hi i am new to this site and desperately need advice! last year i took out fully comp car insurance with co-op. in oct 2009 whist my car was parked and locked, a french lorry driver(driving a british company lorry) swung round the corner and smashed my wing mirror off and then tried to drive off! an independent witness saw this and i had to run after the driver to get him to stop. i then got all details i could including reg number and contacted co-op who said they would claim against him and that it would NOT affect my no claims or excess as the other driver was at fault and it would all be claimed off him as i was not at fault. this was 7 mths ago and now i have received my proof of no claims with 3yrs deducted and i have been billed for the excess by the company who repaired my car(the company co-op insisted i had to take my car to) i thought it must be a mistake and phoned co-op who said it was a mistake by their underwriters and they would give me my no-claims back and would pay the excess. 2 days later co-op phoned and said they would now not give me back my no-claims or sort out the excess! after many words i asked to speak to the supervisor who was extremely rude! when i pointed out that i was even in the car when it was hit, so therefore i was not at fault, he said that they hadnt proved the other driver liable so had therefore held me liable! i told him there was no way i could be liable as i wasnt in the car but he almost laughed and said 'well, we havnt got proof you werent responsible, you might of left the handbrake off!' when i told him that he knew that wasnt the case and that it wasnt a good enough explaination, especially as i have an independent witness, he was dismissive. when i then said i would complain to insurance ombudsman, he laughed and said 'carry on, it will take at least 8wks before we even have to reply!

i cant believe co-op are treating me like this when i have done absolutely nothing wrong and did as co-op advised me! can anyone help? this will affect me badly as with 3 yrs no-claims now removed through no fault of my own, i will no longer be able to afford to keep my car on the road and as the only driver in the family household this is going to have a very detrimental effect on my family, my children rely on me driving! i am literally starting to crack-up over this, i have shed many tears

You need to make a formal complaint to coop using their complaints process. This information is from the CIS complaints info online. Give them a phone call with all the details, advising that you would like to make an official complaint. My advice would be to phone them, but before you do so, write down all the points to your complaint, including the rudeness shown by a CIS claims supervisor. This is the quickest way. CIS do have up to 8 weeks to resolve before you can go to the FOS. The FOS could take 6 months to resolve, so you need to get CIS to take responsibility to resolve. Unfortunately, if CIS cannot get the third parties Insurers to pay up, this will go against you as a fault claim. But surely this shows the CIS have been very poor at their negotiations with the third parties Insurers.

Here at CIS, we take complaints very seriously. If something goes wrong, we like to know so we can make sure it never happens again.

That's why we promise to:

• deal fairly and promptly with all complaints
  
• try to resolve complaints straight away, where possible
  
• respond to you in writing once our investigations are complete
  
• keep you informed of our progress in writing
  

If you feel you need to make a complaint, it's usually best to contact the person you've been dealing with. They should be able to help sort through any problems that have occurred.

You can also contact the manager of the person, or speak to your Financial Adviser. Alternatively, you can get in touch with our Central Customer Relations Unit in a number of ways:

• call on 0845 300 03 74
  
• or write to:
  

Central Customer Relations Unit

CIS

Miller Street

Manchester

M60 0AL

A no claims discount is a discount for not making a claim, it is not a discount for having an accident that was not your fault.

The fact that you were not in your car does mean that you were not liable for the accident, but it does noty change the fact that you have made a claim and your discount has therefore been lost/affected until such time as the CIS recover their outlay from the responsible party. If they cannot recover their outlay, then you will lose your discount (unless you choose to refund any money they have paid out in respect of this claim).

An excess is NOT something the CIS would normally recover for you, this is something that you need to recover personally from the party responsible for the damage.

I would suggest that you mis-understood what the CIS told you over the phone, and it was more likely that you were advised that if they recovered their outlay then you NCD would not be affected and your excess should be recoverable (by you that is and not by the CIS).

I don't see that a complaint to the FOS would get you any further forward in this matter.

Mossy

thanks all for your reply. though i will say that i did not mis-understand any reply and i only put the claim in against the other party because co-op told me to and assured me it would NOT affect my policy as i was not at fault. on the 10th may when i spoke to co-op they assured me once again that i did not have to pay the excess and that they would forward payment immediately to the company who fixed the car and they would definately re-imburse my no claims....that was not a misunderstanding....that IS what they said! they then phoned 2 days later and said completely the opposite. the way i was treated on the phone by this company was totally unprofessional. i have spoken to the police and a minster of law about this, both say that actually co-op are wrong and should be doing more to sort this out. it might of been sorted out had co-op actually taken the correct number plate in the first place and actually bothered to contact the british lorry firm who hired a foreign driver. but many thanks for your reply anyway