Car insurance Policy Excess Advise Please

Magicowen

Hi,

Just hoping someone can offer me some advice.
Basically to cut a long story short, when I took out my policy with Endsleigh, underwritten by Zurich, I was 24. Due to my age I had an age related excess which made the total excess £400. I queried this and asked that if when I hit 25 the following month would the age related excess come off, they said that yes it would, making my excess £100.
Anyway, have since had an accident the other week, some moron drove into the side of my car, and they are now telling me my excess is £300. I queried this and spoke to the local branch and was told my excess was £100, she passed me over to head office who said "£400, oh no £300, oh what's happening, it also says £100" This muppet then called the woman who took out my policy and came back to me and saisaid that it was as follows:
£100 age related excess
£100 Compulsory and £100 Voluntary.
He said the person who took out my policy remembers our conversation back in November (what a joke!) and it's definitley £300 and that no, it doesn't change when I become 25. I obviously queried this again as on my document the excess is £400. He couldn't come up with an answer so transferred me to the woman who took out my policy. She basically said she'd go through call recordings and get back to me. This was on Monday, she called back and left a message saying she hadn't managed to find anything yet but would call back the following day. I haven't heard from her since, despite calling several times a day every day and being told an "urgent message will be left for her to call me back".
No one has a clue what they are doing and people keep contradicting themselves as well as others. I have put in a complaint and the complaints team were meant to call me back within 24 hours, guess what, they haven't.
SO now I have to collect my car tonight and pay £300 when I should only be paying £100. Endsleighs argument is "oh well you will get it back" yes they are right I will get it back, but it could be months and months before I do and it's not the bloody point!
They even told me it was Zurich's rules so I rang Zurich to find out and they said Endsleigh are talking rubbish, I should have no age related excess as I am over 25, on a full licence and have been driving for over a year. They actually called Endsleigh to try and sort it out but they refused to discuss it with them as they weren't the policy holder, eventually they transferred me to the muppets at Endsleigh to which I was told "It will do you no favours ringing Zurich!!!"
So any ideas, what do I do now? Is there anyone in Endsleigh that has some brains and enough status to sort things out for me?
Makes me laugh because in one of their letters to me it says "we aim to minimise the inconvenience of your accident" Yeah right!

Cardelia

Endsleigh are useless. Utterly, hopelessly useless. I used them once for car insurance and will never, ever go near them again. For anything.

Would it be possible to use the Data Protection Act or Freedom of Information Act to gain a copy of all your phone records? I guess it's too late now to avoid paying the £300 up front but it should help you in future correspondence if you have a record of their incompetence.

Magicowen

thanks for the reply, that's what they are meant to be doing, getting the call records, I don't hold out much hope.
Someone mentioned reporting them to the insurance Ombudsman but I'm not sure how that all works

lil_me

I've had calls checked via Zurich before (I called to change insurance to add my partner to the policy and when I phoned to change address he wasn't on the policy) they found the error was correct and they sent a full apology and stated they would have had to pay out if a claim had occured. So hopefully when this is done you will be able to hear exactly what was said. I did contact Zurich to complain about the insurance broker against their advice because as I said to Zurich I was missold that policy, it might be worth you making a call to their complaints department.

pinginal

I've had a similar problem with Endsleigh - I joined without any NCB and an ongoing claim. They said I'd get a premium refund if it was found in my favour and I got 1 years NCB. I did and when it came through it was for pennies - rang them and asked why it was so small they said they'd already applied a discount and couldn't find our phonecall. I had the same experience with different stories from different people and so on. Reading your story has really made me made, they're customer service is so poor. I'm currently writing a letter of complaint, which I was told is the next step. They then send you a pamphlet on their complaints process, which I think outlines contacting the ombudsman.