Insurance company refuse to send accident form??!!

Volcano

My friend was involved in an accident. Sent details to the other party and requested an accident form from her insurers (which never arrived). Several weeks later (today) she receives a call from her insurers asking her to "explain what happened in her own words". She told them she wasn't prepared to discuss details over the phone but to send a form. They said "we don't do it like that anymore", so she made her excuses and said she'd phone them later.

She is concerned that as she has no way of recording the conversation, what she says could be misrepresented, taken out of context or otherwise manipulated without her being able to defend her statement. Can they really insist that this is the only way they will deal with the accident? Or can she insist that she only deals with them by letter?

(she is TPFT so will not claim off her own insurance).

Thanks in advance!

lottee

Sorry, not sure on the answer to your question, but don't most companies record their calls anyway?

A similar thing happened to us today. In my case, I was the one that had the accident, but I am a named driver on my OH's car. The insurance company called HIM, and asked the same 'in your own words' He wasn't even in the car with me !!! He told them this, and they said that was fine, so he explained to them what I had told him !!!

This seems a weird way of doing things if you ask me, why get someone who wasn't even in the car to explain what happened, especially over the phone - could be talking to anyone.

Davidboy

My daughter was hit by another driver, so reported it to the insurance company and it was done over the phone, no paperwork involved. The car has been repaired, no blame on her part, no problems.

D

Astaroth

I am a little confused over your concerns.... your insurers will not want to pay out anything they dont have to (I am assuming you dont hold yourself 100% to blame for the accident) and therefore how do you envisage them manipulating your words?

I guess this is the no win situation insurers are in.... people complain that they have too much paperwork to complete and so insurers get rid of it and do things over the phone. People then complain they dont have enough paperwork to do and if the insurers did then start using accident report forms again you would then get the other side complaining that your insurer was taking too long to settle the claim as they are waiting for you to complete a form and send it back.

If for some reason you are not comfortable using the phone you can always write your own account of the incident and post it to your insurers. As a former claims handler I can tell you this will signficantly slow down the whole process as a written account normally leaves questions unanswered and requires at least one more communication from both sides to clarify things.

Even once you have put the circs in writting your insurers will paraphrase you when contacting the other party anyway as insurers with all their experience can generally write more possitive sounding accounts without changing the facts or "bending" the truth

shelly

I wouldn't worry OP its how its done these days. In May I had to make my first ever insurance claim. As I'm named driver on hubbys policy he initially made the call but they asked to speak to me as he wasn't with me at the time. I just told them what happened and a few days later the garage called to fix the car. Very easy to do and much better than writing it down IMO as while you are talking to someone you can say alot more.

nadnad

yeah i work in claims and we don't send out accident report forms any more. although if the accident circumstances are unclear or its more serious than the usual rear end shunt then we do sometimes request a form to be filled in. if you're worried just tell them the details but then inform them you are sending in a sketch and statement as well, just to be clear.