Churchill - wait times of 21 days -anything I can do?

Murtle

I have just been advised the wait time for the assessment of my insurance claim will be approx 21 days with Churchill.

The garage they had review the damage has said that Churchill will likely write it off as uneconomical to repair, but Churchill are saying it will take 21 days before their engineer might be able to look at it.

This means that although I have a courtesy car as an option, the garage won't give me one as it's only if they repair the vehicle and as they have said Churchill probably won't they won't provide a courtesy car.

This means I am left paying Churchill insurance and road tax for at least another month for a car I can't drive it, and without being able to buy another car

Is it possible to SORN the vehicle or will this cause issues with the insurance claim.

I thought Churchill were reputable, but I am seriously questioning that now.  Sadly I just renewed my house insurance with them :-(

DullGreyGuy

Most the time they will give the worst case estimate and then give their assessment much quicker than that timeframe resulting in happier customer and less chasing calls.

The risk with SORNing the vehicle is that you dont know where they are storing the vehicle. Sometimes vehicles are occasionally moved onto the road to shuffle them about and it'd be your liability were your vehicle to go onto the road insight of a ANPR camera that then issues you a fine for a SORNed vehicle going onto the road. 

Presumably this wasnt a non-fault accident with an identified third party that you could possibly look to for a replacement vehicle?

flower77g

If it is eventually written off the insurer will want the entire year's premium anyway, and the DVLA won't refund part of a month VED payment.   Any car club nearby (Enterprise / Zip car etc.)?

DullGreyGuy

flower77g said:

If it is eventually written off the insurer will want the entire year's premium anyway

Though many insurers allow you to transfer the remaining time onto your replacement vehicle.

Murtle

DullGreyGuy said:

Most the time they will give the worst case estimate and then give their assessment much quicker than that timeframe resulting in happier customer and less chasing calls.

The risk with SORNing the vehicle is that you dont know where they are storing the vehicle. Sometimes vehicles are occasionally moved onto the road to shuffle them about and it'd be your liability were your vehicle to go onto the road insight of a ANPR camera that then issues you a fine for a SORNed vehicle going onto the road. 

Presumably this wasnt a non-fault accident with an identified third party that you could possibly look to for a replacement vehicle?

The car is  on my drive way as I drove home afterwards (I have already waited a week) - the whole assessment has been done based on two photos.

Sadly it's my fault :-( so would be on my insurance and they won't do anything about it.

They moved the policy onto this car from another car, so I guessed they'd do the same again - ah I see you have said that up there.

Guess, I'll leave it for now as I could do without causing more hassle.  The person I spoke to on the phone says that this is normal for Churchill at the moment and he automatically raised a complaint ticket which seems to be their standard process for now.

[Deleted User]

Wait you drove it home, but now it can't be driven?

SaverRate

Churchill were very slow on a family members car claim a few years back so not surprised to be honest. Haven't insured with them since we had an issue with a home insurance claim a couple of years ago!

TadleyBaggie

[Deleted User] said:

Wait you drove it home, but now it can't be driven?

The bodywork could be in state that although it could be physically be driven, the police might consider it to be dangerous state.

Murtle

SaverRate said:

Churchill were very slow on a family members car claim a few years back so not surprised to be honest. Haven't insured with them since we had an issue with a home insurance claim a couple of years ago!

That’s helpful to know, but not good to hear!! Thanks for sharing.  Doesn’t sound like they have got much better then. 

DullGreyGuy

Murtle said:

SaverRate said:

Churchill were very slow on a family members car claim a few years back so not surprised to be honest. Haven't insured with them since we had an issue with a home insurance claim a couple of years ago!

That’s helpful to know, but not good to hear!! Thanks for sharing.  Doesn’t sound like they have got much better then. 

Churchill was always supposed to be Direct Line Group's budget brand... DL itself they're all things to all people  and Privilege their mass exclusive. Got a bit odd when DL launched its Private Client line without any equiv for Privilege. In practice it was all marketing differences as claims were identical and Churchill had the best policy terms.

Time has gone on from then, I highly suspect brand positioning hasn't but if they've matched service/product to brand yet I dont know

The fly in the ointment was that Churchill was virtually unsellable in Scotland 

Murtle

DullGreyGuy said:

Murtle said:

SaverRate said:

Churchill were very slow on a family members car claim a few years back so not surprised to be honest. Haven't insured with them since we had an issue with a home insurance claim a couple of years ago!

That’s helpful to know, but not good to hear!! Thanks for sharing.  Doesn’t sound like they have got much better then. 

Churchill was always supposed to be Direct Line Group's budget brand... DL itself they're all things to all people  and Privilege their mass exclusive. Got a bit odd when DL launched its Private Client line without any equiv for Privilege. In practice it was all marketing differences as claims were identical and Churchill had the best policy terms.

Time has gone on from then, I highly suspect brand positioning hasn't but if they've matched service/product to brand yet I dont know

The fly in the ointment was that Churchill was virtually unsellable in Scotland 

Interesting stuff, I didn't know that.  Also explains why the agent who answered the phone declared himself to be from direct line which was rather confusing!!

Why do the Scots not like Churchill?  (they have good taste, but just wondered why.)