Hire Company Scam

togara

Hello,

Not sure if anyone can provide any advice on an issues I have at the moment.

I had an accident last weekend, where I was hit by a car driving through a red light. Car was taken home by the breakdown company i use.

When i got home, I contacted what i thought to be Churchill Insurance after googling the number it appears at the top next to the Churchill sign. Anyway spoke to this lady advised what happened and took down details, although thinking back wasnt the most extensive conversation.

Anyway next day i was contact by a Hire Company who said they were acting for my insurance company, who provided some info to and said they would arrange for the car to be assessed as well as arranging a courtesy car for me. Transferred to Enterprise, was interrogated for about 45 minutes on all the details and said they need information to claim back the money.

Collected hire car on the Monday from Enterprise, was contacted by same lady i spoke to on the Saturday and also the hire company to make sure everything had been sorted.

On Tuesday I was contacted by Churchill to say they have a record of a car incident involving my car, seemed a bit odd as I had already been in touch. Called them, seemed to be just telling the same information again, but this was genuinely Churchill this time round - said they would contact the witness i had also.

On Friday i received call from the Hire Company to say they had assessed damage to car and confirm it will be written off which is expected to be honest. Gave me a figure which was much higher than i would have expected for it and also when i was speaking he was talking about being hit from behind when the car was hit at the front.

He said would receive a ling for company to collect car and expect to received payment in 2-3 weeks time. This morning i just did a bit of research and just clicked i had been scammed in to using this hire company and some horror stories of the charges.

I returned the courtesy car to Enterprise this morning and have not confirmed for them to collect the car. I will be speaking to Churchill on Monday to advise what has happened.

Had quite a stressful month with my Dad being in hospital, childcare issues because of that and the crash - would never imagined myself to get caught out this way. Not paid any money yet and want to make sure everything goes through Churchill as I intended to at the start.

Not sure if any advice anyone can give? 

Thank you.

Mildly_Miffed

"When i got home, I contacted what i thought to be Churchill Insurance after googling the number it appears at the top next to the Churchill sign."

People need to learn what's an actual search result, and what's a paid advert.

Don't just google for the claim line. Look at your insurance paperwork.

togara

Mildly_Miffed said:

"When i got home, I contacted what i thought to be Churchill Insurance after googling the number it appears at the top next to the Churchill sign."

People need to learn what's an actual search result, and what's a paid advert.

Don't just google for the claim line. Look at your insurance paperwork.

Thank you for the concerning reply and great advice!!

I would never expect myself to get caught out like this, but in the stress of the moment I can see how it happens unfortunately.

if anyone has any useful advice then that would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

QrizB

togara said:

if anyone has any useful advice then that would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

If you didn't ring Churchill, do you know who you did ring?

Do you know what contract you entered into, and on what terms?

Aretnap

It sounds like you have called an accident management company, who have provided you with a hire car under a credit agreement. Their charges are indeed high but they will ultimately be claimed from the third party's insurer - you will not have to pay them yourself. Quite likely had you called Churchill first, they would have passed you on to a company that would have done the same.

You might need to cooperate with the credit hire company in order to help them claim the costs from the third party insurer, but beyond that there is little downside to you in doing things this way. Why do you think you have been scanned?

chrisw

Aretnap said:

You might need to cooperate with the credit hire company in order to help them claim the costs from the third party insurer, but beyond that there is little downside to you in doing things this way. Why do you think you have been scanned?

It might have just been the red traffic light reflecting on their striped shirt.

DullGreyGuy

Having gone down the accident management route its generally better to continue otherwise it becomes very hard to defend why you incurred their costs. As long as you support them in all their efforts there is ultimately no liability to you outside of fraud.  Choosing to restart the whole process with another company may result in you being personally responsible for some of the losses.