Hastings Direct and their claims process

OurTater

Evening all, just looking to see how many people on here have had experience with Hastings Direct and their claims process – had an accident almost two weeks ago which was caused by the other driver crossing the white line on a normal A road. Since then I've been passed onto Carpenters and Albany Assistance.

First up Carpenters, who rang up the day after and two days later about any injuries I've suffered and have now sent through a large document about pursuing a claim against the third party which I don't want to do as there were no long term injuries just bruising which is nearly gone now. I want to make sure that that is all cancelled before it goes anywhere but it's not clear whether that action needs to be cancelled with Hastings or direct with Carpenters?!

I've also had contact from Albany who seemed to be the ones dealing with the courtesy car which is all fine, I haven't heard anything else off them which I'm presuming is normal?

To add to the list was a letter from National Salvage who are acting with Hastings Direct regarding the vehicle documentation and keys which I've sent off, seems like an ever growing list of companies to deal with though and it's all got very stressful.

Anyone else had any experience, first time I've had a car accident so it's all new to me

anselld

Hastings palm you off to Albany. Albany are reasonably helpful whilst you are receiving their expensive hire cars and repair/salvage services, but they will drop you like a hot potato when it comes to actually prosecuting your claim against the third party.

Complete waste of space. A bunch of sharks!

My advice would be to refuse all "assistance" and make Hastings process the claim themselves.

OurTater

Is there a best way or process to do that?

So far the only contact I've had with Albany is the hire car which was delivered a couple of days after the accident and is fine.

Heard nothing from them or Hastings since.

anselld

OurTater wrote: »

Is there a best way or process to do that?

So far the only contact I've had with Albany is the hire car which was delivered a couple of days after the accident and is fine.

Heard nothing from them or Hastings since.

Sorry, other than declining "assistance" in the first place I don't know.

Hire cars seem to be the gravy-train for Albany. We returned it after getting concerned that cost was simply accumulating and they were in touch fairly quickly after that to say they were unable to settle the claim and they wanted to pass it back to Hastings.

Auxillis

Hi OurTater,

Can we help at all? If you can email onlineteam@albanyassistance.co.uk with your reference number, we can arrange for you to be contacted directly.

Kind Regards,

Albany Assistance Online Team

OurTater

Funnily enough I've had an email through from Albany a few minutes ago with a form to fill in about the accident, the details, description of damage etc – all detials that I've already gone through with Hastings in the first instance!!

Do Hastings actually do anything to help??

OurTater

albanyassistance wrote: »

Hi OurTater,

Can we help at all? If you can email onlineteam@albanyassistance.co.uk with your reference number, we can arrange for you to be contacted directly.

Kind Regards,

Albany Assistance Online Team

Thanks for the offer, I have emailed the team about why you've sent a form regarding the accident when Hastings were supposed to be dealing with it, no response as of yet

OurTater

There is also the matter of Carpenters of course, though I'm not pursuing an injury claim anymore there's still the stress of how much they're going to be charging me for, and by the looks of responses on this forum about Carpenters they don't come across at all well....

Auxillis

Hi OurTater,

We have received your email and have arrange for a member of the team to contact you directly to discuss.

Kind Regards,

Albany Assistance Online Team

emmajt

I would not recommend Hastings Direct to anyone. I claimed at the start of July because someone drove into me. They were very quick indeed to take my car away (2 days later) via the NSG. They then declared it a write-off and I was told how much I would receive.
I was finally contacted a fortnight ago to say I would receive a payment but over two weeks later I am still waiting to receive the payment. Meanwhile, I have no car.
Last time I tried to call them I was on the phone on hold for over an hour before someone answered. It's always like that. They don't tell you how long you will be in the queue for or what number. So frustrating! They also have an email address and contact form facility for claim updates but no one replies!
It annoys me that they are probably already repairing my old car and flogging it off as I write this post.