In his feature in today's Telegraph, HJ highlights yet again the con whereby a third party company takes over a claim and spins out the time taken over it, mostly in order to charge more for a hire car. Insurance companies wink at this but of course it puts premiums up.
Material provided with my new Hyundai proclaims the virtues of Hyundai Accident AfterCare, a free service, available 24 hours a day. Buyers are told not to contact their own insurers and that this way repairs will be carried out by a Hyundai approved workshop, "One that operates to Hyundai repair standards and uses only Hyundai Genuine Parts, keeping your Hyundai 100% Hyundai, 100% safe." It goes on to hint that warranty cover might otherwise be affected and adds a list of 15 well known Insurers who don't offer the same cover. It ends with an assurance that premiums will not be affected.
Can anyone comment on this from use of the service please?
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Funny that these outfits get such a bad press. I used help hire years ago and thought they were OK.
Gave me a mitsubishi colt, so nothing extravagant,and charged the 3rd party about £30 a day from memory.
Didn't drag it out, in fact the opposite, and when my car was repaired pushed me to pick it up straight away as they told me I could no longer claim for the rental. They got my excess back to, but it took a few months.
Company down the road from me do this sort of thing, but higher end (BMW's, Mercs etc) Bristol & London
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Well as it could be your insurance company stumping up for the bill I don't think they would be very happy if you put them at the bottom of the 'must inform' list. Infact it might also make mention in their terms and conditions that you should notify them as soon as possible.
Hyundai would appear to be exploring another avenue of potential profit by scaremongering their customers regarding quality of other repair establishments.
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Can't blame Hyundai to be honest. The last insurance job I had was my FIAT Coupe rear ended.
I was insured with a well known pachyderm who made it clear I would not get a loan car unless I used their 'approved' repairer.
After the car was 'repaired' the boot lid would not close properly and the insurance company washed their hands of it. It was left to me to sort out with the repairer.
With shoddy service like that, it's no wonder customers think twice about involving the insurers.
It's a rigged market and needs investigating. Insurance is mandatory but level of service is best described as patchy.
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Haven't seen him for years, but I knew the owner of an accident repair service. The insurance companies were so woeful at paying their bills he had put everything through a factor to keep his cash flow reasonable.
Of course, the cost of the factor service got added into the amount they paid.
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All car manufacturers do the same now. Hyundai Accident Aftercare is run by Retention UK verexgroup.com/accident-aftercare and they run the Fiat and other manufacturer schemes as well.
My son was rear ended in his Fiat a few years ago and he rang them and got them to sort it out. I was a little concerned as in lieu of a Fiat Panda they delivered a Focus hire car that he had for three weeks. It all worked out OK but the thing to avoid with these accident management forms is being on the hook for hire charges if the insurer won't pay. Probably a lower risk when the manufacturer's name is behind it but I'd be reading everything very carefully.
Skoda has a similar scheme called Ensurance - not sure if that is run by Retention or VAG Financial Services.
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I think the bad ones are mostly run by the 'cousins' of the people doing the 'cash for crash scams'. I have used my Dealer's Sytnerdrive which I think is a front for HelpHire and they were excellent.
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An acquaintance hired a basic Vauxhall Insignia for about two years from one of these outfits.
It was a long claim because of disputed liability.
He had to go to court on behalf of the hire co who were charging the third party over £150k for the 2 year period!
No wonder premiums are so high!
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Whichever way they dress these accident management companies up, they all exist to make money out of your misfortune and leech money out of 'the system'. Some are just more unscrupulous than others...
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You are right, but it's a shame that they have to exist to stop you getting shafted by insurance companies who provide unsuitable replacement vehicles and do shoddy cheap repairs.
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>Whichever way they dress these accident management companies up, they all exist to make money out of your misfortune and leech money out of 'the system'.
Only the same way that a car repairers wishes to make money. They provide a service of lesser or greater quality which provides lesser or greater value depending on your needs / desires.
Do you think that they should provide the service without making a profit?
> to stop you getting shafted by insurance companies who provide unsuitable replacement vehicles and do shoddy cheap repairs.
I don't really agree with that either. Its a fairly typically view, but comes more from people happy to take any drop in cover, conditions, quality or delivery at premium time to save money, but not being prepared to deal with those shortcomings and restrictions at claim time.
Insurers are not trying to screw anyone, albeit they do try to cut costs as much as possible and certainly they wish to deliver the least cost service they can, as you seek the least cost premium.
Overall a 3rd Party Management outfit is not likely to do anything that you cannot do yourself. Equally they will probably not do it any better than you could do if you gave it the time and effort.
However, they will almost certainly be able to do it more easily than you given their standard forms, processes, suppliers and contacts. Usually you will probably suffer less hassle than if you do it yourself.
It does increase the cost of claims, which ultimately has to be paid for one way or another.
Do bear in mind that simply because you believe that they should pursue a claim to its death throws in the high court, they probably won't. There comes point when they stop, and you usually cannot influence that point.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Wed 9 Jul 14 at 22:03
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3rd. Party Accident Managment outfits - mikeyb
