Much to Trumpet about (Elephant.co.uk)

Member Name: pipefish

Product:	Elephant.co.uk
Date:	15/07/03 (1522 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Handled quick relatively quickly, No waiting in phone queues

Disadvantages: Need email or internet - although there are now phone lines too, You may get a better deal the next year

I used Elephant for one year (2002-3) and also made a claim with them. I found that their quote was very competitive and more importantly they handled the claim well. So how do they compare to all the other insurance companies?

Usually every year at renewal time I get several quotes as almost always it results in getting a reduction in the premium. However after several phones calls and getting a bit bored with the repetitive lists on questions and pressure selling from one company (the rep said that if I signed up there and then he'd give a 10% discount so he didn't get a deal) I decided to go onto the internet to look for quotes.
I have always found internet sites good for insurance as you can go through the quote at your leisure and play about with the options; for example changing the mileage per year, changing the excess, adding no claims protection, stating that the car is kept in the garage etc. and seeing how it changes the premium without driving a poor call centre rep mad. As Elephant had been advertising a lot at the time they were in my mind and as they were touted as an internet-only operation it seemed like this should mean cheaper overheads and premiums so I gave it a go.

Generally the website is well laid out - the policy and terms and conditions are all available there plus a large FAQ section. There is also a large button on the home page that takes you to a form to fill out a claim and submit it. You can also email any claims and correspondance and the only requirement is to state your name and policy number on the emails. Their website is also complete with its own mascot elephant and bad elephant puns, so I have limited them in this review.
Making the quote up I found that they were still cheaper than my present insurers even with a lower excess of £60 (total excess for accidents £160) and adding on no-claims protection. therefore I decided to go with them.

Well that's the bit about the premium, now
importantly when it comes down to claiming does it work? At the time Elephant were internet only and had one premium rate line that seems to be constantly ignored or not working. This has now changed and there are now 5 0870 numbers to call them up on plus a number to contact from abroad too. There is also now breakdown cover with a 24-hour helpline.

The best tip though if you are specially getting internet-only insurance is MAKE SURE THAT YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THE INTERNET! If you use work for your contact email address and internet to run access to your policy it's not much use if you shunt your car on Friday and have to report the claim in 48 hours and do not have internet access over the weekend at home! I managed to shunt another car on friday and was faced with this!
In the end I had to borrow a friend's computer to submit the claim form over the internet (you could also use email or a public text-phone to submit it). At the time I was still setting up a phone in my house and so it caused some worrying and fretting about reporting the claim in time.

However it turned out that there was nothing to worry about - the next monday an email had come back (to work!) authorising an inspection at a garage. Unfortunately it was a garage 30 miles away so an email back asking for a closer garage was quickly fired off and a reply received back later that day authorising repairs in a garage in the same city.
I drove the car round for an inspection (it was still just about drivable) but then had to wait several days while the garage submitted the report back to Elephant. As the repairs were close to the write-off value of the car (insurers typically take this as about 75% of the car's value) the garage could not offer a courtesy car until a decision was made whether the insurer were happy to proceed with the repairs. Fortunately Elephant approved the repairs and I was able to drop in the car a week later and received a good courtesy car
for several days while it was repaired. I thought that the approval was generous given the damage to the car - the bloke at the garage certainly was surprised!

Afterwards I received a call from one of the 'Elephant Handlers' to let me know how the claim was going as the other driver was claiming for whiplash and I'd received some documents from his solicitor and passed them on to Elephant. This again was sorted out with no problems.
Another email to Elephant requesting for details on the repairs was also handled quickly and I recieved a breakdown of all the costs in the post within a few days. Bodywork repairs worked out to about treble the cost of the approved parts - one third their cost, one third repainting costs and the rest labour.

So overall it was handled quickly and sorted out within 2 weeks and my car received a whole set of new panels on the front. I would say that the delays caused were more down to the repair garage umming and ahhing rather than Elephant, who dealt with the claim very quickly. All correspondance was handled quickly and a reply usually received back within a day or two. Compare this to many insurance claims departments, where I found it takes up to 4 phone calls to get through unless you want to wait on hold for 20 minutes. This is usually not possible if you are calling from work, unless you are in a particulatly isolated office.


I only switched to another insurer the next year as although the renewal premium only slightly increased I found that another insurer could beat it by £100. Therefore I had get the elephants to pack their trunks (snigger).
There was a slight mix-up in the cancellation as I sent in a email requested not to renew the cover but then got a batch email back confirming that the cover had been renewed. I sent back a snot-mail back demading to know why this had happened. I quickly got an apologetic letter back confirming that they had not renewed the policy and there
had been a mix up as they had a fault with their email server and so had a several day backlog.

In retrospect it may have been useful to haggle over the premium as many companies have staff to handle just this and will reduce your renewal quotation if someone else has beaten it, especially if you go back to them with the new figure.

In general I found Elephant to be very good although it shows that it always pays to shop around for insurance every year and to be ready for having to make a claim at any time. I didn't mind using email for most of the comms but some people may not find it reassuring to have to send an email and wait for a response when their car is smashed and would probably prefer at this time to speak to an operator to sort it out. However if you are busy I found it more convenient to just send an email and not have to worry about queuing on the phone to reach an operator at a call centre during the working week.

Summary: