play well with the mantra that you "get what you pay for".

Being blunt, it's codswallop (I could be, erm... blunter? but I'm sure you get the idea).

Ultimately, without seeing the specific terms and conditions of the policy that the dealer has offered you it's difficult for me to draw up specific comparison points, but as it happens, I recently had a debate/dispute with a very keen SKODA salesperson who "attacked" our advertisements on Facebook by claiming that we were misleading consumers in to thinking that our policies were superior to those provided by Dealers... so I compared our policy thoroughly with the official SKODA one... funnily enough he ran out of things to say.

See the discussion here.

Of course if you've not been offered the official SKODA policy or, you believe their terms have changed, please let me see the terms of the policy and I'm more than happy to do a thorough comparison for you.

Best wishes

David

[Jcb05]

Thanks very much David. You just sold me. I'll be buying yours when I pick up the car next week.

Cheers

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[David@GAPInsurance]

Sorry people - I've been away as my wife recently gave birth to our FOURTH (we must be mad) boy!

 

Jcb05 do you need any further help?

[Dinesy]

Hi David,

I am collecting my new Octavia Scout on a PCH in a few days. Have already said no to the dealers GAP.... Been there, paid for that once before.

Just did a quote on your site, but being a contract hire, and not having done one before I'm not sure what I really need in the way of 'cover'?!

[David@GAPInsurance]

Hi David,

I am collecting my new Octavia Scout on a PCH in a few days. Have already said no to the dealers GAP.... Been there, paid for that once before.

Just did a quote on your site, but being a contract hire, and not having done one before I'm not sure what I really need in the way of 'cover'?!

 

Ok - so just to confirm... by PCH I'm assuming you're referring to a Contract Hire Agreement under which you have no contractual option to purchase the vehicle? E.g. It's not a PCP agreement incorporating a balloon/residual payment that you can pay at the end in order to keep the vehicle.

Assuming I'm correct in the above and that it is a Contract Hire Agreement, the first thing you need to note is that you need to be looking at our Invoice GAP insurance policy (you can't have Replacement GAP insurance) but that it would be provided on a "Contract Hire GAP insurance" basis.  E.g. in the event of write off, the policy would pay the difference between your Motor Insurance payout and the amount required to settle the remaining balance of the Contract Hire Agreement.

 

The second thing you need to know is that you may not actually need GAP insurance.

 

With a Contract Hire Agreement, in the event of your vehicle becoming a Total Loss, your finance company will calculate the remaining balance of the agreement.  This will be the combined sum of what they believe the vehicle to be worth and the as yet unpaid monthly rentals.

Your Motor Insurance will then pay (directly to the finance company) the amount that they (your motor insurer) believe your car to be worth.  This will either be sufficient to clear the remaining balance of the Contract Hire Agreement (and if so *some* finance houses will refund you the surplus funds) OR it will fall short of clearing the remaining balance.

If it falls short, the terms of your Contract Hire Agreement will require you to pay one of the following:

1 - ALL of the remaining balance

2 - SOME of the remaining balance

3 - NONE of the remaining balance

Clearly you would have a greater need for GAP insurance if you're liable for ALL of the remaining balance (1), but no need for GAP insurance at all if the finance house would take your Motor Insurer's payout and allow you to walk away (3).

You should therefore check the terms of your lease carefully in order to determine if you actually need GAP insurance.

Assuming you check this out and determine that you DO need GAP insurance, we need to determine what Claim Limit you need from the policy.  To calculate that, I'd need to know the following:

• What is the invoice/P11d value of the vehicle?
• What is the structure of your Contract Hire Agreement (e.g. how many rentals upfront followed by how many "regular" monthly rentals)?
• How much are your monthly rentals (including VAT, but excludng maintenance etc)?
• What is the annual mileage limit of the Contract Hire Agreement.

Get back to me with the details requested above and I can at least calculate a price for you and then you'd just need to determine whether you actually need it or not before you bought it (although to be fair, you get a 30-day cooling off period anyway so if you weren't sure you could buy it to ensure cover was in place when you took delivery but the cancel it and get a full refund if you found you didn't need it within the first 30 days).

 

Get back to me when you can.

 

Best wishes

 

David

[Dinesy]

Thanks David,

That's very interesting reading. I'll have a look over the documents and see what I can learn from it.

The finance is with Volkswagen Audi through a Skoda dealer.

I'll get back to you with what I can find out.

Thanks again

[Dinesy]

David,

I've PM'd you :-)

Thanks