Admiral Car Insurance taking 15 Months to repair car-Help!!

bob_dob

Hello there,
15 months ago my friend's car got vandalised (paint damage), it has now been 15 months and still Admiral insurance have not yet repaired the car to my friend's satisfaction. He has done everything he was asked by them (as in travelling to and from the so-called repairing garage)

Just before Christmas Admiral sent him a cheque for £1200 but under the provision that 'that was it' as far as the repair was concerned. They said if he refused this offer then they had no option to give him the market value of the car, write the car off and pick the car up and dispose of it.

Personally i thought this was a bit shady as offering a 23 year old lad £1200 three weeks before Christmas....most young men would have accepted it but fair play to the lad- he refused!

Basically he kept taking his car to the garage, waiting, then going to pick it up again and when he got it home he saw that the paintwork was extremely shabby and 'orange peely'. He made this journey 5 times, totalling 860 miles!!

To make things easier to understand, here is the timeline of the events:

2009

• 19th September- His car suffered the original damage/paint damage

• 16th October- The first time he took his car to the garage (86 mile round trip).
• Mid-October- He was told that he would have his car back by Friday 30th October 2009

• 20th November- Finally told car is ready. (86 mile round trip. 8 weeks since the original date, 3 weeks later than promised)
• 22nd November-Rang the garage to complain that the quality of the painting on the bodywork was sub-standard, the garage asked him to take the car back to him again. (Mobile phone call)
• 27th November- Took the car back to the garage (86 mile round trip)

• 17th December- Picked car up, once again (86 mile round trip).

Between mid-December and early January he realised that the painting/respray done by the garage was still sub-standard (‘orange-peel’ effect) so tried to arrange a date to take car back to garage but he was evasive and attempted to stall him taking car back. Eventually arranged a date of ‘early march’ with garage.


2010

• Early March- Took car back to garage (86 mile round trip)
• Late March- Picked car up again (86 mile round trip)

• April- Once again unhappy with paint respray so rang garage again and he, eventually, arranged a date of 24th May to take car back again.

• 24th May- Took car back to garage (86 mile round trip)

• 23rd June- Picked up car again (86 mile round trip)

He was still not happy with the very poor quality of the respray so he rang Admiral for further instructions on what to do. He was advised to, yet again, take the car back to the garage. (Phone calls to your 0871 number on his mobile phone gets charged at quite an expensive rate)
Then he spent more of his mobile phone credit on arranging a date with the garage

• 15th July- Took car back again to garage (86 mile round trip).

Spent more money phoning the claim line explaining that he was to go on holiday for 2 weeks and was promised that an assessor would be looking at his car whilst he was away. He came back from his holiday expecting to, finally, pick up my car only to be told by one of the customer service operators that he shouldn’t take it until the assessor had verified that the latest respray attempt was of a satisfactory standard. The assessor had not been for the four weeks that his car had been left at Sprayright’s garage. This meant that for 2 weeks after he had came back from my holiday he was without any vehicle whatsoever so, as other previous times, had had to rely on taxis and paying work colleagues to get to and from work.


He then spent yet more time and money finally persuading Admiral insurance to send an assessor who, when he did arrive, explained that it was his opinion that the respray was of very poor quality and advised him to obtain a quote from a local garage. He did this and the local garage provided a high price and explained that the reason for the high quote was that my car “needed more filler on the boot because it is a smooth boot and that because Sprayright had rubbed it down too much so it had split’ and that “once that was done it would be a fairly simple job”. (Which was totally different to what they stated in their letter dated 23rd November 2010 where they stated ‘the vehicle has had filler added to it to smooth the appearance. The filler has cracked due to the bodykit on the vehicle and unfortunately we have inherited an issue with the repairs, that wasn’t caused by us’.
He was then advised to take his car to another local garage to get another quote and, again, they refused this being as the quote was for ‘over £5000’.




He has since wrote (11 days ago) to the person who sent him the cheque (a 'claims executive') to complain, plus sent similar letters to the Chairman, Cheif Executive, Vice Chairman etc etc.


My friend's proposals were:

• They get his car repaired/resprayed to a standard that he is happy with.
• They provide him with an adequate level of compensation for the stress, trouble and financial loss Ihe has suffered.
• They reimburse him his premiums for this, my current third year, with them.
• They provide him with a years worth of free insurance, fully comprehensive, come his renewal date of June 2011 as a gesture of goodwill.
• They provide him with an apology for how he has been treated.

The Chairman has replied (someone for the chairman, not him) to say the usual 'im sorry you feel that you are unhappy with the service we have provided, i have passed this matter on to a claims executive'.....my friend replied to complain that it was a claims executive who sent him the cheque in the first place!!


My question is where does he go from here?
Ombudsman? Trading Standards?
Am i right in thinking that he is right to complain about the whole affair?

vaio

Formal complaint followed by FOS if unsatisfactory response.

The first two of your list should be no problem, I think you’ll struggle with the next two and the last will be worthless as they won’t mean it

bob_dob

Hi and thanks for that!
Would my first letter complaining about this be classed as a 'Formal Complaint'?

bob_dob

Hello anyone?

adamc260

bob_dob wrote: »

Hi and thanks for that!
Would my first letter complaining about this be classed as a 'Formal Complaint'?

If it has been passed to a quality executive then yes it would (I used to work for EUI)

bob_dob

Hi, just an update- Well they originally offered £1000, then £1200 two weeks before Christmas (with no prompting) and now, after the letter of complaint, they have now offered £1600 for my friend to repair the car himself (or keep the money) and £300 compensation! My friend is reasonably happy but still expected a bit more compensation for 15months of hassle! Please offer your opinion?

Tammer

Hi,

Has he taken the car to another garage for an estimate of how much it would be to fix the shoddy repair job?

That is the information you need to decide whether you to accept the settlement amount.

If you are not happy with the settlement amount then you're next step would be the Ombudsman. Be warned that the Ombudsman may take a long time to review the case.

bob_dob

Hi,
No he hasn't yet been for a quote for a repair but i believe he is thinking of selling the car 'as it is', adding what he'll get to the £1900 to buy a new car!
It's just that he feels that the compensation should be £100 or so more!
Worth asking them maybe?

vaio

Yep, £2k is nice round figure to make the whole problem go away

bob_dob

Thanks for that, i agree!
Just one more final point- Im a little worried that they may withdraw the offer if he asks for more?

vaio

reducing the offer would be hard to justify to the FOS