Photo evidence-not

[Paultry]

I just received a letter from my insurance company alerting me to a claim made against my vehicle two weeks ago. It occurred whilst my wife was opening the passenger door to leave the vehicle, the door touched the adjacent car on its offside wheel arch, with the driver still inside.

It is true that this occurred. The driver bought my attention to this fact and we looked at the damage, slight paint and dirt from my passenger door on the arch wiped away with a wet finger, leaving no trace or damage. Said driver pointed to a dent further down the wheel arch, which upon discussion was agreed that my door could not have caused because it is simply not possible for the door to have made any contact there. End of story, completely lost from the memory bank, move on and so forth.

I wish I'd been more cautious, flick phone on and record conversation, have video and photos. But no I did not do anything because I was not even remotely suspicious. Said driver went off shopping, not asking for any details.

I'm simply flabbergasted to have received this letter.

My insurance company reassures me that at worst I'll lose 2 years no claims bonus. I can't see why I should lose anything.

I asked the insurance company if this was a scam since the driver, my wife and myself had all agreed that there was no damage that could be attributed to this event. They assured me that their investigation team would ascertain whether the damage was fictional based on knowledge of the two cars involved and their dimensions.

I await the result, but I just wish the engagement had been recorded so that everyone could witness the conversation and events.

Moral, prepare for the worst every time.

Paultry

[Paultry]

Turned out nice again........................

Yesterday I was informed that the claim against my car insurance has been dropped!

There have been well over twenty phone calls to and from my insurance company over the last three months and one visit from an accident investigator.

During this time I had to renew the car insurance, having only one year's no claim discount, at a price of £420.

Yesterday four years no claim discount was restored and a refund of £196 is coming my way.

Paul

[redsturgeon]

Turned out nice again........................

Yesterday I was informed that the claim against my car insurance has been dropped!

There have been well over twenty phone calls to and from my insurance company over the last three months and one visit from an accident investigator.

During this time I had to renew the car insurance, having only one year's no claim discount, at a price of £420.

Yesterday four years no claim discount was restored and a refund of £196 is coming my way.

Paul

Good result...what an idiot the other driver was, making this claim when both you and your wife were witnesses.

John

[staffordian]

I recently invested in a dash cam to hopefully protect against the more usual scams, and to ensure that in the event of an accident, whether my fault or not, at least the events could be proved, but your experience just goes to show how difficult it is to cover all the bases.

Glad it worked out for you eventually!

[didds]

Dunno where to even start really!

brain dumping... did you stay wiuth the same insurance company Paul? If Paul had shifted insurance company on renewal, would he have been able to get his refund? I'd hope so.

At what stage does that claim become a malicious claim? Paul's insurance company seem to have put considerable effort in - which must all cost £££. £££ that of course we "all" pay (or at least customers of that insurance company anyway!),

And how blinking precious are some people anyway? If you can't afford the dink you can't afford the car. Don;t want occassional dinks and scratches? don;t park in public car parks because its inevitable.


didds

[bungeejumper]

And how blinking precious are some people anyway? If you can't afford the dink you can't afford the car. Don;t want occassional dinks and scratches? don;t park in public car parks because its inevitable.

Dunno, I get cross about dinks in the supermarket car park. It would be worse if my car was gleaming black instead of boring, resilient silver, because some old biddy's moment of thoughtlessness could knock many hundreds off the trade-in value of my car.

Mind you, I was even more cross with myself, the time I parked my nearly-new car next to a rotting old ex-London black cab in Bristol. I took one look at the lamentable state of its rusty, scraped doors and considered looking for another (scarce) space in the car park. Then reminded myself that I was in a hurry, and anyway I was sure it would be all right. (Wouldn't it?)

Two hours later I returned, and the bastard had slammed a dent the size of a pack of cards into my door panel. (And driven off, natch.) I had nobody but myself to blame - apart from him, of course. Have been a bit more careful ever since about the company I keep.

BJ

[didds]

I was talking of dinks and scratches. Not all out thumps

didds

[Paultry]

I thought I should add a few more details of how this bizarre incident took place, so you have a better picture.

Our car door did touch the other car, my wife and the other driver nodded to each other as an acknowledgement of the event. We then walked from the parking area into a shop; some minutes later a person came up to me and said 'Your car door has blown open in the wind and caused damage'. At that point in time I did not realise this person was the driver of the other car. I briskly legged it to the car expecting to find the door open and substantial damage to someone or something. But the car was parked all alone, doors closed just as we had left it, but the car that we had parked beside was gone. The person then said they had moved their car so as to assess the damage that had occurred. We walked to where the other car was now parked and I then put a wet thumb or finger on the wing to remove the traces of the interaction that our car door had caused. There was other damage to the car, which would have been impossible to ascribe to our car door having caused. The rest of the story you know.

One other aspect of this story was that when I at first contacted my insurance company, I felt that I had to convince them that I had not caused the damage. And it did turn into Groundhog Day, because each specialist I spoke to had to hear the whole story again, and each time I was asked why I'd not taken any photos, it was as if they found it so incredulous they needed to hear the series of events from me even though the case file was in front of them. At first it was me always phoning my insurance company, but once they had their teeth in the case they were always phoning me and informing me of progress or otherwise. A main reason that this has taken so long is that the offices of the other person's insurance company were very slow in replying to requests.

The car insurance renewal was mid August, but with only one year no claim discount and a pending traffic violation (quite separately we were contacted by the police to say our car had been involved in a traffic incident and the driver had absconded) other insurers quotes were much higher, hence staying with the same insurer.

I know this whole incident is as nothing to all the real problems that exist in the world, but it does worm its way into you and you worry for your own sanity at times.

Paul