Hiya,

Just a thought on your training. Were you ever trained upon the Ministry of Justice Claims Management Regulations? Or, The FSA, ICOBS Regulations regarding ensuring consumers give Informed Consent prior to agreeing any contract where there is a potential for any conflict of interests.

Or for that matter the up to date position from the Court of Appeal and/or the House of Lords that any non-fault party should not pay for the CDW or other additions for a replacement hire vehicle? I have para-phrased there but in essence the courts regard any 'additions to hire' for example the charges hire companies make for CDW and other such additions to the basic amount they receive from the instructing insurer as: not the responsibility of the Claimant but payable by the instructing insurer or insurer concerned.

Did they also explain that if your remove the hire car from a customer before they have agreed the value of their own written off vehicle the insurers who direct the car to be removed can 'lever' the consumer into 'accepting' the reduced amount for their vehicle that the engineer was incentivised to 'undervalue'.

If not then I suggest the practice of 'introdtrination' over training is alive and very well. Or as we refer to the staff in these operations, 'call centre kids' of which we wonder if the 'screen' said 'put head in bucket of water' they would do so!

Anyhow, all the best and keep young!

R

Hi to all the unlucky drivers that have had a car crash in there own cars that have been undrivable after the afor mentioned CRASH !!! , were you upset did you get all the details , was it you fault ??? ..... well thats when a company called drive assist comes along to OFFER YOU A REPLACEMENT CAR BECAUSE YOU HAVE HAD A CAR CRASH !! , HENCE OFFER !! THE CHOICE IS YOURS , do you need a car or can you make do ?? most case's car oweners have a car for a reason to A drive to work , B pick the kids up from school , C to get the weekly shopping ? . Well yes i had a car crash and it was not my fault my insurer norwich union ( very expensive but worth it ) took the relevent details , they put me forward to drive assist , I found this first phone call very helping and informative , the person asked some questions , etc , asked if i had any specfic needs from my car , eg towbar auto or manual estate or hatch back . Then shortly after that the local branch in my area called which i also found to be helpful arranged the car to suit me and a time and location . all in all i was very satisfied , the next day a ford focus 1.8 five door manual turned up ( my car a crudy mark 3 golf ) the guy tapped on my door , "hello so and so from drive assist im here to deliver you this car i wont be to long ace i thought i have a game of tennis to play later , he told me all about the terms and conditions my insurance type , then explained the controls of the car etc . I signed his P.D.A. job done , easy . After i had finished with the car ( my car had been repaired)the local branch called to arrange them collecting it , easy , so and so from drive assist Knocked on the door i gave him the keys he came back and said the car was fine he told me to read a little bit of blurb on his P.D.A yep no damage no charge . So what is everyones problem with this company . I for sure was one very satisfied customer 10 OUT OF TEN .

I to work for drive assist and i do my job to my best ability,I think that you will go far in drive assist if the management every read what you say, Drive assist are conning the clients out of money, how can you charge one customer for scratching a door say £250.00 and then move the vehicle on to a new customer with out repairing the door and they scratch the door and you charge them £250.00 the door only gets repaired the once when it goes back our site at bottesford.I wish that some one would report them to watchdog again or better still crimewatch. The trouble is the drivers are treated no better then some of the customers are ,We get money stopped if we miss scratches or dents as it says in our paper work TOO DARK TOO DIRTY TO APPRAISE will not indemnify you from being charged for it and is entirely unacceptable.If i was a customer of drive assist i would take out collision damage waiver it is worth every penny if it stop them from taking your money,

wolfman

Hi guys,

Just to add a bit after the few post from the drive assists reps.,

We too have had problems with drive assist but in a slightly diffrent way,when we arranged the hire car, i couldnt find my credit card so i gave them a old card we've never used,when they dropped the car off it was a skip inside and the guy said he was sorry and would add that on the hire agreement.

Before i signed anything i grabbed my camcorder and done a sweep of the car,i told the rep to have a sitdown as it would be a while before id finished,"he didnt stop hassling me" throghout my recording

I worked for a truck rental company and had seen companys do this before accepting vehicles,its well worth the effort

to cut a long story short,Drive assist called us and said we had to pay £250 loss of deposit and £639 "extra" to repair a damaged offside mirror and wing...huh hang on a minute..... we promptly cancelled the card and said were see them in court,they called us back twice and sent 2 letters chasing this money,after 6 months we finally gave in and sent them a copy of the film i made, needless to say theyve not contacted us since and when i called to confirm all was dealt with our details had vanished

i called norwich union and "no claim" by drive assist had been made for any rental at all..

Now if thats not dodgy what is

AVOID AT ALL COST

your insurance policy usually comes with legal cost's ,they can arrange a hirecar from elsewere and claim from the other party(providing there admitting liability)dont be drawn in by need

O my god !! you have copied my id you sad git , how good was your truck rental company ?

how many charges did you company make to unsuspecting customers ( fat ar$£ truckers)

btw how was the car returned to drive assist ? where you there you have not said alot on this matter i think that you are a lying idiot and may well have damaged the mirror youself ? , Have some respect find another id .

Ignoring the silly names some use as in other situations in life to attack their own errors I feel amny readers may appreciate this.

When the at fault insurer or one's own insurer supplies a car under the terms of the policy for legal expences or other types of cover the replacement car will be wothdrawn should the consumer not agree to any element of the claim like the value of a written off vehicle. Which, as engineers are incentivised to cut the cost of claims within their employment contracts or measurement of their performance, the value offered is oftem likely to be trade as against open market values.

Just a thought that all that shines from insurers/bankers is rarely gold as much of their practices the staff dont actually understand as we all see when their equally unaware bosses confess their conspicious absence of common sence and decency before Parliament.

Did anyone know that it is quite usual for insurers to direct their 'appointed bodyshops' to use non-genuine parts and some second -hand parts in the repair of motor vehicles without informing the customer of the consequential losses in a vehicles value when it is repaired using such parts?

Oh well the adverts look good on telly...........

R

as usual no spelling etc checks

I think that you yourself roly are wasteing your talents and that maybe you should use your font of useless information for better purposes , maybe walking down the street with a sandwich board quoting the end is nigh for all motorists ?. Do you actually own are car god help us all if you ever have a accident ?.

Noted and many thanks.........cheer up.......here's hoping eh!

I had a horrible feeling about this company from the moment the car was delivered. talk of £100 a scratch, £150 loss of car keys etc etc. The very jovial guy then pointed out marks on his little tv screen to correspond with marks on the car. most of which were almost invisible. he said not to worry as "its dark" (it was dusk) and he would mark it as delivered in the dark. I had the car 6 weeks, was almost paranoid where I parked and drove it like a baby. finally the great day to hand it back. sure enough after about twenty minutes the guy found a minute scratch on a hubcap which he said would cost twenty five pounds. I didnt sign for it but there was no paper work before or after. you just sign the screen which could be for anything. I bet knowone ever uses this wretched company twice!!

The same this has just happened to me. My Insurance Company arranged car hire through Drive Assist after I was bumped in the rear at a roundabout. Obviously not my fault. Drive Assist showed up with a Corsa 1.4. It was almost 2000hrs and very dark. The rep didn't have a torch but asked to borrow one. He pointed out the couple of minor marks, got me to sign his PDA and left. I hated the car, so only drove it to work 6 days out of the 10 it was with me. When another rep came to pick the car up, he arrived nearly 2 hours before I told him that I would be home. When my son came home from work, the rep was still waiting and looked over the car noticing a very small nick on the hub cap. This happened on Monday night, today, Wednesday, I have received a bill for £230 for this damage. The invoice also shows the mileage supposedly covered was 1267miles. As I only used it for the 6 days, the maximum I could have driven was 270 miles. So I am guessing that the documention is wrong by 1000miles. The invoice also notes that although the car was delivered with 1/4 tank of petrol, it was collected almost empty. Once again, incorrect. Although I only put in 20 litres, it was still at just under 1/4 tank on pick up. I have already phoned them and sent them an e-mail. I wil also send my Insurance Company a copy of the letter tomorrow. Any other advice would be gratefully received.

So sorry to hear of the trouble you have had for what should be a simple transaction. The problem always stems from those who do deals with insurers where price is the key objective rather than customer care.

Any company acting upon the direction/instruction of any insurer must be either authorised by the FSA in their own right or under a system of regulatory management. Without either, the conduct is a breach of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and the Regulations within the FSA Handbook.

Your rights under the Regulations the FSA have in place governing Claims Handling ac be viewed at http://fsahandbook.info/FSA/html/handbook/ICOBS/8

and

http://fsahandbook.info/FSA/html/handbook/PRIN these are the two most relevant can be viewed at

The charges for the hire car will be recovered from the other driver and their insurer in your name. The amounts are your money.

The law allows you to recover the monies instead of them going straight to a hire company that has treated you unsatisfactorily. Hence, you can have the monies and then to argue your liability to the hire company which will include the charges that appear to have been fabricated regarding the damage to the vehicle and the fuel situation.

Seek an independent motor claims management company who will do this for you and recover their charges for their expertise from your insurers and any hire company conducting themselves in such a manner as you have experienced. It is a regular matter for them.

There may well also be a requirement for the hire company to be registered with the Claims Management Regulator. Another place to raise a complaint.

More importantly, it would appear from your post that you were never made aware of any charges. The High Court has just made a judgment in this respect against another hire company I quote:

‘Court ruling tightens controls on credit hire companies

Issue 19-03-2009

Judge upholds decision over hire car charge

A High Court ruling is to force credit hire companies to ensure claimant drivers sign all paperwork before they provide a vehicle.

In the past, hire companies sent documents to the claimant driver after the hire period ended.

The ruling by Judge Worster last month upheld a decision by Birmingham county court, which reduced a charge from Helphire, the UK’s largest accident management company, from £4,250 to zero.

The company had provided a claimant driver with a BMW Z4 for 15 days during April in 2007. The driver signed the hire documents four months later and the bill was passed on to his insurer, Sheehan.

Judge Worster agreed the bill was unreasonably high and the paperwork was not binding because it was signed so long after the hire period ended.

Fiona Butler, who represented Sheehan, said insurers would now have more confidence to defend cases against hire firms that did not make their costs clear to the driver before the contract was signed.’

In addition, the Claims Standard Council has within its membership Independent Claims Management. A list of members can be viewed at http://www.claimscouncil.org/members

Unfortunately, this website does not allow such companies that assist consumers to self refer from these blogs.

Nevertheless, happy hunting.

Regards,

Roland Waters

I have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with this ridiculous company. After my accident last week my insurers forwarded my details to Drive Assist. A very rude person called TOM called me i gave him all the necessary information to help him with his enquires.

30 mins later he asked me for my credit card details so i hesitated and asked why? He said it was in case i incurred any fines or tickets on the vehicle. So i asked him to confirm if id get a vehicle on the same day ? I was told that it wouldn't be a problem and to wait.

I gave the card details and after waiting four hours for TOM to get back to me i was told they cannot assist me due to their CRITERIA. I asked why have you took my card details if you cant help? Surely they could have checked their CRITERIA before asking for my bank details.

Hi i am glad its not just me, i returned a hire vehicle 2 days ago, and was told it had scuffing to the rear wheel trim which i k now i didn't do, also in the paperwork that was emailed through, ti said the car was dirty inside and out, and the fuel tank was nearly empty, when i had refuelled this vehicle upto nearly half a tank and had it cleaned and valeted, i even have a receipt for this the day before. They are also asking me for £230.00, for the damge to the wheel trim saying they will need to buy a whole wheel. I feel physically ill i've had just been involved in a rta p[rior to receiving this car, sustaining injuries which means i am off sick from work and this is just the final straw. I have been told they are inverstigating it, which will take 28 days, do you know if there is anything else i can do. thanks jo

Hey joey thats some bad news about the charge bl**dy hell was the wheel trim gold plated ? 230 quid for a wheel trim where do they get ther prices from ? i would understand if the car was a classic mgbt ? but a poxy corsa !!!!!

More research roly ?

you really do know your stuff !!!!!!

keep it up