Ongoing Swiftcover Claim help

magic_chimp

I have a claim with Swiftcover that has been going on since 29.07.12 and am getting frustrated with how long they are taking to deal with this.

I feel that they are dragging their heels and not really doing as much as they can to get this resolved.
Basically a Spanish HGV collided with me - I took photos showing his position proving that he turned into my lane and the area of damage on my vehicle and this proved that he collided with me.

I've had 5 different claim assessors dealing with the claim thus far, all as useful as a chocolate teapot.

From the off they appear to have had trouble contacting the UK Handling Agent for information, but don't appear to have any escalation process if their emails and phone calls aren't responded to by the Handling Agent - all they seem to do is diarise to chase up and then make more calls and emails that receive no response!

At present Swiftcover advise me that are trying to get confirmation of the date that the Spanish Insurance was confirmed so that they can pass the file to their Legal Dept for further action to recover the costs.
They have been trying to get this info since the 25th May!!

I did email the current claim assessor two days ago politely explaining that if she is not receiving any response to her emails and phone calls then what is the point of making any more and what would she be doing to escalate this - all I had back was an email saying that 'I appreciate your frustration but all I can do is continue to chase for the information that I require'.

I appear to be stuck in a dead end situation where Swiftcover aren't escalating anything with the UK Handling Agent whilst I am out of pocket on my £300 excess and am also being penalised on my NCD which has been reduced all the while the claim is rumbling on and on and on and on ad infinitum (They will only confirm 3 years NCD even though I joined them with 9+ years NCD due to their policy of only confirming a maximum of 5 years NCD hidden deep in their small print but that is another story!).

Is there anything I can do to get this claim going?? Would the FOS be an option? I have already complained to Swiftcover that it is taking far too long but the response was to refer it to the current claims assessor who is struggling to obtain the UK Handling Agent info and doesn't appear capable of escalating it at all.

Sorry if I've gone on a bit but I'm getting really frustrated and angry that the claim is taking so long to deal with and that Swiftcover just don't appear to be interested in doing anything to speed it up.

Cheers.

dacouch

Claims with foreign drivers / insurers always take along time.

You can approach their UK representatives directly to recover your excess, if you succeed it will normally mean Swift will register the claim as being non fault.

Sonny_Bill

How come you didn't instruct a firm of solicitors to work on it?

That would be the first thing i'd do. They do tend to take a long time with it being foreign insurers though, but i'd ask a firm of solicitors to take it on and look to issue court proceedings against the UK representatives. Then you'll see results/movements. In my experience, insurance companies are pretty useless in this situation.

Good luck

Quentin

Sonny_Bill wrote: »

How come you didn't instruct a firm of solicitors to work on it?

That would be the first thing i'd do. They do tend to take a long time with it being foreign insurers though, but i'd ask a firm of solicitors to take it on and look to issue court proceedings against the UK representatives. Then you'll see results/movements. In my experience, insurance companies are pretty useless in this situation.

Good luck

Absolutely no need to go to the hassle of instructing solicitors just to recover your excess. (Which is the issue here as the insurer has dealt with the claim)

If you don't have uninsured loss recovery with your insurance, then it's a diy job which isn't hard to get help on (here or using google) if you don't know how to go about it.

Sonny_Bill

Quentin wrote: »

Absolutely no need to go to the hassle of instructing solicitors just to recover your excess. (Which is the issue here as the insurer has dealt with the claim)

If you don't have uninsured loss recovery with your insurance, then it's a diy job which isn't hard to get help on (here or using google) if you don't know how to go about it.

Apologies, if it's just for the excess then disregard what I said

But it's no 'hassle' instructing solicitors, and they'd be a damn sight more useful that whoever is dealing with it now

BertTheRaccoon

Insurers love delays which give rise to a delay in reinstating your bonus as they can leg you up for increased premiums until the claim is resolved - it's like an interest free loan for them.

But with your case there are a number of issues

1- Swiftcover are anything but swift in their claims dealings - are you dealing with Swiftcover or their claims agents Sims Claims?

2- Claims with foreign vehicles are a major pain as the UK agent needs to be identified (not usually that much of a problem) but the UK agent is little more than a messenger boy and they have to keep awaiting instructions from the foreign insurer. if you imagine our UK insurers are slow, European and beyond insurers take things to a whole new level.

Swift really should escalate matters to their recovery team with the threat of possible court proceedings against the foreign vehicle operator and or their insurers under a 2000 EC Directive.

One problem that does sometimes arise is foreign HGV's often have a different reg number for the tractor unit to the trailer. With a different insurer for each. This can cause problems.