Churchill Car Insurance

nicki_2

Last Thursday my parnter was involved in a shunt/accident which at the time only appeared to have caused some bodywork damage. The fella responsible good enough has agreed to pay for any repairs that are needed. Unfortunately, Friday morning the alarm went haywire and my partner couldn't even try to start the car without the immobilizer kicking in and the alarm going off. So off he went to work by train and left the car for me to sort out. We tried to get a mechanic out, but our usual one didn't show up. On Saturday my partner contacted our local peugot dealer to ask for help/advise but they still haven't gotten back to us.

On Sunday we gave up, and on the advice of his parents, my partner got intouch with Churchill to get the repairs done by them. He explained that the other party was willing to pay for the repairs, but we didn't even know where to start with getting the repairs done. Churchill arranged for a "local" (as in within Liverpool) garage that was approved by them to come out and pick the car up on Monday and leave us a curtesy car.

Monday, partner went off to work by train again expecting to come home to a temporary car while ours is repaired. The man from the garage came with a truck to take the car, but no replacement car. When I asked where the other car was he said that they don't do the curtesy car, that's up to our insurance. I signed the documents for him to take the car (we really need it so I didn't want to delay any further) and phoned my partner. Partner then phoned Churchill and was told that the fella shouldn't have taken the car without leaving a replacement, but they would sort it out.

Wednesday night, still no car so we call Churchill again to find out whats going on. "The garage has to assess the repairs, then wait for authorization to carry out the repairs so they should be intouch with you tomorrow (Thursday) or the day after to arrange you picking up a car". This garage is the otherside of the city to where we live, and since my partner works in another town he can't really "pop in" to find out what's going on.

Thursday, no car and no word from the garage.

I've just received a phone call from my partner to tell me that he's been on the phone to Churchill AGAIN as he still hasn't heard from the garage. To paraphrase their response:
"The garage got the authorization to carry out the repairs late yesterday so they should be in touch with you soon about booking the car in for the repairs to be done. Then you should also get your curtesy car depending on how long the repairs will take etc. To have to wait a week is normal, sometimes it can be two weeks or more. Meanwhile the car has been kept in a secure parking place until it is dealt with"

So, partner has now had to get the train to and from work every day for 6 days now at a cost of £6.70 a day (including bus fare to work, he has time to walk to the train station of a night from work but not the otherway of a morning) which so far totals £40.20 which is more than what he spends on a tank of petrol (£28 on usually) which lasts 9 days. :mad: On top of this it takes an average of 2 hours each way on public transport but only 40 minutes by car so the whole household is tired from the early mornings and late evening meals which lead to a late bedtime but early "getting up" for our 4yearold just so she can see her own father (we have tears and tantrums all day if she doesn't get to say goodbye to him of a morning and if he's not here to tuck her in of a night she won't sleep until she does see him).

Now, currently this is all going on my partners insurance as a claim, but we don't have to pay the excess as the other party is paying for everything (including travel costs) eventually. I am extremely annoyed at the situation and I'm tempted to complain about the inadequet way in which this has been dealt with as no two people from Churchill have given us the same information apart from which garage the car is at! If we had not gone through the insurance company, we could have used a more local garage (within 15 minutes walking distance) that is reliable (I've been told so anyway), got the car repaired and been using it by now I'm sure of it!

If you were in our situation what would you do?

jockettuk

well when the renewal due bin them for starters.. also bet you didnt know but you could have refused the garage they sugested and got them to take it to a garage of your choice.. they moan abt dealers as they only want to pay so much a hour labour..


Why didnt you go through the other drivers insurance.. might have been easier in the long run..

also if calling then doesnt work why dont you put it in writing and send recorded delivery so you get a signature..

but dont let it go ..let them know how dissapointed you are with the service you have got off them and how now you might have to look elsewere for insurance.. might make them sit up and listen.. might not but you never know

nicki_2

Their first choice of garage was in another town about half-an-hours drive away on the motorway, the second was a bit closer but still out of town. The whole reason for us getting a garage in Liverpool was the we thought it would be done and dusted within 72 hours at the most, or at least they would have used a local garage, not one the other side of town. I didn't know that we could ask them to use a certain garage. I know better for next time and I will be mentioning it to my partner when he gets in.

We didn't go through the other drivers insurance because he was going to pay for it himself as initially we thought it was just the bodywork, without going through his insurance to save money etc. Best bit is, he works for an insurance company :rotfl:

I haven't had a good moan about how awful a company is for a while, so I think a letter may be getting sent to them over this. Even if they are going to protect my partner no-claim by putting getting the other party to pay, I'm still not happy.

We will be shopping around come renewal time. Unless they are alot cheaper I don't plan on going with them again. :mad: (I won't even go along the route of what we'll do when I start my driving lessons and have to pay for leaners insurance as well) My partner is going to start regretting me finding this website and my resulting confidence to stand up to companies and take them for whatever I can *Evil grin*

jockettuk

good for you...

ADAM001

try writing to them,last time i was insured i had an issue with them and they were stupid enough to put the MDs name on the bottom of my policy,(Martin P Long i think,although this might have changed) so i wrote to the man himself and got a nice refund for my trouble!

nicki_2

We finally got a courtesy car on Thursday morning (which OH had to put £15 worth of petrol in to get him to work and back) only for ME to get a phone call at 3pm to say our car is fixed and OH can go and pick it up. Then I get another phone call from the hire company saying that the courtesy car needs to go back that night as our car is ready :mad:

We've been away for the weekend (left on Friday came back today) to attend a family function and we've had problems all weekend with the car. They've put the end part of the model name upsidedown so it now reads "106 SX" instead of "106 XS", we found a metal bar under the drivers seat which we can't find it's original position, the breaks are hardly working (Have to put your foot right down to the floor for them to work properly) and we think the automatic choke is broken/damaged as when the car is started you need to keep your foot on the accelarator and rev it and if you stop at a junction before it's warmed up then it drops below 10000 revs and stalls. Oh, and father-in-law had to tighten a slack connecting wire in the engine! This car was working fine when the garage took it away as it had only just passed its MOT on the 5th April. We are not happy. Unfortunately, apart from take calls and post our problems on here I can't do anything else as everything is in OH's name as he is the only driver. :mad: