SO my/our Green Flag insurance expired, and I was late renewing it, so I phoned up - £107.00 for personal cover for me & wife, any car. - this was at 15:00 Didn't have bank details on me at work, so I said I would call back when got home. Went online first to see if I could do it that way - no, can only get new quote, so did that - £125.00 same cover! So I phone up again, renewal, was then quoted £119.00! So same company, same cover, 3 prices in the same day! -- Rob_P UKRM(at)indqualtec.co.uk uppercase(d) BBIWYMC#1 BOG#11? MRO#31 IBCDBBB#1(kotl) FJ1200, CCM130 Benelli Cabriolet (gone) Looks like Rab C Nesbit.
I hate to say this, but "What's new"? Insurance companies are getting ever more cuntish, just like they always have.
Beav spoke: Oh yes indeed - illustrated perfectly by todays blood-pressure raising events. #2 son Mike bought a new banger, am L reg. Mazda 323, for £250 Called AA to swap insurance from 1.6 Escort to 1.6 Mazda - £2400! They put me though to some telephone search service thing, who came back with Swinton at £1700! - they offered a £300 discount off that though! So went through confused.com and got lots of £800-ish quotes. Called Budget, on hold for 30 minutes, gave up, called next one, *exactly* the same robot message, called another 3 - *all* were the same voice, *all* were trading names of BISL. Finaly bought it online for £891 - the ultimate insurer being Aviva. -- Rob_P UKRM(at)indqualtec.co.uk uppercase(d) BBIWYMC#1 BOG#11? MRO#31 IBCDBBB#1(kotl) FJ1200, CCM130 Benelli Cabriolet (gone) Looks like Rab C Nesbit.
If insurance companies didn't put uo their rates they wouldn't be able to increase the rates to their suppliers. People like, oh let's see, car body shops. Add 15% to every invoice to an insurance company. You'll soon get your £900 back and some more for yourself.
Wessie spoke: And the rest! I had a Cavalier, company car, new job, new car, and I reversed it into a lampost. Went to local body shop place and crawled and cringed and got it fixed for about £50. 6 months later, sat at a red light - actually outside said body shop, dozy **** in a rangie rear-ended me and caused almost *exactly* the same damage - this time it went through the insco and the bill was 5 times as much! -- Rob_P UKRM(at)indqualtec.co.uk uppercase(d) BBIWYMC#1 BOG#11? MRO#31 IBCDBBB#1(kotl) FJ1200, CCM130 Benelli Cabriolet (gone) Looks like Rab C Nesbit.
Don't you think the insco's have a clue? It's *them* who say how long a job will take and how much they pay, not the body shops.
You'd imagine. Obviously, but.... if only life were that simple. Then either (A) the first smack wasn't assessed by the insco or (B) the two smacks were nothing like as bad as each other or (C) some parts weren't changed that should've been. The assessors who ONLY do assessments aren't by any stretch of the imagination, stupid. They know when a garage is trying to stitch them up and charge for work or parts that aren't needed and they have a fairly fixed price for how much they'll pay for an hours work and for parts. The thing about insurance work is nothing is left to chance (they don't like come-backs any more than anyone else) so *any* suspect part is changed and all the parts have to be OEM parts. No 2nd hand parts and no pattern parts, they're ALL OEM and it's the manufacturers who take the piss on prices. Not the same as when a punter fetches up at the door of a bodyshop and says "Get it back to looking good again, and as cheaply as possibe" btw, if it was fixed for 50 quid, it got a seeing to with T-cut or a fucking buffer and nowt all else.
of course the market is one sided as they have immense buying power. However, do you think there is a chance that the insco will pay you more if they don't at first, screw some more from the customer?
Why would they pay a bodyshop more than a punter would pay? They pay the going rate, just like everyone else. The only difference is the insco's know how long a job takes and what parts are needed, where your average punter doesn't.
That'll be why when I took my cage in after it was reversed into, I was given a quote for a grand + vat to hand to the insurer, and a second quote - identical in all other respects, even down to part number for rubbing strip - for £600+vat, and given strict instructions not to get 'em wrong way round, will it?
Beav spoke: Well (A) obviously true (B) Rear nearside wing, smashed rear light, slight ding to metalwork. In both cases a new (OEM) light was fitted and the ding repaired and repainted. (C) Only the light fitting needed replacement. Possibly why, when I was knocked of my Radian a few years ago the insurance assessment for repair would have made it a write off - new mirror, new handlebar grips, additional scratched to the already scratched end can etc. etc. The point being that very little of the work quoted for was a result of *that* accident, but it was an SOB, and the repairer quoted a price to bring the machine back to showroom spec. This was 1985, so £50 was a fair wedge then. -- Rob_P UKRM(at)indqualtec.co.uk uppercase(d) BBIWYMC#1 BOG#11? MRO#31 IBCDBBB#1(kotl) FJ1200, CCM130 Benelli Cabriolet (gone) Looks like Rab C Nesbit.
For 50 fucking quid? I hate to say it, but that's utter bollocks. Even if the bloke who repaired and painted it was a dole scrounging **** who's working for beer money wouldn't be stupid enough to work for **** all. And exactly how much did the light fitting cost? That's exactly why. That's all they *can* do. I don't know of a bodyshop worth its salt saying they'll "make it look like a fucking shed" Oh do fucking behave. I bought a whole car for a fucking fiver in 1965 but it's hardly relevant to this discussion, is it?
And you think the parts that were fitted (if they were even fitted and not repaired by hammer) were the same? Ok, have it your way, you obviously know all the ins and outs of the job.
I bought my second car, an HB Viva with 6 months MOT, for a tenner in 1979. -- Lozzo Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere) BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite they churn out)
Beav spoke: You seem very defensive in this thread, Beav? OK - *you* might be above-board and all that, but it's a big bad world out there, and not everyone is quite so ethical! For example, in our village there are 2 garages. One is perhaps a *bit* more expensive, but is very professional, and has often done stuff for nowt for us int he past. The other is a complete wanker of the first order! I mistakenly took the Galant there for an MOT and it passed, but then I got the invoice through the post for >£600 - new disks & pads all around! A local car dealer later mentioned in a casual conversation that the place was notorious for conning people in this way. -- Rob_P UKRM(at)indqualtec.co.uk uppercase(d) BBIWYMC#1 BOG#11? MRO#31 IBCDBBB#1(kotl) FJ1200, CCM130 Benelli Cabriolet (gone) Looks like Rab C Nesbit.
