Car accident, let their insurance sort it or my own?

Geodark

GoldenShadow wrote: »

Well, Churchill have been an absolute nightmare to deal with

First person I spoke to was all yep you want a different garage that's not our one of choice? Fine. All good. Then I got a call back because she forgot to ask all the info, and this guy gave it the hard sell and convinced me to use their garage because it would be oh so much quicker.

Its 21 miles away and I live in a city which has everything here. The distance annoyed me because it made me inclined to think it was cheaper to use this one miles away, and my OH's car got sent for repair to a garage of similar distance when someone reversed int it. He had to send it back twice as they did such a crap job, and we got it back last week after the lorry incident but had to send it back once more that time because they didn't bother to fix the tracking. That just made me want a garage which was closer so I can go down there myself if I have to type of thing.

So, then the guy said I'll give you their number, and gave me the number of the garage I gave him..! Then he said ooh um oh well they will ring you anyway. Waited three hours, nothing (the timeframe they said). Rang the garage after four hours and was told they had no record of me whatsoever. Rang Churchill, and they had instructed my local garage and not the one they recommend, even though the guy convinced me to use that instead :mad:

Then they put an urgent message through and it still took from 4pm Thursday til 1pm Friday for them to ring me. The other person's car is booked in for 6th March, and I was going to have to wait til 12th March, just for it being a couple of days later. That also annoyed me greatly, so not only have I been in a no fault accident, but they want me to wait so much bloody longer to fix my car when they are the ones who failed to instruct the garage to contact me in the first place :mad:

If Albany didn't have such a ridiculous reputation I would be using them right now (ie. going through Hastings). As it stands, I had another paddy and am intending to use a local garage where one of my friends works. Basically, because I know they will do a good job and its local enough for me to pick it up myself instead of it being dumped on my doorstep when they're done. An engineer from Churchill is coming Monday, and will no doubt dispute the local garage's quote heavily.

They've quoted £700 (including VAT and labour) to fix what looks like a scratched rear bumper. There are marks on my numberplate, so new one of those, bumper has minor crack on exterior and more cracks underneath on the inside apparently. They said if I had done it myself, they could repair it, but realistically in an accident claiming via insurance its a matter of putting my car back to what it was, and they can't guarantee repairs like they can a replacement, so they would opt to replace it instead. The metal bar under my bumper has also shifted, and they said some places might be inclined to leave it as its not too far in, but realistically they would replace it because again, their view is to return my car to the state it was in before the crash, not to just make it look OK cosmetically again.

We will see what Churchill say on Monday. The local garage have told me they sent the quote, and I rang Churchill who say they have been sent the quote, so lets hope the engineer actually has the quote when he looks at my car! My OH is going to be around just in case anyway (much more car savvy than me).

I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on hold ringing Churchill this week and its always an 0845 number. They even rang me up calling me the name of the other person on the claim too, didn't even ask security questions until I jumped in and said umm, wrong person.

One man from Churchill started asking questions like what my excess is, whether my insurance is fully comp/third party, how long I've been driving. I just said I don't remember to everything because I don't know why on earth Churchill need to know things like that about me, when their driver has admitted liability? It had nothing to do with hire car because all that and the excess for that had been explained already.

I hate having to deal with insurance companies

Sorry, are you saying a crumple zone has been damaged? in which case you should really be getting this repaired. If I am reading you right - these are areas on the car that are designed to absorb impact, so yes - if this is damaged it should be repaired!

GoldenShadow

Geodark wrote: »

Sorry, are you saying a crumple zone has been damaged? in which case you should really be getting this repaired. If I am reading you right - these are areas on the car that are designed to absorb impact, so yes - if this is damaged it should be repaired!

Yes it's the rear bumper and bar underneath. The garage are quoting to replace but I have a feeling the engineer Churchill will send out will say £700 is an excessive quote. The garage who quoted it did say they wouldn't be surprised if some places repaired the parts but they would replace, hence £700.

Hopefully Churchill will just approve it. It will be fixed far quicker than their own garage recommendation doing it that's for sure...

AdrianC

Geodark wrote: »

Sorry, are you saying a crumple zone has been damaged? in which case you should really be getting this repaired. If I am reading you right - these are areas on the car that are designed to absorb impact, so yes - if this is damaged it should be repaired!

Behind the visible bumper skin, there's various bolt-on layers designed to absorb impact before getting to the actual bodyshell. There's usually an absorbent foam, then a metal crush-structure. Sounds like that's what's got damaged here.