here are the car pictures and how dirty they returned it to us

so the car has arrived back from hastings salvage this morning and i am gobsmacked. the car is stinking dirty inside and outside and even has a half bitten off fingernail on passenger seat. we sent the car to them right after a car wash and inside was spotless now it needs a full valet. am more and more disgusted with how hastings are treating us. even took pics of car which will post if can find out how to on here. so the 3rd party engineer called this morning to ask can he see the car to evaluate it and guess what he was here within an hour. quicker than it takes hastings to even return a call. this evening he called with a offer of settlement including cash in lieu for the car. very impressed and this hastings should take note is how to deal with customers. the insurer are calling us in the morning to arrange payment. so within 2 days i have had an engineer visit give an offer and will start to process payment. it took hastings longer than this to even return a call. i will now cancel my claim with hastings and will also then cancel my policy which i am sure 100% they will become even more akward and start with obstacles in me doing so like asking to retain full premium even though they have no right too or will charge a cancellation fee. hope jamie takes not of this as i wont be happy if any of this happens and will indeed go into complaint to fos that is already growing day by day.

dacouc i totally agree i was naive however you can never measure an insurer truly until you claim. my partner works for a car insurer recently awarded insurance provider of the year. i wish we paid the extra even though the discount made it more expensive than other insurers to know i would have been treat fairly and a lot better than hastings. i just hope the more people this thread reaches the better. it has now been shared a few times on facebook and twitter so more the better. i understand the process of how hastings are making money off me on a non fault claim which makes it more the worse they are not acting in my interest. im sure when it comes to cancellation they will try harder to make more out of me at no financial loss to themselves. jamie im sorry but this is a fart from resolved matter and even now i have not had a response asking why my engineer report is missing the most expensive part of the damage which is airbag replacement which the 3rd party require to settle with an accurate amount of my loss. its still going from bad to worse and yes thank you for involving customer relations as this is details that fos will need to see how hastings are responding to my ongoing complaints even if unsatisfactory

still no response to my email back asking why the airbags etc were not included in the report. however the court car company have called and are calling at 8.30am to take the car back which now means i will walk to work and be late. wouldnt mind if i had more notice than being told at midday today about them wanting car back and this was because albany disagreed to extend the cover because of delays (hastings delays). it seems when you get a reply from hastings on this forum its a generic reply and indeed you still end up in the same position or in my case starting again from scratch. to make it worse the hire car company just called to advise will be picking the car up thursday morning as staff levels cant manage this tomorrow. i understand it is totally not their fault however i have a car outside my house that i have to keep there on the street whilst i walk to work. again because of hastings. i am sure this is a candid camera situation im dealing with. do hastings actually 1 care and 2 react in a proper manner to this forum not just monitor it. this thread is now being shared on my facebook and twitter pages as i believe the more people it reaches the more people will be able to make an informed decision on insuring with this company. in that all i can add at this stage is do so at your own risk because it certainly wont be at theirs. other readers feel free to post on your own facebook and twitter pages to share this thread i urge you please to do so. big companies cannot continue to treat their customers like this and think a voice has no power

so now another call to 3rd party who have advised they now need to send an engineer to my home to do estimate as without this the claim value will be less the costs of new airbags and kits and ceiling etc etc. so we still have not got this issue resolved even after all this today and hastings pretty much assuring me would all be correct. the highest cost of repair is actually missing from their report how can they miss that??? this is yet another day wasted today and now i have to have an engineer call to do another assessment because hastings is incorrect. its just error on top of previous errors. at least i have a log of this all for my complaint now and they just keep adding more to it by the incompetence. the salvage yard as a joke when i called to arrange the car to be returned tomo as a joke told me it was scrapped. thank god i can not take any issue with them and see the funny side of that as if it happened yesterday i think i would have had a breakdown

just received the detail report with labour and costs etc. very detailed apart from missing that 2 airbags deployed that would need to be replaced and interior ceiling kit required to replace after deployment. thought these would be included due to nature of cost to replace if new is very high

error in post

exactly uncle and what if claim was worse scenario could be running for years as an open claim. also they advised would send me report they sent to 3rd party as soon as got off call to me and guess what. they have not as im sat here refreshing my inbox every 2 minutes. what a mess of a follow up they have done yet again!!!! so yet another call to them I HAVE TO MAKE because the can not fulfill the promise they make

so finally do get my callback and hastings advised they have sent a full engineer report at last to the 3rd party which i have also asked for a copy emailed to me this afternoon. courtesy car will go back tomo even though the delays were caused by hastings. they will start the complaint process with the quality dept which i wont hold out much hope at this stage due to my current experience with hastings. i will speak to 3rd party tomo to see wether i will cancel my claim with hastings and i have also asked them to inform their own customer service dept of the issues as i am sure they will try and retain a full premium even though they have no costs to recover as its 3rd party liability. i will also be looking to have cancellations fees waiverd if i am to cancel as think this is only fair. they informed me as i have a complaint the claim maybe kept open so wont be able to cancel my policy even if i do not progress with a claim with hastings and decide to deal with 3rd party alone. in summary hastings have done nothing for me but cause hassle loss of many hours in having to call them the 3rd party the salvage company and also courtesy car company myself. as a non fault claim i have done the majority of their work and have wasted how many hours for callbacks that they failed to adhere to. lesson has been learned by myself to never insure with hastings or recommend anyone to do so (in fact i would do my utmost to dissuade future business from family and friends in doing so) but im sure lessons have not be learned by hastings themselves as this is not an isolated incident looking around this site and forums. i have never experienced a company work so hard against their own customers when their own customers are not at fault on in anyway shape or form. will post when i have further information regarding my claim and complaint to show the outcome of this claim and how i am to be treated by hastings going forward. it was only the power of this site that even got them to start listening to me and to actually call me back

indeed unclebulgaria we probably will deal with 3rd party alone as they have been very helpful. the issue we have is all insurance companies understand the process of "the life of a claim" and its process however hastings dont seem to follow it. its all very ad hoc with them and customer service is most certainly their biggest issue and communication between themselves within their own departments. they leave the claim until you physically contact them and push them to do the work they should not need instructing to do. im sure their fos charges are very high especially as every fos complaint is a charge of £500 to them regardless of who wins the outcome. the 3rd party want the claim resolved asap in their words but yet hastings are the ones preventing that and hastings are meant to act in my best interest. they should be acting for me not against me!!! feel free to comment anyone on this thread your more than welcome

so finally hastings have called to ask how they can help me with the courtesy car query. i have had to give all the information as outlined in the original post in this thread again in detail. now informed that because i didnt accept the offer of settlement this means the court car will have to be returned. at no point in many calls to hastings manager was this ever highlighted to me. like i have then informed hastings if they had sent the original engineer detailed report when promised i may not even be in this situation. the caller was not even aware the 3rd party has been trying to contact them and can only apologise for many callbacks that they promised and did not fulfill. they will now speak to salvage yard to get time i can expect my car returned and i had to ask them can they please contact the 3rd party to find out what information they require from hastings. i had to suggest this. i have asked for a sars request form to have copies of my calls to proceed with my complaint to fos which i have to pay hastings for and this is the usual we will respond in 8 weeks to try and resolve the complaint. which is fine by me as the response will be passed to fos as unsatisfactory on my behalf. so where do i stand currently? again awaiting a callback from hastings to find out when i can expect my car and the result of what they have discussed with the 3rd party. 2 weeks of me calling has now been started all over again at a cost to me not to them. so the saga begins yet again. they had not even communicated between themselves in the claim department before calling me to establish my concerns!!! and now i have to go and rent a car when i was put off the road by a 3rd party who are willing to deal with claim asap but hastings wont allow them or me to do so. please think before insuring as price can impact service as is my case with hastings claims procedures and competence with claims handlers. matter far from resolved and as mentioned im back to square 1 all over again and awaiting another promised callback

its not helping that im here at home phoning other people to get information that hastings should be supplying me.the court car company want a callback from me in ten minutes to give a time to collect car tomorrow a.m. which i cannot provide without knowing any details. im caught between everyone here because everyone is awaiting a repsonse jamie myself included from hastings. what do i tell the court car company in ten minutes? when can the 3rd party get a response from the 2 emails requesting a more detailed report and last but not least when can i the customer get the callbacks that were promised yesterday afternoon? its time consuming for me sat here again another day today dealing with all this. i paid a premium and and to re-iterate its a non fault claim and this can be resolved simpler and quicker if i alone dealt with the 3rd party insurer and not hastings

so another phone call made by me to court car provider who advised they spoke to albany who in turn spoke to hastings yesterday afternoon and hastings asked to extend the car however albany declined due to delays. obviously these delays are a result and direct fault of hastings. the 3rd party insurer also confirmed still no response from hastings as the engineer report sent to them is to vague. so again im am in a position where i have to call hastings to get information not them contacting me as a previous post here has just advised me. fos will certainly involved in this case now as its becoming more and more frustrating dealing with such incompetence. no wonder hastings didnt return my call as promised yesterday about the courtesy car as they knew it was more bad news

just spoke 3rd part insurer who like myself and courtesy car company are awaiting a response from hastings. this is becoming a farce and time consuming for us to deal with. im an enquiring to see if the 3rd part are willing to deal with me alone as hastings cannot act in a proper manner on behalf of me as their customer. so all hinges now on hastings making contact with us all!!!!

so i am still to hear anything back from hastings however i have just this minute received a call regarding the courtesy car i have and informing me it will be collected tonight at midnight!!! midnight is not a time i would be expecting a knock at my door to say the least. apparently the courtesy car company have also not heared anything from hastings (suprised not the least)