Insurance Claims Management Rip Off

ok lads, a warning to you all... plus i've gotta get this off my chest, been winding me up all weekend... it's a long story but i'll try to be brief:


in august 2012 i was involved in a back lane, unclassified road (cornish back lane) accident on a rainy day where this woman basically skidded into me, badly damaging my os front wing/front and rear doors/cill and rear wing, total cost of my repair over £2.2k. i had a witness who said they'd give a statement but never did and so it was supposedly settled on a 50/50 basis, or so i thought!

i was insured fully comp and i took it on the chin, and, in spite of my voluntary excess, and decided it was just one of those 'that's life' things and reluctantly accepted it.

i reported the accident to my broker, and to my insurance company AXA, who requested and got a full description with sketches etc of my account of the incident. enter claims management company '4lbany 4ssistance', who said they'd manage the claim on my behalf, and so, it now appears rather foolishly, i left it to them!

after copious, mostly irrelevant, correspondence from said 4lbany assistance, fast forward 17 months to last friday, when i receive a letter from them demanding 50% of the repair costs (£1044.45) from me, as under the 'Repair Credit Agreement' i apparently agreed to, this amount is owed by me, and i should claim the amount back from my insurers (ie.AXA) less, of course my excess.

spent most of friday on the phone to my broker, BDML Connect, AXA and 4lbany 4ssist and got absolutely nowhere, with 4lbany 4ssist maintaining it is me that is responsible for the amount outstanding, and AXA saying to me they won't accept this bill from either me or 4lbany 4ssist, despite the fact they were, and still are for that matter, my insurance company!

needless to say, i won't be paying the outstanding amount, i accept it's my duty to pay my excess, but there's no way in hell i'll pay the £1044.45... i'll do time first!

so, as said, a warning to you all, steer clear of any claims management company, deal with it yourself, much easier and much less hassle and worry.

anyone got any advice i'd much appreciate it, don't fancy time at her majesty's pleasure and don't really relish a showdown with the bailiff, although i'll fight them tooth and nail in the civil court if i have to!

rant over lol

First thing I would do is check whether they are authorised to provide this service.

Paperwork you have should provice a full company name and (possibly) authorisation number. Plug it in here - https://www.claimsregulation.gov.uk/search.aspx and see what it comes up with. Ideally, they WON'T be authorised and you can likely ignore/report them.

After that, it's down to the nature of whatever you signed and you may need legal advice. Even the good ones are bad as a rule.

If you have any more info that can be pursued post here or PM

thank you for that bud, much appreciated.

checked them in your link and they are authorized, nevertheless i ain't phased, even if they dig out of the woodwork a signed piece of paper called a repair credit agreement i still won't pay... who in their right mind would knowingly sign something which negated their insurance company's responsibility for any settlement?

if they come up with it i will go to court and claim to the judge that i was duped, tantamount to misselling, in vogue right now isn't it!

whole thing begs the question, why pay insurance premium in the first place???

sorry lads, but i'm jumpin', what sort of country do we live in ffs, and they call it progress!

Mr D Oji said:

thank you for that bud, much appreciated.

checked them in your link and they are authorized, nevertheless i ain't phased, even if they dig out of the woodwork a signed piece of paper called a repair credit agreement i still won't pay... who in their right mind would knowingly sign something which negated their insurance company's responsibility for any settlement?

if they come up with it i will go to court and claim to the judge that i was duped, tantamount to misselling, in vogue right now isn't it!

whole thing begs the question, why pay insurance premium in the first place???

sorry lads, but i'm jumpin', what sort of country do we live in ffs, and they call it progress!

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It's called a 'try on' - bit like the 'helpers' with tax returns this time of year. Often, they get your details from either your insurance company or theirs.

If you are okay with PM-ing a copy of whatever you signed I'll try and pick some holes in it. Black out the personal stuff M8!

that's the point mate, they're referring to a 'credit repair agreement', but i haven't got any such thing!

they refer to this in their demand letter, and even state they've enclosed it, but they haven't, just irrelevant bits of paper like the repair company's invoice, the assessor's invoice, and my signed vehicle collection receipt, but no credit repair agreement!

although they've been involved since the early days of the claim, i think they've somehow fooked up and now they're trying it on with me with their bully boy tactics... there's no way in heaven, hell or this earth i'll succumb to that!

thanks again though.

Mr D Oji said:

that's the point mate, they're referring to a 'credit repair agreement', but i haven't got any such thing!

they refer to this in their demand letter, and even state they've enclosed it, but they haven't, just irrelevant bits of paper like the repair company's invoice, the assessor's invoice, and my signed vehicle collection receipt, but no credit repair agreement!

although they've been involved since the early days of the claim, i think they've somehow fooked up and now they're trying it on with me with their bully boy tactics... there's no way in heaven, hell or this earth i'll succumb to that!

thanks again though.

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You KNOW what I'm gonna say now lol

You didn't sign anything, you have no paperwork, they declined/refused/couldn't supply it. I'm not allowed to post but I think telling them to offski would be sound

Him Her said:

You didn't sign anything, you have no paperwork, they declined/refused/couldn't supply it.

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just a tad concerned that they'll turn up with something that i might have, unwittingly, signed.

Him Her said:

I'm not allowed to post but I think telling them to offski would be sound

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that's what i'm going to tell 'em, but in more words lol


to everyone else here, you've been warned, if a claims/facilities or any other 'management', nay, 'mismanagement' company try to act on your behalf tell them to go swivel... and rotate, at the same time!

Even if they have this signed "Credit Repair Agreement" I think that you would be able to apply Regulation 7(2) Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts 1999 and tell them that any ambiguity in the notice has to be determined based on the interpretation that is the least favourable to the writer of the ambiguous statement, this is apparently known as "procontra ferentem".
However, it is possible that this may not be applicable to this situation because where the language at issue is mandated by law (as is often the case with insurance contracts) but I just wonder if this agreement is actually an insurance contract..............I doubt it.

D 8 RCS said:

Even if they have this signed "Credit Repair Agreement" I think that you would be able to apply Regulation 7(2) Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts 1999 and tell them that any ambiguity in the notice has to be determined based on the interpretation that is the least favourable to the writer of the ambiguous statement, this is apparently known as "procontra ferentem".
However, it is possible that this may not be applicable to this situation because where the language at issue is mandated by law (as is often the case with insurance contracts) but I just wonder if this agreement is actually an insurance contract..............I doubt it.

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Psst! Think he means tell 'em to fook off lol

Umm this company again. When I had someone smash into me my broker put in through to these jokers. They are used when the accident is not your fault. First you probably spoke to them one the phone which they class as a contract and apparently is recorded. I remember having this conversation but not grasping the situation at them time

In my case it was not my fault, I got a hire car via 4lbany 4ssist and then then I found out that the guy that crashed into me had no insurance so that changed the game, they wanted something £3-4k for a hire charge as now it was classed as a fault accident as there was no-one to claim against.

Dealing with these ****wits was fricking challenging to say the least.

Good luck

Ask them for the recording or paper work, I did send them something signed but the jokers kept sending anothe rcopy back to be signed and I just refused to sign them after a while. Fortunately my insurance company's solicitors added it into the ccj they applied against the third party in my case and I just sent the ccj and directed them to the solicitors. That's one chapter I do not want to revisit. Lesson learned "be aware of these bottom feeders"

You may get some advice here pal

Credit Hire and Credit Repair

skinz said:

Umm this company again. When I had someone smash into me my broker put in through to these jokers. They are used when the accident is not your fault. First you probably spoke to them one the phone which they class as a contract and apparently is recorded. I remember having this conversation but not grasping the situation at them time

In my case it was not my fault, I got a hire car via 4lbany 4ssist and then then I found out that the guy that crashed into me had no insurance so that changed the game, they wanted something £3-4k for a hire charge as now it was classed as a fault accident as there was no-one to claim against.

Dealing with these ****wits was fricking challenging to say the least.

Good luck

Ask them for the recording or paper work, I did send them something signed but the jokers kept sending anothe rcopy back to be signed and I just refused to sign them after a while. Fortunately my insurance company's solicitors added it into the ccj they applied against the third party in my case and I just sent the ccj and directed them to the solicitors. That's one chapter I do not want to revisit. Lesson learned "be aware of these bottom feeders"

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thanks for that info mate, fortunately i never took a hire car of them, alarm bells rung so i declined and sorted that myself. just wish i'd done the same thing with the claim.

as you say i expect they'll say i agreed to all this implicitly by speaking to them on the phone, but whatever, they're not getting a penny from me, it'll be a case of... see you in court!

as i've said already, everybody else... you've been warned.

skinz said:

Lesson learned "be aware of these bottom feeders"

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They're regarded as entrepreneurs, and apparently we need more of them!:grayno:

danforth said:

They're regarded as entrepreneurs, and apparently we need more of them!:grayno:

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No, they're regarded as ar**holes, we don't need them, we need a law that says shooting them will count towards an MBE!

Him Her said:

No, they're regarded as ar**holes, we don't need them, we need a law that says shooting them will count towards an MBE!

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I was just trying to make a gentle comment, and along came a pair of size 12's !:Biggrin2:

danforth said:

I was just trying to make a gentle comment, and along came a pair of size 12's !:Biggrin2:

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Oops, no offence Not you!

Him Her said:

Oops, no offence Not you!

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No problem, didn't think it was, just different ways of saying the same thing.

The modern version of enterprise just seems to mean spotting a previously missed opportunity to rip somebody off.

just a quick update chaps, letter sent yesterday,telling them where to stick it, but in a few more words.

will let you know how it goes.

thanks for all replies, it's helped me a lot, cheers lads.

Mr D Oji said:

just a quick update chaps, letter sent yesterday,telling them where to stick it, but in a few more words.

will let you know how it goes.

thanks for all replies, it's helped me a lot, cheers lads.

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Any problems M8, post here as their Contact page has visible email addresses which, as you know, could be prone to Spam

they are similar to a debt collection agency, both try it on, a debt collection agency will send a letter saying the are collecting a debt previously owed to xxx.com, they usually have a name with some latin words that refer to debt or law, the threaten allsorts on you, the easy way with them is to tell them that you have no contract with them, that your contract is with, xxx.com, you then notify xxx.com that you have no contract with the debt collection agency, that your contract is with them, watch them shrivel, they then become very amicle, so much so that they are open to most offers, hopes this helps some one, thats if i havent muddled you all.