Car Insurance - Without Drive Assist!

PTU

Donzlouise

Don't give up on this. I complained to the company very strongly over the phone and in a letter. I also contacted the FSA who have told me to wait for 8 weeks until getting the Financial Ombudsman involced.

The complaint letter I sent back to Drive Assist mentioned.

1) The filthy state of the car both on the interior and exterior
2) Not seeing the emailed copy of the Vechile Condition Delivery Report until I read my email which wasn't days later
3) The collection report mentioning dirty on exterior and interior when the car was cleaned inside and outside thoroughtly
4) Not being advised by Drive Assist at any time that I should have been present for the re inspection
5) Being told by Drive Assist customer services and driver that it was OK to leave the car at the repair garage on collection of my car
6) Copying of signature (same as yours) - infringement of rights I didn't consent to.
7) Many other cases "identical"
8) Future insurance will be taken out with companies that can guarantee they aren't involved with Drive Assist in anyway
9)Poor code of practice seems to operate in some of thier depots (it would be interesting to see if there is any link between our cases and the actual depots, i.e. do we all come from the same region or are they doing this across the UK in some underhanded way to make "figures").

In the interim of my initial complaint I have received a letter stating that they are concerned how badly their service has failed to meet my expectiatios and are cancelling the charge. Which is one plus. However I do still have massive issues with the copying of the signatures and the identical cases to mine.

I have also been in contact with Watchdog and a couple of other car magazines to raise awareness of the poor / substandard codes of practice.

One point I'd like to raise... if a company is capable of copying signatures where consent has not been provided or they have not been made clearly aware.... how can one "trust" new alledged damage!

On top of this, they appear to be accusing people of damage more and more, knowing / hoping that some will not raise a complaint due to fear of insurance premiums etc going up or some issues with insurance in the future. These are bully tactics. While customer services at Drive Assist do take complaints seriously, I am sure the depots need a thorough investigation and rest assured, their time will come. Very very poor business conduct.

This hasn't been spell checked either as I also type quickly.

Take care

P

dacouch

PTU any monies you owe to Drive Assist or complaints you have going through will have no bearing on your Insurance premium. It is seperate to your vehicle insurance (Drive Assist normally pay your car Insurer or the garage who referred you a commisssion of circa £150 for passing the credit hire to them).

As long as you recover your excess or other uninsured losses or your Insurer recovers their outlay then the claim should not affect your premium.

There is information on Honest Johns website about credit hire companies, he really detests them and may even take your case on (He writes a Motoring Readers Complaint Column in the Telegraph on Saturdays).

Its a shame Stevie19uk won't come back and answer your post, I just know he is reading this thread...

This might cheer you up PTU http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=drive+assist&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK|countryGB It must really really wind Drive Assist and Stevie up that this complaints on MSE and other websites come up so high when you google Drive Assist

PTU

I will definatley get in contact with Honest John aswell. Thank you for this advice.

P

Atermis

at our place the intervention team if they find out the claimant is in a DA vehicle, they will quite often ring them up and tell them to google drive assist and read about them.

Amazing thing is they are getting results, more and more people then ring back to say they have cancelled the DA car and would like one from us.

dacouch

Thats a good idea Atermis, the amusing thing is its Drive Assists own fault that would work.

Once all of the Insurers get fingers out and get their intervention systems in place and ring third parties offering a replacement vehicle promptly. It would make things easier for everyone and would have an impact on premiums as wells as avoiding the types of problems the poor posters on here are having plus the people who end up paying the hire charges on credit hires that go wrong.

It would help this if every one started to report accidents to their Insurers as soon as possible instead of hanging about so the Insurers can offer a replacement car were it is merited. In my experience people whose fault the claim is often take a long time to advise their Insurers where as the innocent party often ring their Insurers almost immediately.

People could also save a lot of hassle by taking a few pictures of the accident, road markings, any signs and the other driver / passengers. This can help establish blame and reduce the chances of fraudulent or exageratted claims against them.

9wizard9

Blimey - am I glad I came across this thread!

Just phoned my car insurers this morning after someone reversed into the side of my car yesterday - they told me the name of the garage that would be in touch to pick up my car, and told me that my details would be passed on to Drive Assist to provide a car for my use whilst my car was being repaired.

This is the first time I've ever been involved in an accident, so I assumed this was just the standard way that a courtesy car (as detailed in my insurance schedule) would be provided.

Thankfully, DA delayed for a couple of hours whilst checking the liability was with the other insurance company - when I rang the garage to delay the car being picked up they offered me one of their own courtesy cars, so I'm taking that instead and have just cancelled DA.

I don't really understand why Lloyds TSB insurance put me in touch with DA in the first place if the garage were able to provide a car (unless it's driven by commission as suggested above). Just pleased I've spotted this in time - I'll be taking photos of the garage courtesy car too when I receive it and give it back (hoping the garage isn't running the same scam though).

dacouch

9wizard9

Its driven by commiussion...they earn around £150 for passing you to Drive Assist.

If you use your Insurers own approved repairer they will normally offer a basic courtesy car.

What you should do is ring the other drivers Insurers up and let them know you have been offered Drive Assist but felt it fair to give them the chance to offer you a like for like hire car. If they know the accident is their fault they will normally bite your hand off to give you a hire car (assuming you need one) as if Drive Assist provide it the costs will be around three times what they can arrange it for.

If you need to find their telephone number you can do it here https://www.mymid.com


P.S Its nice that someone has checked MSE before getting involved with Drive Assist, we must be doing something right. I know crowmanuk will be very pleased that he has helped prevent someone else possibly dealing with DA.

Did you know that Drive Assist are so well known they have been on tv??? admitedly it was Watchdog

Jakg

stevie19uk wrote: »

If there were so many problems with these brokers then why would a massive new scheme (Swinton Colonnade) join Drive Assist?

Because your cheap, most likely.

CityLink are theiving gits in a lot of the UK - yet most eTailers use them... because they are cheap!


You have to admit taking a signature and moving it is... dodgy at best. You could just say "I owe DA £10,000" and put the customers signature at the bottom - they signed x and your giving them documentation they've "signed" for y.

dacouch

They don't get the contracts because they are cheap, they actually get them because they pay the most commission to the broker, garage or Insurer who passes the customer to them and also because they provide national coverage. I assume the directors or Swintons have never seen Watchdog

DAalltheway

I thought i would put down my own experience but if i am going to get a reaction like that then i wont bother.