I am now in my second year of being insured by Kwik fit and have never had cause to complain about them, until now, and that's because, until now, I have not needed them. Yes they are cheap, but when it comes to the crunch, I need more than that.
I was involved in a serious accident on the motorway a couple of weeks ago, so serious that the driver of the other vehicle involved is now in custody awaiting a court hearing for a charge of death by dangerous driving. As you can imagine, I have been very distressed and upset by the events of that evening.
I have fully comprehensive cover and the other driver is clearly at fault (although an admission would be impossible to obtain given that he's in prison, it would be hard for his insurance company to deny his liability). Given the circumstances, what I expected, and what I needed was for my insurers to do everything they could to help me in an understanding way, but what I have found is that they do the absolute minimum grudgingly.
First problem is that NIG, the insurers used by Kwik Fit don't deal with the whole claim, they only deal with the "insured losses" (the car basically) and they appoint another company, Albany Assistance, to deal with the "uninsured losses" the hire car, who in turn appoint Solicitors to deal with the personal injury claim. That's three different organisations that I have had to go through all the distressing details of the accident with.
Second Problem; When I first contacted Albany Assistance to report the accident, they told me that I was not insured. According to their records, my policy had ended in November and I had not renewed it. "No", I told them "My policy is not up for renewal until June, I added my brother to my policy for one week in November, but my policy doesn't end until June", the converstaion went on like this and the issue was not resolved until I had shed a few more tears and contacted Kwik Fit to get them to tell Albany Assistance that I was insured.
Third Problem; My hire car. When I bought the insurance, I paid an extra premium for a hire car in the event of loss of use of car, regardless of fault. Albany Assistance organised a hire car for me, I'm told that as all evidence would suggest that the accident wasn't my fault they will be able to recover the cost from the third party's insurance, however, if they can't recover the cost from them, I will be expected to pay for it. Hang on a minute, although I'm confident that I was not liable for the accident, that's not the point, they encouraged me to take out an addition to my policy for a hire car but would only actually give me the hire car if they could recover the costs from the third party, why am I having to pay extra then? In addition to this, they would not give me legal cover for the hire car, I don't think that it's unreasonable to expect that the car given to me to replace my own car is insured to the same level that I had paid for my own car, after all, had I not been crashed into I would still be driving my own car. I was simply told that they can't do this as they would not be able to recover those costs.
The claim is still on-going and I can predict more problems to come. In the immediate aftermath of an accident, the last thing you need is problems and battles with your own insurance company who are supposed to be acting in your interests. What I have found is that they act in their own interests and in the interests of the third party's insurance comapny. I will not be insuring myself with Kwik Fit again.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Compare Car Insurance Quotes at
Quotezone? Our quote technology compares
quotes from leading car insurance
companies and brokers in real time, so
you only have to Fill in One Form to
Compare lots of reputable Insurers!
Dec 19th, 2007
very helpful by (93%):
helpful by (7%):
