Esure impossible to contact as a third party

Saintesky

Hi everyone. 

I was involved in a RTC in early Sept 23 when an Esure customer knocked me off my bike. Ended up in hospital with a number of broken bones and a wrecked bike which was written off as uneconomic to repair. 

All fair enough, Esure admitted liability.  But the hard part has started as they just don't appear to want to pay out. I was promised a BACS payment after the cheque option was coming up with errors.  If you ring their claim number 0345 603 7872, you have to pick option 3 for third parties. Having made approximately 30 attempts at ringing this number I have got through once. They're unusually busy.  And that's from 8 o'clock. 

I want to see where my money is after weeks of being promised this BACS payment. I'd also like to complain about their handling of my case, but to get the complaint going, I need to speak to one of them.  

The finance on my bike is almost ready to be settled as the PCP is nearly up on it anyway, so I need that money to both clear that, and get the salvage money for the bike . My insurance don't exactly seem to be getting anywhere with them either. 

Any advice gratefully received. 

DullGreyGuy

Note that as a third party you don't have a right to complaint... I mean obviously you can complain like anyone can complain to anyone about anything however they don't have to treat it like a customer complaint and you don't get the right to go to the Ombudsman. 

How are your insurers involved if you are claiming from eSure? Normally you'd claim off your insurers and they'd then counter claim from the TP or you choose not to involve your insurers and just claim directly or via an accident management company. 

I'd look at any emails or letter you have received from them to see if there is a direct dial number, if not then your best bet is to call them just before their lines officially open, either a minute or two early in case someone logged in early and its opened the lines or under a minute early depending on how long their call steering and pre-recorded messages are. That way you are joining the queue as they open their lines. 

caprikid1

To be honest they were founded by the same individual as Direct Line, the fun is only just beginning ! Expect poor offers, lies , dishonesty, manipulation and to be very out of pocket !.

DullGreyGuy

caprikid1 said:

To be honest they were founded by the same individual as Direct Line, the fun is only just beginning ! Expect poor offers, lies , dishonesty, manipulation and to be very out of pocket !.

Peter Wood was also the chairman of GoCompare, a INED for the AA and British Gas Group plus a host of charities and is the biggest private donor to UCL Hospital for research... guess your issues extend to all of them too. 

Saintesky

Thanks for the reply DullGreyGut. My bike insurance is with Swinton. 4th dimension are dealing with the case as Swinton are just brokers, and they took the bike for salvage after it was a Cat N write off. Payments being split into the main part from Esure as their customer was deemed liable by them, and the rest coming from 4th dimension taking the salvage and paying the rest.  However the last part only happens when the finance is settled on the bike.  

Esure do have a third party phone line and the one single time I got through, they claimed to have an error stopping them issuing a cheque to 4th dimension so they would do a BACS payment instead. It's this what hasn't happened and I'm struggling to understand why it's took over two weeks for them to process that BACS payment. I've never had to deal with anything like this in my 25 years of biking and it's been a rude awakening to how bad insurance can be. 

I'm a bit annoyed that I can't complain in that sense, as their inability to answer a phone line is not just confined to third party but also their own customers. Though I suppose trustpilot will be a place I'll visit once this is over. But it also has ensured I will never use them as a customer. As it has completely put me off ever ensuring my car with them. As I'm now well into middle age, and "their" kind of customer, now that I'm a 48, greying and now with a bonus limp!! 

DullGreyGuy

Ok, so you are claiming via an accident management company... brokers often sell pass customers details to them in non-fault cases. Have they given you a credit hire vehicle?

In the first instance I'd be chasing your management company as they are supposed to be managing the claim for you however if you are in credit hire then clearly they have a vested interest in the claim lasting as long as possible. 

Every claims system I have ever seen is terrible, even the modern ones like Guidewire, and so you are often heavily reliant on the quality of claims handler assigned to the case (or team if they don't have individuals assigned). Back in my claims days you'd raise a payment request, if it was within your self authority it'd go straight to finance but most would go to a manager to approve and then to Finance. That could add a couple of days especially if they raise a query and so has to go back and forth. After that the workflow ended so hopefully Finance send the payment but if there was a problem they'd put a note on the file and payment would be removed but it didn't trigger for the handler to look at it again. It therefore came down to when the next diary event had been set or the next time someone calls/sends a letter and the Finance note is spotted. 

arciere

I haven't read the full thread so apologies if it has already been said.
I am an esure customer and they are always 'unusually busy'. My renewal is due in the next few days and every time I need to speak to them, I am in the queue for no less than 1:30h. It is extremely frustrating.

Saintesky

No, I haven't got a vehicle off them. To be honest. I don't want one, the accident has scared me off motorbikes so I would have refused one. They do hire bikes out from when I've chased them up over the phone. They're having the same issues trying to get hold of Esure. Have about 4 people in the same situation as me.