Admirals policy on repairs

Muscle750

Anyone know Admirals policy on fitting non genuine parts when repairing accident damage ?

rs65

Page 10 of the policy booklet

If your car is three years old or more, we may decide to repair it with recycled parts, or with parts which have not been made by the car’s manufacturer, but are of a similar standard.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

glad I refreshed the page as I was about to post the same thing.

it all depends on what you provide to your insurers, if you car 3 years old but you have purchased an extension warranty with the manufacturer, then the same rules apply to a car that's 2 years old they have to use OEM marked parts to keep your warranty valid, if you didn't provide this information to them BEFORE hand then its not their responsibility or liability of the loss of your warranty, if they knew then you have recourse.

as above, if its older than 3 years old, or is out of manufacturers warranty they can use salvaged or pattern aftermarket parts.

londonTiger

i really dont have much faith in Admiral and their bloody approved garages.

Note: not saying account below is relating to Admiral, could be any insurer as the company was not disclosed in the programme.

There was a watchdog programme on car insurance repairs. (could have been another consumer programme). A insider who had his face disguised said he owns a garage that is approve by an insurer and they get all their work from the insurance company. Apparantly the insurance company pushed him down on costs so much that he was told indirectly to do away with protective bars on the door. So it was basically just a light frame and the skin. Had the vehicle owner was to get side swiped in the same place again and got killed the garage could have been done for manslaughter from negligence!

Really difficult part to be in for the garage, they need the business but are forced to cut corners so much. If anything happens the insurer will proclaim "we had nothing to do with it, the garage does all the repairs"/

atrixblue.-MFR-.

londonTiger wrote: »

i really dont have much faith in Admiral and their bloody approved garages.

Note: not saying account below is relating to Admiral, could be any insurer as the company was not disclosed in the programme.

There was a watchdog programme on car insurance repairs. (could have been another consumer programme). A insider who had his face disguised said he owns a garage that is approve by an insurer and they get all their work from the insurance company. Apparantly the insurance company pushed him down on costs so much that he was told indirectly to do away with protective bars on the door. So it was basically just a light frame and the skin. Had the vehicle owner was to get side swiped in the same place again and got killed the garage could have been done for manslaughter from negligence!

Really difficult part to be in for the garage, they need the business but are forced to cut corners so much. If anything happens the insurer will proclaim "we had nothing to do with it, the garage does all the repairs"/

ive not com across safety feature courner cutting before with insurers. my wifes uncle owns a Insurers approved body shop.

garages have to work by reduced labor costs the insurers hand the garages a price list effectively of what they will pay the garage in terms of parts and labour.

E.G.
bumper cover removal labor 20 mins cost £8.00. and so and so forth.

insurers don't generally tell garages what can and cant be fitted to a car. so if this insurers did they were wrong to do that.

but form experience they don't lecture garages about cutting courners to save them costs as they save enough costs with their pre labor agreements and part price structures.

londonTiger

as i vaguely remember, the garage owner went backwards and forwards with the insurance company. The garage owner mustve said "the price will not be doable, you haven;t factored in the safety bar for this door", to which i presume insurance said "sorry we will only pay for the items in the list agreed to by yourself, we can't pay any more than what is scheduled.",

atrixblue.-MFR-.

londonTiger wrote: »

as i vaguely remember, the garage owner went backwards and forwards with the insurance company. The garage owner mustve said "the price will not be doable, you haven;t factored in the safety bar for this door", to which i presume insurance said "sorry we will only pay for the items in the list agreed to by yourself, we can't pay any more than what is scheduled.",

that's the problem there.

he agree'd the end figure without factoring in the hidden damage.

it was upto the garage to take the hit, and pay for and fit the SIPS bars they chose not to and release a safety issue to the customer.

step 1.agree with insurers that the damage and the assessors report is based on visible damage.

step 2. agree with the insurers for labor time to strip the damaged area's and assess the hidden damage.

step 3. report back hidden damage parts and costs and labor times.

I know from experience what type of hidden damage can be behind things such as doors, bumpers etc my wifes uncle most insurance assessors know, but theres a underhanded trick they use if they know that their approved garage isn't going to do the repair and that's just to write up an assessment based on cosmetic damage and don't bother looking or mentioning hidden damage even if its obvious so the chosen repairer gets stung in behind and get the run around from the insurers for prices costs and labor so the chosen garage has to call the insurers have the assessor come back out (assessor gets paid twice for this) go over the car again to factor hidden damage and costs.

its a trend the body shops see all the time and it gets pretty cut throat in the industry.

just walk into into any insurance approved body shop and independent and they will tell you insurers are blastards try and cut you at every turn and some are really late in paying the garage for their completed work.

in some cases the insurers wont pay storage of the car whilst its in a body shops yard awaiting assessment either.