Urgent Advice needed on how to proceed!

jaguar1187

jaguar1187

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Hello,

I'm looking for some advice on how to proceed with my insurance company. I was involved in an incident and the front of my car was damaged. I reported it all to the insurance company the day it happened (over 2 months ago) and they organised repair of my vechile.

I have an s3 8v but also at the house on a multicar policy is an a3 8v. The s3 is white and the a3 is black. I informed them that the S3 was involved in the accident but they told the garage where the repair work is being done that the A3 was in the accident. The garage have repaired the car including all of the coolant system as if it were the A3.

I noticed as they had fitted the lower grills as if they should have fog lights. So I rejected the car for them to be swapped out. I have since been to audi with a rough list of costs of parts who have informed me they are the incorrect parts for an s3.

Where do I stand with the insurance company as this is there mistake? Can I reject the car entirely? If so what are the implications. Or do I have to let them have another stab at it bearing in mind they've had several months to get it wrong so far? The damage btw does not warrant serval months repair?

Thanks in advance
 
You should have a letter, email etc confirming the phone call you made to report it, liability for the accident etc. so check that. Also insurance companies record phone calls but I'm not sure how you will get the recording. At the end of the day the point of repairing it is to have it in a condition it was in before the crash and its not. Its normal practice to reject it and the change the parts to the correct ones.
 
Wow...That's one hell of a mistake! ....Sorry to hear that buddy ....I would be hitting the roof!!!! If it was me I would be seeking legal action against them to A: Get the car fully repaired and B: Compensation

  • Maybe start by speaking to the insurance company's manager and see what they are willing to do .....
  • If they don't play ball then warn them that you will take legal action against them.....
  • If they don't play ball with that then seek legal advice....
Good luck
 
Did you report the incident to Audi Ensurance. It's possible they may be prepared to help anyway, providing you car is registered with them.
 
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h5djr said:
Did you report the incident to Audi Ensurance. It's possible they may be prepared to help anyway, providing you car is registered with them.
Click to expand...

Didn't know about this, will make sure I register as soon as I pick up my car
Why is Audi providing free Ensurance, how does this benefit them? Don't quite understand.
 
Are the repairing garaged admitting it's their error?
They really should be ordering the correct parts. It still is the garages fault even if the insurer told them it was a different spec of car.
They physically have it there to look at and get it right e.g. by registration, chassis no etc, or just plain and simply looking at it!

Liability to whose fault it is will be between the repairer and the insurer.
It shouldn't effect you at all so long as it gets repaired properly with the correct parts!
 
Liquidfusion-S3 said:
Didn't know about this, will make sure I register as soon as I pick up my car
Why is Audi providing free Ensurance, how does this benefit them? Don't quite understand.
Click to expand...

They manage it and in turn bill out a crazy amount for the hire car and also admin fees etc.
 
They bill the other insurance company?
It says hire car is free
 
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Nein :D
hmm according to the other thread seems like Audi Ensurance is absolutely useless.

Taken from another thread:

"The advantage is that the car will be properly repaired to Volkswagen retail standards and therefore won't lose its body warranty, and can be part exchanged at a Volkswagen dealer without serious penalty in the future. The disadvantage is that nothing is for nothing. And if Volkswagen has contracted with an accident management specialist to provide this service, then that specialist will earn its money by putting crash victims into expensive 'credit hire' cars for the duration of the repair, which may be extended to make more money from the hire. If the insurers refuse to pay, the crash victim becomes liable for the credit hire and I have heard of bills as high as £70,000 (while an Aston Martin was being repaired). £10,000 during the repair of a BMW is not unusual."
 
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Personally car hire would not be a thing I would be looking for as there is another Audi sitting on my drive (my wife's). The main thing for me would to 'Ensure' that the any repairs were carried out by an Audi Approved repairer using proper Audi parts.
 
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the only way it can of happened is if the wrong reg has been put on the work order, the parts will have been ordered on this

how ever im surprised no one questioned fitting the wrong parts,

reject the car, don't take it back and then get on to an engineer from your insurance firm to show the mistake

jake
 
I'd be hitting the roof if I were in your shoes. Not only have they cocked up but, by fitting incorrect parts, have possibly put your warranty in jeopardy.

I assume all the paperwork has the correct registration on it? If so then the garage are utter morons if they didn't even notice the registration was different, let alone the VIN.

I'd be telling (not asking) the insurers that it's going to an Audi dealer to be put right, not just to make sure it's done properly this time but to ensure that your warranty is fully intact after the cockup.
 
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I've spoken to the insurance company who are putting the fault solely with the garage. They are investigating to see if my claims are correct at the moment. There's talk of another engineer to go down to look at the car. All of which will take time. Getting frustrating now. Waiting for a call back from the insurance company.

On the warranty front I'm worried about what damage could have been done to the engine by running it with the wrong coolant system attached.

We shall see what happens!
 
jaguar1187 said:
On the warranty front I'm worried about what damage could have been done to the engine by running it with the wrong coolant system attached.
Click to expand...

Exactly - they've possibly caused further damage to the car and it should now go to an actual Audi dealer for a full inspection at the insurance companies cost - it's not just a case of rectifying the bodywork repairs any more. I'd be demanding this and if they start give you excuses I'd be straight on to the insurance ombudsman.
 
Vertigo1 said:
Exactly - they've possibly caused further damage to the car and it should now go to an actual Audi dealer for a full inspection at the insurance companies cost - it's not just a case of rectifying the bodywork repairs any more. I'd be demanding this and if they start give you excuses I'd be straight on to the insurance ombudsman.
Click to expand...

+1
I agree there is no way I would let the garage do any further damage to my car, I would be demanding it be trailered to my Audi dealers for full inspection and repair
 
+ 1 for the ombudsman

I work for a car hire company, I remember one chap who had a MK 1 golf gti cab (pretty special nowadays) and someone slashed the roof, put a claim in and they sent it to a number of dodgy repairers who would have it 2 weeks then say they wouldn't do it, sent it somewhere else they did it then on a sunny day put the roof down and it ripped off the frame. They would also try and tow it from Morecambe, Lancs to Liverpool and then to south wales. On both occasions the owner refused to let the car go unless it was done using 4 wheel lift given it was a 20 year old car. In the end it was sorted but it took 14 months!!!!!!!!!

Anyway the ombudsman awarded him with a lot of compo and it was a pretty easy process by all accounts. I wouldn't have any concerns going to them seeing its a £30K+ car that now has possible underlying mechanical issues.
 
jaguar1187 said:
I've spoken to the insurance company who are putting the fault solely with the garage. They are investigating to see if my claims are correct at the moment. There's talk of another engineer to go down to look at the car. All of which will take time. Getting frustrating now. Waiting for a call back from the insurance company.

On the warranty front I'm worried about what damage could have been done to the engine by running it with the wrong coolant system attached.

We shall see what happens!
Click to expand...
Who is your insurance company, always handy to know who they are and how well they sort things.
 
That's f****d up, how the repairers didn't do a basic VIN / Reg check is beyond me.

In my eyes it's simple, needs to go to Audi for a full inspection and to be put right.

A3 mechanics on a S3, I'm shuddering right now.
 
S32B said:
Who is your insurance company, always handy to know who they are and how well they sort things.
Click to expand...

Once all I said and done I shall let you know but whilst it's being investigated I will keep quiet to be on the safe side.

Dtwm1 said:
+ 1 for the ombudsman

I work for a car hire company, I remember one chap who had a MK 1 golf gti cab (pretty special nowadays) and someone slashed the roof, put a claim in and they sent it to a number of dodgy repairers who would have it 2 weeks then say they wouldn't do it, sent it somewhere else they did it then on a sunny day put the roof down and it ripped off the frame. They would also try and tow it from Morecambe, Lancs to Liverpool and then to south wales. On both occasions the owner refused to let the car go unless it was done using 4 wheel lift given it was a 20 year old car. In the end it was sorted but it took 14 months!!!!!!!!!

Anyway the ombudsman awarded him with a lot of compo and it was a pretty easy process by all accounts. I wouldn't have any concerns going to them seeing its a £30K+ car that now has possible underlying mechanical issues.
Click to expand...

If I'm not happy after this weekend I shall be making a complaint first thing on Monday morning.
 
It won't of done any damage running a slightly different rad, unless you overheated of course.

In the big insurance shops the guy Who will order the parts will rarely see the car, if the work order has the wrong reg, then parts will off been ordered off that.
 
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jaguar1187 said:
Once all I said and done I shall let you know but whilst it's being investigated I will keep quiet to be on the safe side.



If I'm not happy after this weekend I shall be making a complaint first thing on Monday morning.
Click to expand...

Fixing distressed insurance claims is my job, you're quite right to keep your powder dry. For the moment at least.

A quick point to clear up - did you use your own repairer or did the insurers get you to use one from their approved repairer network? If this is an approved repairer and they gave the repair instructions, then the insurer has ultimate responsibility for any problem with the quality of the repair.

This kind of thing happens from time to time, just a sad fact of life. No excuse, but sometimes the repairers get it spectacularly wrong. The repairer will almost always be keen to get this sorted out asap to avoid risking their approved repairer status. An insurer nomination is a significant income stream for these garages, and insurers don't like getting these kind of complaints. It's a massive ar*e ache, but should be an easy fix.

Call them again early Monday, and if you get the run around, calmly ask to speak to someone to escalate the matter. You might want to mention their FCA obligations around Treating Customers Fairly (TCF); this usually gets their attention.

What should happen if you get a decent claims handler is that they will arrange for the car to be uplifted, inspected, and properly repaired. They should provide you with a replacement vehicle, and it should be something reasonably equivalent, as this is effectively their issue. You could suggest that you'll look for an equivalent credit hire vehicle to be recharged to them if they offer you something daft.

You can ask that they have an engineer inspect both before and after they sort this, they may or may not agree to a post fix inspection, but if you don't ask, you don't get.

You have no recourse to the ombudsman at this stage, you need to try to resolve the matter with the insurer first, but if you get messed around you can let it be known that you're prepared to go that far if they don't sort it out to your satisfaction. Chances are that they'll try to fix this asap, you'll be doubly unlucky if they p*ss around with this.

Would be handy to know who the insurer is, some are much better at resolving f*ck ups than others.

Let me know how you get on, happy for you to PM me if that's easier.

Fingers crossed....
 
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Thanks for your advice in regards to the below

Steph67 said:
A quick point to clear up - did you use your own repairer or did the insurers get you to use one from their approved repairer network? If this is an approved repairer and they gave the repair instructions, then the insurer has ultimate responsibility for any problem with the quality of the repair.
Click to expand...

It was an approved repairer. I shall call again tomorrow and ask for the car to be uplifted. I will definitely be looking for an alternative courtesy car as I currently am driving a 1.2 vauxhall corsa which is painful to say the least! But at the time I thought it would be for the 2-3 weeks as quoted!
 
They only have to give you a category a vehicle. It says it in the sla agreements. Atleast you have a car to use.
 
cuprajake said:
They only have to give you a category a vehicle. It says it in the sla agreements. Atleast you have a car to use.
Click to expand...

That's only for the insurance repair, not for sorting the repairer **** up. The SLA doesn't apply to this. :)
 
Yep if it's first party (at fault) it's normally smallest cheapest unless you have hire car+.
 
I would push for longer in the hire car if you havent got one now.

Keep a note of everything and pictures, for example calls, times, what was said, etc
 
According to the garage it took so long as the frequently got the wrong parts, parts came in damaged or they had to get them on back order from Germany.
 
Sounds like a 'mare

Sound advice from @Steph67

Did you try to reject the repair upon collection or had to accepted it and then noticed the issue?

Hope you get it sorted

John.
 
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jaguar1187 said:
It was an approved repairer. I shall call again tomorrow and ask for the car to be uplifted. I will definitely be looking for an alternative courtesy car as I currently am driving a 1.2 vauxhall corsa which is painful to say the least! But at the time I thought it would be for the 2-3 weeks as quoted!
Click to expand...

Not relevant in this particular case, but may be useful information for others reading this thread. The one great advantage of Audi Ensurance (rather than Audi Insurance) is that, once your care is registered with them, they can 'Ensure' that any repair work required is carried out by an Audi Approved repairer. If the insurance company try and say they will only pay for it to be repaired by one of their approved repairers then Audi Ensurance will pay the difference. A useful service particularly as it's Free to all new Audi owners.

The one time I needed some bodywork repair on an A3 my insurance company wanted me to get three quotes from repairers on their list. I said No and insisted I would take it to the nearest Audi Approved repairer (which were part of the same group as the dealer that sold me the car). In the end the insurance company accepted this and the car was repaired at the the repairer of my choice.
 
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JohnnyM100 said:
Sounds like a 'mare

Sound advice from @Steph67

Did you try to reject the repair upon collection or had to accepted it and then noticed the issue?

Hope you get it sorted

John.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I must say @Steph67 has been extremely helpful.

I rejected the car upon collection as it was obvious that the parts were incorrect.
 
Just an update on what has happened. Audi now have the car and today I went to see it. It was shocking. The garage have not only fitted wrong parts but Audi suspect that they have not fitted Genuine Audi parts. This has voided my warranty. Luckily as it has not been driven they will replace them and the warranty will be ok. They have also painted the car with the wrong paint. They damaged the seat and replaced it with the wrong seat. They have curbed the alloys and repaired them in such a way they have been written off by audi. They have repaired things that Audi believe should not be repaired but should have been replaced. I'm currently waiting for Audi to finish their report and come back to me.

My insurance company were dragging their heels up until yesterday when I had to phone and kick off as my car was still at the original garage. Cannot wait until the phone call tomorrow. It's as shocking. My car is in pieces with what pieces they have in the boot and has scratched up the interior. The only way I can describe it is devistating!
 
Sorry to hear that mate it's heart breaking what incompetent morons, good luck also hope it turns out as best as it can
 
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