‘It felt like a massive scam’: the minor prangs to cars that lead to huge charges

11 comments

1. So approved accident centres are screwing over the insurance companies by massively inflating prices and we are then paying for it in terms of massive increases to our premiums. Yay!

2. The real scam is the lack of funding for proper alternatives to a car centric society and the amount of money the tax payer is rinsed to subsidise motorists

3. Our car was written off – value £9k. When the car came to be collect, the guy said it could be fixed for under £100. It’s like the insurance company couldn’t be bothered to even have it assessed properly.

4. [deleted]

5. Had a minor bump with a neighbour. Rang the number on the front page of my paper work. Spend about an hour giving the person all of my details then they said they would send me out a courtesy car. I told them I didnt need one, so they told me that they wouldnt help me and I needed to ring my insurer

   Turn out the insurance broker has their own Accident Management Company and tells you to ring them and not your insurer.

   So I found the actual claim number for my insurer and spent an hour on the phone to them. They said it sounded like it was my neighbours fault so theyd pass me over to their liability team.

   I spent another hour on the phone to them and then they said thay they send me out a courtesy car. Realised that their liability team was actually another AMC. Told them I didnt need a hire car so they sent one anyway. I refused to accept it so they said theyd refuse to do anything more.

   So I rang my neighbours insurer. Within two weeks they had it picked up, repaired and delivered back

6. This has always been a con job. The guy behind ‘honest John’ website has been saying this for years.

7. Sounds like yet another racket we have to foot the bill for ultimately

8. With the costs of car insurance soaring for us normal non criminal drivers are the any safe guards that can be put in place for insurance companies to respect our costs and not use companies blatantly ripping us off?

9. I know someone who owns a body shop. He said that the new Cat N writeoff rating was harming his business because insurers just won’t pay for anything anymore.

   People phone their insurer, the car is taken to his place, they do a full inspection… and the insurers just waste everyone’s time by immediately writing the car off because the repairs are going to cost more than 12p. That car is then _still_ sitting on his lot and taking up space as his responsibility until the customer figures out next steps having been absolutely shafted. Your insurer will be about as helpful as a shotgun to the face and have decided it’s not their problem.

   This very scenario happened to me at a different body shop in early 2018 when Cat N had been newly introduced.

   And this is why people either don’t report damage or just do iffy bodges instead. This makes our roads safer… how?

10. So a few years ago I was rear-ended at a roundabout. I set off, the van behind me set off faster. The damage left a crease in my bumper. Had to go through insurance because it was a company can that hit me. Had to take it to my insurers approved garage, who assessed the damage to be over 2k. The other party sent a letter back saying “they didn’t hit Mr that hard, so in no way was.the damage that severe, so it must be pre-existing.”band that I was basically having it on.

    I called my insurance and had to point out that a. The damage wasn’t pre-existing so the other part had no evidence of this, and b, I didn’t say it caused that much damage, your approved garage you forced me to use said it did. So if the damage was exaggerated, that’s between you and them. I got a notification fault claim approved shortly afterwards.

11. exactly why the American healthcare /insurance system is so buggered. looks like garages/insurance is taking a leaf from their books