White Knight said:
Wow! I honestly cannot believe the horror stories that have come from this thread.....
For any claims that i have made in the past where I have felt like I was being stonewalled I always call the ombudsman and advise them that I will take my car to my repairer due to the lack of impartial judgements being made in the favour of the insurer.
Make as much noise as you can my friend, go real hard and watch the fuckers move then. I really feel for you guys and I hope that everyone is following this thread.
THE SAGA CONTINUES... BUT WE HAVE A VERDICT!!!
The last time I wrote in here I said that we dropped the Ralliart Magna off to Mitsubishi Service Dept for assessment. They said that they fiddled around with a few things and the error codes disappeared. They called me and said that they might fixed it, HOWEVER, they didn't feel confident about giving it back to us without holding onto the car for a few more days just to make sure.
Well, I received a phone call the very next day basically stating that when they fired the car up the previous afternoon it started producing multiple codes again, this time a combination of existing and new codes that weren't there the whole week that they had the car lol. They said to try and track it down would be virtually impossible, but not unachievable.... but it was going to cost a lot of money and there weren't any guarantees that it would even be successful because they don't know what they are looking for and have to replace (looms etc). Therefore they advised me of their intention to contact Shannons to give them the bad news.
I received a call from the Shannons Assessor a few days later (Tuesday last week) and he sounded quite deflated and apologetic, but they have agreed to pay out the claim. After 5 frikken months from when the incident happened and after fucking us around for so long and trying to falsely blame it on the ECU etc, they had finally come to a decision!!! YAAAY!!!
We are getting paid out the full comprehensive insured amount minus a buy-back sum for the car. I knew I could sell the car/parts to try and regain some of my costs in the meantime for repairing it and paying for rego and insurance. So I was asked to go and pick the car up and drive it home.
Anyhow, I lined up a buyer from VIC who was going to come up this week but they contacted me to say that they changed their mind because the car is listed as a Statutory write-off. I couldn't believe it because Shannons made no mention of it being a Stat Write-off during the offer to buy it back plus they asked me to drive it home. Its not like the car is smashed and doesnt drive. The buyer said that he paid for a Vehicle History Report and its written on it. I aksed him to email it to me because he knew more about it than I did as Shannons have not only "NOT TOLD ME" about that very important piece of information, they also "HAVENT PAID ME YET" and today is 7 days after they said that they were going to write off the car.
Therefore I called Shannons today and were only just processing the claim today (more like I had to call them up to prompt them) and they said that a bank cheque will be mailed out to me. I asked why cant they do an electronic funds transfer into my bank account and they said that the policy is in both my wife and my name, even though the car is registered in her name. I said that's fine, I can give you my wife's bank details and they said that there was no way about it, they had to send a cheque in both names and one of us will have to sign and release it to the other when the cheque arrives.
But wait, there's more. I was also advised that because we got the car re-registered and insured in July (when rego ran out whilst the car was in the workshop), that said that they cannot refund the insurance and that I will be charged for a full 12 months of full comprehensive insurance. I shit you not! This is when I stood my ground and said Shannons have fucked us around for 5 months with this claim and had they just written the car off in the first place I wouldn't have been without a car for 5 months and I certainly wouldn't have had to re-register and re-insure the vehicle. I had to re-register and insure the car because the Assessor requested that I drive the car to different venues for assessment. It wasn't my choice, it was his. Not only that, but the venues who were inspecting the car would also have to drive it and conduct tests on it to try and determine the problem.
Now I have nothing against ethnic people, I am one myself, but everybody in the claims department I spoke to had an off-shore accent like I had called an internet service provider and they were difficult to understand and in a hurry to get me off the phone. Their claims department definitely did not seem to be Australia judging from the voices I was hearing in the background. Asking for a common sense refund of insurance paid since July seemed like I was trying to draw blood from a stone and it was in the 'too hard' basket. They literally were trying to feed me shit about once you start cover, even though you pay for month by month, you are still liable for a full 12 month insurance premium - even in my case!! I was eventually put on hold for a while and then advised that I will be re-credited for the insurance costs I've paid in the meantime. I asked how? They said via EFT to the bank account that it is getting directed debited from. O........K.......... now let's see how long or whether or not that happens??
So eventually the guys from VIC didn't want to buy the car because it cannot be repaired and re-registered, so I refunded their deposit plus $30 in good faith for the Car History Report that they paid for. It's amazing that that is how I found out about it. Imagine if I had not found that out and fixed the car using spare parts then tried to get it registered!!! .
Not to worry, I have another couple of guys from Sydney interested in buying the car for spare parts, plus grab all the other spares I have laying around from the other Ralliart wreck I bought to try and fix mine up - just in case Shannons were going to be dicks and deny the claim.
So at the end of the day my entire experience with Shannons has been a total nightmare. It appears that the car and parts will be gone before I even get the bank cheque.
Registration on my RAV4 runs out at the end of this month. Tonight I just paid that little bit extra to insure it with GIO.
Next policies to be leaving Shannons will be my other car and also my home and contents insurance.
I cant wait til all of this is finally over and done with.