Ecar/Southern Rock/Eldon Insurance Incompetence!!!

261_p wrote: »

Ok stand by for ranting!!!
My car was stolen about 6-7 weeks ago from outside my house, I did the normal course of action. i.e phone the police and insurance company.
The police did their usual absolutely no investigation and dished out a crime number etc. a day later the car was found trashed and was recovered by a company on behalf of the police.
passed all the details onto the insurance company, (I was insured with ecar insurance who are underwritten by Southern Rock and claim is handled by Eldon Insurance ltd based near newcastle), including crime number, incident number, name of officer who was dealing and the police station(Partick Police in Glasgow) phone number.
After about 4 days I phoned eldon insurance and after a 20 minute hold i got through to someone and asked for an update about the claim, was told that the car had been taken from the police recovery company to a garage used by the insurance company. They asked me to send my keys, V5, insurance docs and driving licence to them which i duly did the next day.
I left it another week before contacting them again for an update, this time i was told that they had been trying to contact Partick Police to confirm the crime number but "they couldn't get through to the station" . this seeming a pretty lame excuse i checked that they had the correct phone number (i used it several times to contact the police in the 24hrs after the car was stolen and got straight through to them every time....)
which they did. i told them that i wasnt happy that they hadnt managed to progress any further than when i last spoke to them and then left it at that saying i'd phone back in another week.
1 week later i phoine Eldon back, and again i'm given the exact same excuse as last time!! they still cant got hold of the police. rubbish!!!!
I hang up in a temper before i lose my rag over the phone, dial 118118, ask for partick police station and am given a number for Strathclyde control room, PArtcik coimes under there area, phone the cotrol centre and get straight through to a police office rwho tells me that the insurance need to write to them and ask for a copy of the police report. ok fine. i ring Eldon back and pass this on to them along with the address and phone number of who to contact at Strathclyde! The fact that i managed to acquire this info in less than 90 seconds, through 2 simple phone calls and the tiny tiny tiniest bit of initiative left me feeling pretty annoyed to say the least that these incompent a-holes at Eldon couldnt manage it in 2 weeks of trying!
a few days later i get a letter from eldon asking me to sign a form grantin g them permission to see the police report along with a letter saying that it might take 6 weeks for them to got the info from the police. i sign the forms and return them first class the next day.
Well that was between 3 and 4 weeks ago, this morning i have rung them again and was told that they only sent the request to the police 10 days ago so it might be another month for a reply and then god only knows how long before they make a decision about my case. all this for a car that was only worth £2000!
All the while i'm left with a daily 75 mile round trip to work and no car! oh btw i wasnt intitled to a courtesy car becasue that only happens if they decide to repair mine....!
I am writing a complaint letter to their MD and then i'm going to the financial ombudsman if that doesnt work!!!
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!:mad::mad:

Dear Rt Hon Theresa May MP

A very serious issue and fraud against the British public, please read:

Ecar is a part of the Brightside Group PLC which has 8 different insurance divisions. They are not an underwriter and have no internal ability to underwrite this aspect is all done with external companies with customers often finding themselves having a great deal of problems should a claim arise as the actual insurance of the clients properties does not appear to be the priority on this organisations operation, taking the monies from customers via very low quotes received from moneysupermarket operations appears to be the skill they are inherently applying.

They then request a copy of the clients driving license which is unheard of in the insurance operation as these details can be obtained via a database which all insurers have access to. The BBC did an article on them 10/11/11 stating they have “The British Insurance Brokers' Association called Ecar's refusal rate "very high", saying the market rate was much lower. “

“But the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) told 5 live that Ecar's refusal rate was out of step with the rest of the industry.
"A 25% cancellation rate is very high and we don't know why that is but the market would not have a rate that high across the board," said Graeme Trudgill, from BIBA.
"It is disappointing that so many customers are having their applications cancelled and we would urge everyone to do all they can to ensure applications are valid and no-one is going uninsured."
James Daley, editor of Which? Money agreed that Ecar's methods are not standard industry practice.”
Ecar was banned in Australia for its practises, it uses many ploys and relies heavily on profit via cancellation fees stating for one that this drivers license which is an unnecessary technicality has not been sent by the client.
They operate an 0906 telephone number at a rate of £1.02 per minute which apparently keeps you on hold for around 5 minutes then cuts you off.
If they can find any discrepancy in the information you have provided they hike your insurance premium by an extortion amount and get what they wish which is a “provoked cancellation” with outrageous cancellation fees.
The BBC have been in touch with me please find e-mail:

Subject: BBC1 - The Legalizer

Dear Andrew,

I am contacting you regarding ECar insurance. We are currently researching a piece on this for a new consumer affairs show we are producing for BBC1.

It would be great to be in touch with you. Do e-mail me: thelegalizer@fulcrumtv.com or call me on 020 3372 8521.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks,
Alexandra
This company is based offshore in Gibraltar and is a £100,000,000 a year operation, it is not the only one but it is probably the most prolific.
They have realised with me seeing as I have spent over 200 hours dealing with them in various respects and reported the transaction on my credit card as being to a fraudulent company, I quote as a gesture of goodwill they refunded me my money and have come begging to me to drop the matter which I will not. This is a direct attack on the British lower classes and is likely to cause people to break the laws of the roads because the money they have lost via the Brightside Group would be the money they required to legalise their car & having their money stolen on technicalities or alleged postal misdemeanour’s may well leave them in the position of not having the funds to insure their car as they were attempting to do.
I will be pursuing the matter at length and I ask you as my member of parliament to take the matter further than the Trading Standards.
An operation banned in Australia now operating illegally or corruptly and very profitably in the UK should be a chief issue with yourself as a representative of the population of this country.
I can send all the links to this operation via e-mail should you need them. I ask you once again to take this matter a great deal higher than Trading Standards and ban the operation of companies preying on those whom they think are least able to defend their selves that is people who are attempting to save every penny using price comparison sites to legalise their selves and being viciously ripped off in the process.
I will do my up-most to assist you with this matter should you require it. I intend to push this matter to its final conclusion which is closure of this illegal operation as Australia rightly did so, those who should be responsible for said closure in failing to do so I intend to hold responsible.
I hope you will treat this matter with the urgency and importance it deserves.
Regards