Had my Roomster with One Call which was ok until I called One Call after a prang, not my fault at all in happened in a car park and someone was reversing from being aside mine and turn to quickly and caught my n/n rear wheel arch then clobbered the rear bumper and tailgate, the other car was a 4x4. I called One Call and was put on hold. time and time again which wasn't unusual except it was at peak rate, One Call are only on-line brokers and channeled your call to the main insurers which were Legal & General. I quickly caught onto this method and once the car had been taken to a repair centre which was another fiasco let me explain. The repair centres are in Sheffield and Newbury !! yeppers that's right, there's only 2 repair shops for the whole of England, so we waited one morning for a transporter to arrive at 6-30am to unload a courtesy car and take mine to Sheffield which is a long way from West Lancashire. The transporter driver gave me the number of the repair shop other wise I'd have to go peak rate through One Call. Beware of peak call on-line brokers, One Call though aren't at fault as such and after many minutes of pleasant music were very nice to deal with, either get the phone number of the repair shop or phone up and do the washing, you'll have enough time after they've answered and redirected your call !! 

Were you not able to choose where your car got repaired yourself?

I got nowhere asking this question, my local garage said that if I went  some where else I could be waiting weeks for a courtesy car, it's ludicrous and must cost oceans of money to do it as they do.  

I was with One Call last year, and whilst staff were friendly enough I wasn't overly impressed. They gave a very cheap quote which I took them up on, and after the policy had started they tried to sell me lower excess and other benefits to pick it up. All a bit of a hard sell too. I did lower the excess, but not by as much as they wanted me too. I also found their administration charges for changes high. At next renewal time the quote was good and as I didn't foresee having to make any changes I thought I'd stick with it, but it turned out that renewal quote was based on the higher excess of the original policy, not the existing policy details post - change with lower excess. When this renewal came round I was ready to go elsewhere no matter what the quote. I'm not saying they're intrinsically bad and you will probably get a cheap deal out of them, but my personal experience wasn't great. Once I take out a policy I don't expect 3 or 4 phone calls trying to sell me a higher cost package. After lowering excess and changing address a couple of times in a year I was paying more than in the previous year with someone else.

You don't have to ask them if you can repair your car at a place of your choosing, it is your right by law. As their business seems to be fleecing the unwary, they wont offer that to you. Also, searching online (saynoto0870.com) can often find you local rate numbers you can use. An easy trick is say you are thinking of going abroad and get their international number, which will be a geographical one, which you can then call normally. And as an added bonus, submit to that site for the next person if they don't have it yet.