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[Lizzie_Zoom]

Well all went as it should this morning: Garage picked up my car and Enterprise delivered me a lovely new Merc E Class

Then, early this afternoon THE phone call from Claimfast who are supervising the repairs, loan car, claims, etc:
"Miss Freeman, sorry to inform you that your car has been inspected by the garages engineer and has been classed as beyond economical repair".....................WHAT!!!!!!    Those words echo in my mind; not wanting to believe them; not wanting to accept; blood and temper boiling fast, very fast, into a blind rage I MUST control..................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I challenge them, fuming, and stressing they must be very mistaken (trying to be very polite!!!); they must be being taken for a ride I say, the damage is cosmetic, just some rubbing down and new paint!!!  She answers that the engineers have estimates a cost of £1,700 to repair............WHAT!!!!  Don't be so daft I say, what on earth is going to cost that much when only paint and labour is required???!!!!

Oh, she says, I will ring through to the garage..............she comes back; "oh yes a new door is required, a new mirror frame.........................hang on I say, to start with there is nothing wrong with the door, just the result of the number plate screws running along my paintwork...............and as for mirror surround...........what do you mean??!!!  She says the mirror, the overtaking mirror..........WHAT!!!!!!!!! Don't be so bloody daft I say; no mirror was ever involved in the accident; nowhere  near JUST the nearside rear door panel ONLY that had it's paint scored......NO dents, no other damage..........or at least when I last saw my car this morning;  has somebody booted the panel in at tge garage I ask, fuming with anger and losing it fast!!!

She says please don't shout at me.  I say I want my car back NOW!  She says I will have to refer you back to your insurance company (RSA)!  I say fine!!!  I have to pick my car up from Folkestone (20 miles away), and leave my lovely loan car at the garage.  Excellent I say, I leaving now!!

Anyway got my car back, RSA have agreed their engineer will come to me and make his assessment, before a garage collects my car tomorrow.  Also they will arrange a hire car (no cost to me) of equal size to my own, plus they will not claim my excess from me, but the other party.

Tomorrow now awaits.....................and so do I!!!!


Bloody, bloody cars and the idiots, simpletons who drive them into other people vehicles, and the morons in insurance companies gggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr !!!!

Yes I have sweared, yes I am ranting........so bloody what?!! :-/ :-/

Going to lay down now!


Remember, this is the damage (No Dents; No Rips; No holes, just gouged paintwork!!!)

[aaronjb]

I'm sure a lot of times insurance companies would much rather write off a car than repair it..

A friend of mine managed to hit the motorway armco with his car recently; initial estimate was ~£8k damage - on a ~£20k car.

The next thing he gets is a phone call from the repair center saying "Er, Mr X, we thought you should know, there's a salvage vehicle here to take the car away.. we told him to poke off"

They hadn't even asked him - the only reason his car wasn't stripped for salvage (or crushed) without his knowledge or consent was the kindly repair place who told the salvage truck driver where to stick it! 

[Welung666]

Poor Lizzie

I hope tomorrow goes a little better. Have a glass or 2 of something strong and have a long hot bath, you'll feel better I promise

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Poor Lizzie

I hope tomorrow goes a little better. Have a glass or 2 of something strong and have a long hot bath, you'll feel better I promise

I hope so Welung; your bath idea is a very good one!!

Running now!! 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)

[tunnie]

looking at that level of damage I personally would not have involved insurance, as they are going write a car off of that age.

Can't remember circumstances on you accident who hit you of if you hit them, but if someone hit me, i'd ask them for £200 odd which is most likey what their excess is, and say leave it at that.

Pocket the 200 quid and polish out that scrape yourself 

[majesticlarge]

I had a good one once when i had my Mk2 Astra i was parked in a vauxhall dealers car park reading some paper work for a part i had just bought when the drivers side of the car started to rise, looking out my window i saw the rear end of a cavalier pushed right in to my back door, out of the cav a vauxhall mechanic got out ask how i was got his boss who said can we settle this without insurance i said ok. They gave me a brand new corsa to use and two weeks later i got back a now mint looking Astra with a new door and a respray. She looked wonderful untill 3 weeks after and the engine went bang big style 

[Lizzie_Zoom]

looking at that level of damage I personally would not have involved insurance, as they are going write a car off of that age.

Can't remember circumstances on you accident who hit you of if you hit them, but if someone hit me, i'd ask them for £200 odd which is most likey what their excess is, and say leave it at that.

Pocket the 200 quid and polish out that scrape yourself 

The other guys insurance company have accepted full liability Tunnie, and I want the insurance company to sort the damage out.  Failing that I will pocket the whole payout if there is one, but accept an agreement of taking less to keep the car.  Then I will sort out the damage (locally I could have it professionally done for about £300)  and gain very nicely thankyou!  Last year RSA gave me a good payout (£1,650) on my CDX, and my current Elite is in the same, if not better condition).

These buggers are not going to get away with whatever they are trying to do!

[eco16v]

Not so good, insurance companies dont have a clue between them!

[tunnie]

the problem now (if its written off) is the car would be considered a CAT (something) write off, which is really going to harm its value and possibly future insurance?

If it was a clear case of their fault, cash in hand would be way to deal with it, as any damage to an Omega given its age/value is an instant right off. Just forgetting parts, labour is a huge cost, £100 /hr? Easy to be written off in a few hours work...

[andyc]

and remember you don't have to take it to the bodyshop that the insurance company wants you to use.

I'd shop around and get some quotes from other shops, try some small independents. The insurance company will say no you can't but that rubbish it just means they wont get there back hander.

Only you won't get is a free loan car. If you get stuck i've a couple of very good independents up this way

Cheers
Andy

[Andy B]

....
The other guys insurance company have accepted full liability Tunnie, and I want the insurance company to sort the damage out. ......

Remind us all Lizzie  is this the result of the hire van that was trying to turn in front of you? I thought they were ready to sort it without using insurance  :-/  :-/ 

[Andy B]

and remember you don't have to take it to the bodyshop that the insurance company wants you to use. .....

Apparently you need to be careful of that these days. When SWMBO had her car hit last year, I was taliking to the owner of the local bodyshop where I initially took the car to for his opinion on the damage. He said that a few insurance companies are starting to stipulate their own repairers in the legal small print of their policies.  :-?   

[Lizzie_Zoom]

....
The other guys insurance company have accepted full liability Tunnie, and I want the insurance company to sort the damage out. ......

Remind us all Lizzie  is this the result of the hire van that was trying to turn in front of you? I thought they were ready to sort it without using insurance  :-/  :-/ 

No, this was the OAP and his slipping foot in the same week as white van man.  The company van hire firm whose vehicle the latter was using will still sort out my front bumper! 8-) 8-)

[mrgreen]

man not a good week for you, hope all goes better tomorrow, throw away society you gotta love it don't ya!!

[amba]

Sorry to read your saga Lizzie.

I am taking my car to an Insurance approved body shop in the morning for them to inspect the cracked chrome V trim on my Irmscher front grille.

Judging by your experience from today,my car will definitely be written off for the extent of damage done to mine.I have been told that the front grille is not available either from VX or direct from Germany and by all accounts when it was availble many moons ago it had a very high price tag so judging that my car is 12 years old and has over 165k could prove quite funny tomorrow.

What they don,t know as yet is as we speak a very helpfull forum member has sold me a near perfect replacement albeit a different colour so I might just let the insurance company buy it from me for full retail price and get it painted.

I told you S/East Kent was a dangerous place for Omegas.

Good luck for Tuesday.