anyone got 1st central car insurance?

mcdebs

My son insured his car through 1st Central because it was the cheapest quote. He opted for fully comprehensive. 9 days ago he was in an accident and since reporting it to 1st Central we have basically had no contact at all via email, royal mail, telephone or mobile. We we ring them we are either cut off or left hanging on hold listening to some Jonathan Ross sound alike with pan pipe music in the background. When we first reported the claim they told us that they would have the car recovered to a garage - which they didn't. The day after the accident the police told us that the car was obstructing pedestrian and we would have to get it moved. We tried ringing 1st Central but no answer, I emailed them twice and got no responce, I have now been on hold to them waiting for an agent to come free for over 30 mins. We got the car recovered to a garage on Christmas Eve - 2 days after the accident and have no idea what to do now! Can anyone on here help or offer any advice?

saltcoats54

hi again I had an accident on 07/11/09 yes that long ago!! My car was classed as a right off, only contact i got was an e-mail telling me to send all documents for the car which I sent about 3 weeks ago, despite repeated e-mails (can't get through on phones)I've had no contact or offer for my car any advice would be welcome.

saltcoats54

Tom1stCentral wrote: »

Hi – I’ve posted on this thread once before...I’m Tom – Head of Business Development at First Central Insurance Services.

I want to pick up on some of the comments made on this forum...

1)With regards to providing a ‘Driving Other Cars’ Extension on our policies I can confirm that we have made a decision to INCLUDE this additional cover in the near future. This requires certain changes to our customer documentation and IT systems and does take time I’m afraid – However, I’ll ensure that I will let this forum know when we can do this.

2)We have had queues on our telephone lines and I can only apologise to our customers for any delays they might have experienced. However, the team have been working hard to rectify this and I can assure that we are prioritising our resources to ensure our customers receive a better quality of service than they have been experiencing. We have doubled the size of our staff numbers in our Sales, Policy Support and Claims Call Centres - I understand that real improvements have been made and call waiting times are now much lower.

3)We have also seen great improvements in the time taken to process changes to policies such as mid - term adjustments and cancellations.

4)We DO listen to our customers and we want every 1st Central policyholder to have a positive experience and I can assure all readers on this thread that we are committed to making further improvements and enhancements to our service in the coming months.

Lastly, I’d also like to confirm that as a company we are not placing anonymous posts on this site.

Kind regards,

Tom


P.S - Please contact me using the 'Private Message' function if you are having any further problems - I will try and make sure it is checked everyday.[/
just an update.After I sent a pm to tom yesterday I got a message on my mobile (missed the call due to work)stating that my cheque would be in the post after the new year,that something is happening at last is good only worry I've got is I've not been made an offer do you just accept what they give you,I've valued my car at what car at the time of the accident, is there any comeback for me if the payment doesn't come up to my valuation of the car?
update just been made an offer, pleased with the offer, just wish it could have been done quicker but satisfied nonetheless.

janetG_4

i had an accident yesterday - after a lot of problems getting hold of 1st central and being redirected to several "wrong" numbers - i finally got through to a claims person who couldnt be nicer - she was excellent and via her I managed to speak to several other people and was finally recovered after 2 hours. Since then - I have struggled to get through and have no idea what to do next, espeacially as I need a car to get to work. I will certainly PM Tom for help
janet

roundy

still no news really not happy, car accident was 07-11-09 MY BIRTHDAY!!

2 MONTHS ON NO FURTHER FORWARD!

the guy from claims referral Ross if you ever speak to him he is really really helpful he passes messages onto my claims handler but she cant be arsed to call me back by the looks of it!, they have my car im 2.5k out of pocket currently. I am keeping this guy updated as he sends me an email nearly everyday but there is only so much someone can do to help when its not his department.

I have emailed this tom privately this evening and also emailed customer relations failing that i will need to pop down and talk to someone in person!!! a long way to go but i am getting really really annoyed, i want this sorting out by the end of the week!

dacouch

Roundy you may find the following from the Ombudsman helpful to gain compensation from 1stcentral for the unreasonable delays they have been causing you.


15. loss of use and courtesy cars

Usually the policyholder is entitled to a courtesy car only where the policy specifically provides for it. Even where the policy does provide for a courtesy car, this will usually be in limited circumstances (for example, whilst repairs are carried out by a repairer approved by the insurer) that do not apply where a vehicle is "written-off". This often comes as a surprise and disappointment to the policyholder.
Usually we only award the policyholder compensation for loss of use of the vehicle where the insurer unreasonably delays, or wrongly declines, the claim. Exceptionally, we may say that the insurer should compensate the policyholder for loss of use where:

• the insurer’s overall presentation of the policy gave the consumer a legitimate expectation that a courtesy car (or compensation for loss of use) would be provided; or
• the claim was badly administered (for example, the insurer initially took the car to be repaired, delayed several weeks and then decided it was a "write-off" after all).

Where we consider it fair for the insurer to compensate the policyholder for loss of use:

• If the policyholder hired a car for this period, we might require the insurer to refund the hire-car charges (plus interest).
• If the policyholder did not hire a car, we might require the insurer to pay compensation for other reasonable transport expenses incurred plus inconvenience caused by lack of a car.
• If we award compensation for inconvenience caused by lack of a car, we tend to award around £10 per day, if it had a material effect on the policyholder, and depending on the individual circumstances – for example, whether the policyholder had "free" access to another vehicle, availability of public transport etc.

You should find this even better as they have not paid you out for the car yet.

16. salvage of the "written-off" vehicle and contents

Once the policyholder accepts payment of the full market value, the insurer becomes the owner of the salvage. If the policyholder asks to keep the salvage, the insurer is entitled to deduct what it would have been able to sell the salvage for. This is usually not very much.
But what if the policyholder complains that the insurer (or its agent) disposed of the salvage before paying the full market-value? At this stage, the vehicle still belongs to the policyholder, and we take the view that the insurer should not have disposed of it without first obtaining the policyholder’s consent to the settlement of the claim – even if the insurer said it was only acting in the public interest by keeping a badly-damaged vehicle off the roads. In such circumstances, and unless the insurer returns the salvage, we usually award the policyholder compensation for inconvenience.
If the policyholder had personal belongings in the vehicle when the insurer disposed of it without consent, we are likely to award the cost of replacing these – usually on a like-for-like (rather than a new-for-old) basis.


http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

1st Central must abide by the Ombudsman's guidance / rules, you will probably find their staff have not even been trained in this yet so feel free to direct them to the relevant part of the Ombudsman's website.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

roundy

I have had some positive feedback from Tom today at first central i am awaiting a call back today from my claims handler so i will see, But there some very helpful people at 1st Central. As i mentioned before.

dacouch

Sounds goody roundy, talk is cheap though it's action that counts.

You should not have to go through a forum to get results from an Insurer, 2 months to deal with a claim is not acceptable.

Use the information I have posted from the Ombudsman to push for compensation, 60 days at the recommended £10 a day (Assuming you qualify) amounts to £600. The ombudsman might only award an amount based on the amount of days they have unreasonably delayed the claim eg say 5 weeks. However in the circumstances eg the amount of calls you have had to make I would be pushing for the £600.

When your renewal is due, learn from this as the cheapest policy is not always the best. As stated before I personally avoid Insurers who are based in Gibralter

roundy

Thing is with the way it is in the world today and uncertainty over the economy, people cant afford to pay more for there insurance, its a rip off anyway to be perfectly honest with you, I had quotes for my Alfa ranging from 450 to 3000k how can insurance companies justify such a wide band of prices, the car insurance market is a joke. There should be a Pricing structure for every insurance company and they can only go within a +/- 10% of the competitiors prices type thing, that way we can choose which company to use with out the fear of them being a waste of time,

I have had a call back on wednesday and my cheque should arrive with me tomorrow, yes it shouldnt have been sorted on a forum but its sorted now so im putting it to bed.

drogerson

Struggling to keep my patience now.
Had an accident in my car 11/12/09, in which it came off the road.
No other parties involved, and no damage to property. The car ended up in a field, with damage to the front end. I was getting ready to replace the car anyway, and the damage pretty much made my mind up. The car was over 10 years old and I was going to part exchange it.

Asked 1st Central to arrange recovery from the field, and was told it was free, and the car was recovered a couple of days later. Due to a busy schedule, I wasn't really able to try to contact 1st Central to find out about my car, and when I did I couldn't get through.

On New Years Eve I got a call of a engineer saying he'd valued my car (mentioned something like Total Loss?) and 1st Central would be in contact regarding this.

They haven't, but I've been phoning and e-mailing since, and I can't get through to the claims department to find out where my car is.

I'm now presuming that they've scrapped the car, without my permission. If this is the case where do I stand? I'm presuming they will ask me to pay my excess and then i'll receive the valuation of the car.
But I didn't ask for repairs or a garage to look at it, I just wanted it recovered from a field.

Anyone got any advice?