My car-crazy son's 19 reg S60 T5 was reversed into by a private motorist early this morning, whilst it was parked outside his house.  The  damage is probably a rear door skin or even a new door but no intrusion into the sill or roof line. The other driver was decent enough to leave a note with their details. My son called the driver at 0900 and by 1100 was called back by their insurers,  ESURE. They confirmed that they are sending £200 compensation and confirmed that they accept full blame, i.e. no detrimental affect to my son's NCB.  By 1300 he had a top of the range XC60 delivered to his house. Great response and pure karma, as a van hire company let him down today after it had promised him a Transit to move to new build house this Thursday.  Instead of folding the rear seats down in his saloon S60,  he can now move everything in the XC60 apart from a king-size mattress. Kudos to the other driver (who didn't use their reverse sensors or rear view camera 🙄)  and to ESURE's accident handlers.

I’m with esure and wish I had gone thru them rather than going direct to the other drivers insurers (co op) in the expectation that it would simplify matters. So instead of “like for like”courtesy car I ended up for a week in a 3 cyl Hyundai i10 while they trucked my Octy vrs 60 odd miles away to Swansea ... did half a job and dropped it back only after I pointed out that they were having a laugh if they though I was schlepping 2 hours on a train to Swansea to collect it, (yes it is that slow as the line follows the coast).

 

 Now I’m fighting them for a new bonnet to replace the twisted one I am left with (with a small outward kink) paint scratches from bumper rigging back over the wing that haven’t been repaired, and for them to fit the new front numberplate they billed for but didn’t fit. Oh and the refitted original front bumper isn’t a good fit there is a widening panel gap at the point where it meets the wing and has bad paint where there was paintloss in the numberplate recess.

 

I don’t want iRG anywhere near my car again... very disappointing repair

On 13/07/2020 at 10:42, warweezil said:

I’m with esure and wish I had gone thru them rather than going direct to the other drivers insurers (co op) in the expectation that it would simplify matters. So instead of “like for like”courtesy car I ended up for a week in a 3 cyl Hyundai i10 while they trucked my Octy vrs 60 odd miles away to Swansea

 

Simplify matters? You don't seem to understand how insurance works. 

 

It's your insurer who initially pays for the repairs and courtesy cars etc.  They then contact the 3rd party insurer to reclaim the monies.  If they make a successful claim then it's a 'no fault' accident on your part, but if they can't claim the monies back then you're deemed to be 'at fault'.

 

Like-for-like courtesy cars are normally only provided if you paid an extra premium ( if you didn't then the premium will have it already built-in to the price ). So unless the OP paid extra, or his premium was already loaded, or the insurer was certain of reclaiming the monies, then you'll only ever going to receive a budget car that gets you from A to B. Just like the i10.

 

It's also worthy to point out that if you were involved in an accident, you should have made your insurer aware. If you haven't already done so you may be in breach of contract or worse still, find out you're no longer covered. 

 

This is from Esure's current policy booklet:

 

Our Courtesy car service

A courtesy car is provided whilst your car is being repaired by the recommended repairer as part of a valid claim, as long as you have a comprehensive policy which remains in force for the duration of repairs. We aim to provide a courtesy car to you within two working days.

A courtesy car is not available if your car has been stolen and not found, or considered to be a total loss. If we decide that your car is a total loss after providing the courtesy car, it will be withdrawn.

A courtesy car service is not available for claims under the windscreen section of your policy.

The courtesy car will be a small car, such as a Nissan Micra or Toyota Aygo, which will automatically be insured on your policy at no cost. Normal policy terms and conditions apply.

You’ll be responsible for the courtesy car, including paying for fuel and any parking fines, motor offences and fixed penalties, and any congestion or toll charges incurred.

They are not doing you any favours, they are protecting their back, they know its an undisputed fault claim and that they will be liable, they have unlawfully contacted you and bribed you to accept using their claims handling procedure instead of your own insurers that you have paid for.

 

They are doing this pro-actively to minimise their losses, tell them that you have suffered whiplash and say I think that I should go to A&E dont you agree? and see how quickly they try to cover that base as well, they will immediately organise a free of charge consultation with the consultant who is in their pocket.

 

In many ways the insurance companies are as bad as the ambulance chasers.

 

No doubt they will have already taken away your sons car to their repairer before he has the chance to reflect.

 

Sorry for mixing up you and your son in the above, I hope it still makes sense.

Edited 17 July, 20205 yr by J.R.

The other side of the coin, you inform your insurers of the undisputed claim against a 3rd party (who has left a note admitting liability) they know that they will get every penny back from the other insurer, they dont quibble about the hire vehicle, will give you something much better than if they were footing the bill, they allow their "partner repairer to take much longer prioritising other "urgent" repairs (the ones that the insurer would pay for) the repairer can fit all the new bits he wants as long and wont have to cut any corners, their "partner car hire company" gets to rent the vehicle for a much longer time making more money, they encourage you to see their "partner specialist" for whiplash injuries or whatever and pursue a claim for compensation.

 

A big share out with all their "partners" happy in the knowledge that the 3rd party insurer will have to stump up all of it.

 

Which is why the 3rd party insurer contacts you offering bribes...........................................

 

Of course at the end of the day it all evens out, for each overinflated claim one insurer loses the other gains, in the long run we all pay through increased premiums.

8 minutes ago, J.R. said:

The other side of the coin, you inform your insurers of the undisputed claim against a 3rd party (who has left a note admitting liability) they know that they will get every penny back from the other insurer, they dont quibble about the hire vehicle, will give you something much better than if they were footing the bill, they allow their "partner repairer to take much longer prioritising other "urgent" repairs (the ones that the insurer would pay for) the repairer can fit all the new bits he wants as long and wont have to cut any corners, their "partner car hire company" gets to rent the vehicle for a much longer time making more money, they encourage you to see their "partner specialist" for whiplash injuries or whatever and pursue a claim for compensation.

 

A big share out with all their "partners" happy in the knowledge that the 3rd party insurer will have to stump up all of it.

 

Which is why the 3rd party insurer contacts you offering bribes...........................................

 

Of course at the end of the day it all evens out, for each overinflated claim one insurer loses the other gains, in the long run we all pay through increased premiums.

Nah, can’t agree with this .... back in the day when I worked in insurance claims I came across many cases over the years whereby the non-fault party had been provided with a hire car for a lot longer than the repairs were gonna take (according to audatext) and I / the at fault insurers refused to pay for the difference. 
 

Also seen it with total losses.... there’s an agreed period of time a customer is allowed a hire car after total loss and I have seen several hire car claims refused as the customer took much, much longer than that.
 

Also, I don’t believe you can claim for whiplash type injuries anymore. 

 

Not wishing to hijack someone else’s thread however I felt the tone of the reply to me demanded a response from myself.

 

Let’s dispel a few misconceptions here as at least one respondent “doesn’t seem to understand how insurance works” 

 

My FIRST call WAS to eSure - my insurer - who noted the call as my notifying them of the incident. I am fully cognisant of the requirement to notify and this was done.

 

It was in fact Esure who laid out my options of either 1. Claiming on my own policy OR

2. Going direct to Co-Op, in fact I had no idea who the other party was insured with at this point as she had no insurance details on her and was becoming quite hysterical about her hitting my car (so having her personal details I told her it could be dealt with later, As i was becoming concerned at her increasing distress.) 

 

This second option seemed a little “different” to me, having been driving for more years than I care to remember,  but I assumed it was could be because the collision took place on a shopping centre car park - essentially on private property. They informed me that I would have to pay my excess then the whole could be recovered post repair from the other insurance company. THEY checked  (I assume) MID and from that gave me the contact details for co op insurance, as being the insurer of the other party.

 

When I called co op they were not at all fazed by the call and it seemed a normal straightforward thing, they told me they would contact their insured and get back to me - from that I assume that by the evening she had still not informed her insurers.

 

I hoped that going direct direct would simplify matters, repair would be promptly and adequately completed and that would end the matter. Clearly that was a mistake as I am now involved in a dispute with the assessors over the damage to the bonnet and IRG (the repairers)  about a badly fitting bumper and poor paint finish. Another lesson from this is not to allow assessment by providing photos, get the assessor out to see the car. Don’t take any “we are trying to minimise contact due to covid” line from them. 

 

I do have “like for like” courtesy cover, but to be honest the bigger issue for me was them having my car for a whole week and yet doing so little work. I also didn’t expect my car to have to be trucked across 2 counties for quite minor repairs.

 

So in conclusion, I took a route given as an option by MY insurer, clearly you were not party to the conversation and are Ill equipped to comment on the options I was offered.

 

Given the financial uncertainty at the moment I chose not to pay the excess (which they told me I would initially have to do) and then wait to get it back at some unspecified point in the future.

 

Edited 17 July, 20205 yr by warweezil

For my part I had not appreciated that you were another contributor to the thread and not the OP, I have eye problems and I also read too fast.

 

So my response should have been to the OP and not yourself had I realised.

 

Sorry about that!

Yours was not the response I took issue with 😁. I know visual impairment makes life difficult, a friends son has “cone myopathy” and I hate the deterioration I can see in one so young. Nature can be so cruel 😢