Hastings Direct - Approved repairer Albany Assistance left me with an unsafe car

Letdownbyhastings

Hello everyone!

I am at my wits end.... I was rear ended by another driver who admitted responsibility for the accident and claimed from her insurance. This was back in August 2015. Now in the middle of November, i find myself being shunned by the insurance company and the approved repaired that i used.

The accident damage was repaired, however in the process of repairing the damage they (Albany Assistance) managed to damage the ECU or engine management system on the car. Now, like me you must be wondering how they managed this with a rear end shunt? During the Repair Albany Assistance had to send the car away to a ford garage because they couldn't get the car to start. Ford had to replace a fuse on the ECU circuit. To cut a long story short the car was returned to me and the next day it failed to start. Something that had never happened prior to the repair. After much of a panicked and hassled morning i got the car recovered to my local garage, who couldn't start it, and couldn't get a fault code from the ECU.

So it went back to ford, who replace the battery at my expense. four days later the car failed again. Having called on the well known breakdown service they informed me that during the repair stage the car had likely been exposed to a high amount of current, which in their opinion was because the repairing garage had not isolated the electrical circuit during welding.

Having tried to speak to the insurance company (hastings) by phone and email they are now not responding to my requests or calls or emails. And have passed the problem back to the Repairers who are just giving me the run around. The problem hastings have is that because i have used their approved repairers and the vehicle was damaged during the repair, according to the ombudsman website, they as the insurers are responsible for putting it right.

I am now in contact with trading standards, the ombudsman and in the process of passing the problem to the small claims court as i have learned over the weekend that i can now claim for up to £10,000, which currently the out of pocket expenses without any award the court my give me for distress or the cost of the repair is currently at £1600.

I want to let people at Hastings and albany assistance that you can not duck your responsibilities nor are either company bigger than the law. In addition, i also want to stop then doing it again to anyone else.

Quentin

Although the FOS nor Hastings cannot help you, Albany are regulated and they do have a rep who seems to get alerted whenever their company name is mentioned

Assuming you have already started on them with your complaint.

Once alerted the rep comes here on damage limitation so you can expect a post shortly

Keep coming back to see.

agrinnall

I'm not sure why the car is unsafe, basically it won't go at all so as long as it's parked in a safe position it's not really a danger to anyone.

Auxillis

Hello,

Would you be able to email onlineteam@albanyassistance.co.uk with your reference number so that we can have a look into this and contact you directly.

Kind Regards,

Albany Assistance Online Team