GTI Accident Damage - advice needed

[Toon]

Just a slight word of caution with UK Assistance. About 18 months ago, a lady decided the lane she was in wasn't wide enough for her Toyota Yaris and thought she'd use some of my lane, smashing my wing mirror off in the process. To be fair, she admitted liability and her insurance company, Direct Line, were absolutely excellent.

The car needed a new wing mirror, and the drivers door respraying. Unfortunately the work undertaken by UK Assistance was shocking. Not only that, the car returned with a gouge out of one of the alloys. Fortunately I'd been very meticulous and taken loads of pictures before it went on the lorry. Of course, they said it was there before hand but thanks to the date stamps on my pictures (taken the same day it was recovered), I could prove it wasn't.

Not only that, they needed 3 goes to get the paint finish spot on. They left loads of sanding marks, overspray (all over the alloys...), and weird marks all over the place. Ended up getting a claims manager from Direct Line out to view it, and as soon as he saw the car he was horrified and arranged to get it sorted until I was happy.

Hopefully they'll do better with yours!

I hope so. Fingers crossed. Direct Line own UK Assistance so I'm hopeful

[Toon]

Got the car back from UK Assistance today - perfect. Like new. They've done a great job. Here are the "after" shots

[jv]

Looks stunning and quick turn around

[Exonian]

I agree with what the boss man said ^^^^^^^

Black just looks so good for five minutes one cleaned up like that.
And those Santiagos 

A happy outcome from a very unfortunate event.

[Toon]

quick turn around

Yeah - 10 days it was away (and Direct Line pay me £10/day for every day over 7 days off the road so that's a few pints and a curry). I will not miss the hire car Hyundai i30 diesel I've been driving for the last 10 days that's for sure. Again - Direct Line paid so all I need now is the Turkish insurance company to admit fault and I'll get my £150 excess back too. Could be months 

[dubber36]

It should be up to your insurance company to claim the excess from the other party. I'm sure you shouldn't have paid it at all.

My cousin had a bump recently when a neighbour reversed off her drive into the side of his car for which she admitted liability. Whilst the car was being repaired, he had a phone call saying they were from his insurers and he would have to pay the excess before he could get his car back as the claim was going to be settled 50-50. It sounded legitimate as they knew all the details, but obviously he disputed it. Soon after he rang his claims handler, who told him that they hear of these sort of scams all the time.

[kalimon]

Car looks stunning!!
Black is the business when it's clean.
Glad everything worked out well for you in the end.

[monkeyhanger]

It's unsurprising that the OP had to pay the excess and wait to get it back, tearing off a copy of the insurance and handing it over was no admission from the insurance company (even if the driver admitted to it), merely providing insurance details following an accident. Unless you have legal cover and an upfront admission of liability from the other side or irrefutable evidence of fault (dashcam footage or a few independent witnesses), the insurance company pretty much always assume that it could end up as an "at fault" claim if the other side change their story later and want your excess "just in case".

When my GTD got nudged from behind, it looked to be a clear case of them ploughing into the back to me at the end of a sliproad to a roundabout (which is exactly what happened), with pictures that demonstrated the expected aftermath to both cars and positioning, but the other side's insurance was met with a wall of silence when requesting their customer's admission of involvement. That dragged the admission of blame out, they agreed to pay up without admitting blame ("payout without prejudice"), and I still had to pay my excess and wait until my insurance company had their money in the bank and make a claim against the other side to get my excess back. took about 11 weeks to get the car repaired (between the shortage of parts and wall of silence) and another 4 weeks to finally get the "without prejudice" judgement agreed and payments to start coming in.