Insurance hassles

[MikeL]

Five weeks since I wrote off my bike and still no payout. The story so far:
Sun 7 March: accident
Mon 8 March: claim filed & accepted.
Wed 10 March: telephone discussion with claims assessor (seems to be an independent agent, not an employee of insurance company); bike to be written off; negotiation re value. Reminded assessor that acccording to a clause in the policy I should get full insured value (less than 12 mths from policy date).
Fri 12 March: assessor agrees. Promises to wrap up paper work and send to insurance company by following Monday. Says insurance company will send cheque to finance company who will calculate refund and post to me. Should get it within a week.
Week 2: deafening silence from all parties.
Week 3: ditto. End of week: telephone conversation with finance company: no record of any payment or even contact from insurance company. Talk to insurance company: they claim they have only just received the report from the assessor. But not to worry. The cheque to the finance company will be in the mail the following Monday. I cancel the automatic payments on the loan.
Week 4: still nothing.
Today: I phone the finance company. No record of any cheque or correspondence from insurance company. Am now in default (one month's payment in arrears). Get a lecture about breach of agreement: insurance company should have informed finance company immediately the claim was lodged, got the finance company to do the calculation, and sent one cheque to them and another one to me. Phone the insurance company. They deny having promised payment 2 weeks ago, and claim the cheque to the finance company was only sent on the Thursday before Easter.

Question: is this just the normal run-around, or do I have grounds for feeling hard done by?

[LB]

Jeez MikeL, what a pain in the ass this is turning out to be for you.

Touch wood, it's been many years since I've had an insurance claim so I can't comment on whether this is normal or not.

My advice would be to keep on ringing the Insurance company every day, and if you have copies of the claim form etc, send a copy to the finance company to prove you've lodged a claim some time ago.

Oscar, can you give any advice here?

Good luck.

[Lou Girardin]

Which insurance co?
Lou

[James Deuce]

I've "only" ever written one vehicle off, and yes, it was an ass to sort out. Took 6 weeks and I had to get written evidence from 3 independent motorcycle shops to prove that a VFR750R was worth more than a VFR750F. All while strapped to a board in a hospital. The assessor knew the difference but the insurance company wasn't interested in his opinion either.

[Motu]

My daughters car was written off so many months ago I've forgotten,but it was about 3 weeks after the accident.The car is still sitting around and she has recieved no payment,we have loaned her the money for another car,but she can't repay us until they pay her.

She rings a to ask why - ''well you need form ****'' ok send it out.Ring again as to why no money - ''you sent the wrong form,you need form **** for the money to be released'' OK,how about you send the correct form this time.On and on and it goes - it's a sureal world is insurance.

[Devil]

Question: is this just the normal run-around, or do I have grounds for feeling hard done by?

Dude. Give the insurance company a ring. Ask to speak to the manager of the claims department and give them a bollocking. Mention whats happening with your finance company. If you dont get any action, start shifting up the chain of command. Take note of who you speak to each time, when you did it, and what they said they were going to do. If they promise a payout, get them to put it in writing.

Hate hearing about insurance companies stuffing people around
Ive had to work my butt off to keep my record spotless after an accident I had (17yrs old, restricted, wrote off $5k worth of prelude) in 1998. Thank god, I have made it, and its now over 5 years ago. Due the types of cars I drive and me being under 25 ive had 3 different insurance companies in the last 4 years or so (they keep shifting the goalposts as to what they'll insure). Now getting my first motorcycle (5 days ago ) it was really nice to see an insurance premium under my current $1800 or so for the cage!

Summary: Hang in there, keep bugging them, and keep a record of whats going on!

[Posh Tourer :P]

If you have the facility, I would recommend recording all conversations with insurance companies, so you can tell them where they went wrong. Then you can demand better service, go see a manager, act extremely pissed off etc etc. I have had any number of hassles with AMI trying to organise a transfer of a policy into another policy holder name. They also managed to variously insure me for a Honda CB25T, CB15T2, and a CBT52, of regos 74LNK and 74LNX(the right one....finally). I wont even go into the other details on the policy. This was all done over the phone, with some twat who wasnt interested on the other end.
What are the chances of them paying out on these policies when they find that the details are wrong? I suspect very little. If I had recorded their convos, and then had to make a claim, I could have proved it was their fault.
Be very wary when dealing with insurance companies....even reputable ones like AMI..... (Although they did give me insurance for the beemer in my own name, after trying to tell me that the 650cc engine was "the V8 of the motorcycle world" (exact quote from the *manager* who I spoke to in an attempt to get it insured).

[claire]

Hey MikeL

I'd be intersted who you are insured with as I deal with insurance companies at least once a day and find them really easy to deal with as they are all customer service driven now to remain competitive. I have found that if they are using an independant assessor you do have to keep on to them a bit but usually the time frames are not as extreme as yours. I'd suggest phoning the assessor to make sure he has his paperwork in order and working down the food chain from there. "Bollocking" someone might make you feel better but I find I'm not so helpful to someone who phones with the intention to give me a piece of their mind!!!

Good luck sorting this out

Claire

PS Posh Tourer's comment about AMI and motorcycles is most probably correct. When we approached them about ours they were really honest and told us they weren't really interested in insuring motorcycles

[Oscar]

Jeez MikeL, what a pain in the ass this is turning out to be for you.

Touch wood, it's been many years since I've had an insurance claim so I can't comment on whether this is normal or not.

My advice would be to keep on ringing the Insurance company every day, and if you have copies of the claim form etc, send a copy to the finance company to prove you've lodged a claim some time ago.

Oscar, can you give any advice here?

Good luck.

Nuthin' much to add to your advice - ring 'em every day, get the names of everyone you speak to and ring them constantly, asking for the names of their superiors, and then ring them constantly. Ask them to confirm stuff in writing, by e-mail or fax. Threaten them with the Insurance Onbudsman.

Who was the insurer?
The stuff about the insurer informing the finance co. was bollocks. If anything it's up to the punter to tell the finance co. that the vehicle has been written off.

[marty]

PS Posh Tourer's comment about AMI and motorcycles is most probably correct. When we approached them about ours they were really honest and told us they weren't really interested in insuring motorcycles

although yesterday i spoke to my local AMI, when insuring another car, and asked what the premium on a 1992 CBR1000F, valued at $5k would be (mate of mine has one for sale, and it is a very nice 2-up machine - scott oiler, heated grips, hard luggage). try $340 premium, $750 excess. My aprilia costs more than that!

[marty]

they weren't interested in a $20k hayabusa though...

[jrandom]

even reputable ones like AMI..... (Although they did give me insurance for the beemer in my own name, after trying to tell me that the 650cc engine was "the V8 of the motorcycle world"

Bwahahahahahaha!

I fear the mighty HSV-like power of your R65!

Funnily enough I had a pretty good time insuring the FXR with AMI. Got all my other policies with them though, that tends to make a difference. I made one claim, too, for repairs of about $1600. That was processed within a week, which I was happy enough with, and everyone involved from their end seemed decent. Of course I then had to ride around on a bent bike for two months while Suzuki found me a new fairing, so AMI didn't have to actually pay out for a while...

[Devil]

"Bollocking" someone might make you feel better but I find I'm not so helpful to someone who phones with the intention to give me a piece of their mind!!!

Oh, i will clarimify. I mean give them a bollocking about whats happening, not give THEM a bollocking. Making it personal never helps. Heh.

[vifferman]

Yes, being stuffed about by the insurance company is fairly normal. Just remember - it's nothing personal, you're just another person on the end of the phone, and there's all this bureaucratic claptrap to wade through before everything's sorted.
I wrote off my bike last year, and was keen to buy the 'wreck' back as it had only superficial damage, but the insurance co and auction house stuffed about so much I gave up in the end. Also the pay out was lower than I thought it would be. I think it was "agreed amount" which was the same as current market value, which ended up as about $6500 - what the assessor reckoned it was worth. The insured amount was $6700, and they said if I got two more assessments that said it was worth more, they'd split the difference. So I talked to a few bike shops, and they said, "Take the money and run!" So I did.
I can't remember how long all this took, but it seemed like a goodly long time.

[Cajun]

MikeL its just insurance companys. they give you the run around. i tell you a little story

Brand new l300 van stole right outside work shop while we were working, we get 1 week stand down before anything happens, one week goes, about 10 days after vehicle stolen we have an claims investergator come down talk to us ask questions, pretty much tell us, all good. nothing for a week, ring insurance company, we not recieved anything from claims investergator, ring claims investergator told us he sent it 2 days ago by courier. Give insurance company couple more days ring back same thing. Only problem with insurance comany is keep getting different people, and wouldn't let talk to people who we talked to before or they were not there. so now this is going on for about 5 weeks so total 6 weeks with no vechile, we end up calling lawyers, to get on to insurance company, what you know in 4 hours the find the paper work. So thats 6 weeks with no work vehicle which is a total hassel and pain in the ass. should claim for 6 weeks no vehile, but fixed them taken all our insurance somewhere else. damn state.