Esure charging £200 after I make a claim

Weave

Esure want to charge me £200 for not using their recommend repairer even though they did not tell me about the charge and it is not in my Policy booklet.

On Thursday last week I drove into the back of a car at a roundabout (my fault) smashing my bonnet and bumper. I called Esure 1 hour after the event and explicitly asked what the implications would be if I used my own BMW dealer to repair the car. I was told I would not receive a courtesy car and they would not guarantee the work. I was informed I would have to ask the dealer to send a fully costed quote for them to approve.

The following day I spoke to my dealer and agreed they would recover the car, supply a free courtesy car and send the quote to Esure. I then phoned Esure to give them the name of the garage doing the work.

At this point I am advised that I have to pay an extra £200 (in addition to my excess) for not using their approved repairer. This was not mentioned in my first phone call to them and I have already had the car recovered and in receipt of a courtesy car from BMW. I am also advised the £200 charge is detailed in my policy book on page 19. The policy book I have was sent to me 3 years ago when I first started with Esure and they have never sent an up to date one when I have renewed (it is not listed in the enclosures with the renewal paperwork). My book covers this subject on page 17 and there is no charge. I am advised by Esure they changed the policy book in June this year, a month before I renewed.

My point is – How am I supposed to know the charge exists if it is not in my out of date policy book and when I made the claim I was not told about it until I had committed to BMW doing the work. I have tried arguing this point with Esure but I am told it is in the Policy book (that they never sent me!).

What would you do? Just pay the £200 and be done with it? Any advice would be appreciated.

lisyloo

I would follow the formal complaints procedure and send a letter recorded delivery.
If you have the date/time of the call and the name of the person you first spoke to then that would help retrieve it from tape recordings.
I would send a photocopy of page 19 of the policy booklet.
I would also mention your intention to take this to the ombudsman.
It costs them about £500 if you go to the ombudsman so then keep fingers crossed that they will offer to waive the charge as a "gesture of goodwill" (which means they won't admit they are wrong).

In future jot down name, time and date of any phone calls which contain information on which you base an important (or costly) decision. It's not possible to expect recordings to be found if you only know the month and they have 100 operators.
Note that Bob or Sue is not sufficient id in large call centers.

If it goes all the way then it can take months through the ombudsman but the upside is that it is entirely free to you (apart from postage).

Weave

Thanks for the quick reply.

My concern at the minute is that they have yet to approve the work by the dealer so I am worried about rocking the boat and them turning round and saying that they won't pay BMW to do the work in retaliation. Sounds petty I know but their job is to pay a little as possible for the work.

As it stands at the moment I have asked for a supervisor to call me back which they did while I was not home and they left a message quoting page 19 of the policy booklet again.

I still need to speak to the supervisor in person to clearly state my grievance and hope it does not jeopardise my claim.

raskazz

In the current policy booklet (http://www.esure.com/wcm/groups/public/documents/webcontent/wcmprod_es_motor_policy_booklet.pdf) it states on page 19:

"4. Repairs

If damage to your car is covered under your policy and you choose to use our recommended repairer scheme, you do not need an estimate for the repairs, and work on your car can start as soon as practically possible.

Alternatively, you can arrange for reasonable and necessary repairs at a repairer of your choice but you must send us a detailed repair estimate and full details of the incident as soon as possible.
We will only be liable for the repair costs at a non-recommended repairer once we have agreed that the costs are reasonable and we have issued an authorisation to the repairer. We reserve the right to ask you to obtain alternative estimates.

If you decide not to use our recommended repairer then an additional excess of £200 will be applied. This excess will be in addition to any other excesses shown on your policy schedule."

But if this clause was not in your policy wording at inception they can only apply it if they informed you of it at a subsequent reewnal. The most likely method of them doing this would be to draw your attention to the change of terms in their renewal documentation. Have you checked all the relevant renewal documentation?

Weave

I’ve checked the renewal paperwork and there is no reference to any changes in the policy wording or specific clauses. They have not sent me any other notices during the year.

The renewal paperwork actually says they enclose the schedule of insurance (detailing excesses but no mention of the £200 for non-authorised repairers) and the certificate of insurance. It does not state it includes the policy booklet and the booklet was not enclosed.

As I renewed the policy over the phone I did not get any downloadable version of the policy that may have been offered for an online purchase.

As mentioned by lisyloo it appears I may have to go through the official complaints route once they have approved the repair. It would seem pointless them paying £500 to the ombudsman when the issue is only over £200.

The sad thing is I thought Esure were OK up until now. When I come to renew next year I will chose a different company so they won’t even recoup the cost of my claim over time.

Thanks for your input everyone. I'll post the outcome here..... may take a while to resolve though!

lisyloo

It would seem pointless them paying £500 to the ombudsman when the issue is only over £200.

If they think you are wrong they MAY fight it because otherwise it can set a precedent for others (which is why they won't admit to wrongdoing and often offer "gestures of goodwill").

Often though, companies do make pragmatic decisions for small amounts.

It's not only the £500 but their staff time as well, whereas it costs you virtually nothing (but do be prepared for a long wait).
They have 8 weeks to sort it internally at Esure and then you can go to the ombudsman but sometimes if the ombudsman is busy you might not get assigned a caseworker for a few months.

A faster way is to go through the small claims court.
There are some fees attached and you may have to take time off work, but it's a lot quicker.
The only thing there is that everything is heard by the judge ON THE DAY, so you need to make sure you have your case uptogether.
Cases get won and lost on people not having the evidence present.
One employer of mine lost a case, when they could have proven someone involved had an alibi (was on holiday). Unfortunately the holiday records were not present on the day and they lost.
So there are pros and cons.

foggytown

lisyloo wrote: »

A faster way is to go through the small claims court.
There are some fees attached and you may have to take time off work, but it's a lot quicker.
The only thing there is that everything is heard by the judge ON THE DAY, so you need to make sure you have your case uptogether.
Cases get won and lost on people not having the evidence present.
One employer of mine lost a case, when they could have proven someone involved had an alibi (was on holiday). Unfortunately the holiday records were not present on the day and they lost.
So there are pros and cons.

It may be faster but also may cost more. If the judge decides in favour of the insurer then (as well as not getting the claim paid) you will also be liable for at least a proportion of the company's costs.

Weave

An update for anyone interested:

Success - I have now received the £200 back from Esure after writing to their complaints department. The payment is a “gesture of good will” and not an admission of them doing anything wrong. They claim to have detailed the £200 charge in a list of amendments sent with my renewal paperwork. I can not find any such list in my renewal paperwork but they have sent me a duplicate copy of the list so I have no idea where this went in my paperwork.

I think the thing that swung it for me was that they did not disclose the £200 charge when I explicitly asked them what the implications of not using their repairer would be and the fact they call the £200 an “additional excess” but do not list it the schedule of excesses on policy documents.

The final thing in my favour was the cost to Esure if this went to the ombudsman as highlighted by Lisyloo - thanks.

Thanks everyone for your input.

magpiecottage

No need to send a complaint recorded delivery. If you get proof of posting (free from the Post Office) FOS will normally deem it to have been received two working days later (which if sent today would mean 4 January).

Increasing the excess simply because somebody uses their own repairer is unusual and should have been brought to your specific attention.

I have to say, though, that I would normally use my insurer's approved repairer. The reason is that if you arrange it then the repairer is your agent and if the repair is defective you must sort it out. If the insurer arranges it then the insurer must put any defect right - and insurers can, and have, found the Ombudsman has forced them to do so on occasion.

lisyloo

No need to send a complaint recorded delivery. If you get proof of posting (free from the Post Office) FOS will normally deem it to have been received two working days later

I don't agree that this is the best way to do things (personal opinion of course).
Legally it's correct that it's "deemed" to have been received.
However this case would have taken many months longer if a letter had been lost and the case had gone to the FOS rather than been sorted by esure.

It's a personal opinion, but I would still advise people to pay 75p rather than risk the letter getting lost and having to wait 6 months for a case worker to be assigned at the ombudsman.
The letter can still get lost if you send it recorded of course, but at least you can check the tracking information and find out and re-send a copy. This could save 6-12 months (I have personal experience of about 6 ombudsman cases).

All in my opinion of course.

Quentin

magpiecottage wrote: »

I have to say, though, that I would normally use my insurer's approved repairer. The reason is that if you arrange it then the repairer is your agent and if the repair is defective you must sort it out. If the insurer arranges it then the insurer must put any defect right - and insurers can, and have, found the Ombudsman has forced them to do so on occasion.

I disagree.

When you use your own garage/bodyshop, then you are the customer who they will want to keep. Whereas when you use the insurers chosen repairer then the customer is not you but the insurance company. (Big conflict of interest).

Your own garage will fight hard any cost saving measures put to them by the insurer (whereas their "own" repairer has little incentive to "rock the boat", and will meekly comply).

And of course many main dealer bodyshops offer better guarantees than do insurer bodyshops.

And you know the staff at your own garage and have a relationship with them.

When we use our own garage, then maybe we don't have the ombudsman to fall back on should there be problems, but we still have all the other consumer protection available to everyone.