1st central insurance is a Nightmare Help!

ndbridge1404

1st Central is truly the worst company I have ever dealt with, i wouldnt insure a push bike with them never mind a car.

I was unfortunate enough to have been hit by one of their insured, the police confirmed that he was at fault as he cut accross my lane to park on my side of the road and totally whiped out my car, highway code 101 no brainer him at fault me not at fault simple and clear cut.

This happened in October 2010 its now been 4 months and I have had to result to issuing court proceeding against 1st Central in order to get my payout, with 4 kids and no car for 4 month I have just about had enough of this company. The claims handlers are rude and dont have the faintest idea how to provide customer service, they constantly lie about having paperwork that they have been sent. for example i emailed them pictures of the accident and although you get an automated respnse when you email them confirming that they have received your email and I clearly put the claims reference number as the title of the email they carry on saying they havent got the email etc, this goes on for any correspondence you send them.
They keep giving me the run around, and although legally they have a time limit of 3 months to investigate a claim and pay out they still havent done anything and its a full month after their legal deadline has passed.
I am truly at my whits end with these bunch of crooks. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can get this company to process my claim anytime in the near future please let me know. I cant even complain to the financial service ombudsman as they are not my insurance company, this is truly ridiculous they should be shut down there are massess of complaints about them on another site too so im not the only one they treat like this.

oscarward

It's no much better if you're the customer!

My understanding is you have to sue the other driver, not his insurers, and he should pass the paperwork on to his insurers to deal with. but you can read horror stories on here where the insurers haven't dealt with it and people have ended up with ccj's.

Not much help to you I know.....

Have you tried contacting the FSA?

ndbridge1404

Hi
the FSA will not take the complaint as its not my insurance company, you cannot complain about a third party insurance, I have contacted watchdog in desperation but for now I really dont know what else I can do. Im plan to have a conversation with my legal team so see how long the legal process will take. It really isnt easy being without a car and 4 kids and I just want these people to do their job, it seams thats too much to ask when it comes to 1st central.
I am currently trying to get information on who their managing directror is, and plan to email him as well if nothing else it will bring my claim to someones attention.

oscarward

Is the company is based in Gibraltar, it was when I was a customer.

I had a prang in dec 2009 and I ended up going to an accident management company as they were a nightmare to get hold of.

40-50 mins on hold was the norm.

The best laugh was an email I had from their MD (I think) apologising to every customer as bad weather meant the increase in accidents caused telephone lines to become jammed.

Snag was as the accident was just before christmas staff numbers were very scarce until well after the new year.

ndbridge1404

Latest funny update with this ridiculous company.
My solicitors just rang to tell me that because i made a complaint about the company (to the company) that 1stcentral will no longer be allowed to touch my claim until the complaints department has investigated my complaing. I mean really!!! are they that stupid? so now what i complained about (the lying about documents and having received them, the time its taken them to handle the claim, the constant rudeness on the phone etc) is actually going to mean that my claim is going to take even longer. Great, I bet the !!!!! themselves will be proud of this practice (if you complain we wont touch your claim) . Whats even better is that they dont have a time limit in which they handle complaints. I really hope watchdog takes on my complaint against these thugs

sahy

my car roof got slightly damaged (2 scratches and 1 slight dent) and front windcreen rubber got 2cm crack on passenger side (not mot failure at all, unless water leakeage or 4cm crack on windscreen),

the guys who caused damage have refused liability, i have legal cover and comprehensive insurance,

6 weeks after incident (not my fault) some double glazing guys lost balance and slipped their window on my roof,

had to wait 6weeks for 1st central to book a garage to assess damage to my
car,

after 6weeks they book my car for assessment and try to convince me the car is a rigt off and they will compensate me £1900 and i dont have the right to buy back my old car, the assessors (at paddock, greatbarr, b44) try to convince me the rapairs come to £1700 so its not economical,

however my own assessment at couple of garages suggest it can be done at below half that cost,

they are refusing to return my car even though i want to cancel the claim,

unfortunately, i may have to use the law against, 1st central (jersey), kinderton (claims), motor care (assessors) and paddok (garage, great barr b44) to have my car back,

the car may have minor dents and scratches (not mot problem at all) and mechanically it has never failed mot in 11 years, the car is full of new car parts and bushes which maintains the luxury and standard of such a car,

i have already contacted loss assessors and independent solicitor and also get normal quotes for repair (proove them as illegally possesing my vehicle and trying to defraud me with pretence of uneconomical cost),

i will get my vehicle back from these fraudsters..its not over

dacouch

Sahy

Read this from the Ombudsman and use it against them

"16. salvage of the "written-off" vehicle and contents

Once the policyholder accepts payment of the full market value, the insurer becomes the owner of the salvage. If the policyholder asks to keep the salvage, the insurer is entitled to deduct what it would have been able to sell the salvage for. This is usually not very much.

But what if the policyholder complains that the insurer (or its agent) disposed of the salvage before paying the full market-value? At this stage, the vehicle still belongs to the policyholder, and we take the view that the insurer should not have disposed of it without first obtaining the policyholder’s consent to the settlement of the claim – even if the insurer said it was only acting in the public interest by keeping a badly-damaged vehicle off the roads. In such circumstances, and unless the insurer returns the salvage, we usually award the policyholder compensation for inconvenience.

If the policyholder had personal belongings in the vehicle when the insurer disposed of it without consent, we are likely to award the cost of replacing these – usually on a like-for-like (rather than a new-for-old) basis."

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