Never go direct to third party
A vehicle reversed and hit my stationary vehicle in a car park, I was in the car when it happened; exited the vehicle, spoke to third party, refused to provide details, called the police; they attempted to take the phone off me and then panicked and got in their car and drove off.
I reported it to the police; days went by and my car suffered issues in the cabin (vibrations) on idle and reverse, the issue arose from the low speed collision to my rear.
I later found out my engine mount was cracked.
I contacted MiB and obtained the third party police details and contacted their insurance.
Informed them of the situation and they accepted liability immediately, which I found odd..
They recommended their own approved garage, I checked them out and wasn’t satisfied based on the negative reviews.
So I opted to use my own garage, so I contacted BMW accident management service (as I have a BMW) and expected BMW to do a good job considering the engine mount was cracked.
BMW accepted my claim after sending the dash cam, they didn’t ask any questions in relation to the damaged area and if I had aftermarket parts (maxton kit).
Asked me if my car was drivable: I said yes but due to high vibration incabin im worried driving it would cause more damage to the vehicle; so they opted to use a recovery service (unbeknown to me this would be charged to me directly later)
They took the vehicle, had it checked over, contacted IMS who was dealing with the claim, awaiting response and then suddenly I get an email stating:
“Please be advised that we are no longer able to proceed with this claim and therefore we have closed our file. The claim is now being passed back to your policy underwriter to take over.”
So I contacted IMS who then informed me BMW can’t do anything as my parts are aftermarket and they’ve closed the claim, in the meantime I had a vehicle from enterprise that they provided.
I had to then go to BMW to pay £150 to release my vehicle otherwise they’d of kept my vehicle hostage and charged me for storage fees if not paid.
I then on the same day had to go to hospital due to a surgical operation which made me invalidated for a week, during which time I still had the vehicle and was unable to return it (the hire vehicle).
When I eventually returned it: I then contacted third party insurance and they then denied liability, due to insured driver say so.
I then sent the dash cam, waited: few days later, accepted, day after, refused, then waited for file handler to view the dash cam, accepted again.
I then sent images of the damage and report I made regarding the issues I’ve had since the accident specifically the engine mount / cabin vibration on idle and reverse, they denied a low speed impact can cause this, in fact their underwriter called me a few days later and says it’s impossible for a “welded” engine mount to crack (he claims he has 16 years experience) but is uneducated as he’s unaware the engine mount is bolted and not welded.
He then refused to deal with me and told me to go through my own insurance.
So now I rang my insurance; told them about third party accident and mentioned I had dash cam of the incident, they immediately accepted the claim and waived the excess.
Told me enterprise will arrange the hire vehicle: except I spoke to enterprise and they’re unable to provide a vehicle due to the initial claim by BMW Accident management service.
This has been the most stressful situation I’ve had to go through, I’ve had two previous claims (both stationary) non fault incidents and both were dealt with easily by direct line group without any frustration.
But on this occasion it’s beaten me, personally I would never try to deal with it myself ever again and go directly to my own insurance.
— most of the headache could of been avoided by BMW if they asked me initially if I had aftermarket parts so they can refuse the claim based on that they can’t repair aftermarket parts, but nah, they proceeded made me go through all this and racked up a £1200 credit hire bill.
Just for reference the third party insurance is Tesco, the customer service is the worst I’ve had to deal with; the staff are very rude and the underwriters are clearly incompetent considering he thinks my engine mount is welded 😂