Advice Please Regarding Accident

Diamond78

Thanks for your advice. I phoned drive assist and the guy was really unhelpful. He said I agreed to hire a large vehicle. I told him I was not told on the phone that I would be getting a large car and if I was told this I would not of accepted as I told them back in August when they tried to hire me a car but as my car had not gone into repair, I could not take the hire car out. He said they had no small cars and it could take up to a week and I asked him to cancel the agreement as there was no point in me waiting that long. And now I have had a call back from drive assist stating that should I cancel the hire car, I may be liable for charges from now until the car gets picked up as the insurance company for the driver who hit me, may not pay by saying I did not need the car hire. She said I should not of igned the car when it was delivered in which she is right but I thought I would be fine driving it but looking at it, I know I would not be able to drive it.

andygb

Diamond78 wrote: »

Thanks for your advice. I phoned drive assist and the guy was really unhelpful. He said I agreed to hire a large vehicle. I told him I was not told on the phone that I would be getting a large car and if I was told this I would not of accepted as I told them back in August when they tried to hire me a car but as my car had not gone into repair, I could not take the hire car out. He said they had no small cars and it could take up to a week and I asked him to cancel the agreement as there was no point in me waiting that long. And now I have had a call back from drive assist stating that should I cancel the hire car, I may be liable for charges from now until the car gets picked up as the insurance company for the driver who hit me, may not pay by saying I did not need the car hire. She said I should not of igned the car when it was delivered in which she is right but I thought I would be fine driving it but looking at it, I know I would not be able to drive it.

I wish I had seen this thread earlier Diamond.
1) When you return the car, DriveAssist WILL try to allege extra damage/marks/low fuel/dirty interior/kerbed alloys.
2) Did you take out/pay for a daily extra indemnity fee (about £4 a day)?
3) Please contact the other driver's insurance ASAP and tell them what is happening. See if they can supply a genuine courtesy car (not a credit hire car).
4) Speak to DriveAssist ASAP and tell them that you do not require the car any more - like from now, immediately!

andygb

This is the link to the other DriveAssist thread on here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/552905

Diamond78

Drive assist will not listen to me. I told them I wanted to cancel but they said I had to sign the form and then post it to them or fax it. I don't have a fax machine and no where near me has a fax machine. They said until the fax or letter of cancellation arrives, the car will stay with me and then it will be several days before someone from their firm can pick up the car. So if I get the fax sent today, I may be lucky with the car being picked up on Wednesday. But even if I cancel, I may be liable for the charges which is over £50 a day. No one mentioned paying a daily indemnity charge, I don't know what that means. Im still waiting for Tesco to get back to me as well as the engineer.
I live in a rough part of London so I am also worried in case someone does something to the car, which I was told if someone does damage, I have to pay for it. God, what a mess I have got myself into.

vaio

Diamond78 wrote: »

Thanks for your advice. I phoned drive assist and the guy was really unhelpful. He said I agreed to hire a large vehicle. I told him I was not told on the phone that I would be getting a large car and if I was told this I would not of accepted as I told them back in August when they tried to hire me a car but as my car had not gone into repair, I could not take the hire car out. He said they had no small cars and it could take up to a week and I asked him to cancel the agreement as there was no point in me waiting that long. And now I have had a call back from drive assist stating that should I cancel the hire car, I may be liable for charges from now until the car gets picked up as the insurance company for the driver who hit me, may not pay by saying I did not need the car hire. She said I should not of igned the car when it was delivered in which she is right but I thought I would be fine driving it but looking at it, I know I would not be able to drive it.

andygb wrote: »

I wish I had seen this thread earlier Diamond.
1) When you return the car, DriveAssist WILL try to allege extra damage/marks/low fuel/dirty interior/kerbed alloys.
2) Did you take out/pay for a daily extra indemnity fee (about £4 a day)?
3) Please contact the other driver's insurance ASAP and tell them what is happening. See if they can supply a genuine courtesy car (not a credit hire car).
4) Speak to DriveAssist ASAP and tell them that you do not require the car any more - like from now, immediately!

This just about sums up the customer experience with insurance companies. The OP’s company and agents are being un-helpful & rude (bordering on threatening) and the advice is to contact the opposing insurance because they are more likely to treat you well.

It’s a topsy turvry world where firms have lost sight of who pays their wages and who they should be looking after

OP……….. best advice I can offer you is as I stated earlier, if your car is safe & roadworthy then reclaim it from the garage and carry on using until you get paid out. If anyone wants to inspect it they can do so by appointment at your home or work.

Alternatively, get in touch with the opposing company and get them to provide a suitable replacement car with CDW until they pay out.

Having said that Edddy’s post above has a lot to recommend it (assuming your car is safe and roadworthy) basically ring the other company, talk to someone who can make a decision on a claim and tell them you have a DA credit hire car you are just about to start using but you’ll accept an immediate pay out of say a grand in full and final settlement for the car damage part of your claim.

Given they know the assessment & valuation of your car is going to take at least a week or two (at a minimum) plus another week to allow you to find a replacement after you’ve been paid then anyone with half a brain is going to realise that a grand to make it all go away is a really good deal they should jump at.

Diamond78

Thanks for the info. Well since my last post, I have so many calls from Tesco and DA and I now have a headache lol. Basically Tesco told me that the system the enginners use to in put data has carshed since this morning, meaning they cannot get info. The lady was very helpful and explained that she spoke to DA who agreed to find me a smaller car and that I should not be charged. She said it was incorrect that the OP insurance would not pay for the hire of the car as DA told me if I cancelled my agreement, then the other insurance company may turn round and say I did not need a hire car and I cancelled, so there for will try and charge me for the car hire from when I signed for until it gets picked up.

Then DA phoned me to say they would have a car for me no problem although I stated I still wanted to cancel, she insisted there was a depo near me and I would get a car within 2 days. Then they called me again and told me they would get a car out to me and it would be a manual BUT I do not drive a manual, I must of told them 10 times that I can only drive an automatic and my licence only permits that. I really felt like swearing but I didn't. So they got back to me again, this time saying they had no automatics to suit my needs and it could be a week to two weeks before a car becomes available. Yes, I still want to cancel DA, its like they are trying to force me to keep the car. Then she put me on hold and said she would put me through to the depo to arrange for them to pick up my car. The last lady I spoke to was very apologetic and kind, so I can't fault her. But then she said their systems had crashed so she would email them and someone would call me back in an hour. Not sure how she can email them if ther system has crashed. So hopefully I will hear from them soon and never again I hope to deal with them.

Then I got a message from the Tesco engineer, so I called him back. Basically he told me what Tesco had said and that was that the system was down so he could not give me an answer as he could not view the estimate of the damage. He said he did not think the car would be a write off and asked about the damage atthe front. Not sure if the garage were trying to get that repaired but that was not from my accident, the dent at the front was already there when I got the car and he said if they tried to include that in the price it would be fraud. I also mentioned that I was not sure if the rear light was damaged when the accident happened or if it was there before and he said from what he saw, the light was damaged before the accident. So basically, the repair will only be the bumper but because Suzuki are hard to get parts for ect ect plus expensive, that could be why the car may be a write off. I did explain I paid £700 and had the receipt from the dealer and he sounded quite positive that my car should be fine and if not, not to worry as I would not get so little for it.

So now, its just the waiting game again, wait for DA to phone and arrange to pick the car and tomorrow I will finally find out what will happen to my car. But wow, I have learnt so much from this. Never to buy a Suzuki, not to go through my insurance for repair when its just a bumper and never to deal with DA. If I do get my car back, hopefully it won't take long, but I have the other drivers insurance details now, so will give his company a call tomorrow if my car will take long so they can arrange the hire car for me.

Lum

Diamond78 wrote: »

Not sure how she can email them if ther system has crashed. So hopefully I will hear from them soon and never again I hope to deal with them.

The same reason you were able to access your email even though the MSE forums were down last night. Different system hosted on a different server.

That's what they mean when they say "the system" has crashed. If it were just their desktop PC that had crashed then everyone else in the call centre would still be fine.

In this case it's probably their database server(s) with details of your claim on it. The email server(s) will be a completely separate machine(s) for performance reasons.

Diamond78

I wasn't online last night so wouldn't know if MSE was down or not. I don't know how all their tecnology works. Hopefully Tesco's will be up and running by tomorrow. As for DA, they never got back to me until half an hour ago. They said the car will be picked up on Thursday, eyt the lady I spoke to before said it should be picked up tomorrow or Wednesday as they are in need to hire out automatics. So while the car is in my drive and just sitting there for that time, I am liable should anything happen to it.

Diamond78

There is still no update regarding my car. The engineer from Tesco said their system is still down and there is now a back log, so it will be tomorrow before I find out. I know these things happen but its really dragging now. So where do I stand when they say the garage will inform me within 48 hours of picking up my car whether my car is road worthy or not? Its taken over a week now. I think Tesco said that when their engineer looks at my car, he then has 5 days to get back to me. Tesco also told me they could not help with Drive Assist as I have hired the car with them. What I do not understand is that Tesco told me it was a courtesy car when in fact its a hire car. I am not insured to drive the hire car now as from what I was told last night, they said I would only be insured until midnight, so while the car is in my drive up until Thursday, why is the hire car still my responsibilty? I cannot get a courtesy car with the third party insurance until the car is gone. I might as well not bother.

Quentin

Diamond78 wrote: »

they said I would only be insured until midnight, so while the car is in my drive up until Thursday, why is the hire car still my responsibilty?

The car will still be insured, just not for you to drive it. You shouldn't be storing it etc - tell them you are not responsible for it, cannot store it for them and insist they collect it.

Tell the third party insurance you no longer have any access to the hire car, so will they please now provide the promised replacement for you.