Insurance Woes - A Not So Simple Repair

[CJF077]

Well it was not too long before the new car my Mercedes, met with an unfortunate incident.

I drove through a pothole on Friday the 20th in the evening, and damaged front right and rear driver side wheels as well as tearing the front tyre and bubbling the rear tyre.

What would have thought would be a simple situation turned out as follows.

Rang roadside assistance and asked them if they could come and give me a hand to change the tyre, seeing the mercedes has some weird jack that I had never used before. Sorry cannot help you we are only available for roadside assistance not repairs.

Rang the insurance company (Vero Insurance) which went to an after hours service, who transferred me to around three different people and then finally said to me you are more than welcome to have the car towed at your expense tonight, or leave the car there (in a back alley industrial area on the way back from my mum and dads house) and they will pick it up tomorrow. I said good luck with that. If i leave the car here it wont be here tomorrow. They said your choice. For further information I have the top insurance cover with every option ticked.

I decided to change the tyre and put the safety wheel on, and drive home on the bubbled tyre and safety wheel, a journey of around 15 minutes.

Saturday ring the insurance company, they advised me not to drive the car, they would organise a tow truck to pick the car up on Monday. Tow truck arrived at around 12pm on time and took the car to the assessment centre. Gets to the assessment centre that afternoon. I wait a few days and thus Wednesday being a public holiday ring on Thursday and ask how the car is going. Get told that they had not assessed the car yet, but should be tomorrow. Ring on Friday and now told the car is at a Smash Repairers and that the ETA for the return of the vehicle is now the 4th of May. I have a dummy spit at the guy and said how is it that it takes a week and a half to replace two wheels, two tyres and a wheel alignment (which is what they have received a quote for) Technically the car has been off the road now for a week and a half. Get told that the car should be available tomorrow 2nd May. I ring this morning and get put through to the complaints department as I am now told the ETA is now Friday again. Speaking to complaints they say to me that they are waiting for the wheels to come back from being repaired. (These are AMG wheels on a sub 2 month old car). I ask why are they being repaired and not replaced and get told as the damage was considered "minor" that they had the option for repairing them rather than replacing. The tyres will be replaced (brand new) but the wheels would be repaired, and thus this is the reason for the delay.

Just wondering peoples thoughts on the following:

- Fact is has taken close to two weeks to repair / rectify relatively minor damage to a vehicle.

- The choice to repair over replace. Is this allowed? I am not too happy that they have chosen to repair the wheels over replacing them with new wheels.

FYI Vero underwrites for Shannon's, CGU and a few others, so apparently they are a reputable company and quite large in the insurance game. My policy is through Westpac insurance (mainly due to the discount with my home policy) but by Vero.

Just to add to this as well Vero are also chasing the council for repair / damages so that even though I had to pay for the excess up front to repair the vehicle there apparently is a high chance that it will get reversed and the local council will be liable. I have spoken to the council as well to verify this, and is now with the Vero recoveries team.

[freeze_dk]

I paid access after picking my car up,, I refused an up front payment.. I got a cracked windscreen while loose stones on the road and vic roads send out a 5 pages of things I had to fill out including drawing pics of where it happened.. I cbf and threw them out.. When you get the car back take it to a wheel shop to throw it on the balancer and if its wobbly then its still f*cked

[CJF077]

That is a good idea. I will do that.

[_Velocity_]

I'd be surprised if the insurance company doesn't get the local council to pay for the damages. A similar story happened to my mother's Honda a few years back and the council wouldn't pay out claims less than $1000.

Safe to say replacing the tyres and repairing the wheels will be more than double that.

[ronburgundy]

I suspect if you read your PDS it will say if they deem damage to be minor (and no doubt there is NOT a definition of minor!) they have the discretion to repair rather than replace. Sad face

[hypnodoc]

What a ba$tard to happen to a new Merc. The insurance Co sound like a buch of tossers. I had a crack in the rear bumper of mine, bent the mesh and also cracked the insert. With QBE they gave an OK for an almost 10k repair and replaced the lot without raising an eyebrow. When I asked the assessor if they repair or replace he gave me an indignant look and said we only replace with new parts, personally I thought $500 worth of plastic welding would have made it good as new, but who am I to argue. Didn't lose my no claim bonus either.

Edited 01/05/12 07:40 AM by hypnodoc

[Paulie2256]

Change insurance companies.

[turbotrana]

It seems to me from what I read that you may be asking a bit too much from Roadside assist and the insurance company. It seems like you CBF from the start to change a tyre but instead spent time ringing around to get someone to change it for you, but you ended up having to change it anyway.

Two weeks to have your car repaired seems OK. Its seems you have very high expectations of your insurance company and as demanding as you were trying to get your tyre changed, you are as to getting your car repaired.

I just think you are asking a bit much. Even with the wheel, if they deem it is repairable, I would probably go with them on this one.

I am not having a go at you but this is what I picked up when reading your post.

Edited 01/05/12 07:59 AM by turbotrana

[Dillz]

That company sounds woeful but I didn't even think cracked rims were covered, now you could be stuck with a brand new Merc with dodgy wheels.

[Pazzo]

If original AMG rims , there a very expensive option. So in saying that if wheel repair is a couple of hundred each there is no reason to replace, there a very expensive wheel to buy from Merc.