A Crash A Claim But No Cigar (Churchill Insurance Company)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Churchill Insurance Company
Date:	12/01/02 (761 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Renowned Insurer, Potent adverts featuring Bulldog

Disadvantages: Terrible claims service

The next time your car insurance is up for renewal, consider that you may have to make a claim sometime. I’ve just gone through 17 months of torture with Churchill and I thought it was worth telling a cautionary tale.

***The accident***
One sunny, Sunday morning I decided to visit my local gym. I arrived to find the car park was heaving due to a Beanie Fair. The slip road leading to the parking spaces had 3 entrances so I eased past the first one. Some thirty metres in front of me was a Fiesta in which the driver was eyeing up the possibilities at the third entrance. Obviously, this was a no-go as she started to reverse (yes, a lady driver and I know that women generally make better drivers than men – just not this one). Anyway, she kept reversing and I sat there thinking, "she’ll stop in a second....yes, any second now...she WILL stop...s*$t!"... CRUNCH....right into my front end. We did the usual "who’s fault is it?" Tango and swapped details at the Leisure Centre.

Straightforward? I don’t think so? False telephone number, I discovered a couple of hours later. That said, I drove over to the address she gave me and, luckily, she hadn’t been able to think that quickly so it turned out to be kosha. Her hubby answered the door and exclaimed "not again!" as we agreed for me to come up with a quote. I really wanted to avoid the insurance company procedure, as I knew it would be a pain in the xxxx. It seemed that this particular lady had been involved in other accidents on a regular basis with her husband bailing her out all the time. Even at the time, however, I had an uneasy feeling, as he was very helpful whereas she never said a word but just kept looking blank instead.

2 days later a letter flopped onto my doorstep from an obscure accident management company in Ipswich threatening to have me hung, drawn and quartered as I had driven into the back of their client and that
I should admit liability immediately or sooner.

Somewhat interestingly, there is a camera at the leisure centre which is primed on the scene where the prang took place. Off I popped and enquired as to whether the incident would have been captured. Yes it had but I couldn’t access the film without police authority. What they COULD do was have a look and talk it through with me on the ‘phone. I duly rang and, incredibly, as the camera only recorded events every 10 seconds it made me look as though I had gone into the back of her. One frame had captured her looking around for a space; the next we had collided. Throughout I had been stationary but due to the mechanics of the camera it had distorted the incident (something I subsequently complained about as it wouldn’t be difficult for car thieves to manipulate this if they knew). At this point you are probably thinking...hmmm…maybe he’s as guilty as a bear with it’s paw jammed in a jam jar. Well, rest assured my friend, this story is as gospel as a black preacher slapping a tambourine on his thigh; proclaiming hallelujah! to the masses.

***The claim***
Well, at this juncture, it was a claim form job so off went the details to Churchill. They acknowledged and, fortunately, I had a witness so everything seemed straightforward. Until, one night, I was watching Watchdog and noticed a piece on the third party’s insurer (Drake Insurance) - they had gone into liquidation. This became the ongoing excuse for a litany of delay and mal-administration. At one stage, my whole file went missing and I HAD TO SEND IN copies of all my correspondence. Churchill was in the middle of an admin re-shuffle, which I got caught up in. You know the type – change of location therefore all the files get carted from one place to another (Yeah, I know, manual files still). Somehow the odd file goes walkies (probably ends up propping up some sap’s wonky table). Having comp
lained, my excess of £150 was returned but, as I pointed out, this was my money anyway!

12 months on and Halifax PLC launched it’s own car insurer – E-Sure which automatically took over my details (Churchill had previously underwritten Halifax Car Insurance). At renewal I got shafted for an extra £500 as my no-claims went west. Eventually, Churchill referred the case to solicitors as the third party had not replied to a single letter or phone call since the letter from the accident Management Company and the claim was finally settled in November this year.

***My point(s)***
(1) Remember that the claim handling is just as important as the cost of the premium when considering car insurance (this is hard to gauge, I know, but it is worth doing some digging)
(2) ALWAYS get a witness if you have a prang (seems obvious but you would be surprised...)
(3) Keep copies of everything and chase the insurers as it pays for them to be slowwwwwwww.
(4) Pay the legal fee premium – it’s worth it.
(5) Protect your no claims if you can.

***In conclusion***
This is one of the most painful episodes in my life although all’s well and all that. I can’t believe how dishonest some people are but maybe I’m being naïve. I’m sure that most people reading have been involved in one incident or another but, surely, it can’t have been as protracted as this. If it was then bad luck my friend and I hope my cautionary tale helps you as much as it has helped me by writing it.

#For those that like to know a little more about who they are dealing with:

Churchill is an off-shoot of the Swiss Insurer - Winterthur. The company began life in June 1989 with 88 employees selling car insurance policies, and added home insurance products the following year. Today, Churchill has a customer base of 2.9 million and employees number over 5,000. If you really do want to deal with them then, by
all means, try them on-line at Churchill.co.uk.

Marandina

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