Insurance claim nightmare, please help!

ste_eck

Hi,

Its a long story so I will try to keep it brief.

My girlfriend had a bump in her car just before xmas. She was at fault and helds her hands up. The other driver got his car fixed and his whiplash claim in (he wern't injured), so all is good for him. My girlfriends insurance arranged for our local ford dealership to repair her car, they came and collected it, but refused a courtesy car as that had none available for 3 weeks. So we began to hire a car at approx £110/week as she needs it for work.

He car suffered front end damage, bonnet, slant panel, radiator, headlights and other bits and bobs. Ford contacted us to confirm that the car would be ready to collect on 10th Jan. On the 10th they phoned us to say the car had been completed and just needed get upto running temperature, then get valeted, final inpsected then its ours again later that afternoon, hurray!

Then the problems started, Ford phoned back saying that after valeting the car will no longer start, but they have their ex-peugeot mechanic coming over to have a look at it (the car is not a Ford, but the insurance company instructed Ford to fix it). They then phoned back late on Wednesday telling us they think a crankshaft sensor has failed and they've ordered a replacement for the day after. Then Thursday I'm ringing them all day to be told the parts not yet arrived, at 3pm they told me it was in transit in a traffic jam. So Friday comes and they phone me to tell me the part had come and they've realised this were NOT the problem and that the problem was from some control box (similar to ecu) that had failed. So I pointed out the car except for the damage was running when they took it, which they confirmed as he said on the Wednesday that prior to valeting the car was running perfectly.

Now they are saying that the electrical failure had nothing to do with the crash and the insurance wont pay for it to be fixed. They also said the failed part had simply just failed and has nothing to do with them, therefore we must pay £400+vat + fitting for the new part. This is on top of the £400 excess and over £600 that we have already spent on the hire car.

Does anyone know where we stand on this, as far as I can see Ford have done something during valeting that has damaged the electrics, so they should put it right at their cost?

Also Ford had promised the car would be ready on the 10th (which meant they'd had it a month already), so would we be within our rights to ask them to foot the car rental from the 10th as the problem now is their fault?

Many thanks.

Steve

neilmcl

Your biggest problem is your assumption that the Ford dealership caused the fault, do you actually have any evidence of this? Until you can prove this then you don't really have any comeback with regards getting compensated for any losses you've so far suffered.

maninthestreet

The valet didn't include an engine bay clean, did it?

ste_eck

I dont know what they did in the engine bay? The car was running perfectly just before the valet, I know this because Ford told me it 'was running perfectly' before the valet. We have never had any fault with this car we've owned it nearly five years. The part they say has 'broken on its own' controls the immoblyser system. Surely this is more than a coincidence?