Esure-Cowboys from Hell

rockabilly_spike

Hi All

my dad is 64 and owns a Vauxhall Omega Estate 2.5GLS TDI Auto from 1996.
Done less than 100,000 miles and was in almost perfect nick apart from a bit of rust on one of the back wings just above the tire.

End of last month, this daft kid hit him from behind while me dad was stationary at a traffic island. kid was driving a knacky old Micra
squished the back bumper and one of the struts.

After a few conversations with the kids father who wanted me dad to take the car to a garage of HIS choice, not me dads and have the car mended and foot the bill, me dad declined saying that if he couldnt specify the garage himself, he wasnt interested and would claim thru his insurance.

he rang esure, got all the paperwork and filled it in and sent it off.
Esure arrange for a courtesy car to be sent (a nice Mondeo Titanium X model cos it was the only auto they had and with me dads arthritis, he said it wasnt unreasonable to request and auto)
Trewick auto repair came and took the Omega away on a transporter.
11 days later, after me dad phoned Esure to enquire what was going on, they returned the car to him and the hire car was taken away too,
When it left, the omega ran perfectly fine, as it always had done, just needed the bumper sorting.
its had a new bumper, silencer, towbar and bumper strut fitted.
but its leaking diesel from somewhere now, and the mile-ometer said it had done 1 mile but it had no fuel left in it, despite it leaving with a 1/2 full tank of diesel.
the battery was completely dead and had to be charged for 24hrs after it was dropped off before it would even start
the sill at the bottom of the right rear door was hanging off and like i say, it was throwing diesel on the road from underneath.
esure were called and they sent Trewicks out again.
they had no tools on their van at all and medad had to let them use some of his.
they re-attached the sill and tried to say the liquid leaking was diff oil, not diesel.
me dad stuck his finger in the pool of it and actually wiped it across the guys face and asked what kind of mechanic couldnt tell the difference between the smell of diff oil and diesel???
they said they couldnt help and would have to get someone to come back and pick the car up again on a transporter.
Esure called again, me dad passed from person to person. an 'Engineer' spoke to him and told me dad he 'knows nothing', despite me dad being a band 5 craftsman, a qualified electrical engineer and in his younger days, built motorbikes and also a whole land rover, from the ground up as projects.
unfortunately ill health prevents him from being able to carry out repairs on cars anymore.
today, me dad starts the car with the intention of going to the corner shop, it starts, then theres a thud from under the bonnet and water and coolant liquid are p*ssing out of the engine.
he reckons its probably blown a core-plug.
back onto Esure, who want HIM to now take it to a garage, despite the fact it can't be moved cos its leaking all sorts of fluids and wont start now.
plus its the weekend and everywhere it closed.
they just kept apologising and saying that this service was unacceptable and they understood that me dad was stressed out.
he told them that without a car he cant even get to the corner shop cos of his arthritis and the car was in a worse state now than when it left.
All they said they were able to do over a weekend was take his complaints and have a senior member of staff phone him on monday morning.
Me dad was very reluctant to have the car go back to Trewicks again but Esure say its their only repair place in our region, which i don't believe.

So friday/sat/sun and probs mon, me dad is stuck in the house.
he's 64 and suffers with poly arthritis in his knees, ankles, elbows, and fingers, has type II diabetes and problems with his neck and back.
caused by working for Northern electric as a contracter for over 40 years.
he's retired on ill health grounds.
the stress is sending his blood pressure all over the place and all esure and the garage wanna do is have him wait around on phone calls.
he cannot go anywhere until they supply him with another courtesy car, whenever that is.
they've basically revoked the mans freedom due to their lack of care when doing this job.
the engine was fine and nothing has ever leaked from the car, it flew through it last MOT, needing only 1 brake pipe replacing as 'good measure'.
its been well looked after and before Trewick got their hands on it, it just needed a new bumper, all just cosmetic.
now its p*ssing fuel and coolant and it wont start.

Me dad threatened that I was gonna come on here and make everyone aware of this and they basically said "go on then".

this is the only time he's ever claimed on Esure and indeed any car insurance in over 30 years of driving.
the policy was only taken out in May. he has been with them for about 4 years i think now.
Just making you guys aware of their amazingly good service.
Scott

mattymoo

Sorry but how does damage to a rear bumper suddenly cause an engine to start leaking liquids everywhere? The repairers would not even go near the engine.

TBH it sounds like a coincidence that the faults occured at the same time the vehicle was being repaired.

Flat battery can be an issue sometimes as the car will be standing for a while in the repair shop and they will disconnect the battery for safety reasons on certain jobs.

rockabilly_spike

mattymoo wrote: »

Sorry but how does damage to a rear bumper suddenly cause an engine to start leaking liquids everywhere? The repairers would not even go near the engine.

TBH it sounds like a coincidence that the faults occured at the same time the vehicle was being repaired.

Flat battery can be an issue sometimes as the car will be standing for a while in the repair shop and they will disconnect the battery for safety reasons on certain jobs.

an engine that a few months back passed mot no bother and has for the 2 weeks after the accident been fine and not leaking anything?
its only started this since it came back from trewicks.
a flat battery for a car standing for 11 days?
its a hella super heavy duty one that my dad had replacing the original one.
cost a fortune.

they did replace the silencer and they still used the original rubber seals from the old one instead of new ones.
it could been caused when the car was being put on or off the transporter.

either way, the car worked fine and did not leak at all before it left.
it wont even start now.
it had 10 litres of diesel in and the mileometer shows 1mile, so how long did they run the engine for?
if it IS a co-incidence, its a hell of a one.

personally i think they've damaged some parts of it when its been there.
my dad takes amazingly good care of this car and it flew thru its last MOT,no problems.
its been returned in a worse state than when it left, no two ways about it.

mattymoo

If you get no joy with the garage or esure then i suggest you commision your own report from a consulting motor engineer, and I don't mean a friend of a friend. They can be found in yellow pages. AA and RAC can also do this.

They will inspect the vehicle and produce a report and if they can prove the garage are responsible then you will be reimbursed the fee.

Most bodyshops that insurers use are pretty good to owning up to damage to vehicles while in their care. Did the bodyshop use their own transporter or was it another firm?

MOT a few months back means nothing. Just proves vehicle was roadworthy on that day. Not saying that to be awkward, just to warn that the MOT on its own will not carry any weight.

rockabilly_spike

mattymoo wrote: »

If you get no joy with the garage or esure then i suggest you commision your own report from a consulting motor engineer, and I don't mean a friend of a friend. They can be found in yellow pages. AA and RAC can also do this.

They will inspect the vehicle and produce a report and if they can prove the garage are responsible then you will be reimbursed the fee.

Most bodyshops that insurers use are pretty good to owning up to damage to vehicles while in their care. Did the bodyshop use their own transporter or was it another firm?

MOT a few months back means nothing. Just proves vehicle was roadworthy on that day. Not saying that to be awkward, just to warn that the MOT on its own will not carry any weight.

Esure asked if we could take it to another garage but the car doesnt move, it cant be driven anywhere.

Yeah the MOT says it was roadworthy on that day but the garage was instructed that if anything looked like it needed doing at all, to go ahead and do it to be on the safe side. an open invitation to the garage doing the MOT to replace anything they thought looked remotely dodgy.
they did one brake pipe.
thats all.
the cars never ever leaked anything
after the accident it was still being driven around the town for another 2 weeks, 2 or 3 times a day.
this stuff has only occurred while it was in Trewicks care and it was their transporter that took it away.

gonna have to wait till monday now but i think esure will ask me dad to get a 2nd opinion from an independant garage, which he will, but it means them coming to take it away.
he'll need a courtesy car in the meantime too.
to expect a near disabled 64 yr old man to stay confined to his house is appalling.

i have a feeling that whatever damage costs are revealed from another garage are gonna be deemed uneconomical to repair by esure and the car will be written off unless me dad wants to pay for it.

other people were asking why he blames Esure.
the car has been in their garage's charge for the last 2 weeks.
it wasnt like this before it went away, it had a busted bumper and nothing else, it was actually checked out by Sunderland Coach works,as they did a free estimate in the hope of getting the repair work, should it be sorted outside of the insurance co.
they had it for a whole day and went round it all thoroughly.

rockabilly_spike

car was last serviced in feb the day before the MOT and nothing needed to be done except 1 new brake pipe. and YES all parts are in conjunction with the manual
was driving fine up to and for 2 weeks after the accident including the day it was taken away on a transporter to Trewicks.

they admitted they crushed the door sill when it was jacked up to replace the silencer.
dont know if its true but me dad reckons that when they fitted a new silencer, they might've sat there revving hell outta the engine to test it and blow all the crap outta the pipes.
hence the lack of diesel when it came back.
doesnt mean the battery shoulda been flat though, its a really expensive Hella super heavy duty one. 10 year guarantee i think me dad said.
another fella on another forum said that it sounds like the whole car has taken a lot more shock than initially estimated and its basically just giving up on itself now.

So what you're saying is that its more than likely that Esure will say its mechanical failure and me dad will have to have the car taken away out of his own pocket and be then housebound until my sister or her hubby can spare the time to take him car hunting (since i dont drive)

just getting lots of different perspectives on this and making me dad aware of what could happen.

rockabilly_spike

fair enough. he's still gonna argue with them on monday tho

Oscar_The_Grouch

Rockabilly, Oooohhhh does have a point here; looking at this post from start to finish, it appears that Esure have already decided that they are not going to accept liability for the additional repair work (I won't say "damage" at this stage, as I don't believe that has been proved).

The problem you have is that your evidence is circumstantial. I accept that it is strange that your dad's car worked before the accident and has faults now, but there is no actual evidence to say whether that is coincidence or accident related.

I had a mondeo that worked like clockwork; stated first time even on the coldest of days and never missed a beat. I tried to start it one morning and there was no life in the battery. It had been fine the day before but would suddenly not hold a charge at all. I also had a mazda that decided to dump its radiator fluid on the M3 once without any warning.

Mattymoo suggested you get an independent inspection carried out on the vehicle, but it seems that this suggestion has been ignored. I feel that if you were to complain to the FOS on this case, they would throw the case out due to the lack of evidence on your part.

Rather than agruing with the insurers, I would be tempted to try to be reasonable; get an e-mail address off them that you can send information to (so that you have everything in writing). Make sure the e-mail is completely factual and avoids trying to sound bitter.

Tell them that you feel that the simplest way to resolve the issue would be for an independent engineer to inspect the vehicle. Tell them that you are confident the engineer will find in your favour, so are willing to pay the cost of the report if they will agree to reimburse the costs if the report does confirm the problems with the car are either accident related or due to the actions/inactions of their repairer.

This is a reasonable course of action and will probably get you further that having a complete rant at some youngster on the end of the phone who, really, has done nothing other than his job and isn't paid enough to justify being shouted at by a complete stranger. Claims handlers are human - honest!! They respond best when they are treated with respect.

If you say in your e-mail that you would like their written agreement to this suggestion, their own proposals for a solution or a "final decision letter". If they send you the final decision, this means that you can complain to the FOS and say that you tried to come up with a reasonable solution, but your insurers were not interested, thus looking far more like the "good guy" than you would if you just shout at people.

rockabilly_spike

well situation is currently that Esure say they find it hard to believe that the damage was caused by negligence from trewick, however they say that if my dad nominates his own choice of local garage, they will arrange to have it towed there and inspected.
if the damage is deemed by the 2nd garage as down to A-the original accident and hasnt been spotted by Trewick's or B: down to Trewick's themselves, then Esure will give the go ahead for the car to be repaired or written off depending on the sum total of the repair bill.
if its deemed mechanical failure on an old car, then the bill will be me dads to settle up.

in the meantime, my brother in law and a friend of his, both of whom work for Nissan components firms, came over with a big hydraulic jack and put me dads car up and inspected underneath it.
there's a deep scrape marks on the underside of the car from the front to approx where the drivers door finishes, THROUGH any dirt and mud which had collected on the underside and the engine is leaking diesel.
the lads estimation was immediately that the car had been damaged as it was taken either on or off the transporter. The Omega is a very long low car for an estate and the direction of the scraping indicates that its been done like i said either coming on or off the transporter. the lads also took pics of the road outside our house where theres a diesel spill pattern in exactly the same shape as the way the car was removed from the transporter, meaning it was already leaking when it came off.
theres no way me dad could've driven round a car leaking this much diesel for 2 weeks prior to the garage taking it away.
it also turns out that the Hella battery that my dad bought for the car some years ago, has now magically turned into a Fyam (sp?) battery.
which might explain why it was dead on arrival....

Me dads found a garage and when Esure ring today, it'll get towed away and if they say the damage was caused by trewicks putting it on and off the transporter, me dad will at least then get a courtesy car while his is under investigation.

keep you updated

Horace

Esure are dreadful, I joined them as a driver who hadn't had an accident and expected some support etc from them when I was hit up the rear by a car on the work's carpark (the silly moo claimed not to have seen my blue car in front of her and shunted me up the backside). They wanted to settle 50/50 and I refused because I was driving carefully round looking for a space when I got shunted by this woman. They were hopeless and I decided not to renew with them - on getting new insurance I was asked questions about the accident and how Esure had got me hitting someone up the rear - now I am bemused as to how that could happen bearing in mind that the damage is on the rear of my car.:rolleyes: I had to explain to the new insurers what happened and that those details have now been rectified.

Avoid Esure like the plague they are the most dreadful insurance company ever.

OP - I hope your dad gets his car sorted.