Car Insurance - Without Drive Assist!

puddy

i was wrong, its over £100 a day

will the other insurer pay this???

Cheers

Puddy, I'm in the same situation, I've been driving a 'hire car' from Drive Assist for a month now and was quite happy until I googled Drive Assist recently and came across these posts and those on moneysupermarket.com and panicked. I trusted Swinton for years and can't believe they would hand me over to this unholy company during a telephone call while I thought I was dealing with them, and then told me to direct all my queries to Drive Assist, as they were dealing with my non fault claim.
The at fault party's insurer, Quinn, has refused to pay further hire charges for my vehicle from Monday, and Drive Assist said on the phone, not to worry, they would pay, it's routine, so I await the outcome.
It seems all UK insurers are handing customers over to Drive Assist and saying deal with them, and the nation isn't aware, apart from those on here and moneysupermarket.com who have already been scammed. Watchdog and Trading Standards did nothing.

puddy

Cheers wrote: »

Puddy, I'm in the same situation, I've been driving a 'hire car' from Drive Assist for a month now and was quite happy until I googled Drive Assist recently and came across these posts and those on moneysupermarket.com and panicked. I trusted Swinton for years and can't believe they would hand me over to this unholy company during a telephone call while I thought I was dealing with them, and then told me to direct all my queries to Drive Assist, as they were dealing with my non fault claim.
The at fault party's insurer, Quinn, has refused to pay further hire charges for my vehicle from Monday, and Drive Assist said on the phone, not to worry, they would pay, it's routine, so I await the outcome.
It seems all UK insurers are handing customers over to Drive Assist and saying deal with them, and the nation isn't aware, apart from those on here and moneysupermarket.com who have already been scammed. Watchdog and Trading Standards did nothing.

i was talking to my OH about this once id found the thread, he has paid the £10 waiver which apparently means the 'hire charges' will be paid

however, what we couldnt work out is who benefits from drive assist (apart from the company themselves) if the use of drive assist is so expensive for the liable insurance company (which means all of them at some point in time) why dont they club together and say we're not using drive assist?

Phantom247

Most of the insurance companies don't use Drive Assist and they also have problems with them.

From what I have found out Esure inclusive of Sheilas Wheels use Drive Assist as do Quinn and I think Chaucer as well as a number of brokers.

Helphire, Swift and Albany (Same company as part of the HES Group) will be instructed if again potentially going through a broker, Admiral or
Hastings Direct.

RSA Insurance uses predominantly AI Claims Solutions, this includes More Than and Motability.

Acromas (Saga) uses a company which is owned by its parent group Acromas Holdings called Claimfast.

The rest inclusive of the RBS Group use Enterprise while some use others including BLD (Motorcycles), CCL if for reasons companies like Enterprise or Drive Assist for example are not able to deal due to their client's driving history, among others.

Most solicitors use Direct Accident Management this includes Armstrongs and Carpenters although they have been known to use others.

As for Drive Assist, some insurers are still using Drive Assist as they are rather large in the Credit Hire industry and they get their clients either from brokers as well as garages and non-fault insurers as do all the large companies, Accident Exchange as an example actually provides Credit Hire to companies like Coca Cola Enterprises!!

As for the hire charges Drive Assist are charging as long as they are dealing with an insurer which is party to the ABI General Terms of agreement then they are bound for three months to pay under those rates which are lower than the commercial rate being shown on their invoicing.

However, if there is a discrepancy in the repair period the insurer will have to query this and this may lead to a disagreement on how much hire will be paid.

If you are having any problems with Drive Assist whatsoever, speak to the fault insurer as they are going to be more than happy to assist you if they can as this will reduce the amount of money they will have to pay Drive Assist and are likely to be a lot less, now if you agree with what at fault insurer is offering you will have to cancel Drive Assist and don't let them bully you and advise Drive Assist to take it up with the fault insurer.

chinamanlow

My wife and i are "dealing" with these scumbags right now ! me being me i gave them a good piece of verbal abuse today about their "scam" tactics and how as a customer you are ,as usual in the UK,the unimportant one when it comes to making money off the back of the insured.
How they work is all about insurance company laziness,its farmed off to them so eg: ESURE OR SHEILAS Wheels dont have to do s**od all. If you dont want them to "take over" YOU have to order your insurers that you want your own lawyer for compo and rental company for extra car during repair.The price for this? you guessed it YOUR EXCESS! so its put you in rock and hard place when they cant tell you if the other side has admitted fault.......so NOT to use them COSTS you hundreds. Its a rotating self interested profit making roundabout !
When you ring them,it costs,if you ring SW they pass you to DA and so on.They dont ring you back,you have to hassle them,the drivers work 55 hrs a week for min wage and hate their company aswell.Most want to leave.
I said to SW s today "why do you exist in the first place then ?, why dont we pay say 'drive assist insurance company'?" basically they have no power/control from day one.
After their hassle on watchdog they have an iron clad document that protects them from any loss if an argument on fault starts.They say "no car ,if you dont sign it".So youre stuck far away from home with a car in repair stuck on the street if you dont take their car.
Even though theyre a "non fault specialist" they cant tell you anyone IS at fault even though they've taken over. Its all about self interest and charging.
They wanted to "use their own garage" for the vauxhall repair,which we refused,probably for high fees/a big bill no doubt and moaned once they found out my wifes garage hated them aswell. I hate their self interested control of all aspects of the claim.SW have had to use a back-up insurance to make sure if fault isnt sorted quickly that the DA leeches can be paid off for their naff "courtesy car" .Ill keep you posted on the results......

dacouch

chinamanlow wrote: »

My wife and i are "dealing" with these scumbags right now ! me being me i gave them a good piece of verbal abuse today about their "scam" tactics and how as a customer you are ,as usual in the UK,the unimportant one when it comes to making money off the back of the insured.
How they work is all about insurance company laziness,its farmed off to them so eg: ESURE OR SHEILAS Wheels dont have to do s**od all. If you dont want them to "take over" YOU have to order your insurers that you want your own lawyer for compo and rental company for extra car during repair.The price for this? you guessed it YOUR EXCESS! so its put you in rock and hard place when they cant tell you if the other side has admitted fault.......so NOT to use them COSTS you hundreds. Its a rotating self interested profit making roundabout !
When you ring them,it costs,if you ring SW they pass you to DA and so on.They dont ring you back,you have to hassle them,the drivers work 55 hrs a week for min wage and hate their company aswell.Most want to leave.
I said to SW s today "why do you exist in the first place then ?, why dont we pay say 'drive assist insurance company'?" basically they have no power/control from day one.
After their hassle on watchdog they have an iron clad document that protects them from any loss if an argument on fault starts.They say "no car ,if you dont sign it".So youre stuck far away from home with a car in repair stuck on the street if you dont take their car.
Even though theyre a "non fault specialist" they cant tell you anyone IS at fault even though they've taken over. Its all about self interest and charging.
They wanted to "use their own garage" for the vauxhall repair,which we refused,probably for high fees/a big bill no doubt and moaned once they found out my wifes garage hated them aswell. I hate their self interested control of all aspects of the claim.SW have had to use a back-up insurance to make sure if fault isnt sorted quickly that the DA leeches can be paid off for their naff "courtesy car" .Ill keep you posted on the results......

The electronic document you sign with DA is definately not iron clad

chinamanlow

Explain why it isn't rock solid ?? it came in due to people complaining about being ripped off two years ago,they'll stealth charge you if you "dare" put a scratch the car however small direct through your bank account.Then youre on the backfoot to recover it.The nets choka full of how bad they are.
We've decided to cancel via email,my wife cant be bothered with the stress and worry of damage,it just adds to the hassle.Have you seen how convoluted and complex the good old "terms and conditions" are on the paper signed receipt of when you pick up the car?? its bad.

dacouch

Plenty of info here http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&cp=33&gs_id=3x&xhr=t&q=drive+assist+electronic+signature&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=drive+assist+electronic+signature&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=903a8a6ef22e4bc7&biw=1366&bih=667

chinamanlow

Got rid of their car today,the driver who turned up ,as usual,was also cursing their name. Did we know they dont pay them overtime or petrol if used to get back to their depot.Great people to work for eh?
ALL the DA driver people ive met hate them too and try to advise you on how they'll try to shaft as much as they can.
We made him,as advised on here,sigh our own doc to say car was tip top. Heres a good point to take in.....did anyone know if you DONT USE DA theres a permanent record with underwriters about your non fault incident fore-ever BUT if you DO use them,its erased somehow and isnt as "kept" as much in your "history"....FUNNY that i wonder who worked that mutually beneficial little ploy to make you feel like you 'have' to go with DA ? .

MrCourteous

I agree with chezza52343 - DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY, THE STRESS WILL KILL YOU!!
I currently have the mis-fortune of having to deal with Drive Assist and felt compelled to write to try and spread the message as far as possible...if you have the chance AVOID AVOID AVOID Drive Assist - they truly are, an awful organisation!!

We had the mis-fortune of our brand new car being rear ended in a heavy smash. We weren't even in the car at the time so needless to say it has been confirmed that we are at no fault. Niavely we allowed our insurers; Sheila's Wheels to pass us on to this incompetant outfit and it was the worst mistake I ever made to trust them and put my faith in them.

The last 12 weeks since the accident have been hell, all thanks to Drive Assist and I could go on about them for hours. However, the short version is that I have found them defensive and positively unhelpful to the degree that I believe their actions have financially effected me. Be aware - they do not act in your best interests. The junior staff, I feel are poorly trained and have no real experience so usually you get fobbed off or passed up to a supervisor when things get difficult or you ask a straight forward question that they can't answer. I have found the supervisors, without exception (and I have spoken to numerous such people) to be extremely aggressive and confrontational. They do everything to avoid actually helping you - they are clearly well trained in the art of making money for DA to the exception of their clients.

What I cannot understand, is as the not at fault party, why DA or such companies that seem to offer these services are so difficult and confrontational to deal with. Surely they should be there to help you?? I have found dealing with them extremely stressful and challenging - during the worst times dealing with them I was losing sleep at night worried that we were going to lose thousands on our car. I had expected that they would deal with it all, act in our interests and put us back in to the same position as we were before the accident. However, this simply is not the case - I have found that you have to fight them all of the way in order to try and protect your interests!

An example of this is that I queried them about the warranty issue as I did not want our standard manufacturers warranty invalidated and I wanted to know if the warranty offered by the garage is equivalent to the manufacturers warranty (I think not given the garage has only been trading 3 years) However, they cannot confirm one way of the other - their simple answer to the question is that no one else has a problem with the warranty offered and that they simply cannot understand what my problkem is and until I can demostrate what the issue is they are not prepared to discuss it! Brilliant, very helpful DA!

I have reported them to our insurers Sheila's Wheels/Esure and they say that they are not experiencing significant numbers of complaints about DA anymore but they are monitoring them...Please, if you experiencing problems with DA notify your insurers. Hopefully if we make enough noise they will eventually take action against this shower!

I have many other examples which demonstrate how poor they are but the best example is when they phoned us 10 days after the accident enquiring of the whereabouts of our vehicle. My wife was horrified when she challenged them on it saying that they had collected the vehicle. The operative stated that they had not been to collect the car and when challenged they refused to admit that they had in fact lost the car!!! My wife had to tell them where it was.....unbelievable!! It took them 10 days before they instructed the garage to undertake an inspection of the vehicle....could these be delaying tactics and are their tardy responses really just a ploy to extend the duration of the hire car period to make them more money? This to me in the crux of the issue, they seem purely set up to just try and make as much money as possible hiring out cars to unfortunate people like me at the 3rd party insurers cost - ultimately though it is us, the consumer that pay for it in insurance premiums...Something should be done and the insurance industry needs to sort out companies like DA...

Sheila’s Wheels/Esure hold your head in shame for forcing these idiots on to your unsuspecting customers....