Privilege are part of Direct Line - I was insured by them and had my car stolen (the day after I bought it). It was recovered 100 yards away, damaged and with a wrecked tyre. I found similar problems getting the insurer to act. It was 18 months in my case with the car going back and forth to their apponted garage - each time it came back with more damage, and eventually the final paint job was a very poor quality and I had to take it to my own garage. Anyway - I suggest you keep contacting them andf keep a record of your calls - it may not do you any good with the insurer, but if you need to complain to the FSA it will. Basically you will contact them and they say someone will call you back. They won't. If there is no-one they can bill for they will drag their heels. Keep contacting them and if they drag too much make sure you get a courtesy car - even their own courtesy car policy states that they will only provide one for 14 days (and that is at a premium). It took 4 weeks for then just to authorise the repairs - my car was off the road all that time. Another thing that annoyed me was that if they did call, they called from a withheld number and then started asking "security" questions. You know, the kind of questions that could be used for identity theft - the kind of questions that a bank like RBS would tell you not to answer.... Sorry, more of a rant than anything, but keep contacting them.

You get very confusing and contradictory information from the DVLA - they charge for updating from paper to photo licences, but not for address changes. Of course if you have a paper licence you need to get a photo licence, and that is where they contradict themselves in various documents - some appear to say you pay, some say you don't. I was in a similar position a couple of months back - I had a full licence but with my parents address on it (and it was a green rather than pink licence, so it shows how long I had been delaying). I decided not to include payment and received a photo licence quickly. If I had included the payment I am sure they would have taken it.

The damage to the bumper is some deep scratches in the paintwork. The material left by the door was resudue from the door trim, either rubber or paint (and not a large amount at that). When I say washed off, I mean it came off in the rain and wet roads. The damage itself did not wash off. The doors had a sensor that prvented them from opening fully when they hit the obstruction. The door rested against the bumper - it is the delay in the sensing and the door stopping that caused teh scratches. Without the sensor there would have been a "crunch." I would have reported it, but I was not to know tha the guy at the end of the train was the last possible contact with Eurotunnel. I was looking for a reception desk/ticket office/customer service type of building that they have at the exits to the ferry (ok, so it is an entrance but accessible from the exits).

Tha car is an automatic and was in Park with the handbrake on - it physically cannot move until the ignition is switched on. The doors are actually closed before you drive up to them - i.e. when the carriage in front is full they close both the back door of the front carriage and the front door of your carriage. They then direct you to roll forward, forward, forward and stop - so that there is about an inch to spare at the front, and 3/4 of a car length at the back of the carriage. In this case, the loader had a second look once I stopped, but decided that it was ok and didn't ask me to reverse. A simple misjudgement, but not mine. The residue on my bumper was part of their door trim - a rubber or plastic coated edge. When I mentioned this they stated tha their doors had a stainless steel edge. I thought I was going mad, but my passengers have confirmed that there was a black edge strip on the doors. The mark has washed off, so I have no remaining evidence, but they did lie to me. The other thing that gets me is tah they have CCTV in the carriages in case of operational problems - I would have thought htatthe door had a sensor that gave a warning somewhere and then the crew could simply look at their screen and see a problem. (It really wouldn't surprise me if they did.)

Thanks for the responses. My view at the time, and the reason I did not simply remain in the same spot was thay any damage was not going to disappear - I didn't even check it myself until I parked elsewhere (and there was part of their door trim lodged in the bumper). If a heavy stainless steel door makes contact with a painted bumper it will undoubtedly do some damage, no matter how sensitive the sensor is. I am actually surprised a warning signal wasn't sent to the train crew. The guy at the end of the train did not appear to be the "right" person to report anything to - I did not stop on the platform as I thought there would be an office further on - there is on the ferry, and there is at nearly all train termini. Not on Eurotunnel I found out. As to the question regarding the car crash - if it was possible to move the car and it prevented traffic hold up then yes I would move the car out of the way (assuming no injuries). At the end of the day it is some scratched paintwork -probably not worth the effort of pursuing -I didn't even try to make a claim, I just asked for Eurotunnel's comment, and then they went completely defensive.

Hi I recently had a day trip to France using Eurotunnel. When I got on the train, I was directed to park very close to the carriage doors. On the outward leg, at disembarking time, the doors opened and hit my bumper, preventing the door from opening fully. There was some damage to the painted bumper. I contacted their customer services department a day later to report the event and to ask for their comment. The response was that I did not report it at the time and therefore they could not accept any claim, as per their terms and conditions (not strictly true). There was nobody around at the time, there was a man directing traffic at the very end of the train, but as I slowed down to mention the door, he simply waved with more vigour. Other than use the emergency call button I do not believe there was anything I could do. There was no further opportunity to contact a Eurotunnel staff member, not even a building after leaving the train. Are they correct? Does anyone have any advice? Del