Drive Assist and Aviva ...Hire Car while your car is off the road...BEWARE

Mark_Janet

Hello Torbayman,

Hey, you know about traffic control camera. This traffic camera flash any time at night when we are go at high speed and we misguide. That's why many accident happen.

Thanks,
Mark Janet

chocolady

Hi Torbayman I am in the middle of this same mess with D.A. and Aviva. Aviva put D.A. onto me the day after my accident despite offering me a courtesy car throughout my insurance documents with only one small mention of a hire car if a courtesy car was not available. The third party who was at fault's insurers are Elephant and they telephoned me immediately to tell me if I accepted a hire car from my insurer was I aware that they might not pay for it? When I went back to Aviva they poo hooed this threat and said this never happened and not to worry. In the meantime D.A. were offering me Landrovers, BMWs and Mercedes to hire even though I drive a Meriva and this was all I wanted to have! I had to insist that I had a Meriva in replacement for my car. I even said to D.A. that I really didnt need a hire car right now as my car was completely driveable. They insisted I have a car right away as they said under health and safety regs. if my car had anything sticking out of it that could damage anyone then they would be liable etc. They then insisted on delivering the car a day before I needed it and left me with it three days after I needed it by failing to pick it up while I waited in all day. Their guy then made some spurious claim about the inside of a wheel trim being damaged (on a car which was pitted all over when I received it) when I refuted this I got a letter to say they are lookiing into it but want to charge me £29!! Now they are asking me who my appointed lawyers are and saying they are trying to claim the cost of my hire car from the third party who have sent me a questionnaire asking me about 10 questions from did I need this car, to could I have used public transport to further how much motorway driving do I do. When I queried all this with Aviva they are now saying "you signed the forms for the hire car and you must now take it up with D.A.!!" The guy who is dealing with my complaint for Aviva is based at RAC House and D.A. is an RAC company isnt it forgive me if Im wrong whats going on with there then? What a dodgy bunch of so and sos they all are!!!

chocolady

Furthermore the guy at Aviva insisted in my insurance contract they had a right to pass my details on to a third party e.g. D.A. But when I asked why I had had so many executive vehicles suggested to me before I got the Meriva I required he said there were strict rules governing the companies so they could only charge the hire rate for my meriva and not a bigger car, dont know if this is even true but as the previous poster pointed out I can now see why they wanted me to have a big car £300 commission:eek:

dacouch

To be fair to Drive Assist / RAC they are seperate companies, DA is a PLC whose CEO is the delightful Steve Binch...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=552905&page=5

You may find this article interesting though... http://www.postonline.co.uk/post/news/1591159/drive-assist-reviewing-maplractice-promoting-email-sent-abi

nelehrenrut

We were put though to Drive Assist when our vehicle was hit whilst parked. It was still drivable as only the door was damaged so we refused a replacement vehicle (especially as Drive Assist wanted our credit card details to proceed).

Later, when we enquired about getting our excess refunded from the third party we were told by Budget that as we had refused a vehicle from Drive Assist we had waived our rights to recover uninsured losses and would have to pursue the claim from the third party ourselves!

dacouch

nelehrenrut wrote: »

We were put though to Drive Assist when our vehicle was hit whilst parked. It was still drivable as only the door was damaged so we refused a replacement vehicle (especially as Drive Assist wanted our credit card details to proceed).

Later, when we enquired about getting our excess refunded from the third party we were told by Budget that as we had refused a vehicle from Drive Assist we had waived our rights to recover uninsured losses and would have to pursue the claim from the third party ourselves!

Had you purchased Legal Protection COver from Budget?

pelirocco

Oh great we have 2 of their vehicles here now ..........maybe i should report the credit card as lost lol

torbayman

pelirocco wrote: »

Oh great we have 2 of their vehicles here now ..........maybe i should report the credit card as lost lol

Have they tried to sell you the cars yet? They will probably try that one too at some point...Anyway,make sure you go through the car exterior with a fine eye before they take the car back to ensure there are no extra defects ....if you are sure you have looked after the hire car, refuse to give the keys back till you go through every single defect when the rep comes to collect the car and photograph all the surfaces with a good camera ..dont sign agreeing to any extra defects....this might just put them off trying it on...if there is any trouble after that then losing the credit card helps but be ready to pen a strong letter warning them they are wasting their time....telling them to go forth etc etc...then fight them all the way ...report them to the financial ombudsman etc and tell them you are doing this ...

torbayman

chocolady wrote: »

Hi Torbayman I am in the middle of this same mess with D.A. and Aviva. Aviva put D.A. onto me the day after my accident despite offering me a courtesy car throughout my insurance documents with only one small mention of a hire car if a courtesy car was not available. The third party who was at fault's insurers are Elephant and they telephoned me immediately to tell me if I accepted a hire car from my insurer was I aware that they might not pay for it? When I went back to Aviva they poo hooed this threat and said this never happened and not to worry. In the meantime D.A. were offering me Landrovers, BMWs and Mercedes to hire even though I drive a Meriva and this was all I wanted to have! I had to insist that I had a Meriva in replacement for my car. I even said to D.A. that I really didnt need a hire car right now as my car was completely driveable. They insisted I have a car right away as they said under health and safety regs. if my car had anything sticking out of it that could damage anyone then they would be liable etc. They then insisted on delivering the car a day before I needed it and left me with it three days after I needed it by failing to pick it up while I waited in all day. Their guy then made some spurious claim about the inside of a wheel trim being damaged (on a car which was pitted all over when I received it) when I refuted this I got a letter to say they are lookiing into it but want to charge me £29!! Now they are asking me who my appointed lawyers are and saying they are trying to claim the cost of my hire car from the third party who have sent me a questionnaire asking me about 10 questions from did I need this car, to could I have used public transport to further how much motorway driving do I do. When I queried all this with Aviva they are now saying "you signed the forms for the hire car and you must now take it up with D.A.!!" The guy who is dealing with my complaint for Aviva is based at RAC House and D.A. is an RAC company isnt it forgive me if Im wrong whats going on with there then? What a dodgy bunch of so and sos they all are!!!

WOW ...be aware the other side's insurer who know of Drive Assist will most likely refuse to pay for the car hire and this is quite common ...this should not affect you as long as you know you have taken care of the hire car ...I guess the bigger the car you have from DA the more the scam they will try on with you...make sure a competent garage decides for you what is safe and not safe and not an insurance company who cannot see the car and after all do not have your interests at heart....hopefully you have not agreed by signing up to the defect occuring whilst you had the car ...if you have not agreed to any damage then you are in for a series of threatening letters trying to scare you into paying up...keep refusing and get a strong letter together telling them calmly and clearly why you are in dispute with them...keep telling them to go forth..they will not take you to court for such a measly sum....and as soon as poss change your policy and find out who the new insurance coy uses as their car hire company.

chocolady

Yeah thanks, I refused to sign for the damage and D.A. phoned and wrote to me to ask me about the £29 and I told them I certainly hadnt done it and if they insisted on it they could take it out of the three days time I had wasted waiting in for their guys to pick it up!! They wrote to me apologising profusely this morning - think it helped that it was a small amount not worth bothering for but worth trying it on for if they thought I would pay up without quibbling which I assume a lot of people must do. The only thing that worries me is that they will use my legal cover (which my lawyer said they could do) to fight for their pumped up hire charges when the other side refuses to pay for it and then guess who gets the bill when the cover runs out! Its only £50000 and in my experience that goes nowhere with legal fees these days - hope it doesnt come to this but I wouldnt put anything past this lot :eek: