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Absolutely flaming furious-norwich union/asda-avoid!!

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6 weeks ago whilst sat merrily minding my own buisness at traffic lights with my 7 month old daughter a white van man drove into the back of the car behind me at about 65 miles an hour, car behind me didn't have it's handbrake on and was already far too close to me so flew into me with great force.
Drove away from accident with all relevant details and took my daughter to the local hospital for a check. I myself was then admitted to the local hospital, strapped in various pain inflicting devices and transported by ambulance to the district hospital where I spent several boring hours staring at the ceiling! :D
In the evening we attempted to report the accident to the police who absolutely did not want to know :confused: and then we rang to report to my insurance company (asda underwritten by norwich union) which is where it all starts to go wrong. Having never been involved in an accident before I asked him simple questions like , do I claim through you or do I contact their insurance company? and would I lose my no claims etc, to which they didn't have the foggiest clue of the answer and blatantly refused to find the answers prefering to instead rely on hear say :mad:
My car was taken to a crash care centre and I was provided with a jolly nice courtesy car. Exactly one week later they declare my car a write off- engineer calls tells me it's uneconomical to repair ,TELLS me he will send me a cheque for half the trade price of my car and puts the phone down before I can utter a word. Since then not one piece of correspondance has come to me some 5 weeks later- no offer of payment, no further instructions-NOTHING. I have called Asda an awful lot of times only to be told each time that 'such and such has gone missing' or 'owh didn't they tell you' or 'soing so didn't do this' and I mean EVERY time. Liabilty has been accepted by the third party and yet I still have not been provided with any kind of car courtesy or credit hire despite telling them near every day that I live in the middle of Dartmoor, there are no bus stops round here and thanks to injurys substained to my back and hip I cannot walk anywhere which is really blooming helpful with a baby. I haven't been able to work (not that I could get there even if I could), have to get to physiotherapy twice weekly and chiropractor once fortnightly, meaning that my partner has to also take time off work to get me there. Every time I ring to speak to them I am spoken to like I am the scum of the earth and seem to get nowhere. They have told me I am still responsible for paying my £89 a month premiums until the claim is settled for a car I don't even bloomin well have, Is that right? Should I be paying my premiums still despite the fact liabilty has been accepted just because they are dragging their feet? and surely I should've recieved some form of written correspondance from them since reporting the claim????
I apologise for a complete muddled mess of a post I am just at my wits end with this and am fed up of being made to suffer for weeks on end for somthing that was in no way my fault in the first place, whilst paying for the pleasure of it. :mad:
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Comments

  • odorus
    odorus Posts: 103 Forumite
    Firstly, sorry to hear about your accident, but at least no one was badly hurt.
    I've just had a similar situation to yourself. An HGV went into my car last November, unfortunately it was a leased car so was not insured in my name. The HGV driver admitted fault. The company dealing with my claim were useless. Not only did they take forever to get anything done, but I found out from the HGV drivers insurance company that they hadn't sent them my last letter telling them that I wouldn't accept their payout for loss of earnings. The final straw for me was when I called to find out what was going on, only to find out that a different company had taken over the claim and no one had heard of the claim as they were using different ref. numbers. No one had thought to cross reference the numbers. Anyway once I got that sorted out I spoke to a representative who was one of the ruddest people you could meet. He told me that I had to accept the offer from the third party, which had £80 taken off for tax and N.I. I refused in principle. Anyway to cut a long story short I knew he was talking rubbish, and being a member of the FSB I called their legal advice line. They confirmed my thoughts. The person dealing with my claim went nuts because he was being challenged and refused to deal with my claim. Anyway I wrote a letter to the HGV drivers insurance company stating I wanted the full amount, two weeks later I received a check for the full amount. I am know putting in a complaint to the insurance company, of my car, and will write to the firm that supposedly dealt with my claim to basically say I told you so.
    In a nut shell, the people dealing with your claim are not solicitors they are just form fillers. They will only jump if you put in an injury claim as they get a huge cut. This was evident to me as they kept calling me to find out if I wanted to put in an injury claim. When I said no, they were slow to contact me again. I believe it was Norwich Union who insured my car.
    Forget Norwich Union, you'll wait forever. As the van driver has admitted liability go straight to his insurance company and do it all through them. I recently had another non fault accident and the other insurance company sent me a letter to say I could go straight to them. When I spoke to my company they did say that it was alright to do that. As it is my company have moved very quickly. Tell your company to send you all the paper work to date as you'll do it yourself. If they won't then just write to the van drivers insurance company explain the situation and take it from there. Do not accept the offer they've given you for the car, if you think that it is unfair. They are just trying it on.
    Insurance Companies are a bunch of lying cheating thieves, who know the great unwashed need them so they treat us like idiots. Ripping us off at every turn. I have loads of other stories about these legalised robbers, but won't bore you with them now. If you want further help feel free to PM me. I could always give the legal advice at the FSB a call. When it comes to Insurance Companies we need to stand up against them and their legally fraudulant ways. For the moment though keep paying your monthly protection money, as we all know what happens when you stop paying the mob!
    Good Luck
  • there is a company called drive assist who if you ring them will provide a car whilst you are waiting to be paid and then recover the payment for the car from the third party at fault. i used them and there were brilliant.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 119,617 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    When a car is written off, you no longer get a car supplied to you free. You need to hire one and pay for it and then claim costs back from the other party. Same goes for all out of pocket expenses. To deal with this, you use the legal expenses side of the policy and deal with the solicitor direct and not the insurance company.

    You do lose your no claims discount initially. However, the solicitor will arrange for this to be returned to you, along with your excess and costs once the other party's insurer has accepted liability.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • I did it myself without a solicitor i was claiming off norwhich union. Once money for car is recieved you no longer get car rather than date car written of. That is how my claim was settle once i received cheque and it was cleared i was no longer entitled to car.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 119,617 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Personally, given the small cost of the legal fees cover on policies, i always find that is a much better way to go. If you already have it on the plan, you can just leave it with the solicitor.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • odorus
    odorus Posts: 103 Forumite
    dunstonh wrote:
    Personally, given the small cost of the legal fees cover on policies, i always find that is a much better way to go. If you already have it on the plan, you can just leave it with the solicitor.

    I agree, but if they aren't doing their job as hlmurray seems to suggest it can be better to do it yourself. Norwich Union do seem to treat their customers particularly badly when it comes to claiming. I suffered rudeness and nastiness all for £240. This may not seem a lot to most, and didn't to the legal team. But as a self-employed person who struggles at the best of times with cash flow it is annoying when you have to wait 10 months to get paid, because the people acting on our behalf are incompetent.
    I would suggest hlmurray claims for injuries as it sounds like he got bashed around pretty badly.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 119,617 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker

    I agree, but if they aren't doing their job as hlmurray seems to suggest it can be better to do it yourself.

    But has hlmurray been on contact with the solicitors yet? I didnt see any mention of legal side in the post.

    I will also clarify that NU general insurance and NU life and pensions are two different trading companies under the aviva group. Personally, i won't use NU on any general insurance product as the service is usually awful. A lot of it is outside the UK as well. However, life and pensions side are pretty good and the service recently has been superb.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • I do have legal cover, but they seem pretty useless in themselves and are only interested in pursueing the personal injury side, providing me with a hire car etc is just a 'oh I will call you back later...' matter.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 119,617 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I do have legal cover, but they seem pretty useless in themselves and are only interested in pursueing the personal injury side, providing me with a hire car etc is just a 'oh I will call you back later...' matter.

    It is not their job to provide you with a hire car. At this point, no-one is required to provide you a hire car. If you want a hire car, you arrange one and you pay for it.

    Once the settlement has been received, you then claim all your out of pocket expenses, including the hire car and policy excess through the solicitor.

    Part of the problem here is that you have gone with a cheap provider (ASDA). You are bypassing the old fashioned broker who you could have popped into to tell them about the claim and ask what happens next. If you are experienced or know what to do thats fine but in your case, you do appear to a "novice" at car insurance claims (which isnt a bad thing ;) ). However, you need some help and ASDA should be the ones providing it as they are the brokers. They arent doing so.

    I suggest you phone ASDA again and tell them that you are inexperienced with what to do with a claim, tell them your problems and ask what happens next. If you get an inadequate response, then complain.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • Asda inform me it the responsibilty of the legal people to provide me with a hire car, to which the legal people agree as all liabilty has been accepted and so costs can be recooperated.
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