Dynamocover - Caused £430 of damage to my car

payetaxguru

I purchased a RecoverCover breakdown policy through DynamoCover and had the misfortune to have to use it recently after my car developed a fuel leak just outside Cardiff. The guy they sent out from "Lanes of Abergavenny" managed to damage my engine by using a screwdriver to try and lever off the connector on the fuel pump which was stuck, and snapped a clip on a pressure hose which he had to remove trying to get to where the problem was. He ultimately couldn't sort the issue and although they trailered me and my car home, I've been left to pick up the £430 bill for fitting a new fuel pump and a clip to hold the pressure hose in place! 

When I took it up with DynamoCover and provided photos of the damage caused, after 8 weeks their response was "The actions undertaken by the initial attending Technician appear to have been appropriate and necessary in the circumstances and the alleged damage sustained to the fuel pump connector and pressure hose clip appear to have been largely unavoidable by whoever was in a position to initiate repairs. The reason for this is that we do not feel there is sufficient evidence to conclude that damage has been caused to your vehicle as a result of negligence or incorrect actions on the part of the Recovery Operator." As a result, they have refused to pay anything for the damage!

Has anyone else experienced a breakdown operator damaging their car in the process of trying to fix it and if so, who was the operator and what was the outcome?  

Keep_pedalling

It rather sounds like you had a knackered clip and fuel pump when you broke down. The clip would have needed replacing anyway, but I don’t see how breaking that resulted in needing a new fuel pump unless the fuel pump in the first place.

What would you garage bill have been if he had simply towed you to the garage? £430 is not a particularly expensive repair.

payetaxguru

Keep_pedalling said:

It rather sounds like you had a knackered clip and fuel pump when you broke down. The clip would have needed replacing anyway, but I don’t see how breaking that resulted in needing a new fuel pump unless the fuel pump in the first place.

What would you garage bill have been if he had simply towed you to the garage? £430 is not a particularly expensive repair.

The actual problem was a bolt supporting the injector rail had worked loose and fuel was therefore leaking out as a result. To get to it required the air intake and manifold to be removed and to do that he had to remove the pressure hoses, and disconnect the wiring to the fuel pump as it was all in the way. The connector is on the end of the wiring coming out of the fuel pump and is all one piece - snapping the connector meant replacing the entire fuel pump. I did get a second opinion from a VW main dealer service centre before I accepted that there was no option but to replace the entire pump.  If he had towed me to a garage, the bill would have been £259, most of which was labour. As it was it was £689!   

[Deleted User]

You could try small claims court, but you would need to convince the judge that on a balance of probabilities they didn't need to do the damage. That will likely mean getting your own expert, at your own cost.