Admiral and Albany Assistance Complaints Nightmare

NLA_2

Hello all. I just wanted to share a current experience my partner is going through with Admiral Insurance and Albany Assistance. What should have been a simple thing to deal with has turned into a pain in the backside that has lasted for nearly three months so I thought I'd share the pain and see if anyone else had had any similar experiences or any advice.

Brief summary - she was in her car waiting to turn right and someone drove into the back of her. There was damage to the rear of the car, she got all the driver's details and then informed her insurer, Admiral. Simple to deal with? You'd have thought so. The following emails tell the rest of the story (I have replaced names with ....):


Dear Sirs

I would like to complain about the terrible level of service I have received from Admiral over the last few weeks and the inability Admiral has in responding to phone calls and emails.

Below is an email I sent to Admiral on 3.1.10 which broadly sets out the initial issue I was attempting to resolve (along with a second one dated 4.1.10 - both sent using your online form). You will note that as well as Admiral and your partner organisation, Albany Assistance, being unable to deal with my concerns, you both spent a huge amount of my time being unable to deal with them. When I eventually got what I thought was a commitment that you would sort out the issue and call me back (detailed in the email dated 3.1.10), my claim appeared to disappear into a black hole from which there has been no communication from you since.

Despite this, I have sent the two emails below and have had no response at all, which is, quite frankly, unbelievable. Consequently I still have a car that needs repairing and I assume that at some point I will have to arrange another time for my car to go to your designated repairers.

My partner and I spend a large amount of money with Admiral to have our cars insured and you will appreciate that this is nowhere near the level of customer service we would have expected from you.

I very much look forward to you sorting this out immediately and explaining what has gone wrong in this instance.

Kind regards


........




MONDAY 4.1.10 (ADMIRAL ONLINE FORM)

Dear Sirs
>
> I am concerned that following two phone calls and the email I sent you on
> 3.1.10 you have still failed to contact me and/or sort out a hire car. I
> can only assume that arrangements for the hire car are in hand and you have
> been liaising with Albany Assistance and the repairers. However, I would
> appreciate an immediate response and confirmation of when the hire car will
> be provided and when the repairers can take my vehicle.
>
> You will appreciate the urgency and I look forward to hearing from you by
> midday on 5.1.10.
>
> .......


SUNDAY 3.1.10 (ADMIRAL ONLINE FORM)

Dear Sirs
>
> I am writing with regards to the current claim I have ongoing dated 4.12.09 and involving a third party driving into my car.
> I have been trying to organise a hire care through yourselves and Albany Assistance. I have found the process extremely unhelpful and inefficient and I cannot understand how despite frequent attempts on my part this has yet to be resolved.
>
> I spent 25 minutes on the phone to Albany Assistance on 24.12.09 where I tried to organise a hire car but they said that I would either have to take the risk of a £250 excess or be charged £2.50 per day for a lower excess. Myself and my partner both attempted to explain to them that we did not see why we should be paying any amount as this should be claimed from the third party but Albany seemed unwilling or unable to take this on board. Their representative said they would refer us on to someone else and then put us on hold for 20 minutes with no response - not how I wanted to spend Christmas Eve.
>
> I then phoned Admiral on 30.12.09 in an attempt to get you to help sort out the situation. I initially spoke to .... who put me through to .... at Albany who was unable to clarify the situation and sort out a hire car for me; I suggested hiring a car myself but she was also unable to clarify how much I could claim from the third party if I did this. She put me back to Admiral and I spoke to .... who was unable or unwilling to put me back on to .... (as he said he could help). I once again explained the situation and he appeared surprised that Albany would not help us to recover all costs. He then said he would speak to Albany and call me back - this was on 30.12.09 (another 45 minute phone call). I have received no call back and no confirmation that a hire car has been arranged.
>
> You will appreciate that this is not the level of service I would expect for the hundreds of pounds my partner and I are paying Admiral and I would be grateful if you could sort out this situation immediately so that I can get my car fixed. I will now leave all arrangements to you with regards to arranging a hire car and liaising with the repair garage (the car is booked in on 5.1.10). I look forward to hearing from you by 5pm on Monday 4.1.10.
>
> Kind regards
>
> ....

NLA_2

And so over the next few days I will update everyone on each painful step we have taken in trying to get an adequate response out of Admiral and Albany Assistance. They got back to us after our email of 8.1.10 - this was our response:


Dear Sirs

I am in receipt of a letter from Albany Assistance dated 11.1.10, reference ...., regarding a complaint I made on 8.1.10. Unfortunately the letter does not state the specific person who sent it.

The letter appears to state that Collision Damage Waiver is non-recoverable due to "insurance protocol". However, this "insurance protocol" has not been explained to me; indeed I was led to believe that I could claim back "out of pocket" expenses and it would appear to me that £2.50 per day would be an "out of pocket expense". I should not be put in the position of having to take the risk of paying for damage to a hire car when it is the third party which has put me in the position of having to have one.

I would be grateful, therefore, if you would address my complaint in more detail, specifically:

1. Could you explain in fuller detail why it is not reasonable for me to claim for collision damage waiver and what specific "insurance protocol" says I cannot?

2. Could you explain why point 1 could not be fully explained to me over the phone and why I was put on hold for 20 minutes on 24.12.09 by Albany Assistance with no response or call back?

3. Could you explain why on 30.12.09 I was on the phone for 45 minutes, why no-one could resolve the situation and why .... from Admiral did not phone me back with a definitive response as he had promised?

4. Could you explain why Admiral did not respond to my email dated 3.1.10?

5. Could you explain why Admiral did not respond to my email dated 4.1.10?

6. Could you explain why I have had no communication as to when my vehicle has been re-booked for its repairs. I yesterday received a phone call from your recommended repairers informing me that the parts had not yet arrived for the vehicle. This was much to my confusion as my vehicle had been booked in for repairs on 5 January 2010. The vehicle was not collected on this date (see my email dated 3.1.2010). Why was the recommended repairer apparently not informed of the situation?

I look forward to your prompt response and this matter being resolved by 15.1.10.

Yours faithfully

....

iamana1ias

Not what I'd call a nightmare at all.

No-one lends cars without an excess, and you'd only be liable for that if you had an accident/incident where no third party was responsible.

You really are getting your knickers in a knot about nothing.

danlojo

We are with Admiral and a kind soul rear ended me in September and unfortunately put me in hospital due to his incompetent driving skills.

Admiral were brilliant throughout...hire car sorted (only needed 2 days), damage repaired and injury claim through the legal team sorted quickly which was great.

Sorry you're having a nightmare of it and I hope you get sorted soon.

NLA_2

As an update to my previous posts, we sent a further email to Admiral after we received a letter from them which displayed little effort on their part to sort out the issues or deal with their poor customer service. This was our response:

Dear ....

Thank you for your letter dated 12.1.10 which attempted to cover some of the issues raised in my email dated 8.1.10 - I have since sent an email dated 13.1.10 before I was in receipt of your letter.

With regards to your letter, I would like to put you in the postion of someone who has paid Admiral hundreds of pounds to have a car insured and is now hoping for support and help to pursue a claim against a third party. Your comment that you cannot provide a specific reply about my experience with Albany is, I'm afraid, not good enough. I am paying Admiral, not Albany, and you have decided that you would like to use this 'agent' in order to support my claim. If a customer believes that your agent, that you have appointed, is not providing an adequate service then I would have thought that you would want to know precisely what was going on and then sort it out.

Furthermore, I am in the position of having to deal with multiple individuals when all I want is for one person to be responsible for sorting out repairs to my car; and if this isn't going smoothly, to tell me why and then deal with it quickly and efficiently.

As for your comment that .... requested a call from Albany Assistance, he actually told me that he would call me back to update me. Given the problems I had had with Albany Assistance and the fact that I had told him in detail about these issues it is very disappointing that he did not ensure that I was kept 'in the loop' and that he did not ensure that the matter was followed up.

Moreover, you have not commented on why there was no response to the two email I sent to Admiral on 3.1.10 and 4.1.10.

On a final note, it is disappointing that your letter included no sense that you would be following up the matter with Albany Assistance to ensure that it is successfully resolved nor that you would value any response from me as to whether I feel satisfied with their response. For your information, I still have a damaged car and no adequate response from Albany. I am not sure what Admiral's attitude is to customer satisfaction but I am currently a long way from being delighted with this sorry affair.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

....

NLA_2

We also received a response from Albany Assistance which didn't address all of the issues we had raised:

Dear Sirs

I am in receipt of a letter dated 20.1.10 from a Customer Service Manager but unfortunately there is no name. Thank you for your response to my previous email but there still remains some unresolved issues.

1. You have not explained specifically why the third party insurer cannot be made responsible for paying for hire car with a reduced excess / collision damage waiver. You say it is not a 'justified head of claim' but you do not say why it is not. I do not understand why I have to accept a £250 excess - could you tell me who decides that this is acceptable? Me? You? The Third Party? The Third Party Insurer? Somebody else? I have been put in a disadvantaged postion by the third party and surely the point of having insurance is to ensure that this is not the case. I would also have thought that your job is to defend my interests in this matter. Why, for example, if you believe that the third party insurer will not pay for an excess lower than £250, can you not pursue them for this via legal means through legal expenses cover? I look forward to your thoughts on this.

2. With regards to your comments on the communications I have had with Admiral, it is interesting that you are unable to comment on these as this is what Admiral have said about the communications with Albany Assistance. Whilst it may make sense to you to deal with this matter in this way, for me as a a customer it is extremely frustrating as you will appreciate that I am paying Admiral hundreds of pounds for car insurance and I don't really care whose responsibility it is, I just want one person to sort it out; I do not expect to have to jump through hoops with different 'customer service' managers.

3. With reference to the Hire and Repair Team, both you and them will note that the number you quote has too many digits - ........... is not a mobile number. My correct number is ......... and I have received calls from your repairer on that number. As to them leaving voice mail messages on my landline I'm afraid this does not ring true and it would be interesting to see your call logs for that. I have had one message at the beginning of this week on my landline from an 0191 number saying that they were from Albany Assistance - this is the only message I have not responded to as I was awaiting a written response from my previous email. You may want to check with your team again.

Once again I look forward to your response and for this sorry and tedious affair to be resolved quickly as I still have a damaged car on my drive that would very much like to be fixed.

Yours faithfully

....

karena

NLA, appreciate you sharing your experiences with us - it is horrendous and it is a shame that no insurance company using Albany or Drive Assist makes it clear exactly what their role is and that basically you are stuck with either of these two credit hire companies with no input or assistance from your insurance company. May be you could write to the CEO of Admiral - with copies of all correspondence/communication - might get you somewhere? Good luck!

GJS1

I'm going through that same living hell right NOW! - we have suffered the same issues as previously mentioned by others and more.

My 17yr old daughter was smashed in to the back while stationary in traffic (two weeks after passing her test) and the other parties’ insurers have accepted full liability. Admiral have decided to write off her car and offered an insulting low amount which as been rejected (twice now), but they still went and sent the cheque (which was rejected and not banked), but making ANY payout (accepted or not) stopped the hire car!!!!!
Her original car has been checked by a garage and is 100% safe to drive, however Admiral immediately cancelled her insurance and wrote a letter to tell her, sent 2nd class post it arrived ONE WEEK later. So basically she was driving around for a whole week uninsured! – I can hear a police officers view now! :mad: And we have still not had any refund of the insurance paid in advance for the whole year; each department blames that on the other!

Admiral have been sent over a dozen examples from the internet to demonstrate that there valuation is significantly wrong but still refuse to accept that finding every and any reason under the sun to reject them, including that they found a car on Auto Trader same age less miles and only £220 more than the offer, but strange it was not there when we looked immediately after the phone call!
…and that’s another one, one minute they claim they don’t have our contact numbers but when they really need something they manage to find one!!!

The whole Admiral/Albany Assistance/New Law Solicitors processes (sic) are bewildering.

I will be making sure that my daughter does not renewed with them and none of the rest of the family’s vehicles will ever be insured by them!!

Meanwhile fighting goes on… no recompense for the stress being caused to the whole family!

Phoebe-

I work for a...particular insurance compamy, and basically if they decide that the car is a write off you can't just drive the car if a garage says it's okay to. If it's been officially declared an official write off you need to have a VIC check done on the car before it can be driven as it needs to be declared officially road worthy.

The hire car was stopped as the car hire is only available for UP TO 21 days if the car is written off/stolen...it's seperate from a standard curtosey car. The once a car is written off the insurance is automatically cancelled as there is no car to insure, as it's not road worthy, but obviously your should have recieved the letter sooner than a week.

You don't get a refund on the insurance, because once a car is written off and the policy is cancelled, the full amount for the policy term is due.

Your best option now if you want to keep the car is to accept the payout, (market value is all they offer, hence why the cheque is for a low amount) and then to get the car VIC checked asap, and then re-instate the policy with that car.

dacouch

GJS1 wrote: »

I'm going through that same living hell right NOW! - we have suffered the same issues as previously mentioned by others and more.



Admiral have been sent over a dozen examples from the internet to demonstrate that there valuation is significantly wrong but still refuse to accept that finding every and any reason under the sun to reject them, including that they found a car on Auto Trader same age less miles and only £220 more than the offer, but strange it was not there when we looked immediately after the phone call!

Sending in adverts from Autotrader etc showing price X does not mean that is what the car is valued at. The advertised prices are viewed as the starting price to haggle so you should not expect to get exactly the same price as the adverts.

Have a read of this from the Ombudsman

"We do not usually find advertisements for similar vehicles very persuasive. A vehicle may often be sold for less than the advertised price. And small differences in mileage, year of registration, model type etc - can significantly affect the value" (See section 2)

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html#13

Please read the whole of the link so you read it in context and you will also find other useful information.

P.S You are unlikely to get any refund of premium from Admiral (See section 17)

iamana1ias

GJS1 wrote: »

I'm going through that same living hell right NOW! - we have suffered the same issues as previously mentioned by others and more.

My 17yr old daughter was smashed in to the back while stationary in traffic (two weeks after passing her test) and the other parties’ insurers have accepted full liability. Admiral have decided to write off her car and offered an insulting low amount which as been rejected (twice now), but they still went and sent the cheque (which was rejected and not banked), but making ANY payout (accepted or not) stopped the hire car!!!!!
Her original car has been checked by a garage and is 100% safe to drive, however Admiral immediately cancelled her insurance and wrote a letter to tell her, sent 2nd class post it arrived ONE WEEK later. So basically she was driving around for a whole week uninsured! – I can hear a police officers view now! :mad: And we have still not had any refund of the insurance paid in advance for the whole year; each department blames that on the other!

Admiral have been sent over a dozen examples from the internet to demonstrate that there valuation is significantly wrong but still refuse to accept that finding every and any reason under the sun to reject them, including that they found a car on Auto Trader same age less miles and only £220 more than the offer, but strange it was not there when we looked immediately after the phone call!
…and that’s another one, one minute they claim they don’t have our contact numbers but when they really need something they manage to find one!!!

The whole Admiral/Albany Assistance/New Law Solicitors processes (sic) are bewildering.

I will be making sure that my daughter does not renewed with them and none of the rest of the family’s vehicles will ever be insured by them!!

Meanwhile fighting goes on… no recompense for the stress being caused to the whole family!

Admiral appear to have done nothing different to what any other insurer would do. The problem is not Admiral but your misunderstanding of how insurance actually works.