Should have picked up my new car today (T Reg Felly).

Arranged to buy, rang up insurance to do the switch, quote ok.

Several days later, neither dealer nor myself have received insurance doc, so can't tax the new car. Turns out they posted them out SECOND CLASS. Won't do anything about it because A) "May take up to 5 working days" (ie WILL TAKE AT LEAST 5 WORKING DAYS IF POSTED 2ND CLASS) AND THEY ARE NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO TELL ME HOW THEY WOULD SORT IT OUT IF NOT RECEIVED UNTIL LONGER THAN FIVE WORKING DAYS UNTIL I HAVE WAITED MORE THAN 5 WORKING DAYS It's the weekend (was it really the weekend already this morning?) so today doesn't count towards the 5 and they couldn't have done anything this morning even if they had wanted to and even if they had been able to do something they wouldn't have been able to do it until Tuesday.

Is it really usual practice to send out docs second class WITHOUT EXCEPTION, EVEN IF I EXPLAIN THE TIMESCALE (not that they told me at the time that they would go out 2nd class), or is it merely because I was foolish enough to accept a quote from my existing insurance company rather than switching every 5 minutes? (NB this from a company rated highly in the survey in this Wk's Auto Express; neither I nor my father had ever had any problems before.)

I wouldn't have minded having to wait 10 days to pick up my car if that was the way of things, if we had to fill out 100 forms and get a doctor and a solicitor and a psychiatrist to certify I was a fit and proper person to drive this car, would drive it carefully, check the oil regularly, not cut anybody up, not tailgate nor use my car to flaunt my political or religious or sporting affliations etc, but something as penny pinching as posting 2nd class........ Thanks guys; you've just saved me 10p on my premium!

To the customer service assistant who had to listen to me today; we will never meet and you were doing your job in a professional manner and I doubt our conversation was a very pleasant experience for you either. SORRY.

Will cut down on the caffeine, promise.

I'm surprised by this - is it a big company? I've always been amazed how quickly my documents have arrived from various insurers - typically next day :eek:

Chris

It is a big, well established insurance name.

In Northampton 2nd class usually arrives before the 1st..lol

Didn't you have a notorious rogue postman in your part of the world (kept thousands of letters in his attic for no apparent reason)? Vaguely remember a news story from a year or two back.

In Northampton 2nd class usually arrives before the 1st..lol

in the portsmouth area it makes no difference if it 1st or 2nd class mail, it takes the same amount of time to be delivered usually next day.

Surely the dealer can tax the car for you?

If you know your insured then you could possibly tax it on line.

Is the dealer not allowed to release an untaxed car?

Not that its any help this time but I use a major insurer that advertises with a dog (not the lucky one) and when I recently bought a new car they gave me the option of having the docs sent out next day delivery (at cost, v. reasonable I thought) or the usual within 5 working days but they were sent 1st class.

Offering the option of a speedier delivery makes sense to me.

Anyway this morning, I received the new insurance cert in the post (1st class, which was a little odd, as 2 different people on 2 different days had said that they went 2nd class.....). Too late to get to dealer in time to get to the post office.

Dealer meanwhile received a letter advising that the old car's insurance expires today.... but no docs re the new car.

Sounds as if the insurance company either hadn't sent anything out, or had send out 2nd class, then sent something out in a panic to try to cover themselves.

They won't say anything, of course.

Mine were sent 1st class (Sheila's Wheels) and arrived on the Tuesday after I phoned on the Sunday to get it changed! They told me to allow 3 working days though and their office is in Glasgow so about 40 miles away so maybe that helped!

Glad you got them eventually!

Lorna

The thing that annoys me right now is that I've either got to take a day off work this week (possibly a busy week) or wait until Saturday (dealer is a small family run operation and hasn't much space to hold an extra vehicle and they've been patient and friendly throughout) so I'm either letting down work or letting down the dealer, even though it's not my fault.