Well known Motor Insurance company not responding to emails or answering phones when claiming.

arty2122000

These incidents concern my wife and her car and motor insurance. In October of 2021 wife backed into our gate post causing moderate damage to back offside quarter of her Range Rover Evoke. Insurance is fully comprehensive through Sainsburys Insurance. Wife calls insurance company who answered the phone reasonably quickly. Reported the incident. They informed her that a claims handler, Auxillis, would be in touch but suggested that she ring Pukka insurance  who are the actual insurance company. Auxillis wrote confirming the claim and informing us that Pukka would be in touch. To date Pukka have not contacted us by any method and we have now placed this in the hands of the financial ombudsman.  
Move forward to November 8th 2021. The engine on this car broke and was deemed to be terminal by a garage. I sort out a local garage who quoted £5500 plus vat to restore the engine. A family member suggested that one of the Ebay advertisers may be a cheaper option. Cutting a long story short ish The garage picked up the car on 11th November 2021 and took it to Wolverhampton. I eventually ended up paying £1000 deposit and £1350 parts money by 4th December. After weeks of wrangling with the garage owner it was clear that the car was stolen. So the police where informed. They classed it as a serious crime and fraud and potentially linked to organised crime. So Sainsburys insurance who we renewed with where informed. They took the details and gave us a reference number. Passed us on to another claims handler/insurance company who asked us questions about the incident. We have responded to all requests. We have tried to call the company and on several days called 8 times throughout the day only to be cut off after 1 hour. I have emailed asking them to call as we have important information. They have not responded. The insurance company said that we would not get a curtesy car as the claim will be settled very quickly even though we have paid for that as an extra. Now we are on week 3 and still no sign or contact with the insurance. 
Please can someone advise us on what we should do.

emmajones1976

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SaverRate

Put a complaint into Sainsburys Insurance 

lisyloo

What does your courtesy car policy say exactly.
is it guaranteed?

Sandtree

arty2122000 said:

These incidents concern my wife and her car and motor insurance. In October of 2021 wife backed into our gate post causing moderate damage to back offside quarter of her Range Rover Evoke. Insurance is fully comprehensive through Sainsburys Insurance. Wife calls insurance company who answered the phone reasonably quickly. Reported the incident. They informed her that a claims handler, Auxillis, would be in touch but suggested that she ring Pukka insurance  who are the actual insurance company. Auxillis wrote confirming the claim and informing us that Pukka would be in touch. To date Pukka have not contacted us by any method and we have now placed this in the hands of the financial ombudsman.  
Move forward to November 8th 2021. The engine on this car broke and was deemed to be terminal by a garage. I sort out a local garage who quoted £5500 plus vat to restore the engine. A family member suggested that one of the Ebay advertisers may be a cheaper option. Cutting a long story short ish The garage picked up the car on 11th November 2021 and took it to Wolverhampton. I eventually ended up paying £1000 deposit and £1350 parts money by 4th December. After weeks of wrangling with the garage owner it was clear that the car was stolen. So the police where informed. They classed it as a serious crime and fraud and potentially linked to organised crime. So Sainsburys insurance who we renewed with where informed. They took the details and gave us a reference number. Passed us on to another claims handler/insurance company who asked us questions about the incident. We have responded to all requests. We have tried to call the company and on several days called 8 times throughout the day only to be cut off after 1 hour. I have emailed asking them to call as we have important information. They have not responded. The insurance company said that we would not get a curtesy car as the claim will be settled very quickly even though we have paid for that as an extra. Now we are on week 3 and still no sign or contact with the insurance. 
Please can someone advise us on what we should do.

Have I got this right....

Claim 1
Fault Accidental Damage claim - damage claim unresolved. You say its with the FOS but your timeline suggests its possibly not really or its been frustrated by claim 2

Claim 2
Theft claim - you gave the car to a garage and they never returned it


Sainsbury's insurance is an intermediary, they place the business with one of their panel of insurers/MGAs. You have renewed your policy and so Sainsburys decided to switch underwriters hence different companies being involved.

Pukka I have never heard of before however their website states they are authorised by the FCA and therefore cannot be an insurance company - to be so you are only regulated by the FCA but authorised by the PRA. They therefore are an MGA or other form of delegated underwriting authority outfit. These may or may not have full claims authority from their principle.


I would have serious concerns about claim 2 and would be reading my policybook. Theft by deception, which I think is what you are saying has happened, is commonly excluded from policies. Depending on the companies involved in claim 2 and if its also involving a web of suppliers then a repudiation can often need to go all the way to the true carrier and could explain the length of time its taking. Contrary to popular believe, insurers don't dismiss claims out of hand.

Given you had such problems with Sainsbury's on claim 1 its a little surprising you decided they were a good crew to renew with.