Not with Direct Line, I don't (Direct Line)

Member Name: cloudcover

Product:	Direct Line
Date:	17/09/01 (301 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, friendly call centre staff

Disadvantages: terrible approved garages, don't always have an approved garage!

Let's be honest about this, when we do the annual phone around for car insurance, the actual purpose of the service, or the possibility that we might have to use it, is not uppermost on most of our minds. It's the cost that matters and in that respect, so long as you're a low risk driver, Direct Line is a winner.

Fine. I'm a safe driver and Direct Line offered me the cheapest quote. At the time (this actually happened about six years ago but I’ve heard nothing to suggest that anything’s changed) I had turned twenty-five in the previous year and was therefore able to protect my full no claims bonus – fortunately, as it turned out.

There was a ring on the doorbell late one Saturday night – my neighbour, a little the worse for wear, had been coming back home and had surprised someone acting suspiciously around a car outside. I had only changed my car a few months earlier and it was only when he went inside and asked his wife if she knew who owned a blue maestro that he realised it was mine. When he went out again, the man was back and actually inside my car, trying to take the ignition apart (or whatever you do to start cars without the key – I’m not an expert on these things). My neighbour scared him away, so I still had a car, thanks to him but one look at the mess that had been the ignition told me I wasn’t going anywhere in it for a while.

Never having had an insurance claim before, I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to deal with it. Before ringing Direct Line, I checked for the nearest Rover garage in the yellow pages. I lived in Pontypridd at the time and the nearest Rover garage was in Cardiff, so I rang Direct Line with the yellow pages open on my knee so that I could pass on the details of the garage I assumed I would use.

The person I spoke to was very helpful. In fact, I had no problem at all with the standard of customer service I received from Direct Line. I a
ccepted the fact that they only worked with approved garages, so if I wanted to use the Rover garage I had found I would have to organise it myself and submit the paperwork to Direct Line for approval. I accepted that it would be much easier to let them send their own people to collect the car and deal with it. Everything was taken out of my hands and I was delighted.

A breakdown truck duly arrived, driven by someone who had the sense to phone from the main road to ask for directions – useful because I lived in a little tucked away street at the Treforest end of Ponty – the other end from the town centre.

Fine – no problem. OK, so I’d been under the impression that I was entitled to a courtesy car and it turned out that there was some loophole I now forget which meant they didn’t have to give me one but I didn’t complain – I should get my car back in a couple of days. I could phone the garage on Tuesday to see how it was going and in the meantime I could get a lift to work.

On Tuesday, I rang the garage – Sosnas, based in Newport, which seemed quite a long way to go when there were garages in Cardiff. I was put on hold for a while, told I would need to speak to the manager and that he would phone me back in an hour.

On Wednesday, I rang the garage – a little disgruntled now and explained that no one had rung me back as promised on the previous day. I was put on hold for a while, told I would need to speak to the manager and that he would phone me back in an hour.

Two hours later I rang back – fairly annoyed now and explained that I was trying to be patient but that I’d been told that I should get my car back soon and would like to know when. I was told that they hadn’t done it yet but I should ring tomorrow.

On Thursday I rang the garage, was told the manager would ring back in an hour, I rang back two hours later – pretty steaming
now and told them more or less what I thought of them. Eventually I was told I would get the car back the next day. Fine. Good. I mentioned the fact that the street was a little difficult to find and they may want directions but was told not to worry about that. This seemed reasonable – after all, they could ask the man who’d collected it in the first place, or phone, as he had.

By four o’clock on Friday, when there was no sign of my car, I rang the garage again. I was told that someone had left with my car and would be bringing it to me soon. Fine.

By five o’clock I rang the garage again and was told that there was no word from the person driving my car or his colleague who was following in another car, ready to take them both back to Newport when they had finished. It doesn’t take an hour to get between Newport and Pontypridd – this was a little worrying.

By six o’clock I rang the garage again – I was told that both cars had arrived back, as they had driven round Pontypridd town centre for two hours asking people where my street was and finding no one who knew. The man I spoke to said he had already stayed at work longer than he should have done, to wait for the drivers to get back and did I really want my car that night.

I said yes. I think I managed to restrain myself from saying more than that but the memory is lost in a bit of a red mist.

Finally, at seven o’clock, my car was brought back on a breakdown van by someone who knew my area and seemed a bit smarter, if cockier, than the other people I had dealt with. He explained that there was nothing unusual in dealing with Direct Line claims in Ponty as Sosnas dealt with Direct Line claims as far from Newport as Swansea – they were the only approved Direct Line garage for South Wales, it seemed.

I made him wait while I checked my car over – fortunately as it turned out because (having only one
key for the ignition and all doors, all the locks on the maestro had had to be changed) the lock on the hatchback was jammed. The man fixed this, grumbling about the apprentice and, when everything was done, I let him go.

I’ll repeat the fact that the actual Direct Line people I dealt with were fine – in fact, because I told them at great length exactly what I thought of their approved garage, they let me off the £50 excess – well, at any rate, they never billed me and I never asked.

However, one question I always ask now when renewing my car insurance is, if I needed repairs, who would you send me to? The last time I checked, the answer from Direct Line was still ‘Sosnas’, so I don’t insure with Direct Line. It isn’t worth the risk.

When a friend of mine pranged her Citroen a couple of years ago, I found out she was also insured with Direct Line. In her case, it turned out that there was no Direct Line approved Citroen repairer anywhere in South Wales. She had no choice but to sort it out herself.

Presumably this is simply the price to pay for cheap car insurance – they cut corners on their repair services and hope that, because they only want low risk drivers, they won’t be used that often. Perhaps, once you have a claim, they’re no longer confident that you’re low risk, so they don’t want you anyway and are happy to lose you. Who knows?

The main thing I learned is: for any sort of insurance, don’t just go by price, ask about what happens when you actually need them.

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