Equity Red Star > Reviews (8)

NEVER, EVER USE EQUITY RED STAR (FIRST DIRECT) Unfortunately I had an accident in which my vehicle incurred severe frontal damage, apart from organising the recovery vehicle quite efficiently the whole process of making a claim has been a complete nightmare. Firstly I took out an additional policy for a guaranteed courtesy/hire car, this only comes into force when they (Equity Red Star) have decided in which direction they want to take your claim - either repairable or total loss, this takes a week to organise - a week without your guaranteed car as they hire/loan from different companies depending if it's repaired/total loss. Customer service is absolutely disgraceful, zero rated, you have to wait hours and hours to even contact them - only available 9.00-5.00 mon - fri. They really DO NOT CARE about your situation at all, I was put on hold for 58 minutes!! whilst I pleaded for a coutesy car thay were not interested, nobody went out of their way to assist in any way, shape or form. After deciding to process my claim as 'UNECONOMICAL TO REPAIR' I was offered an extremely low value for my car, this I rejected and proposed an increased value backed up by evidence of replacement cars on the open market. Constantly phoning the claims dept seeing how far along the process my claim had progressed was tortuous, NEVER ONCE had ERS the decency to phone me back, even though they said they would/promised/guaranteed/absolutely guaranteed within hours, I had to chase and squeeze any information out of them. I then discovered that the cost of my repair was less than the new value they had priced my car at, I questioned why it then couldn't be repaired and save everyone involved time and money....oh no, the cost of repairs was only an estimate - that's an estimate it took a week to do because I didn't get my hire untill they got this costing, and it would be less the salvage rights THEY deduct from YOUR car!! Going back and forth from one dept to another dept, from one company to another company, constantly having to phone and chase for any updates, never receiving returned calls all worn me down, I submitted and accepted their valuation offer for the total loss of my car. Can I have the cheque please!!! it has to be reviewed....processed....signed.....auth​orised....nobody with the right authority is in!! so my car hire has expired - you only get 21 days max no matter what, even if ERS has spent 2 weeks deliberating on what to do with your claim. I am back to square one with no car and sill awaiting a cheque to purchase a new car. NIGHTMARE.