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  1. This is my first post on this site. I hope someone has some good advice for me. My wife was parked on the side of the road, stationary, when a van passed by and hit her, scraping 2 panels. It was a commercial vehicle. She was 8 months pregnant but luckily there were only scratches to the paintwork. The van driver stopped, came over and apologised. He wrote his name and number and told my wife to call him if we needed repairs. I took the car to my local BMW dealer for a quote. They asked if the 3rd party was at fault and I said they were and had pretty much admitted it. BMW offered to 'take care' of the whole thing and told me not to even contact the 3rd party and not speak to any of their representatives under any circumstances as it would damage the case. They had a whole team waiting to deal with it and it's all part of their repair service to take the strain off their customers. I trusted BMW and agreed. They then passed my details to accident Exchange without explaining who this company is. Accident Exchange then offered me a replacement car they told me the other insurance would pay. They also told me not to worry, that they will investigate and handle the claim, that we're not at fault and that I should not speak to anyone from the 3rd party or accept anything they might offer. I was not explained the process or the risks of going with them or even who they are and their relationship to BMW. I was not given a quote for repair or the car hire or an idea of what the total claim would be. I was just told that it would be covered by the other side. In fact the estimated time for repairs was extended by BMW twice while I had the hire vehicle. I had to call to find this out, and I was then told not to worry about the additional days of car hire, that this was normal and that the other insurance would still pay. It was within acceptable limits for this kind of repair job. 2 months after the accident and over a month after the repairs had been completed we receive a call from Accident Exchange. They could not recover their full costs from the other insurance and it turns out the other party is not accepting liability. Instead he is claiming my wife reversed out of the parking spot into him as he passed. This is not the case at all, she was stationary the whole entire time. First, Accident Exchange tried to put words in my wife's mouth and suggest she had inconsistencies in her story and that she was at fault. Then on a call they implied I would be liable for costs if they can't recover them. They backed down when I referred to terms that had been clearly read to me earlier on. When I asked them why they didn't even investigate the claim and establish liability before going ahead and incurring costs, they said that is how the insurance business works- they have hundreds of claims and don't have time to investigate, especially if it takes 2 months for the other party to make their statement. That's the way they work and there is nothing wrong with doing it that way. In the end Accident Exchange agreed a 50/50 liability with the other insurers and have 'on my behalf' recorded a 'fault' incident against my wife in the insurance database. I told them I don't agree and do not give consent to do this, but they said they were going to do it anyway because they can't prove who's version is true. As a result my insurance premium will go up £250 this year. It seems there is not a lot I can do about this, but I thought I would ask for suggestions on here: Who should I be most angry with? BMW, Accident Exchange or the 3rd party who is lying? Can Accident Exchange just enter whatever they like into the insurance records without my consent? It's not my fault they did not investigate or build a bullet proof case before incurring costs and contacting the other party. How can they tell people not to speak to the 3rd party and then not contact them themselves until the very end of the process? How can BMW breach the trust of their customers so fundamentally and pass them to a third party that does not follow any BMW service standards or do due diligence before incurring costs? How can someone drive into another car and apologise and then take 2 months to write a statement that denies any responsibility and get away with it so easily? Can I take them to court? My insurance is up for renewal in the next week and I don't know if I should just pay the extra and be done with it or fight to have the 'fault' record overturned. Please help.
  2. In December 2010, my stepson was involved in an accident. Another car crashed into him and it was the other drivers fault. My stepson contacted Audi Harold Wood and they sent one of their reps to come and look at the damage. The Audi rep informed my step son that they would deal with everything on his behalf and he did not need to contact his own insurance company. He was also informed that a company called Accident Exchange would contact him and arrange for a courtesy car to be delivered whilst his car was being repaired. His Audi A3 was collected and an Audi A4 was supplied. My Stepson's car was repaired and collected on 25 January 2011. Initially the car seemed fine, but the next morning my stepson noticed a strange noise when starting the car. This was very similar to the noise that was pointed out to the Audi rep that inspected the car in December. A few days later the engine management light came on. My stepson returned the car to Balgores Motors who had carried out the repair on behalf of Audi. My stepson notified them of the strange noise but no action was taken, but they did reset the engine management light. Four days later, the same light came on again and my stepson contacted Audi as he was sure that this problem was obviously accident related. Audi advised him that Diagnostic tests would have to be carried out and that the other party’s insurance company were requesting for an independent report as they did not agree that the problem was related to the original accident. Audi produced their own report on 14 March 2011 and they stated that the problems with the car were due to lack of oil in the gearbox. Trinity Insurance (the other party’s insurance company) produced their own report on 6 April 2011. The inspection was completed by a company called Hoopers. This report basically mirrored the report of Audi and stated that the fault was due to the gearbox and was not accident related. By this time Audi had provided my stepson with an estimate to get his car repaired which come to a staggering £4339.86. There is no way that my stepson's gearbox was faulty prior to this accident. On the 28 July 2010, my stepson collected his car from a garage in Southend. They had fitted a new clutch. On the evening of the 28 July 2010, my son was involved in an accident (not in his car) which left him 35 percent burns. He nearly died and was in the intensive care department of Broomfield Hospital for around 6 weeks. Even when he was allowed home, he was not able to drive for a long period of time. In fact he had only been driving for about two weeks prior to the accident. The garage that replaced his clutch has provided written evidence to state that at the time that they were working on the car, there were no problems with the gearbox. My partner and I decided to instruct an Independent expert and he provided us with a comprehensive report. In the conclusion of his report he states; CONCLUSION AND COMMENTS In my opinion it is likely that the items of concern listed below including damage sustained were caused/influenced as a direct result from accident damage/impact from the nearside front. • Plastic under tray. • Transmission nearside casing is damaged below the differential/driveshaft. • Exhaust flexible-down pipe damage. • Oil leaking from transmission. • Transmission casting/cooling fin above the oil leak is damaged. Note: the effects from shock waves/side loading through the transmission case on impact via the driveshaft cannot be accurately calculated but would have been substantial. It is impossible to say with certainty whether all or part of these faults were present prior to the accident. It is however alleged/implied that these items were old faults which had materialised some time prior to the accident. NOTE: Both Audi and Balgores motors had the opportunity to inspect and roadtest the customers vehicle subsequent to completion of repairs and handover, but made no mention of these findings until the vehicle returned for diagnosis following the customers complaint. If the additional items had been included in the original estimate then the vehicle would have been a total insurance loss claim i.e. Written off. As soon as I had the copy of the report and a letter from the garage that replaced the clutch, I wrote to the Audi Harold Wood complaints manager. This comprehensive letter was sent on 30 August 2011. This letter was not acknowledged so I rang Audi Harold Wood and spoke to the Manager. The Manager apologised and asked me to email the letter to him directly and he would deal with the matter. He got back to me a few days later and asked if my stepson and partner were prepared to have a meeting with him. They declined as they had already had a previous meeting with one of the service Managers and it ended with him lowering the car whilst they were trying to take photos of the damage underneath the car. Also people have a habit of forgetting and denying what they say verbally!!!! On 3 October, I received a letter from the Manager of Audi basically saying that they were not prepared to do anything with regard to my stepson’s losses and repairing his car. I responded on 4 October 2011 by sending a letter before claim, I advised them that my stepson would be reducing the claim to £5000 so the matter could be dealt with in the small claims court. I am sure that you can imagine that the cost of storing his car, hire charges, train fares and the actual cost of repair came to quite a bit more than this !! I gave Audi Harold Wood until 18 October 2011 to respond and advised them if they did not get back to me I would issue proceedings against them in the small claims court. I received an email at 5pm on the 18 October from the Manager and he stated that he was willing to have a look at my stepson’s car and carry out further investigations. I actually believed that they were finally going to do the decent thing, but I was wrong!!!!! They collected the car in November 2011 and I received a letter on 13 December 2011 which basically stated that they were not prepared to do anything and my stepson should contact his own Insurance company. I responded by stating that this was not an option that was open to my stepson as his own insurance company washed their hands of the matter because Audi had referred him to Accident Exchange. I also advised that we would be filing a claim in the New Year. A claim was made at the beginning of February this year and we have just been informed of a hearing date of the 26 April 2012, this is to allow the Judge to find out all the facts prior to the claim going to court. I have been asked to provide the court of evidence of a contractual agreement between my stepson and Audi. Unfortunately, I do not have anything in writing other than the fact that they carried out the work on my stepson’s car. I also will be stating that if Audi do not consider that they had any type of contract with us, why did they agree to collect and inspect the car in November 2011? I just hope that Audi are not going to get away with the way they have dealt with this matter and I worry for other people who may find themselves in a similar situation. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, I would love to hear from you and I will of course keep this thread updated.
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