Admiral and Albany Assistance Complaints Nightmare

magpiecottage

Legal_Ombudsman wrote: »

Our six month time limit only applies if a company advises a complainant about their right to come to the Legal Ombudsman, provides our contact details AND advises that they have six months in which to complain. If the company had not informed Scudgie of all of this, then our 6 month timescale would not have applied and we would be able to accept the complaint outside of this timescale.

That makes sense. The six months would only start in respect of the ombudsman that the letter refers to.

dacouch

albanyassistance wrote: »

Hello Scudgie,

Your final complaint response letter was dated 9th June 2015, which means you are well within the timeframe for the Legal Ombudsman services to review your complaint. In response to the letter from the Financial Ombudsman that was copied to us, a letter dated 30th October has been sent to you to advise you of this option.

Kind Regards,

Albany Assistance Online Team

That's a remarkable coincidence you sending such a letter the day after the OP posts on MSE

Batwoman2

My first time here and Sooo pleased to have found this.
I had an accident last week, someone went into the back of me when stationary and they accepted liability (though their insurer hasn't confirmed this as far as I know). My H contacted Admiral and was told that Albany deal with their "no fault claims" and would call me. Albany called shortly before the office closed and we were emailed forms around 30 pages and asked to check our details were correct ie post code name and accept immediately so they could arrange pick up for the next day plus a hire car. They would email a contact to the documents the next day which they did. What a good service we thought although I wondered why I had to "accept" on line and give credit card details? They took my car the next day, quick I thought. I asked for a smaller car than they were arranging.
I then looked at the website and downloaded 8 or 9 documents that were under my name....possibly the ones read over the phone?!!! OMG what a shock.. they were not Admiral and they were saying I was ultimately responsible for all payments. Well this you all know.
I went back to Admiral on Friday and complained especially as the car repair is going to take longer and cost more than we had thought ( no surprise there!). They kept saying it was upto Albany to tell us we'd be responsible not them??
So my question is: Can I still cancel Albany? I am well within the 14 day cooling off period but the garage (one used by Admiral too) has had the engineer in to cost the repair and I've had a hire car for a few days. Can I go back to Admiral. (at no time did they tell us going with Albany would make us responsible for costs or make it clear they were totally separate). If so will I incur costs?
I'm so worried I feel quite sick about all this.
I would be really grateful for advice.

Auxillis

Hi Batwoman2,

Could you please email onlineteam@albanyassistance.co.uk with your reference number so that we can contact you directly.

Kind Regards,

Albany Assistance Online Team

Scudgie

Batwoman

Yes you can cancel but I'm sure they will charge you for the days that you've had the Hire Car for plus any other charge they could think of no doubt.

I see that Albany's damage limitation team have posted. If you are worried about using Albany or the Repairer they have appointed (let us know if the company is based in North Wales), then you should contact them immediately - ask them to explain their charges and post their response on here so we all know.

If you're not happy with the Insurance Broker not offering a different route to deal with your claim then you should make a complaint (they have 8 weeks to provide you with a final response) - refer that to the Financial Ombudsman if you're not happy.

Good luck.