How long did it take your car insurance claim to be dealt with?

J_forest

I would like to say Happy Sunday but it is a bit bitter. I have been unsettled since the morning of the 6th February. 

Somebody stole the infotainment system and the media display from my car! 

I have gained accesses to two neighbours' CCTV footage and found some suspicious activities but the police say they don't show clear images. My insurance company hasn't contacted me at all except a link to submit the images of the damages on the 7th of February. The help line is open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, the same as my working hours.  Online chat doesn't help and I have tried to ring, the one made after 4pm just plays music all the way and the other one made after 3:14pm was answered an hour later then was passed to a wrong department, and then another department but the line was cut during the conversation.  I did try again but it was the music to greet me till 5pm.

Has anyone made claims on such before? How long did it take you? Apparently this system is very expensive according 5 dealers that I contacted. The car runs as normal with a yellow warning light (it is for the navigation system link to the stolen part). 

Any advise is very much appreciated. Thank you.

baser999

Surprised claims line only 9-5 M-F. Wouldn’t be wanting to have an accident at 6pm Friday?
Do they not have another number?

MorningcoffeeIV

My last claim took a year. 

But not sure what use that is to know. Every claim is different and every time period has different external factors - such as parts availability..

J_forest

baser999 said:

Surprised claims line only 9-5 M-F. Wouldn’t be wanting to have an accident at 6pm Friday?
Do they not have another number?

They also open on Saturday for making a new claim. For existing claim they open only 9-5 M-F.  I have tried all the numbers that I could find.

J_forest

MorningcoffeeIV said:

My last claim took a year. 

But not sure what use that is to know. Every claim is different and every time period has different external factors - such as parts availability..

Oh dear! It's terrible! Without the system I cannot charge my car elsewhere except at home from 00:30 to 4:30am.  Will the car still pass MOT with warning lights? Soon the service light will be on...

Zaul22

8 months the first time. I'm not sure the other driver even claimed though, and the address they gave me didn't exist in Google maps so maybe they just gave up.

DullGreyGuy

baser999 said:

Surprised claims line only 9-5 M-F. Wouldn’t be wanting to have an accident at 6pm Friday?
Do they not have another number?

First notification of loss telephone lines tend to be open longer hours but still arent close to 24/7... those are the preserve of breakdown services or Home Emergency etc.

Once the FNOL team have registered the claim and selected the different options to say if there is a third party and who's likely at fault etc the claim passes to at least one, sometimes two, back office teams who deal with the claim going forward and often are office hour type jobs. 

Some insurers broaden the role of the FNOL team slightly and have them as telephony message takers for the back office teams and so dont publish telephone numbers for the back office team anywhere. Looks good because of the longer hours but the operator may not be the person you really want to speak to. 


To the OP's question... how long it will take to settle the first party losses varies massively between insurers for various reasons, especially if you factor in supply chain issues with parts and potentially customers being a pain. I've known claims to be settled in hours and I've know a simple windscreen replacement claim take over 6 months because the customer wanted to see the screen being removed from a Ferrari box. 

J_forest

Just notice that I didn't post the update. Mine was dealt with in 2 months.