As regular readers of this online rantathon will know, my BMW Z3 was stolen some months ago from the Hillcroft Garage in Langstone, and Direct Line insurers foolishly paid out my estranged wife over 6k despite the car having been recovered.
My efforts to notify Direct Line of the vehicle’s recovery fell on deaf ears, as my ex had instructed them not to speak to me for the purposes of defrauding them, so every phone call to them was met with a staunch “sorry, we can’t speak to you” rebuttal.
A quick update before I recount today’s frustrating events: The car is safe with me, my ex has attempted (through an illiterate solicitor) to get me to pay the money she defrauded, Royal Sun Alliance (the garage’s insurer) have my documents and Direct Line still refuse to speak to me.
So, over to today…
I need to get my car documents back from Royal Sun Alliance, and to get the outstanding problems fixed with the car so I telephoned Churchgate Insurance Broker’s Don Robinson today at 2:00pm to try and find out why they have done nothing since I last contacted them on November 17th. He insisted he’d try and find the contact details for Royal Sun Alliance and call me back before he goes home for the day at 4:00pm. Guess what? He didn’t bother. There’s a surprise.
I then phoned Direct Line’s customer support, and got instantly cut off. After my experiences with the morons at BT last night, this did not go down well.
I tried again instantly, and eventually got through to someone called Nick in their Bristol office. After explaining the situation to Nick, he attempted to find out who was dealing with this farce. He tracked it down to their Leeds branch, but when he tried to call them they said they could not speak to me. That’s nice isn’t it? They’ve been defrauded and I’ve had a car stolen, yet they can’t speak to me. How else do they imagine they’ll get this fucking situation sorted???
Nick dealt with my frustration very well and gave me the number for their head office in Croydon, Surrey, which I’ll share with you now. It’s 020 8686 3313, and a chap named Ray Harper, who handles complaints. I told Ray everything that had happened, and he said they’d look into and get back to me.
Less that an hour later, a woman named Chloe O`Driscol phoned and said that the case was being looked into, and even though she couldn’t give me any details (because they can’t still can’t speak about the policy, due to the ex putting the bar on them talking to me) they’d get back to me tomorrow with a status update.
I truly hope they do, because I just can’t understand how I can have a car stolen, Direct Line can be defrauded, my ex can walk away with over 6k and Direct Line can persist in refusing to speak to me even though we’ve both been the victim of wilful crime.
It’s now 3:58pm, and I just phoned Don Robinson back as he’d assured me he’d call me before he left for home at 4:00pm. Guess what readers? The dopey lying fucker has gone home.
Further updates to follow as and when I get them.
