Car Insurance - Without Drive Assist!

dacouch

For the many many current MSE members and future MSE members who have experienced the problem with Drive Assist on alleged damage when they return a vehicle. This matter has been going on for many many years and was featured on BBC Watchdog a few years back but still goes on.

You may find this article interesting

http://www.brownejacobson.co.uk/resources/bulletins/drive_assist_backs_down_in_ele.aspx

The case implies that DA may not willing to test the validity of them transferring your signature from their electronic keypad to other documents.

P.S Please Please perform a through check on the car WHEN YOU RECEIVE it as the problems stem from them not noting all of the existing damage when they drop the car off to you and then the driver who collects noticing it and you getting billed (Normally circa £250) for it

wr1ght

had a crash on saturday not my fault, took delivery of a car from drive assist yesterday arranged by my insurance, i did photograph it including fuel gauge. I took the £10 option so i wouldnt have to pay if they cant recover the cost. The delivery driver told me they dont charge for small scratches on bodywork but do if alloys are kerbed dont know how true that is. I will take photos before giving it back as well.

adamc260

All insurance companies try dispute credit hire because companies like Drive Assist exist to just.... pardon my language.... screw insurance companies out of money.

dacouch

wr1ght wrote: »

had a crash on saturday not my fault, took delivery of a car from drive assist yesterday arranged by my insurance, i did photograph it including fuel gauge. I took the £10 option so i wouldnt have to pay if they cant recover the cost. The delivery driver told me they dont charge for small scratches on bodywork but do if alloys are kerbed dont know how true that is. I will take photos before giving it back as well.

The delivery driver lied to you, it is the delivery drivers who cause the problems.

Have a read through some of these google returns for examples of people who have been charged for scratches on their car. It was for scratches on cars that DA featured on Watchdog and promised changes.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=drive+assist+complaints&aq=0&aqi=g2&aql=&oq=drive+assist+comp&gs_rfai=

P.S DA recently had to refund undisclosed amounts to Insurers following a whistleblower from within their company declaring they try to add an extra tw days hire to rentals.

P.P.S The costs of Credit Hire companies are reputed to add £20 to each and every motorists policy.

wr1ght

Yer it didnt sound right i asked him several times about it. at least i have photos and i have informed my solicitor of the reputation of this company

adamc260

stevie19uk wrote: »

If Swinton accept the best paying company, then why does Drive Assist have contracts with Royal Bank of Scotland, Direct line, Churchill, Marks & Spencer, Post office, Yes car insurance, Confused.com, Swinton, Norwich Union?

Obviously Drive Assist are providing an excellent service to customers, that much that the company keeps expanding.

You provide a credit hire contract agreement to Confused.com? An aggregator?

I wouldn't say Drive Assist's customer service is 'excellent', your voice recognition software isn't the best either, each to their own however!

dacouch

wr1ght wrote: »

Yer it didnt sound right i asked him several times about it. at least i have photos and i have informed my solicitor of the reputation of this company

There have been posts on some of the many many threads in various forums about Drive Assist from DA delivery drivers. The problem seems to stem from them not being given ample time to deliver the vehicle so they don't have time to perform the proper checks when they deliver. However the drivers who collect the cars have plenty of time to check (Funny that) so they pick up all damage to the car. As it was not noted on the delivery note you get billed for it (Generally it's about £250).

There are MSE members who have fought DA over these and won, there are also plenty of consumer problem pages eg newspapers and most notably BBC Watchdog who have won individual cases.

Hopefully you won't have a problem but you really need to have your eyes open when you receive a Credit Hire car from DA which is why we all harp on about it so often.

P.S Are you aware the other drivers Insurers would have probably provided a like for like car and it would have cost them a fraction so it would help keep everyones premiums down

wr1ght

To be honest i panicked about not having a car and accepted the first thing now realising i could have hired my own car and kept reciepts. But hopefully i could be lucky if not my solicitor will deal with them.

confudler

Drive assist probably do get people into cars that are bigger than necessary and this will impact the insurance cost. However, in my situation, the driver sped off so I have no reason to not let DA pursue him and his insurers for any reasonable costs. It certainly doesn't seem reasonable that my wife would have to try and get a child in and out of a three-door bog standard courtesy car when not to blame for the collision in any way.
Had the driver stopped and left an apology and contact details, the whole thing could probably have been sorted without involving insurers at all. This didn't happen. He drove off, tried to deny it happened (claiming the corresponding damage to his car was the result of vandalism!). It's that sort of behaviour that drives up premiums. Had he done more damage, and not been spotted, it would be my premium that unfairly went up as my ncd was lost.
PS Car has been returned to DA and so far no suggestion of any damage (touch wood).

dacouch

Apparantly BBC Watchdog are investigating the Credit Hire Industry (They did a feature on Drive Assist once before).

The person at Watchdog to contact is Joanne Vaughan Jones, so please feel free to forward your comments on the delightful Drive Assist to her as your story may be of interest to them and may help avoid other people being caught out by DA