I love it when someone, especially a company shoots them selves in the foot.........and even better when it's an insurance company trying to rip you off
Last November I and my two daughters were sat in our car at traffic lights behind two other cars, on red lights, when suddenly we were rammed up the rear by another motorist..........he was an absolute nutter.........
got out his car ranting and raving, why were we stopped what had he done to deserve all this............shouting and swearing he looked at my car with all arms flailing, kids in his car sprawled all over the place....not wearing seat belts and him smelling of marijuana and booze
took one look at my car.........No damage there mate and got into his motor and drove off...........leaving me to take his reg number..........I called the police ...........
anyway he admitted it to the rozzers and admitted liability to the insurance company.....
we suffered quite bad whiplash from it, and the kids had hurt their knees as well..............
so because the police were involved so my insurance was notified and a solicitor became involved from Motorbility.........
well, my car in fact to my untrained eye didn't look damaged and I told my insurance who had to tell the other nutter's insurance.
It was then that the other insurance company became "clever" and told my solicitor that because the car hadn't been "damaged" they fealt that we three were lying about our injuries and therefore were not going to play ball............
so today I was told by my insurers. and solicitor that I should take the car to a recognized repairer of Fiat for an assessment........the result shocked me.........
they found that the light cluster lens had been cracked...........the tail gate had been knocked out of alignment giving a distorted closure to the tailgate and leaving bad panel gap ( something I have always been used to from owning old brit triumphs and MG's) meaning that either the hinges on the door OR the roof had been bent, the rear panel was bent throwing the boot catch out of line and giving bad locking of the tailgate and underneath the car the rear bumper reinforcing bar ( unseen unless you take the bumper panel off under the car) had been bent 2.5 inches out of line.........and when I said to the panel man that I was amazed he said...........all damage that is easily masked to an untrained eye............
what's the estimate to fix I said............removal of tailgate, bumper rear panel , possible new tailgate, and respraying to colour..............around £1500 - £2000 he said................plus a courtesy car for the week that the vehicle is away for repair..................
That'll teach the insurers of the other geezer to get clever...............had they settled for injury in the first place then I would have been no wiser as to the real damage and all the extra costs to them............
And please don't bleat on about a claims culture..............If someone injures me and my kids through their own idiocy then that is their and their insurer's problem.......not mine..................we all hurt for weeks!!!