Direct Line Insurance - avoid!

Pagan98

Having been involved in a no-fault accident on the motorway at the start of November I want to warn others about Direct Line's idea of customer service.

Firstly Direct Line despatched National Breakdown to recover my car from the hard shoulder of the M25. Not me, just my car! Apparently the recovery company aren't obliged to recover the driver and were intending to store the car in a local compound overnight before ferrying it on to Direct Line's nominated repairer. It took some argument with Direct Line and National Breakdown to agree that the recovery truck should give me a lift to the nearest train station. To be fair, the driver of the National Breakdown truck thought the situation was as ridiculous as I did, but his hands were tied by company policy.

Secondly, Direct Line refuse to discuss their valuation of my car, which was a write-off. They have looked up the Glass's Guide price, deducted money for 2 pre-existing dents and some light scratching, and sent me a cheque. I queried the amount for 2 reasons:

1) I have seen similar cars to mine advertised at £400 more than the Glass's Guide price and really don't think I can swing that big a discount off the asking price

2) I already had a quote to repair tone dent which is less than Direct Line are deducting and I believe the second dent occurred since the car was in their keeping. The scratching appears to be an excuse to knock the claim down further.

They originally logged my dispute and said someone would call me. No-one did, instead they sent a final response saying they stand by their valuation and if I don't accept it I can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service. They won't respond to any of the points I've raised and their claims department are downright rude on the phone.

I'm now left to pursue the third party directly (as I reckon the FOS would be a waste of time). I wish I had never submitted a claim to Direct Line in the first place.

I will be moving our other car to a different insurer when it comes up for renewal and will never go with Direct Line again.

sarahg1969

Well, when you do renew, bear in mind that a number of companies belong to the same group as DL: Churchill, NIG, Tesco, Green Flag, Prudential, Privilege, and probably others I've forgotten about. All are part of the RBSI group.

C_Ronaldo

what breakdown cover did u have on ur car,

scousemanblue

Sorry to hear of your experience. This is just one of the many pitfalls of insuring direct rather than through a broker.

The immortal words - You dont know how good your Insurance Company is until you have a claim rings very true.

denise38

Have to agree you don't know how good until you need to claim.
I had an awful experience with Direct line a few years ago and moved all our insurance both cars and the house because of this.
The problem began with the authorised repair company who were just a shower of bandits. They bumped the car in the compund and tried to blame the recovery people. Hubby was on the case and the recovery people were on the ball so they had to hold their hands up. the work done was shoddy. Different headlight was fitted and they thought we wouldn't notice. They lost vital parts to remove the alloys. They were slow and I caught them out on a few lies. Direct line couldn't have cared less as fas they were concerned the work got done end of story.
A few other friends had problems with the same repair co and they too moved their car insurance.
friends recently had to claim through priveledge and they have had no such problems with where car had to go to get repaired and they have been ggod about getting work done. car had stickers and they had said if stickers can't be matched just to go ahead and redo the whole car. They were really surprised.
At the end of the day I think you will always get someone who has a bad story to tell. At the end of the day it comes down to who gets your case to deal with in the first place.

rosysparkle

I had a very bad experience with Direct Line after an accident, it took weeks for them to fix my car, I was stranded with small children in a rural (no public transport) area, and their "approved" repairer stole my brand new car battery and replaced it with one that wasn't suitable, so my car wouldn't start after they delivered the car back to me. I had to replace the battery at my expense.

When I complained to DL, they basically said "tough".

Now I go via a broker, and though I've not had an accident (touch wood) I have had two break-ins, and the broker has sorted everything out for me with no problems at all.

Pagan98

C_Ronaldo wrote:

what breakdown cover did u have on ur car,

Auto Aid. I don't know whether they will cover accident recovery but it wasn't an issue at the time. When I called Direct Line they told me they'd arrange recovery. It was only when the tow truck arrived that I found out about the problem.

C_Ronaldo

Pagan98 wrote:

Auto Aid. I don't know whether they will cover accident recovery but it wasn't an issue at the time. When I called Direct Line they told me they'd arrange recovery. It was only when the tow truck arrived that I found out about the problem.

i only asked as i know with some breakdown insurance theres different kinds of cover, there might be 1 that is just for the car to be taken away and not tha passenger, im sure that this the case as you seem responsible,

i dont understand why DL wouldnt allow the breakdown recovery driver to give u a lift,