Insurance companies, call centres, accountability.

It’s sixteen whole English days and a bit since our motorhome was rear ended. In that sixteen days I’ve called Direct Line seven times that I’ve recorded, and they have called me twice. The initial call was to tell them what had happened. They were incredibly busy because of the snow so wouldn’t take the call properly. They just took basic details with a view to calling us back once they had gotten over their bump.

This process led to our initial claim having a tic box ticked somewhere saying it was an enquiry. This generated an auto mail from some faceless person thanking us for our enquiry and that if a third party claimed via our insurance and we hadn’t notified them we could be liable for costs, loss of cover and we may even be killed and eaten.

That prompted my second call to Direct Line to say, we had made a claim already and that we needed to know what the letter was about. We were duly told it was an error and not to worry our claim was being processed. All good.

We received a note telling us that we needed to take our vehicle to a local Vauxhall dealership and crash repairers to be assessed, however I pointed out that their website stated that they looked after panel vans and cars, and that we would need secondary fixing around the habitation area where the aluminium skin has been damaged. They agreed, but realised very quickly that despite taking on the premium, that they (Direct Line) had no one on their books with the necessary skills to do the repairs, and we should endeavour to find our own repairer, which I did. Phone call three, gave them the details of the specialist repairer, the police incident No and a few more details of the vehicle our vehicle was shoved into. I asked the question: when can we expect and assessor to call us?

This has taken from Sunday 20^th January until the 25^th of January and I’m starting to wonder how busy the assessors are, that we haven’t even had a call?

I’m assured by the call centre agent that the assessors are very busy and know all about our case and will contact us within 48 hours of this call (25th January).  If I haven’t heard a from them after close of business on the 26^th of January I should phone back on Monday the  28^th of January ... you know what’s coming next. On Monday 28^th of January I called to say the assessors hadn’t called the previous week. I was told by the call centre person that the case was with the Assessors, and they would mail the assessors dept to remind them to call us urgently.

I was advised that “if” I hadn’t heard from the assessors by close of business on the 30^th of January, I should call back on the morning of the 31^st of January. So on the 31^st of January I called back to say that the assessors hadn’t called, I was told that the assessors knew about the case and that if I hadn’t heard from them by Friday 1^st of February, call back at any time that was convenient. So on Friday at midday I called back and said I was a bit worried and starting to get just a bit irritated by what was coming across to me as; either lies being told, or a fuck up somewhere in the faceless, nameless, process and script driven systems that companies employ today ... there is a cost to cheap car insurance, cheap telephone bills, and twenty four hour access, and the cost is quality, if you don’t manage your affairs then don’t expect these people to, because they aren’t paid enough to give shit.

The chap at the end of the phone checked out what was going wrong because I said the only thing I was calling for was to check why the assessors hadn’t called me, and that I had no other information to add. Effectively I gave him one task that was a good win for him and a good win for me. He quickly discovered that way back on the 19^th Of January when the initial enquiry was made, a box had been ticked and had never been un-ticked, and in addition to that, because the call had been pushed to the assessors so many times it was now stuffed in the way that only computers know how to stuff things.

At some point on Wednesday 6^th of February (I’m giving until lunchtime). If I haven’t received a phone call from the assessors I’m going into complaint mode. This will entail typing up a diarised timeline, recorded from the moment the second call was made to Direct Line and they “ummed and ahhed” and didn’t inspire any confidence (Time, Date, name of call centre agent and preferably their extension No:).

As with all such letters of complaint I shall bypass all the managers at every level in the call centre and instead find the three or four most senior board members and moan direct to them. This I have found works as well as Kryptonite against Superman. It worked when the Woolwich building society lost some property deeds they had to send two hundred yards to my solicitors. It worked with CountryWide Property Lawyers who really do put the count in country (did you see what I did there?). To be fair to Countrywide they waved their fees for our last house sale ... but by god they took us to the wire with our buyers patience.

So here we are; I have to deal with call centre people every day; in India, in Manila somewhere up North, somewhere in France and somewhere in Poland. The staff aren’t accountable and there is often very little they can, or want to do (other than call another call centre somewhere). The managers may have a pop at an individual over a particular error, but from bitter experience all they are interested in is ensuring that the error that propagated from their subordinate doesn’t head upwards to their own managers, as it just drags on and on and on, and that’s just messy.

So my top tip for kicking up a stink when you are being (for want of a better phrase) fucked around, is aim your complaint right at the very top, and then follow it up. It seems mean, but they are quick enough to take your money, they are quick enough to send you a snotagram telling you that if they can find a way not to pay you out ... they will. Another tip, do not be angry when you write to complain, no opinions, no judgements and no name calling, just the facts and as brief as possible. Remember that, have a splendid week, we’ll post again when we have some idea of WTF we are going to do next. J

You Couldn't Make it up

Well here it is 2013. We haven’t posted for a couple of weeks. So happy New Year reader.

Now to business; things are difficult. You may be thinking straight away “cold feet”. You’d be right it’s been cold, and at this time of year the thought of going off travelling seems a thousand years away. However things are awry with our plan in ways that are almost impossible to comprehend or believe.

We are in the land of “you couldn’t make it up”. On Saturday morning January 19^th 2013 (at around 3am to be precise), a stolen vehicle driven by a drunk driver, plus a passenger lost control of their stolen Ford Ka and ploughed into the rear offside of the motorhome. Yes you read that right. Pictures below.

 

I haven’t written it up before now because we’ve been playing the waiting game with the insurance company ... thus far they have been awkward. And I’m only forgiving them because of the severe weather and the volume of snow related incidents they are dealing with.

 

We are in total limbo, the damage to the rear underside of the chassis is extensive, however the entire rear extension to the chassis that supports the habitation unit drops off with fourteen bolts. The lighting cluster is made of fibreglass and is a bolt on unit as is the Safe T Bar, which is another extension to the chassis extension, and includes the tow hook. There is no damage to the floor, the gas system, new toilet, kitchen, plumbing or shower. So that’s all within certain parameters repairable or replaceable dependent on availability of parts ... and we know a man who breaks them www.no1gear.com mentioned variously elsewhere.

 

The rear may not be the problem. It’s the front that’s the bone of contention. Our vehicle was forced forward some eight feet, but of course our neighbours car was parked just three or four feet in front of the motorhome and they like us being keen campers have a tow hook. Our front bumper was cleaved in two like an Orcs head before the Axe of Gimli. This has resulted in a significant creased ding in the main front chassis cross member. This cross member supports the radiator and all its paraphernalia. I once wrecked a Smart Roadster and know that the chassis will, with a little heat pull out (none of the radiator parts or fans are damaged), but the ding is deep. On the nearside where the suspension leg bubble/bulkhead rises from the main monocoque of the cab, there is a split in the skin. The split may just be sound proofing but I think it’s the metal (I’m not an engineer I can’t be sure). The split may be weldable, however it does speak of lateral shock to the front suspension leg and the steering gear that links in down there below.

 

And now we come to not knowing what’s going on. The severe weather means that Direct Line is swamped with claims for all sorts, all their assessors are busy, and our vehicle hasn’t even been looked at yet, in spite of a number of calls to move things along. So we have no idea whether they will write it off or repair it. In our motorhomes favour, is the fact that it’s in very good nick all round, and has been renovated internally, and the fact that it is a “no fault claim” and all repairs will be covered . Against it is its age and the expertise of the person doing the assessing.

 

Aside from this the police have not compiled a report yet as the RTC status of the incident is likely to become a criminal matter due to a list of motoring offences as long as your arm committed by the driver and passenger.

 

Aside from our own problems, we were told by the police at the scene that the girl (who may have been driving) was found between two parked cars opposite our home. I must explain that I was wearing earplugs, so while I did hear a bang I didn’t register it as significant. The girl had been dragged from the car by the male person (again we have no further details from the police as to whether he was passenger or not), her injuries include a broken leg, a broken pelvis, a deep cut to the face, and possibly an eye injury. The male realised that the girl couldn’t make it and did the decent thing and abandoned her on the ground, in minus 2.5 degree cold with snow falling.

 

We were not alone in not realising something was up. No one woke up, and the only reason that the girl was saved, was because the Port Of Tilbury Police were doing a drive through the town, round to the cruise terminal, they spotted the vehicle lit but parked oddly and decided to have a closer look.

So there we are, up a gum tree, in limbo, on hold. We’ll post when we have more news. One must say that we have numerous plans in place for every eventuality these will form a separate post.