Fortis - We make a crisis into a nightmare ... (Motor Insurance - Comments & Tips)

Member Name: Macliam

Product:	Motor Insurance - Comments & Tips
Date:	19/06/01 (846 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Abysmal service, No help

A sad tale – but make sure it doesn’t happen to you!

Driving along a fairly narrow country road on a bank-holiday Friday evening, I saw a A 4x4 with trailer approaching, so I pulled into the side of the road and stopped to give him passing space. Then ….CRASH! …. a small car had failed to stop and rammed me from behind. No-one was injured, but my car had a lot of rear-end damage. We exchanged details etc. and the police arrived, noted a 30-foot skidmark leading to the impact (not bad in a 30mph zone!) and noted that my rear lights were gone – but gave me leave to drive home, with a warning that the car was technically not roadworthy.

OK, no problem. A no-fault claim, since liability was obviously with the other driver, But, timing is everything …. And mine was bad! I phoned my insurance company’s ‘helpline’ at 9pm. that night. “Oh dear” they said, “It’s a bank holiday, so we won’t be able to get anyone out before Tuesday”. I was not amused, I explained that this meant I would not have a roadworthy vehicle throughout the weekend and anyway, Saturday is a ‘normal’ work day for most garages. They agreed to fax out the details that night to give me the best chance of an early visit. WRONG! What they failed to tell me was a) that THEY don’t work on a Saturday and b) they couldn’t give a @*£&! whether I had a vehicle or not. This I found out when I phoned the ‘helpline’ on Saturday to be told that no-one could help me as the service was only for emergency calls at the weekend!

So Tuesday arrived and it was then that I found out that no details had been faxed on Friday or at any other time. This was after a call to the ‘helpline’ who told me to call their ‘incident managers’ (another national rate call) ….. eventually a local garage was told to collect the vehicle (but not until 12.30) and cal
led me to say that all their vehicles were committed and it was unlikely that they would be out until the following day. I explained that I needed a car to get to work … and then they asked who I thought was going to provide the car! Eventually, they turned up with a courtesy vehicle at 8pm – the one piece of good service in this sorry tale!

So, I got to work the next day to find that the ‘other’ insurance company had admitted liability, that’s the good news. The bad news was in the next call, where I was told that repairs to my car were ‘not economically viable”. Two days later I was ‘offered’ a settlement - £500 less than a locally-advertised equivalent car … so I am now ‘in dispute’, which means that two weeks later they have still not said anything to me – but told the ‘other’ insurance company that I had not supplied required documents (incorrect), causing them to withdraw the hire car that they were providing!!

Things can’t get worse, can they. Well, yes they can. I found a car, one insurance group higher than my previous, and rang to transfer the insurance. That will be £199, said the broker. Surely you jest, said I. Take it or leave it, said the broker ….. but of course penalties will apply if you cancel your insurance now!!

I have arranged alternative insurance. The moral of this tale is
a) There is no such thing as justice where insurance is involved.
b) Check the finest, fine print 10 times before signing
c) Avoid FORTIS insurance like the plague !!

Good luck and happy motoring!!

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