Unfortunately my children and I were involved in a very nasty car accident on Tuesday 5th October. Another car hit our car and the driver of the other vehicle ran away, leaving his car behind!

I have made several calls to Endsleigh (my motor insurance company) relating to the accident and a replacement car. Following my conflicting telephone calls, I felt it necessary to ask if anyone could help me find out, exactly why they are refusing to issue me with a courtesy car after my non fault accident.

At 10 am on Tuesday, I spoke to Holly who advised me that I would be hearing from Motorcare within 3 hours to let me know when I would expect a courtesy car. By 1pm I still had not heard from Motorcare, so called back and spoke to Matt. He informed me that no information had been put through about my car following my conversation with Holly earlier. He also told me that if the car was not repairable, I would receive a car from Drive Assist and if it was repairable I would receive the car from Motorcare! He informed me that the car that hit me did have insurance and they were waiting for the accident or theft of the vehicle to be reported.

Following this conversation I spoke to Motorcare who told me that they could not give me a car until they had received mine and made an assessment and as they had not yet had any information about my car, they felt that it would be not until Thursday that the car would be picked up from the police garage, so not to expect a car from them until at least Thursday.

I then called Endsleigh back and spoke to James Lock, a very rude, unsympathetic, sarcastic boy, who told me that I would not be receiving a car until the other car insurers had had a report from the owner. He suggested that if I had read the small print I would be aware of this! I found this phone call very distressing.

I am still unsure as to why they are making it so difficult for me to have an alternative mode of transport when the accident was not my fault (the police are able to confirm this), the other vehicle has insurance and I have paid a high premium to have a fully comprehensive from what I thought was a reputable firm.

I have found this ordeal very traumatic and even more sad now they have told me that my car has been deemed a total loss.

How an assessment has been made by the assessors when they have not even received my car yet , I find confusing!?

This in itself should be enough information for them to allow me to have a car until they have sorted out all the paper work and I have got the monies for a different car. As I mentioned the other car has insurance and it was definitely the vehicle that hit my vehicle (this can be confirmed by the police). Why the driver ran away clearly should not be my problem or the insurance companies and is now a matter for the police. The fact is that they have the information of the car that hit mine and it has insurance, it was definitely the other car’s fault and my car has been deemed a total loss and yet they still refuse to give me a courtesy car?!

Following a call this morning, Endsleigh have now decided that me car may be repaired. The engineers are not assessing the vehicle until Friday 15th??! Why have they changed their decisions without a report?

I feel I need to warn other motorists that this could happen too. I am sure that there are a lot of people out there, like myself, who would have no idea that this was allowed to happened.

Some Insurers won't arrange a hire car unless they can recover the cost. You have to be careful with companies like Drive Assist, who apparently just add to the hassle of an accident e.g. not recovering their costs and coming back to the policyholder (not 3rd party) for the hire car charges, plus often they add charges for alleged scratches.

Was the 3rd party driver actually Insured to be driving that car. Had the car been stolen ? If they can't trace the driver of the car, you might have to wait to see what happens.

Whilst I can see that Endsleigh have not been good at explaning the situation, I have a feeling that many Insurers would have dealt with the actual claim event in a similar way. Perhaps the car has been looked at by an engineer and the date you were given was wrong? They wouldn't say it was repairable if it had not been inspected.

As far as I know the other car has insurance and the police do know the drivers details, but have been unable to give them to me until they find him. The car has not been reported stolen.

My car has definitely not been inspected by an engineer as I have checked with the company and it is not scheduled until Friday 15th October. Endsleigh have made the decisions themselves!! You'd think that they would not be able to make a decision until the car had been seen but they really have! I have triple checked!

Perhaps they were told of the damage and having referred to 'in-house' claims experts on repair costs, they have decided it would probably be repairable. If when the car is booked in for the repairs, further damage is found, I suspect that they would then reconsider the situation.

It strikes me as a bit odd the driver running away. Perhaps it was family or friend of the 3rd party policyholder that was driving the car, hence the reason it was not reported as stolen. It may be that until the Police have evidence of the who the driver was, that this may cause you problems. It shouldn't as the other car was Insured, but my concern would be about you recovering your uninsured losses e.g. hire car, policy excess and the Insurers recovering their costs in a timely fashion.

I felt it necessary to write to ask if anyone could explain why I have had to pay an extra £100 to insure my new car. The new car is a category 5 whereas my old car was a category 11, my old car engine was 2 litre, the new is 1.6 litre. The new has more mileage and is worth less than the old car! Endsleigh told me that being a diesel engine had to be taken into consideration and the parts for the new car. The cars are the same manufacturers and make!?! In fact my old car was a convertible sports car and the new is clearly not. On the compare websites other quotes have been from £377, with the same information known to Endsleigh! Yet I am have now paid nearly £500! I also had protected no claims bonus.

As you can imagine I am very confused about this as I thought the universal insurance category was a guide to the price of the insurance not what Endsleigh decide it should be.

I would be very grateful if someone could help me to clarify this please..

I suggest you do a search on this site for Endsleigh and also a general google search. You may not be so keen to renew with them next time.

Sarah

My experience from within the industry is that if you make a mid term change to your policy for a change of car, you will not be quoted the best rates. You will be treated as a captive customer, who having made a claim or facing cancellation charges if you cancelled early, will be forced to stay with the company until renewal.

Another factor to bear in mind, is that rates have been going up anyway. Your new car will be subject to the new increased rates, which are more than the rate charged for the old car when your took out or renewed the policy. In the press the other day there was a quote from the ABI I believe which stated that during the last 6 months, some premium rates had gone up by as much as 60%.

What has happened to your claim?

After my initial dealings with Ryan I made a complaint and was dealt with by Ashley Murray who managed to hurry along my claim. He also transferred the money for a new car into my account which enabled me to purchase another vehicle sooner which was very helpful. I must say he has been very good and has done everything he can for me. Incidentally he did mention this forum during our conversation!

I thought that we had resolved the car issue and was feeling relieved by this. Unfortunately I have been left confused by the increase in insurance premium for which no one at Endsleigh can give me a good enough reason as to why.

Thank you for your help in this matter, your comments have been very useful.