Another first car insurance claim thread Admiral /Albany

connery73

Mrs C was in an RTA today, when a artic lorry pulled out of a T junction straight into the side of her. Thankfully she's not seriously hurt, just shaken.

Anyway, 2 witnesses confirming she was not at fault, and an admission of "I didn't see her" from the lorry driver.

Admiral informed me that because we paid for the legal cover we can use the "not at fault" service operated by Albany assurance. Various things today (dont really want to get into bad mouthing them) led me to believe that Albany were not the best people to deal with the claim (including reading a couple of threads on here).

So I have gone back to Admiral, and i'm willing to pay the excess for now.

My main issue is that the car is only 6 weeks old, obviously I want any repairs done fully to restore the vehicle to a brand new condition, and if repairs are not carried out by a toyota approved garage, my warranty will probably be void, so I want it to go back to a Toyota garage. I was informed that Admiral's closest Toyota dealership is 2 hours away & I wouldnt get a courtesy car from that garage. I think I have convinced them to have it taken to my local Toyota dealership for repair, but they will need more quotes.

I wasnt 100% convinced that the car was safe to drive, so it will be taken to the dealership tomorrow for assessment.

Hoping that it all gets sorted tomorrow, anyone have some words of comfort & advice

Quentin

You could cancel your claim and claim directly off the third party. No excess to pay and reclaim, you get to choose your own repairer and they will organise a replacement car whilst yours is in dock.

adamc260

Admiral get a kick back from Albany if you use their 'non fault service' so naturally they prefer you to use them.

If the circumstances clearly show non fault they SHOULD waive your excess (or at least did when I worked there). If the vehicle isn't really driveable Admiral wave the '2 quote rule' and allow you to get 1 quote but if the costs are silly they can instruct an independent engineer to agree rates with the garage if their own inhouse engineers cannot agree rates.

Because the garage aren't on their 'approved' list you wont get a courtesy car under your policy but I'm sure the toyota garage or other persons insurer can help you out with that.

In one part of defense to Admiral.. when I worked there (a year and half ago now).. if the car was under 3 years old they used genuine parts and gave a 5 year guarantee from their AR (Approved repairer). If the vehicle was older than 3 years they would then they may use non genuine parts.

Not that I want to promote what is essentially the same thing as Albany are doing but Toyota do offer 'Accident assist' http://www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toyota/bv/adjump.jsp?navRoot=toyota_1024_root&id=AfterSalesAccidentRepair&sr=Mall

dacouch

You could speak to the other Insurer, if they accept liability they will normally fall over themselves to get your car repaired and provide a hire car to keep you away from companies such as Albany.

Here's an Albany issue from today http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=97532

One thing to note about Admiral, is the majority of Insurers would replace the car with a new car if it's written off in your first year of ownership from brand new. Admiral will (Last time I looked) only pay the market value which could be many thousands less than you paid.

dacouch

adamc260 wrote: »

In one part of defense to Admiral.. when I worked there (a year and half ago now).. if the car was under 3 years old they used genuine parts and gave a 5 year guarantee from their AR (Approved repairer). If the vehicle was older than 3 years they would then they may use non genuine parts.

That's incredibly generous of them

adamc260

dacouch wrote: »

That's incredibly generous of them

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm? :P

connery73

Quentin wrote: »

You could cancel your claim and claim directly off the third party. No excess to pay and reclaim, you get to choose your own repairer and they will organise a replacement car whilst yours is in dock.

Hadn't really considered that as an option, any real potential downsides to this?

connery73

adamc260 wrote: »

Admiral get a kick back from Albany if you use their 'non fault service' so naturally they prefer you to use them.

If the circumstances clearly show non fault they SHOULD waive your excess (or at least did when I worked there). If the vehicle isn't really driveable Admiral wave the '2 quote rule' and allow you to get 1 quote but if the costs are silly they can instruct an independent engineer to agree rates with the garage if their own inhouse engineers cannot agree rates.

Because the garage aren't on their 'approved' list you wont get a courtesy car under your policy but I'm sure the toyota garage or other persons insurer can help you out with that.

In one part of defense to Admiral.. when I worked there (a year and half ago now).. if the car was under 3 years old they used genuine parts and gave a 5 year guarantee from their AR (Approved repairer). If the vehicle was older than 3 years they would then they may use non genuine parts.

Not that I want to promote what is essentially the same thing as Albany are doing but Toyota do offer 'Accident assist'

I did get the impression that they were almost trying to push me down that route, but did feel that the last person I was talking to at Admiral was genuinely helpful.

The courtesy car thing wasnt mentioned as a problem up to now, I also have the Hire car cover which may or may not negate that??? (not checked this out yet)

will have a look at the accident assist, thanks for the info

Again the "driveable" issue was one i didnt want to commit an answer to. Doesnt look like any major damage, and had it been another car involved, I would probably have driven it. But given that it was a 30tonne lorry which after the initial impact pushed the car another few yard, I didnt want to take that chance. (One of the reasons for disagreement with Albany)

adamc260

connery73 wrote: »

Hadn't really considered that as an option, any real potential downsides to this?

If it all goes tits up you can't go back to your insurer and say 'Fix this please'.

connery73

dacouch wrote: »

You could speak to the other Insurer, if they accept liability they will normally fall over themselves to get your car repaired and provide a hire car to keep you away from companies such as Albany.

Here's an Albany issue from today

One thing to note about Admiral, is the majority of Insurers would replace the car with a new car if it's written off in your first year of ownership from brand new. Admiral will (Last time I looked) only pay the market value which could be many thousands less than you paid.

Starting to think that the decision to disregard albany in this could have been a wise choice.

luckily we took out the gap insurance, otherwise :eek: I really dont think the car will be written off, but very interesting to note

connery73

adamc260 wrote: »

If it all goes tits up you can't go back to your insurer and say 'Fix this please'.

good point, suppose peace of mind down the line that I'd dealt with my own insurers would help