I am at my wits end over this one

[mrsinvisible]

in 2007 my daughters car was reversed into by a van while she was stationary. Witnesses agreed and the fault was not contested by the other driver. Her car was undrivable, and as part of her insurance she was given a hire car , she had this for 4 weeks. She was asked to fill in lots of forms as this insurer was using albany for the car. Daughter complied and we filled in everything their solicitor sent her. Heard nothing until dec 2010 when she got a communication asking her to sign the enclosed documents and return them. There were no enclosed documents. We contacted the solicitor who said oops, we will resend them. They didnt, it was christmas and we forgot about it. May 2011 another letter saying you havent cooperated with our request so we are removing our cover. Again we phoned and asked what was going on. By now it was a different firm of solicitors and they said to contact the insurer. We did, they said dont worry we will cover it. July 2012 she got a similar letter telling her she needed to engage her own solicitor. She tried and was told (I think) to contact the insurer again and tell them that she had complied and that they had to send her the correct documents, which we did.
Today she gets another letter from yet another solicitor telling her that they were applying for her to pay the enclosed invoice for car hire as they were removing their services due to her non cooperation. This invoice is for £2285 and is money she just hasnt got.
Any advice would be so very welcome as I dont think we will get much sleep until it is sorted. Of course we rang the solicitor today but the one we needed to speak to was not in the office until middle of next week.

[MrsD]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

Have you spoken to the insurance company?

get a letter off toutesuite complaining about the absolutely awful treatment your daughter has had.

I'd like to see where in the contract it says that your daughter has to put up with all this shyte and pay their bill, might be demanding money with menaces!!

Complain to the insurance company and then the the of insurance or whatever it's called

then the law society about the first and second load of numpty solicitors

and try not to worry, we'll get it sorted

[mrsinvisible]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

Thanks Mrs D will draught letter tomorrow when my head is not full of cotton wool, never thought about complaining, just about getting it sorted out. (what a muppet eh?)

[MrsD]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

don't worry these barstewards get you in such a tis, you don't think straight,

calm and assertive everytime and it does no harm to call some bugger (any buggar actually) young man....................

I swear I have heard them frothing on the phone.........................

[Pixie]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

Try not to worry over this Mrs! (easier said than done).

It's ridiculous that your daughter's getting all this hassle for an accident which wasn't her fault and car hire arranged through the insurance. Get complaining and if that doesn't work get back to us and we'll sort something out between us

[vint1954]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

CPUTR may help. P1 may know.

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

Hi Mrs Invisible,
As already mentioned, you need to write to the Insurance Company and keep everything in writing from now on.

It's important that you invoke their complaints procedure so head your letter Formal Complaint and in conclusion ask for a copy of their complaints procedure. That way you have taken the necessary steps to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman if the company fail to resolve it.
Send by recorded delivery and specify a time frame to respond, eg 7 or 14 days. I'd also cc the current solicitor with a cover letter saying that you are not liable for this invoice, please see enclosed letter and refer back to your client.

More info on FOS here: motor insurance

If you want help with the letter just shout, or post it up on here and we can "tweak" it for you if necessary.



PS If they continue playing silly beggars send a SAR to the insurance company...

[mrsinvisible]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

Thanks all for your advice. I feel a lot better today, so I will get the letter to the insurance company done this am, and will copy it to the solicitors, I feel much more positive about it today, and will keep you all informed of any progress made. I can't tell you all the support on here means xx

[PriorityOne]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

Thanks all for your advice. I feel a lot better today, so I will get the letter to the insurance company done this am, and will copy it to the solicitors, I feel much more positive about it today, and will keep you all informed of any progress made. I can't tell you all the support on here means xx

Please post your letter up here first as chances are, we can tweak it into something much more powerful and make sure all the points are covered before it goes off.

They sound like a bunch of total incompetents.....

Please stop ringing them up as well. Nothing ever gets achieved by ringing people up, as you have now found out..... because I suspect there's no paper trail with this at all in terms of anyone admitting they should have sent paperwork that they haven't.

[mrsinvisible]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

Hi everyone, this is the bones of the letter I intend sending to the insurer, any advice on rewording much appreciated.

FORMAL COMPLAINT
Ref No
Accident date

Dear sir,
with reference to the above accident, and the subsequent actions from your company and its secondary instruments (ie Alb@ny and currently M@son H@yes solicitors.
I believe that your handling of this issue and the way you have dealt with me has fallen far short of your customer servive standards.
Ibelieve that your contention that I have failed to cooperate with you in this claim to be erroneous, as I have complied with every request made by yourselves and your agents.
I have filled in and returned forms, even requested forms to be sent, when they were missing from your correspondence.
I have telephoned the appropriate department whenever you have corresponded with me, and have been repeatedly reassured that 'the letter was sent out in error, sorry, don't worry' or on the occasion that you told me that i needed to appoint my own solicitor to deal with this that 'no , our solicitors have this in hand'
I find, now, that I am being invoiced for payment of car hire which was arranged by yourselves and covered (as I was assured) by my insurance with you.
This is intolerable by any business standards and has caused me much anxiety and distress.
I expect you to write to me within the next fourteen days, giving your assurance that this matter is indeed closed and will give me no more worry.
Failing this, I feel that i will have no other course of action than to refer this to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Although i hope you will resolve this matter without such recourse on my part, I am requesting that you send me a copy of your complaints procedure.

I remain, in all else,
Yours sincerely
Mrs I's dd

[mrsinvisible]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

I will copy it to the solicitor with a brief letter saying that I am not responsible for paying the invoice, see the copied letter and send the invoice directly to the insurer please.
Do you think that is enough to start getting it sorted out? Again thanks to you all for the help

[MrsD]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

Looks OK but P1 is the master letterwritershoveitupthem person so let her have a look.

Good to send it straight to the CEO, should be able to find out who that is on google

[LooLoo]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

Ah Mrs I so sorry you and daughter having this hassle x

[PriorityOne]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

Hi everyone, this is the bones of the letter I intend sending to the insurer, any advice on rewording much appreciated.

FORMAL COMPLAINT
Ref No
Accident date

Dear sir,
with reference to the above accident, and the subsequent actions from your company and its secondary instruments (ie Alb@ny and currently M@son H@yes solicitors.
I believe that your handling of this issue and the way you have dealt with me has fallen far short of your customer servive standards.
Ibelieve that your contention that I have failed to cooperate with you in this claim to be erroneous, as I have complied with every request made by yourselves and your agents.
I have filled in and returned forms, even requested forms to be sent, when they were missing from your correspondence.
I have telephoned the appropriate department whenever you have corresponded with me, and have been repeatedly reassured that 'the letter was sent out in error, sorry, don't worry' or on the occasion that you told me that i needed to appoint my own solicitor to deal with this that 'no , our solicitors have this in hand'
I find, now, that I am being invoiced for payment of car hire which was arranged by yourselves and covered (as I was assured) by my insurance with you.
This is intolerable by any business standards and has caused me much anxiety and distress.
I expect you to write to me within the next fourteen days, giving your assurance that this matter is indeed closed and will give me no more worry.
Failing this, I feel that i will have no other course of action than to refer this to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Although i hope you will resolve this matter without such recourse on my part, I am requesting that you send me a copy of your complaints procedure.

I remain, in all else,
Yours sincerely
Mrs I's dd

Hi there Mrs I....

I've re-jigged this a little. Please check for accuracy and send by rec. delivery to the insurer, with a copy to the solicitor.

[I]FORMAL COMPLAINT
Ref No
Incident date

Dear Sir/Madam,

I refer to the above referenced incident, the subsequent actions of your company since it occurred in 2007 and the plethora of agents/solicitors that have been involved since that time, including but not limited to Albany and more recently, Mason Hayes.

Your contention that I have failed to co-operate with you in trying to deal with this farce is not only ridiculous at best but continues to deviate away from the crux of the problem which to put it bluntly, has been your own sheer incompetence.

I have complied with every request made by yourselves and your agents from the start. Notwithstanding the gap of approximately three years between the date of the incident and being contacted by the first firm of solicitors, I have filled in and returned forms, requested forms that were missing from your correspondence to be sent out, telephoned the appropriate department(s) after receiving correspondence and it seems, was entirely foolish to have been repeatedly reassured by you time and time again that “the letter was sent out in error, sorry, don't worry” or, when I was told by one of your agents to appoint my own solicitor, that “no, our solicitors have this in hand”.

As it seems that neither you or anyone else has had very little in hand at all since 2007 however, I now require a full and detailed written breakdown of each and every attempt taken by your company and anyone that you have instructed since 2007 to deal with this matter on my behalf.

With reference to your recent demand for payment of car hire, please be advised that this was in fact both arranged by yourselves and covered by yourselves as part of my insurance package with your company. If it is your contention however that this was never part of my insurance policy with yourselves, then I require written evidence of the same in your response. In any event, I require you to address this point in full as part of your written response under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (CPUTR) 2008.

I am prepared to give you 14 days within which to consider your position, provide a full written explanation that details your actions to date and an assurance that the matter is now closed. Any failure to address the points raised in this letter however, will see this complaint escalated with the relevant authorities with immediate effect and without any further notice.

I trust that I have made my position abundantly clear and look forward to receiving your response, together with a formal apology for wasting my time for nearly 5 years, for the stress and anxiety caused by your mis-management of this incident and for your recent invoice.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs. I

cc.

[mrsinvisible]

Re: I am at my wits end over this one

Wow, P1, thank you thank you this is wonderful. It will be sent today, as you suggest and certainly by recorded delivery. Hope it makes them sort it out. Feeling soooo positive and strong now