Norwich Union Are A Nightmare Its Official Honest?

[friendgeorge]

Hi all

well where do i start, we had an accident on the 14th October 2006, a lovley lady went into the back of us on a roundabout, NICE LADY, anyway, we thought we were with the Post office who i must say have been great, as soon as we rang them the night of the accident they were great, but within days we had the letter from Norwich Union to say that we were in fact insured with them and they would be dealing with the claim, anyway we had a courtesy car with drive assist, which again they have been great, they are claiming the excess and the cost of the hire car from the nice ladys insurance which is Tesco by the way, they are having trouble getting anything from norwich union as we are, jst after the accident i was told to email a sketch of the accident, which i done on the computer as they recieved it as i put a trair on the email it was opened with in 4 hours of sending, anyway, after 2 weeks i rang and was told by a muppet of a woman, thast they couuld not open the email att., ok so i sent it again, in onother format adobe, everyone has adobe??? well another 2 weeks and nope you guessed it they could not open it, so i asked to speak to the manger who was dealing with my claim, a edited (i hope you never have to deal with this lady) she told me not to listen to her staff, and that the sketch was not good enough she wanted a hand drawn sketch, and could i fax it, well i couden't as i don;t have a fax, so i told her i would sent it to be signed for by her and her only. she agreed, anyway this was the 17th December 2006, and we have not heard anything, i have been on the phone since 11.23am this morning trying to get through to claims the number is an 0845 number which i have always rang, they are saying the phone lines are down, i have spoken to 6 different people in india 3 members of the switch board, and many other in between, so i rang the Post Office, and thank god they got me through to claims just now at approx 3.36pm can you belive it, anyway NO JOY surprise surprise???? they have sent a letter to Tesco the nice ladys insurance in december and they have not got back to them, even though they only had 2 weeks to do so, i asked if they would get penalised in anyway for not replying to the claim, and he said quote "nooo, not really? i don't know" so i blew, i asked to speak to someone in charge and he told me ring back tomorrow as everyone is really really really busy His words? i have had enough, anyone else had this trouble, if so DID YOU GET ANYWHERE WITH THEM???????? any advice would be great

[craigwalton]

OK. A few questions to start off with

What Cover do you have??

Where is the car currently?

Are you happy for the vehicle to be repaired at the Approved Repairers?

Have you contacted Tesco Direct?

Are you claiming for anything other than damage to your car / hire car costs?

[mooreda]

If you want my advice I would not waste anymore time dealing with NU's Indian Call Centres who are useless - instead contact Norwich Union's Chief Executives' Office to make a complaint - this is what I did and they're really helpful. Contact Details are as follows:-

General Insurance Customer Relations PO Box 78 Surrey Street Norwich NR1 3EB

01603 682556

nuceo@norwich-union.co.uk

[s1h]

Want a Simple solution?

Has your car been repaired yet or is it at a garage waiting to be repaired?

If it hasn't been repaired yet and the lady has admitted liability and tescos are not disputing it then forget Norwich Union. Take them out of the equation go direct to the ladies insurers and have them arrange the repairs. This way you won't have to pay your xs then claim it back, they should be happy to do this as they can send it to a garage they have a deal with and will get it done cheaper.

[friendgeorge]

Hi all and thanks for the comments, the car is outside my house at the moment repairs were done asap, no complaint there, we are claiming for excess only and repairs, i will be ringing tesco again today to try and get somewhere with them, as norwich union are saying that it's tescos fault that it's taking so long? i am fully comp, with legal cover and we had a hire car for the 2 weeks that the car was in the garage, this was from Drive assist, which i may add were great, they told me to ring Tesco as they said the NU were rubbish, and that they have had trouble with them in the past, i will be emailing CE of Nu now, we've just had enough thanks again for the comments

[s1h]

Is your legal cover with NU or someone else?

[demon_x_slash]

Beware, Tesco DO drag their feet in my experience - My OH had an accident, long story and I've told it before, but it took THIRTEEN MONTHS to sort out a simple collision, and even then they refused to go further than 50/50 liability (If we had defended this as I wanted to, we would have won; the evidence against other party was overwhelming IMHO ). We had to constantly chase Tesco's sub-contracted solicitors, compile all documents, put everything together - it was basically us doing all the work while Tesco and their lackeys fobbed us off. For months. NU sound pretty useless - but I would respectfully submit to my Right Honourable Friends that Tesco are the kings of bull.

[s1h]

All insurance companies are the same.

The only difference between them and a bookmakers is the bookmakers will pay out!

[friendgeorge]

thanks for the comments which i totally agree with, anyway we have legal cover with Minster Law, they are sub contacted by NU, well that's what it states in the documents anyway, thay have told us via letter that IF we do have any problems with NU then we can contact them, the nice lady who hit us, WILL NOT ACCEPT THAT IT WAS HER FAULT, and the hire car company told me yesterday that Tesco will dig their heels in, due to her not accepting it was her fault, so i think i will be in for the long run by the look of things, its just we concerned about our 4 years no claims, and that i am stuck with NU until September 2007 as we paid for a year insrance in one go, and if i changed now i'd loose the money, but if god forbid we have another accident, i just could not deal with NU again?

[Peter231156]

My advice is

1. If you have the NIce Lady's telephone number ring her up and ask her is he really denying it was her fault (she went in the back of you) ?

2. Can't see how she can avoid accepting fault and when she does ask her to write,phone,fax,email (whichever) Tesco to ask them to admit the claim.

3. Norwich Union are pretty poor at the moment but they have (and most Insurers are the same) no real interest in persuing recovery against the other Insurer and its a low priority - however continue to chase them and as suggested try and deal locally (good news on this point - NU have said in the press they are bring some of the call centres back to the UK)

4. Check with the Post Office - as the agent did they provide you with a Motor Legal Expenses cover/policy ? If so contact them - they persue what is known as Uninsured Loss which in this case is your policy excess you paid and any injury (???)

5. Get a local broker next time you insure - we'll help you !!

[demon_x_slash]

I would not ring the Nice Lady. It may be construed at a later date by a weaselly lawyer as harassment, trying to get her to admit her 'guilt' or pressuring her into a 'false confession'. I know it's tempting - we had the address of That Woman (nothing so nice as Nice Lady) sitting on the desk staring at us for the whole of those 13 months. It was so tempting to go there at night and paint her new car bright gloss orange with blue spots, or something like that...resist!

Seriously though, I wouldn't contact her - isn't it like a court case, where you could be seen to be intimidating the other party?

[Peter231156]

Demon - after any reasonable length of time and being stalled by Insurers no court in the land could really argue against making some form of contact - you are simply checking facts ... "have you really said it wasn't your fault " " I was thinking Tesco must have their files mixed up ..." "can you help me ? " "how would you feel if it were you" sob, sob ....

In the absence of an insurance contract any motor accident would fall under commom law. The fact Insurers and others are involved is of course relevant but what options do you have ? Not many and its reasonable to follow all those available.

[Nelly75]

Work for a big insurance company. My advice in the future is:

1. Don't buy insurance from NU no matter how cheap they are (I suppose you didn't know because it was a "whitelabel" policy with Post Office - check the small print to see who you are actually insured with before buying as it is almost always one of the big 4 insurers if they are not a 'classic' insurance company)

2. Phone Drive Assist and see if they have got their money for the hire back from Tesco - this will indicate whether it is NU or Tesco that is causing the delay.

3. Find out who your legal expenses policy is with - they are there to get your excess back not your insurer

I don't agree that NU won't try and get their money back from Tesco though - their indian call centres are a total nuisance and have huge departments chasing money off other insurers - they can phone several times a day.

hope this helps, happy to give any advice required on insurance matters. I am an expert

Nelly

[Rich44]

Sorry to hear that you have had these problems I have to say though our experience with claiming with NU as our insurer was brilliant, they were helpful and sorted the 3rd party out (whose fault it was) mind you it perhaps worked out better that the police were called and they charged the other guy with driving without due care and attention and having an illegal rear tyre - my advice to people always call the plod even better if you can get them to attend.

Good luck with getting it sorted, oh and NU are definitely bringing the UK call centres back as know one of the top bods and it came from his mouth dont have a timescale though it could be sometime

[Rob S]

You may well find that in the event of an accident where there is no injury that the police may not attend, but if there is any injury or if you make allegations of offences against the other party involved it should ensure their attendence. Keeping a disposable camera in the car is not a bad idea either as it allows you to take photos at the time of the vehicles involved, the scene of the accident and also of the driver. These could provide good evidence in the future should the insurance companies start to mess you about.

[Rich44]

They will attend if you tell them the accident is causing traffic chaos or traffic is struggling to get past etc only really useful if on a busy road but it works.

[ginge]

friendgeorge i work for norwich union if there's anything i can do pm (can u send pm's on this board???) your claim number and i'll have a look into it.


As for the not accepting fault, tesco/direct line have the final decision with regards to liability, they would and should deal without an admission of liability with a hit in rear case such as yours.

A hit in rear on the approach to a roundabout is a very common accident (i deal with at least 2 daily) and i'm surprised that any company would drag their feet.

As for the norwich union customer service...all i can say is sorry. Believe me that we aren't all the same, but granted some of the CS we have is shockingly bad