Elephant car insurance trouble

[sargentuk]

i am fully comprehensive with elephant and accidently damaged my front bumper on my ford ka. The front bumper was part of a body kit and was a modified bumper but i had informed elephant i had the modifications and it was put on my policy details. Anyway i had taken the car to one of their approved garages and got it examined, the following day i receved a letter saying the garage were approved to repair my car as long as it was economical to do so. after it being examined elephant came back and told me the garage wasn't going to fix the car as it was a modified part(the bumper) but i wasn't wanting a modified bumper put back on, i was happy for a normal ford ka bumper to be put on but they said it would be uneconomical for them to do this. they said they were going to settle with a cash in liue settlement for a sum of £540. I then phoned the approved garage to book in car for repair and was told that the price to fix my car would be double the price given to the insurers as they are given several discounts and as i will now be a cash customer the price would be very different. i then contacted insurance again and informed them of this but was told they were within their rights to settle on this amount. i am currently unemployed as i was recently made redundant and had taken out this policy to cover me for this eventuality. On first setting up account on the phone i told elephant about modifications and they never told me these were not covered, i asked them to get a copy of recorded phone call to verify that this was the case but they told me they had no record of such call although i set up account over the phone. i was also led to believe that upon my car nbeing off the road i would be covered for a courtesy car but i have now been without a car for seven days now and i am no further forward in getting my car repaired as the amount offered to me isn't enough to get car fixed. DO I HAVE TO ACCEPT CASH IN LIEU? please help...