Quote me happy!!has any one used them before?

NonGeographicalMan

johnjoiner wrote: »

All dealings with quote me happy including dealing with the assessor ran very smoothly and would have happily recommended them to everyone, but from the second after accepting an offer from QMH (23/11/12) everything went down hill from there. So any information on how i can resolve this issue would be greatly appreciated

But do you think they were actually justified in writing your car off or do you think they only did this because the offer you were given minus the salvage value represented a lower cost than the cost of repairing your vehicle even though repairs to your vehicle did not exceed market value?

For instance I believe one of QMH's main repairer for Accidents where no other party is involved (www.nationwiderepairs.co.uk) always write a vehicle off where the cost of repairs exceed 60% of full market value for a vehicle of that age and mileage. This seems to possibly be due to the money they can get on the salvage of your vehicle and the fact they frequently knock large amounts off the value claimed by the customer on the basis of the vehicle allegedly being in poor condition. It is interesting to note that QMH also do not use the same authorised repairers as Aviva Main does.

Regarding contacts can I suggest you look at the ones I gave in Post #84 of this thread and contact all of those people. Posting on their Facebook page usually seems quite effective in prompting some action.

johnjoiner

Thanks for the response.
I've went through the entire thread and sent an email to all the links that you supplied (very much appreciated) with the appropriate details.
I phoned the repair company and was told it was a category D write-off and the bill for the work would be £5,500. When dealing with the assessor i wanted £6,700 but settled for £6,200, the buy back offer was £3,500 cash + the car which i found strange because that meant they were valuing an 06 plate Honda civic category D write-off at £2,700, but i'm happy with the offer i accepted

NonGeographicalMan

johnjoiner wrote: »

When dealing with the assessor i wanted £6,700 but settled for £6,200, the buy back offer was £3,500 cash + the car which i found strange because that meant they were valuing an 06 plate Honda civic category D write-off at £2,700, but i'm happy with the offer i accepted

If the buy back offer was £3,500 that means the next cost to them of paying paying you £6,200 was only £2,700. So that's why it was cheaper for them to write it off than pay the official repair cost.

The car is then written off and someone repairs it with second hand salvage panels for say £1500 and the car goes back on the road.

This is the only reason a car gets written off due to the nonsense of insurers being expected to repair several year old cars with brand new panels at top labour rates. The salvage value on the other hand factors in the real cost of repair. This is much lower than the theoretical insurance company cost of repairing the vehicle.

johnjoiner

Received an email this morning from [EMAIL="social@aviva.co.uk"]social@aviva.co.uk[/EMAIL] with a promise to do their best to get this resolved for me as quickly as possible. I know it shouldn't have got this far, but credit where credit is due

johnjoiner

Today i spoke to a couple of people from Aviva/quote me happy who were very apologetic and very helpful in respect of my claim, they were probably more upset and angry about the situation than i was. They promised a speedy resolution to my problem so ill say it again, very nice people and i know it shouldn't have got this far but credit where credit is due

NonGeographicalMan

johnjoiner wrote: »

Today i spoke to a couple of people from Aviva/quote me happy who were very apologetic and very helpful in respect of my claim, they were probably more upset and angry about the situation than i was. They promised a speedy resolution to my problem so ill say it again, very nice people and i know it shouldn't have got this far but credit where credit is due

The number of new horror story cases of atrocious customer service by QMH on their Facebook page has been falling in the last two or three weeks.

I can't decide if this is because people drive less and so take out new insurance policies less in December or if someone senior (even possibly none other than their MD, Mr Marco Distefano) at QMH has now finally got the message that their policy admin people have been behaving idiotically due to both poor training, resourcing and/or the telephone call shield (which clearly encourages poor customer service if abused by not replying to online customer messages in a timely fashion) and so has decided to do something about it.

The biggest single thing they need to address is their refusal to accept proof of customer bonus for ludicrous reasons and then failing to ever pick up the telephone where they decide to turn down a document to discuss the reason for it being turned down further.

Also their move to cancel policies within 21 days of inception if a proof of bonus to their liking has not been provided is clearly far too quick, especially when their current document submission system is causing a lot of problems by not showing the full history of documents submitted by the customer but only the most recent one that has been submitted.

They should be looking to waive their cancellation fee and only charge for the insurance pro-rata (rather than using short term rates) when their is any element of fault on their side re the non acceptance of the documentation. Also why do they have this complete obsession about the physical proof of bonus at policy inception? Most insurers are only inclined to challenge this kind of stuff when they are asked to pay out on a big claim. If QMH believes in keeping policy costs down by only taking on safe drivers at the outset then why don't they also ask for a scanned copy of driving licences and the accompanying driving history paper counterpart.

At the moment their insistence on getting bonus proof so quickly just seems to be dogmatic rule following for its own sake almost as though they are actually hoping to benefit from large windfall profits in terms of cancellation fees and short term insurance rates.:eek::mad:

Also if they genuinely can't cope with the number of new customers they are getting there is a simple remedy. Namely make their quotes a bit less competitive untill new business levels off at a point they can administratively manage to handle.........

Nelly_h

My fathers insurance renewed with them in October and all was fine until Monday last week when stopped by police for no insurance. Luckily as mom (who had big stroke in September) was also with him they gave him 7 day producer.

This is when the games started, log in to get needed certificate it wasn't there despite clearly showing insurance valid and payments all taken in October. Made contact asking for policy paperwork expecting them to arrive soon next day....

By mid day Tuesday no news so I call to be told cant help and emails only, by now dad refuses to use car in case of problem and fear of getting stopped again. Being week before Christmas he things to do and also take mom to doctors etc

that afternoon standard email arrives telling how to get online to see policy! if they had read my mail correctly they would know I did this so called again to see if I could make a claim. (Thought process was if I can insurance is ok)

To my shock I was advised no policy exists !!! I then checked out via 2sources and they said the same..

I then spent 2 days calling emailing and getting the unhelpful standard reply that arrives once a day. By Thursday progress made as policy now supplied ! Problem solved ??? Nope the policy starts 19th dec not October !!! So off. Go the mails and calls again.

By the end if Friday i had been sent the same policy twice and the replies was worded as if its my fault, so at this point i get watchdog and police involved. Did call the complaint number they gave but this was n fact bounds man that had to wait 8 weeks.

So saturday with 1 to get what I needed before my dad got a fine a summons and points on licence, I kind of got prepared to go to police and start complaint for fraud or theft. Then out the blue the lightbulb must have lit up as somebody checked the account spotted the error and sent us correct policy....

Problem solved?? I guess so as at least we back at status quo..
But in the reasons behind the error it was still made out to be our fault and they still insisted insurance was always in place ( which based in our evidence if which is reliable was not true)...

I complain saying not happy and fear same would happen again at renewal or even if had a claim on a crash. They said sorry and after pushing them they now offer £30 vouchers as apology.

Do I accept or not? I have no faith in them but based on mom being ill feel I had enough stress and don't want to go through all the same hassle if try to cancel policy....

NonGeographicalMan

Nelly_h wrote: »

Do I accept or not? I have no faith in them but based on mom being ill feel I had enough stress and don't want to go through all the same hassle if try to cancel policy....

I don't advise cancelling the policy because your dad would then be hit with the cancellation fee and also the penal rates charged for short term insurance policies by QMH and indeed many other large car insurers (something not mentioned by the owner of this website - Martin Lewis - on BBC Radio 4 Moneybox when he cheerily advised young male drivers to cancel over priced motoring policies and start a new policy elsewhere a few days ago - due to the new lower rates for male drivers and higher rates for female drivers following an EU ruling).

My advice would be to refuse to accept QMH's offer of vouchers and remain in dispute with them them about satisfactory compensation and then take the matter to the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau when you hut the required 8 weeks without a satisfactory resolution of your dispute.

Time and again QMH are allowing people to end up driving around at the risk of their vehicle being impounded and them left at the side of the road in the middle of the night because of their totally chaotic and unreasonable administrative practices. The only way to stop them behaving in this way is to get a few major decisions against them and get these publicised on national radio and television.

Their so called CEO, Marco Distefano, is quite clearly useless and/or faceless since he does not seem to be subscribed to this thread and does not ever post here and also seems to be doing nothing to address the severe long term IT and administration failings at QMH that are repeatedly causing these kinds of issues (the biggest of which is not to have a phone number even if is an 090 line the cost of which is refunded if your complaint is proved to be legitimate). I know its more work but you really must take them to the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau as if your kind of case doesn't go there how are they ever going to be made to change their ways?

Also out of interest what age is your dad and who took this policy out in the first place noting that you and not your dad seems to be putting in all the effort to resolve this situation.

johnjoiner

I thought the saga had ended until i phoned the garage who had held my car for QMH and requested them (not for the first time) to send me my tax disc, to be told that it has been transferred with the car over to the salvage company. I then phoned the salvage company and was told the only way i would get my tax disc back is if i phoned QMH and they would have to request it for me in writing. Am i wrong in thinking that the tax disc still belongs to me or does it belong to the car after ive accepted the offer from QMH

NonGeographicalMan

The following email I have literally just received from Quote Me Happy and which has clearly also been sent to all other policy holders strongly suggests to me that QMH/Aviva senior management has finally begun to get the message about people who feel that they have no remaining option left but to cancel a QMH policy when they cannot contact QMH by telephone to discuss problems either with providing proof of bonus or with whether or not a vehicle has been sufficiently modifed that QMH will not agree to cover it at all (winter tyres seemingly being an uninsurable modification in QMH's book but not in the book of any other UK insurance company) and/or if QMH will cover additional drivers (QMH currently simply refuses to cover all drivers over 75 full stop and quite regardless of potential short term need to do so such as a relative like a son or daughter ending up in hospital while their car might still be sitting parked in a car park or on a meter in a town centre).

---

Original Message

---

Subject: Changes to your car insurance policy
Date: 3.1.2013
From: "Quotemehappy.com" <Quotemehappy.com@email.quotemehappy.com>
To: ___________________

If you cant view this email, view it online

Hello ___________

Your car policy xxxxxxxxxxx

We want to let you know about some changes we are making to your car insurance policy.

These changes relate to a revised Cancellation wording as we will no longer be charging short-period rates if you choose to cancel your policy within the first year of insurance. Instead we will charge a pro-rata charge for the period you have been on cover. We will also provide a pro-rata refund for additional covers such as Legal Expenses for all policies, regardless of the cancellation date.

These changes have taken effect from the 1st January 2013 and also apply to any policies renewing after this date.

Please log into your ‘My Account’ to see your revised policy documents.

Thanks

Regards

Quotemehappy.com team

Quotemehappy.com insurance is a trading name of Aviva Insurance Limited, Registered in Scotland Number 2116 with Registered Address at Pitheavlis, Perth, Scotland PH2 0NH. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA registration number 202153

It does seem a shame that QMH still remains adamant that customers cannot contact them by phone to discuss issues such as modifications or proof of bonus issues but at least allowing customers to instantly cancel without also being unfairly penalised by QMH for doing so (when the need to cancel is basically their fault due to their unwillingness to accept phone calls to resolve difficult issues) is a very large step forward.

The next step forward QMH needs to make is to extend the period customers are allowed to provide Proof of Bonus from a very unreasonable 21 days maximum (after which Cancelleation automatically takes place if a Proof of Bonus acceptable to QMH has not been provided) to something much more sensible like 60 days. This would allow customers with complicated scenarios with getting proof of bonus from previous insurers or who suddenly suffer a serious illness or traumatic bereavement whilst they are trying to get hold of such proof the time they need to properly deal with the issue.

QMH you do now seem to be listening to constructive criticism here and on your Facebook page so can you please now take on board the point that you must not move to cancelling policies as soon as only 21 days after they have been issued where there is an outstanding issue in relation to providing Proof of Bonus and that a significantly longer period to provide this Proof than 21 days needs to be allowed.