Tuesday 27 October 2009

More stuff and nonsense

Apologies; a self-indulgent rant follows. I would click away now if I were you...


Last week I had a too-close encounter with another car. Below is a paraphrased e-mail I sent today to my insurance company - with one or two amendments for the sake of entertaining t'internet...


To whom it may concern (is anybody listening? Hello? Helloooo? Anybody?),

following my conversation earlier today with a member of your 3rd party team regarding claim no: xxxx, (where it became clear to me that not a single fact I have previously provided you with about this incident has actually been filed anywhere useful or accessible), please find attached a scanned copy of the letter I recieved from the 3rd Party's solicitor Claimit & Rip M. Orf this morning, along with two photographs of both cars involved in the accident.

As I stated on the phone in our earlier call, I seriously doubt that there was any injury at all sustained by Mr X (other than, it seems, some damage to his reality filter); at the time he appeared fine and stated to me that he might not even make a claim, and in that case he would simply ask me to make good the damage to his car by paying a garage of his choice to repair it. I am not however disputing that this accident was my responsibility, and for your records what happened was as follows:

At approximately blah time on blah date, I was turning right onto Busy Road from Quiet Back Route Lane. Mr X was coming from the opposite side of the crossroads and was going straight over. (He saw me coming). He stopped suddenly (he said at the time this was to avoid a cyclist) (whom I never actually saw but who's existence I didn't question at the time because I am a gullible twit) at which point my driver's door scraped his rear bumper. I fully accept that this was my fault, and was because I had wrongly anticipated that his car would have moved from the point where I actually hit him when I started the turn (So sue me. Oh, right. He is doing...)

I was driving at no more than 5 miles an hour at the time. It is possible to see that my speed was not excessive from the photographs attached (both timed and dated) which I took with my phone (because apparantly although I may be a gullible twit I am, thank god, not a stupid one), where it is clear that neither my door nor Mr X's bumper are even dented; they are only scratched (a good clean and a bit of turtlewax would probably take it out, but let's not split hairs). Whilst I have not of course seen him since the accident and so don't know about any long term physical effects he's suffered, nor been present at any assessment of damage to his car, it seems excessive for him to claim not only for a replacement vehicle but for whiplash as well, when it was a relatively minor incident (which resulted in the need for only cosmetic repairs to a car that was frankly in not that good a state to begin with. And his car wasn't that great, either...).

Please note that as requested during my conversation with your office (call centre), I have contacted Claimit & Rip M. Orff by telephone and spoken to Mr D'Odgy, and have given him your details and the claim reference number. I have also explained to him, as you requested, that from this point on all contact should be between them and yourselves, (instead of the almost daily calls from various legal representatives of the Mr X asking me to repeat again - and again and again and again - the details of the accident. The reasons for which - now that I've recieved their letter - have become clear; I've been blithely giving them the true story whilst he has been making me out to be the worst driver since Dick Dastardly, and the two stories clearly don't match.). Mr D'Odgy has confirmed that he now has all the information he requires and that I do not need to forward him any further information on this matter.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or need further clarification on this matter. (I appreciate that it's not my decision as to how you proceed with this but personally I think Mr X is taking the michael something awful and if you fall for this then I may well be forced to take my business elsewhere, since paying out for such nonsense claims is obviously where my too-high premiums are going.) (Or I will, once I get my no-claims bonus back, that is). (In about 10 years, probably).

Best regards,

Potty Mummy


Right, now that's out of my system, it's time to deal with the pr exec who sent me a useless non-Potty-Diaries-relevant press-release and then followed it up only 10 minutes later with a second e-mail chasing me on whether or not I was going to use it...


And - breeeeaaaaathe.

Note: normal service - possibly featuring Boy #2's Patented Pooh Classification System - will resume tomorrow.

12 comments:

  1. Oh, Grrr on your behalf.

    Me, I'm still smarting from the gits who drove into our car two years ago, and then claimed it was our fault....I know all's fair in love and insurance, but it seems so inherently WRONG.

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  2. And double grrrrr

    Seems totally wrong that he can do that - don't suppose his solicitors are one of those 'been in an accident that wasn't your fault' lot

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  3. Counter claim for Post
    Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by the constant phone calls etc which are forcing you to continuously experience the horrendous accident that THEIR claimant describes!

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  4. And in eastern europe when you hit someone (er, me, last week, reversing out of our drive at 5mph) we all stood around, decided not to involve the police (yay!) and I gave him a 'friendship gift' to soothe away the scrapes.

    Get yourself eastwards, pronto!

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  5. What a silly thing. I've scraped a couple of cars accidentally in the last year and no one gave me any trouble at all.

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  6. Oh wow. You hear about these things happening but I've never actually 'met' someone who has experienced it.
    Good for you Potty Mummy for having the gumption to take dated pix.
    What a cheeky so and so!

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  7. It just goes to show that you always need photographic evidence. God, how annoying. I'm impressed by the lack of expletives, quite frankly!

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  8. You should drive around in Chicago where there are so many people without a proper licence or insurance that they scarper before you can even get out of your car. A bit annoying when your car is worse off, but it does wonder for your no claims bonus!

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  9. What an absolute Bleeeeeep! So unfair. I suspect he's not even considering the effect of his fakery is having on you. He'll just be seeing £££ in his eyes.

    I have tagged you in a mem at mine BTW:

    http://www.insomniacmummy.com/2009/10/almost-wordless-wednesday-picture.html

    :)

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  10. How INFURIATING!!!! And what a bloody CHEEK of the other driver, and how soon can you get into the offices of the insurance company to whack someone over the head with a 100 rolled up copies of your letter?

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  11. NVG, yes it does. Dammit.

    MaM, who knows? I didn't recognise the name but they weren't local.

    Sharon, I'm hoping that's stopped now - watch this space!

    Brit, I will be taking that advice!

    A - funny enough, no...

    Mwa - maybe it's a London thing?

    Tara, the annoying thing is he will probably still get away with it because the insurance company may well decide it will cost them too much time and money to contest. Cynical? Me?

    DG, I'm trying not to lose sight of the fact that it was me who hit his car, after all, so no (more) expletives there. It's just what happened afterwards.

    EPM, I'll be interested to see whether Moscow falls into the same category as Chicago. Given the stories I've been told about buying a driving licence, I suspect that may be the case!

    IM, I'll be over asap...(and thanks!)

    Motherhood, not soon enough is the short answer. Especially since it appears the call centre is in India. (I mean, I might make the trip into to town to do that, but not sure getting on a plane would serve any useful purpose. I suppose...)

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Go on - you know you want to...