Well where do I start.... How about with the good stuff......
Got a quote from the Adrian Flux stand at Japfest 2/SXOC Weekender and the guy could not have been more helpful, professional attitude and the perfect sales staff that I have grown to expect from Flux over the last few years....
Then came my accident. Again, Flux staff could not have been anymore help but being just brokers they gave me the contact details for the underwriters or insurers or whatever - which in this case was Equity Red Star....
Now the fun REALLY begins.
I ring up and report the claim to which all the information is taken down by a seemingly helpful lady;
A week passes, so I rang them again expressing my concern that I have not received any paperwork and also make it noted (again) that I wish to salvage what I can from the vehicle.
Some time passes and I get bored of promised phone calls that are never received, I kept leaving messages for the claim handler and nothing gets seems to get sorted. I emailed the complaints department and 48 hours later I had a very helpful email from them saying that they take all complaints seriously and contacted me by phone to sort out my issues.
Great (I though), it seemed like the ball was actually rolling and after 8 weeks of arguing over the vehicles value we eventually came to a value that I was happy with and able to retain my vehicle. The only stipulation was that they would deliver the vehicle to me, I strip it, return the shell and they dispose of it before sending me my cheque, the lady even sent me an email with the total in (minus my excess) - to which I was happy (I wasn't happy with the valuation but I was happy that I was able to get parts back).
Oh, did I mention that they would deliver the vehicle? Well they would but Copart (where the vehicle was held) said that they were not able to deliver the vehicle - this gave me great confidence in their ability as to how they were going to get the shell back minus the entire suspension!! After a bit of haggling on Shiply I find a great company (A1 recovery - would recommend them to anyone by the way!) who were able to retrieve the vehicle and deliver it to me.
Thanks to some great help from Monkey we were able to strip the car pretty quickly over a couple of dry weekends. Copart are then advised of the vehicles location and state..... they then send out a collection vehicle and one man with no equipment to move it. So that meant that I had to take ANOTHER day off work for it to be collected - the second collection attempt was much more successful and again (A1 Recovery) they did a fantastic job.
Nearly a month passes - no contact from them until suddenly I get a reply to an email that I sent when they collected the vehicle advising me of where to post my V5 and insurance certificate etc.
I come home today to a letter - I open it and very happy to see the headed notepaper with a 'please find enclosed' line...... only to then read the rest of the letter to find that they have taken an extra £1500 quid of for salvage..... After we had already agreed on a value for the vehicle AFTER salvage.
To say I am outraged and angry is a complete understatement. I obviously will be chasing the £1500 owed to me straight away in the morning.
I am sorry to say that I doubt I will ever insure with Flux again - but not because of their service, that has always been good to me.... but because of Equity Red Star. Even if I have to pay more money to avoid them it would be money well spent. If I actually needed a car to get to work and back I would have been totally screwed as the accident was back in September.
Equity Red Star's customer service is absolutely shocking, I have never in my life felt like a 'piece of meat' that they make you feel. I did not feel like a client or a customer to them at any point - maybe that's harsh, when they started helping me I thought 'oooo they are actually doing something right' - but no, they can't even do what they said on paper right!!
They are slow with responses, make mistakes, and even worse the stories I were told by the staff on the phone changed everytime I rang!!
Equity Red Star had/have NO expertise in dealing with modified vehicles from what I could tell and to be in that line of work/market it is utterly disgraceful.
I will avoid them by all means even if I have to pay more, nobody should be treated the way I was and nobody should have to go through an ordeal like that over your 'pride and joy'
[/RANT]