Hi

I need abit of advice regarding the length of time taking to deal with a claim.

I was involved in a accident on 26th Jan 09. What happened was I turned left onto a road and a car came towards me I swereved away from the on comming car and hit a parked car. I am fully Comp with legal cover and I am doing all the running around e.g phoning them and writing to them.

Now a few weeks later i was told my car was a write off and a figure was agreed after I sent in docuents to prove it was well looked after with full service.

Then I was told the payment will be release once it's been signed by the supervisor, then a few days later i phoned again and was told the manager will sign it and then the cheque will be released.

Then in March I was told the investigator was going to come to interview me. He came and went now last week i phoned and was told the report was back and the assor will look at it and let me know.

Is this standard practace where I have to ring for an update and the only time the insurance wrote to me was to ask for all my documents for the car V5, MOT.

I have wrote to them telling them that they are taking too long and asked for a quick response two weeks ago and still nothing in the post.

What to do next, I have also mentioned the FSA and the Ombudsman.

Please help

To go to the FOS you need to have used the insurer's complaints procedure first. Have you received and acknowledgement letter from the insurer or a final response? If not it will mean either they have not finished with the claim or, I suspect more likely, they have not set up a complaint in the first place.

Contact the FOS helpline and mention that you have complained. If you have expressed disatisfaction then the insurer should have registered a complaint and responded. As they have not, they have breached the FOS guidelines and you will be entitled to go to them. However, the FOS do prefer documentary evidence. In the absence of that, you will need details of phone calls - what number you called, what number you called from, dates, times, who you spoke to etc etc.

This wouldn't be Direct Line would it?

Thanks

When I rung them on Friday last week the technical dept did say that we have recieved both letters, verbally over the phone, but nothing in the post

When ever I have rung them I made a note of the time and names.

The insurace company is Provident.

Thanks

If you bought through a broker, try and get them involved.

Unfortunately, it's the same with most insurance companies. They have a massive sales team, and then perhaps only 2 people handling all claims.

Try and get your claims handler on side, get a verbal confirmation of what they are doing by when, and get their name. Then phone them personally if it doesn't happen by the date requested and so on. You will effectively be putting pressure on that 1 person, by putting the responsibility on them knowing you will call them personally. This is how we get claims moving usually.

claims departments have a little more than 2 claims people! But it is a point of "after sales" service not quite matching what is promised.

The problem is poorly trained staff and disjointed departments. At Direct Line, when RBSG decided to merge functions of different insurers under the same umbrella, all hell broke loose because no-one informed staff of the changes or procedures. Even before then it was bad enough trying to get someone to take responsibility. Most staff are given the responsibility of handling a claim without the appropriate authority (not talking about CHA) or resources to do so effectively. If it's against their targets, forget it.

As you have wrote to them, presumably expressing disattisfaction, then they should have logged a complaint and sent an acknowledgement letter. As they have not, you are now free to go to the FOS. I would call the FOS first though and speak to someone.

No, actually. Groupama have 2 people looking after retail claims and IGI have 1 bloke who does property owners liability.

Admittedly, most companies have more than 2 claims handlers for the motor dept. but it's probably not nearly as many as you think, and yes, there are several whose staffing levels for this are in single figures.

Ash, are you able to update us?