I've chosen to post part of an email that I wrote to the Manager's of the insurance company and Accident Management Company I have been dealing with since Feb 20th, the day a man reversed into my car and my whole world got thrown into chaos and my mental health and sanity was to be challenged. The incident was nothing major just minor damage to my car and the guy immediately accepted liability, so the process from there should be that my car gets taken to the garage to be looked at, the damage is determined, quote for repairs is raised, their insurance company agrees to the quote, they pay the garage the money to do the work, the garage do the work I then get a call to say everything is completed and they will be dropping my car back off to me the following day. Case Closed. You'd think. But no, no no no no no! not when its MY car.
Today is the 11th of May, the incident happened on the 20th February and it was only yesterday I got my car back from the garage who my Insurance company chose to do the repairs and produce an engineers report if need be. On receipt of my car, I walked round and round it, looking from all angles at the damage that had been caused by the other dopey driver whilst reversing off his driveway, and I was in total agreement that the garage was right in writing it off, I mean just look at the damage.
Just look at that black mark on the passenger side back door, that will definitely stop the engine from working properly and the wheels from going round, I reckon the brakes must be fucked the suspension dodgy and the steering way off, but hold on a minute, I have been given the car back, does it need an MOT I ask? or service to prove it's roadworthy? Did my ears device me when I heard No, it's a category N which means although is a complete wright off its still ok to drive, so your fine to carry on driving it under its current insurance and MOT! WTF
From the moment I began dealing with my insurance company who I paid £960 for a year's insurance and when I actually needed their assistance they contracted it out to Kindertons Accident Management Company who in the last few months have been so difficult to deal with, such poor customer service, lack of communication and the constant anxiety over it left me not short of nearly having a breakdown.
Just look at that black mark on the passenger side back door, that will definitely stop the engine from working properly and the wheels from going round, I reckon the brakes must be fucked the suspension dodgy and the steering way off, but hold on a minute, I have been given the car back, does it need an MOT I ask? or service to prove it's roadworthy? Did my ears device me when I heard No, it's a category N which means although is a complete wright off its still ok to drive, so your fine to carry on driving it under its current insurance and MOT! WTF
From the moment I began dealing with my insurance company who I paid £960 for a year's insurance and when I actually needed their assistance they contracted it out to Kindertons Accident Management Company who in the last few months have been so difficult to deal with, such poor customer service, lack of communication and the constant anxiety over it left me not short of nearly having a breakdown.
Below is part of the email sent to my insurance company...
......I have sorted everything out my end with regards to my car however I am still waiting for the settlement payment to be paid to me. AA insurance says they sent the money to Kindertons on the 4th May, Kindertons say they haven’t received it and round and round we go. Again.
Roxanne seems to have picked up the Claim and has been helpful with chasing everyone up for me, I sent an email yesterday to Acorn/Haven/Kindertons Complaints Departments to say I've taken legal advice and since its been 11 weeks since the incident, I will allow until the 20th May to hear back from all parties and should this not happen I will be contacting the Ombudsman as all companies policies state is the next stage of play if the complaint is not settled.
I have spent far too many hours in my day dealing with this, chasing this person and that person and not getting called back or emailed back and don't even get me started on the dealings I have had with Kindertons. It came to my mind today that I wonder that as you have to have numerous dealings with them, you may even have had problems with communication between them and yourself and if so, you will have some experience of how they work...
I would like to say thank you for your help so far with this situation and also inform you that Roxanne has been very helpful, it would seem that she is the only member of staff that I have dealt with through this whole time that knows how to do her job properly. She understands that customers like being kept up to date, even if there's nothing to say, sending a courtesy email just to inform the customer that they haven’t been forgotten about and they are still chasing it behind the scenes, returning calls and responding to emails, communication is all I have wanted and although I am aware that you and Sam Wakefield the Manager at Kindertons have emailed me and called me a few times it's the calls to me that I didn't have to beg for that are important. It seems that everyone I have dealt with deals with the issues for a little while, then pass the buck, no doubt to whoever might be unfortunate to walk past their desk at that time!. Sam Wakefield was extremely helpful to begin with, however, he must have felt his job was done as he seems to have fallen off the end of the earth! I've not heard from him for weeks now. And as I said earlier if you and your team have had the same dealings with Kindertons as I have, no returned calls, emails ignored, terrible customer service, lack of experienced staff, staff with no idea of their company policies and procedures then you know how it feels and if you haven’t had to deal with them then you don't know how lucky you are!
I feel for the poor soul who gets the job to call me back, having no idea who I am and what's gone on and so is at a complete loss and just fumbling his way through the call, to which I respond, I know none of this is your fault however he is the only one who has called back and so I can't waste this opportunity to ask him to check on the status of everything and then he responds with, I’m sorry I don't know anything about any of that, I’ll call you back.
So back to Roxanne, when someone actually does the job that they are supposed to do, and they may even go above and beyond what's written on their job description which in turn makes the customer grateful and their life easier, happier, and less stressful and even though the member of staff is only doing what they get paid for, I say “Thank the Lord, give the girl a pay rise”
The actual reason I decided to publish this email is not only because the companies involved felt it was ok to provide such as poor service, but mainly because of the way it severely affected my mental health, I have spent hours on the phone being fobbed off and leaving messages requesting a callback and even more hours writing emails to just about everyone in the company just to get some feedback on what was going on with my car which they had taken to a garage for inspection however it wasn't the garage I had chosen and arranged to pick my car up so at one point I didn't even know where my car was!
Anyway, please choose wisely when picking your insurance companies as this situation ended up with me attending the Doctors to increase my anxiety medication, to them I was a policy number, not someone who was clearly expressing to them the situation was making me feel unwell. There is a lot more to this story and I could type pages and pages on the service I got and the way I was unbelievable things that happened such as their hire car breaking down twice in two days both after midnight and when I called explaining I was stranded on the A10 in the dark alone, I was told it was my responsibility to sort it out, however, I think I have already wasted too much precious time and given too much of myself and my sanity to them. So I will end on this, I have still not been paid out my settlement that I am owed from the other parties insurance company and right now even though I desperately need it to get my car sorted and bills paid, I cannot lose any more sleep or put my health at risk anymore at this time so that is what I have told them and that's it, I will not be contacting them again and every time I think about it, instead of calling and emailing them I will take 5 minutes out of my day for myself to meditate on it.
