Arriva - letter saying we were in an accident in which we weren't?

[Deleted User]

barneybeagle wrote: »

Hello all,

Thanks for the advice and the information. I have taken note regarding AVIVA and what has been said does not surprise me in the least. We have found that it is no good phoning them due to the waiting time followed by being past from pillar to post once you speak to someone. On top of that once you think you are there, the person on the other end cannot understand the basics of what you are trying to put over.

Mr Dave Hyam, apologies for not responding sooner. Can you forward me a phone number by pm so we can maybe speak as with all due respect I do not like to put out our details on a website and I do not know you. Apologies, but hope you can understand my predicament.

We are insured by a company that I found out AVIVA is the underwriter for. They were unaware of this alleged incident, but told me it was not unusual for them to be dealing direct so as it stands they are not in the loop to my knowledge.

The only thing that appears correct in what the 3rd party is claiming is our registration number and make of car.
The person they are claiming I am or know, we don't know from Adam?
The area the alleged incident took place is approximately 250+ miles from where we were on that day.
AVIVA sent an Inspector to check out our vehicle who checked it out, looked under the bonnet, etc and took photos and confirmed there had been no impact or damage.
We sent a letter which AVIVA obviously recieved as they arranged the car inspection, but they did not answer it or comment on anything we said in the letter.
We have now just received another letter from the Third party through AVIVA with the 'description of the person' which does not resemble me or my wife for that matter. They have also mentioned that another person involved in the incident took pictures of all the cars and number plates in which we can see if we wish. In my reply which isn't finished yet, I have instructed them to send on the photographs.
One of the main things that gets me here is regarding the Insured Person and Insured Reg: The Registration is ours, but god knows who the Insured Person is we have previously stated we do not know him?

At the beginning of this saga and after I posted on here, I went to the Police who thought it could be a scam. They instructed me to talk to our Insurers, in which I did and who confirmed that they had heard nothing, but confirmed that Aviva were our Underwriters.

I will in the next week make contact with our Insurers to see if they have been put into the loop. I also want to clarify if this ongoing saga will affect our next renewal which is due around the middle of August.

I feel like putting a claim in to AVIVA myself for the hassle and disrespect shown towards us. Can this be done?

Well I look forward to any comments or advice on how to go forward.

Thanks in advance
bb

Hi barneybeagle,

As mentioned, we've not requested you post your details on the public forum. Please email us at social@aviva.co.uk with the details. We can then liaise with our Claims team. Once they've looked into the case, we can then give you an update as to what's happening.

Many thanks,

Martin Banwell
Aviva Social Media Team

jobdone1

This could be a case of cloned number plates. I would report it to the police they might be able to investigate the area with cctv. I wish they speed up technology to improve number plate security.

sarahg1969

The vehicle hasn't been advertised for sale online, has it?

When my husband's was a couple of years ago, he received a call from his insurers, stating he'd been in an accident and claims had come in from his four passengers, all from a city not a million miles from us, but all from a different ethnic background and over 20 years younger than him.

I didn't for a second believe it was mistaken identity. Firstly, his car reg is not a local one, so unlikely to have been taken down wrongly; secondly, these people were supposed to be passengers in his car, so wouldn't have got it wrong. Thirdly, a man had been to view the car and had my husband's name (although they got his first name wrong in their claims).

Investigations revealed it was likely to have been an attempt at a scam.

In your case, you're lucky there are photos. You shouldn't have much difficulty proving it was nothing to do with you.

barneybeagle

Aviva_company_representative wrote: »

Hi barneybeagle,

As mentioned, we've not requested you post your details on the public forum. Please email us at [EMAIL="social@aviva.co.uk"]social@aviva.co.uk[/EMAIL] with the details. We can then liaise with our Claims team. Once they've looked into the case, we can then give you an update as to what's happening.

Many thanks,

Martin Banwell
Aviva Social Media Team

Hello Martin,

Thanks for the reply. Can you give me a bit of background to what your job entails please in AVIVA and are the claims team not doing now what you are going to ask them? ie investigate the claim already? As I'm still a bit sceptical then could you provide a phone number I can call you direct on to discuss.

In reply to Sarahg1969, no the car has not been put up for sale and hopefully when we receive copies of the photos it will put it all to bed.

Police Registration Cameras
Can anyone tell me how these police cameras work that you see popping up on lights, roundabouts and major junctions these days. I believe they automatically log your number plate. If this is the case then: How do you find out which ones are in the area ie the routes taken from A to B and can you request information going back months? I'm just looking ahead here as it would just be another way to prove that we were not involved in this incident they claim we were involved in.

Thanks once again to everyones advice and comments. All appreciated.

Cheers
bb

agrinnall

barneybeagle wrote: »

Hello Martin,

Thanks for the reply. Can you give me a bit of background to what your job entails please in AVIVA and are the claims team not doing now what you are going to ask them? ie investigate the claim already? As I'm still a bit sceptical then could you provide a phone number I can call you direct on to discuss.

You really need to be a bit less paranoid and just do what Martin has asked if you want any assistance with this. If you re-read the original post from Aviva you will see that they haven't asked for any of your details, they want to know the details of their customer so that they can investigate what is happening and ensure that your statement is taken into account. How can Martin check whether this is already being done if you refuse to provide anything that will allow him to identify the particular claim out of the many thousands that Aviva will be dealing with at any one time?

[Deleted User]

barneybeagle wrote: »

Hello Martin,

Thanks for the reply. Can you give me a bit of background to what your job entails please in AVIVA and are the claims team not doing now what you are going to ask them? ie investigate the claim already? As I'm still a bit sceptical then could you provide a phone number I can call you direct on to discuss.

In reply to Sarahg1969, no the car has not been put up for sale and hopefully when we receive copies of the photos it will put it all to bed.

Police Registration Cameras
Can anyone tell me how these police cameras work that you see popping up on lights, roundabouts and major junctions these days. I believe they automatically log your number plate. If this is the case then: How do you find out which ones are in the area ie the routes taken from A to B and can you request information going back months? I'm just looking ahead here as it would just be another way to prove that we were not involved in this incident they claim we were involved in.

Thanks once again to everyones advice and comments. All appreciated.

Cheers
bb

Hi barneybeagle,

Our role as part of the Social Media team is to monitor and engage with customers who require assistance with service queries across various Social Media platforms. You can find us on Twitter @AvivaUKSupport (I sign off as Marv rather than my full name for character length) and on Facebook.

Here's a section of the Aviva website which tells you about what we do along with a photo of who we are: http://www.aviva.co.uk/help-and-advice/insurance-made-simple/articles/social.html

In terms of the Claims team, they will be carrying out what they need to. What I would do is gather the information from you, liaise with the Claims team to see what the latest situation is and how we can progress it and provide you with an update, or hopefully a resolution.

We haven't got a direct number to give out but hopefully the above has put you at ease. Feel free to get in touch with us.

Many thanks,

Martin Banwell (Marv)
Aviva Social Media Team

barneybeagle

Hello all, thought I would post an update to the alleged incident we were supposed to be involved in.

Apologies first to Martin as I did not get in touch with you and to agrinnall, I'm not really paranoid, just concerned who I give my details to. I know you mean well so thankyou.

Anyway, we eventually received a letter in mid October from Aviva, with no apology or anything, just a reference and to say that the case is now closed as it was mistaken identity and our no claims have now been reinstated.

After all that we have gone through and the time and stress this has placed upon us, we received so little and with no apology. I wrote a letter to summarise our feelings and also to make them aware that at no time did we know that our no claims had been taken away. I also asked for compensation and asked for more information regarding the 'case of mistaken identity'.

We received a letter back asking to phone Aviva in which we did. I spoke with a pleasant lady, full of apologies and wanting to know what kind of compensation we were looking for. I gave her a figure and she told me that she would get back to us in the next 7 working days. I also asked for it to be in writing.

Not to our surprise, we never received a call or a letter and in mid November I called Aviva back and left a message with one of her work colleagues. I left it a week and eventually spoke with the original lady who told me that Aviva would give me half the amount I asked for in compensation (under 200pounds). Putting the finances to one side I asked why she had not been in touch when she said she would, in which she told me that she had left a message on my phone a couple of days before? I pointed out that she was supposed to get back to us a week after our original call. Her attitude towards us I feel was a disgrace. When we first called she was as nice as pie and when I dealt with her again, she was very snotty I thought. Moving on, I asked her to put the figure in writing in which she agreed, so nearly a week in and no reply yet.

Although they are offering us a bit of money, that is not the point, they constantly fail to answer any questions we have put to them and I am also concerned that someone somewhere has details of ours in some form. Can anyone give me any advice or offer any thoughts to what I have said so far.

I'm also thinking about going back to the Police about this and will probably go to the Ombudsman in due course. I don't see why these companies should get away with treating people the way they have.

Thanks in advance.
bb

tasticz

The compo you seek is gesture of goodwill they don't need to give you anything but send in a complaints letter if you want things to move faster ��

CKhalvashi

sarahg1969 wrote: »

Firstly, his car reg is not a local one, so unlikely to have been taken down wrongly

Not wanting to go off the point, this is completely irrelevant.

We both have private plates, but my car started life with OV62, and OH's started with CV13, whilst both the cars were picked up from a dealer in London, brand new.

In my family, there are (all purchased new), 'AA', 'BX', 'RY' and 'LG', whilst we live in an area that issues 'E_' plates.

Back to the original issue, if there is photo evidence, it shouldn't be hard to prove you weren't involved.

Aviva reps will sort this out for you, and get it chased up.

CK

nidO

Leaving aside them not getting back in contact with you a few times when they said they would, i'm not sure quite what Aviva have done wrong here in your eyes.

None of this is their mistake, if they were given your reg number and make of car in the accident those are the details they go by, and it sounds like they've been pretty reasonable in investigating the issue properly and have ultimately reached the right conclusion that you weren't involved, so haven't had your insurance impacted.
It's been an inconvenience for you sure, but its also a lot of inconvenience for them to have had to deal with a false/mistaken claim as well and that's just life.

They will not have been able to give you extensive details on some of the things you were asking them about because you have to bear in mind that while you know you weren't involved and the claim was either a scam or mistake, Aviva don't know that so once you tell them you weren't involved they have to look at the issue properly (i'm sure it can't be that rare that someone who causes an accident and suffers minor damage to their car gets the damage repaired up quietly then when the claim comes in turns round and says "wasn't me guv") and it sounds like that's exactly what's been done, and the correct conclusion reached.