With me I looked at how much it would cost to add someone else onto my policy. After two unanswered e-mails I called them at a cost of 60p per minute just to be told that it would cost me something like a £40 "administration" charge and that's not including the extra on my policy.
Then when I changed to Direct Line, Elephant took months to send proof of my no claims to Direct Line; DL were on the verge of cancelling my insurance as they didn't believe I had any no claims.
I also see no end of complaints on the PGAC members forums. I'll copy and paste a few here:
I had an accident on the 5th Dec which was fairly bad. It took them two whole weeks to decide that my car was a write off and to get me a courtesy car, so I went without a ride for 2 weeks. It then took them another 2 weeks to send me a letter requesting some documentation, which I sent back the next day. What a joke.
It's now been a month and my courtesy car is being taken back at the end of the week. It's apparently going to take them a further 2 weeks to make me an offer on my car after which I have to cash the money before I can buy a new one. The length of time this is taking is an absolute joke. Every time I phone them up, then fob me off with more reasons for delay and when I complain they get arsey. It's completely insane.
a pitiful month and you're moaning!!
after a transit van went into the side of me it took 2 bloody yrs to get the settlement done!! and i still got fekked out of half my money
I've had very experience with Admiral, elephants parent company,which involved them screwing my mods up, charging to my CC without permission, my CC company got involved and after 8 weeks of screwing my round also had to get advice from the financial ombusman, and within 2 days I cancelled my policy with full outstanding refund and charges returned to me.
You say you'll have to go with them because everywhere else is expensive, it's not nearly as expensive sitting for 4 months with no car, the payout was no where near second hand value and the sheer amount of stress it puts you through ringing them constantly
And finally a letter that someone on the PGAC wrote:
I wish to complain in the strongest possible manner about your company’s approach to customer service, or as I have experienced, customer disservice.
You are incredibly efficient in taking my money, but downright incompetent when dealing with my claim. May I take a minute to explain the details?
On the 27th of April while travelling home and turning right into my driveway, another vehicle attempted to overtake and crashed into my car. Please see Claim ref: ******** for details.
I reported the accident on the morning of the 28th. I provided Elephant with all the information I had to hand and hung up, confident that my insurance company was dealing with it. I arranged to have the car was taken away on the same day and enquired later on as to the extent of the damage. I was told by the engineer that it looked bad and would probably be a write off, but he would ring me to confirm. He did so the following morning. Why may I ask did it take a further 7 working days for your e-mail and letter to reach me?
I rang on Friday the 2nd of May to find out how far the claim was progressing. I was told that the 3rd party had not been contacted yet but a DVLA trace was being run on the car. I then made calls during the following week to find out how my claim was going. Again I was told the DVLA trace was not back. When I enquired about the 3rd party I was told that you had attempted to contact him but had no reply. Your representative sounded bemused to learn that calling his home number during working hours was unlikely to yield a result. I searched on the Internet for his work number and gave this to your representative. They also informed me that a quick call to his insurers revealed that they didn’t know anyone of that name. Again they were surprised to learn that Mr ****, whose occupation is garage owner (name of garage supplied in original claim), was likely to have some kind of fleet or garage insurance. Your representative said that they would try this next. Having armed your claims department with even more information I left it until the 13th of May to ring again. Imagine my surprise to be told that the 3rd party had still not been contacted and that you were still waiting for a DVLA trace.
On ringing again later on in the month I was told that the policy number of Mr **** could not be found and a further search would have to be made. This surprised me as the Solicitor dealing with my injury and losses claim had previously given me the number. Again I passed this information on.
I have since called on a regular basis during the months of June and July, each time I have been given a different reason as to why an admission or denial of liability hasn’t been given. When I called on the 4th of August I was informed that the Mr ***** insurers had 2 weeks to complete their own investigations. So when I called on the 19th of August to find out what these investigations had revealed, I was told that nothing had come through yet. If this had happened back in May, I would have been fairly understanding, but for this to happen in mid-August is simply unacceptable.
I was reassured that the claim handler would be onto the phone to the 3rd party’s insurers first thing at 9 o clock to get an admission of liability and give me a call back. I was called back at 9:30 and told that the 3rd party would not contest liability and I would receive my NCB. Would the claim handler have called the 3rd party’s insurers if I hadn’t called?
What has been going on? What has caused such a delay in getting the necessary paperwork to the 3rd party’s insurers? If there has been a problem with his company then why haven’t I been told so? The Solicitor hasn’t had such problems dealing with *****.
Over the last 2 months or so, every time I call the claim line I have expressly asked for someone to ring me to let me know how things are going with my claim. Only once have I been called (19th August), this isn’t down to no new information as every time I call there is something that I haven’t been told before. While I appreciate ringing all your customers would be a costly affair, it would certainly have made me think that you were actually doing something. Although considering it has taken 4 Months just to get a simple yes or no from the 3rd party and coupled with the fact I have supplied you with his phone numbers and insurance policy number leaves me to believe you haven’t done anything until pressured.
In addition I was told on the phone that my policy would be “frozenâ€
eek what scary stories!
