Car hire excess insurance claim experience

captain_skut

Thought I would feedback on my experience claiming on my car hire excess insurance. I have an annual policy as I rent fairly regulaly.

I did some minor damage to the hire car rim and tyre by scuffing it on the kerb. Total cost was about £200, which was assessed by the rental firm about a week after I returned the car, and then billed to my credit card a couple of weeks after that.  

I went through the claims website (this seems to be a shared portal used by a collection of insurers) attached some photos and all the relevant documentation.

After that, a rough timeline:

- After a week or so, received an email for customer services saying I hadn't attached an invoice for the full amount. Thought that was strange as I thought I had attached everything, but maybe I had made a mistake. There was no way for me to check my original submission. Never mind, I thought, and attached the invoice to my reply email.

- Another week goes by, I hear nothing, so I email to nudge.

- Another week goes by and I receive an email saying that I hadn't attached an invoice for the full amount. There was no acknowledgement of the attachment I had provided in my previous email, and no explanation of what other documentation they might be seeking. Obviously pretty irate by this point I replied attaching all of the documentation in full, and itemising it within the body of the email. I also explained that unless they could provide a full and detailed explanation of what documentation was missing, I would be referring it to the ombudsman.

- Another week goes by, I nudge again.

- A day or so later I receive a reply saying my claim would be paid in full

- Another week goes by, I nudge again

- A few days later I receive a reply saying that there was a fault with their payment system and they would authorise a manual payment.

- A few more days and I finally receive the money in my account.

Now, of course there could be innocent mistakes here. But it's hard to avoid the impression that there were deliberate delaying tactics going on.