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Hi,
My sons car broke down his way home from London to the North East. He has a basic breakdown cover which was free with his insurance 1st Central who appear to use Call Assist to administer recovery
He was unsure of the level of cover when he phoned them and they apparently told him if the recovery was more than 10 miles this would need to be paid for although he cannot recall being told this
The recovery vehicle took him as far as Peterborough and he was told another driver would pick him up form there, but he was then informed they where not covered so they paid for a hotel and paid for a private recovery vehicle to complete the journey.
He is now being threatened with court action within 7 days unless he pays the excess mileage fee of £231 to get him as far as Peterborough even though this was not authorised by him and they agree by themselves either:-
"I understand that the recovery that took place was not in fact authorised by Call Assist. I can assure you that this issue was passed to our Network Management Department for further investigation to ensure that this remains an isolated incident"
What is the best tactic here, he genuinely believed he was covered and if he wasn't this should have been made clearer to him, and he obviously would have paid for a private company for the whole journey rather than pay twice, I guess his options are:-
1 Pay up
2 Contact Financial Ombudsman in regard to his complaint
3 Reply to them stating the above
4 Ignore
Appreciate any help with this, as this adds insult to an already painful experience (£2.5 k down and rising!)
My sons car broke down his way home from London to the North East. He has a basic breakdown cover which was free with his insurance 1st Central who appear to use Call Assist to administer recovery
He was unsure of the level of cover when he phoned them and they apparently told him if the recovery was more than 10 miles this would need to be paid for although he cannot recall being told this
The recovery vehicle took him as far as Peterborough and he was told another driver would pick him up form there, but he was then informed they where not covered so they paid for a hotel and paid for a private recovery vehicle to complete the journey.
He is now being threatened with court action within 7 days unless he pays the excess mileage fee of £231 to get him as far as Peterborough even though this was not authorised by him and they agree by themselves either:-
"I understand that the recovery that took place was not in fact authorised by Call Assist. I can assure you that this issue was passed to our Network Management Department for further investigation to ensure that this remains an isolated incident"
What is the best tactic here, he genuinely believed he was covered and if he wasn't this should have been made clearer to him, and he obviously would have paid for a private company for the whole journey rather than pay twice, I guess his options are:-
1 Pay up
2 Contact Financial Ombudsman in regard to his complaint
3 Reply to them stating the above
4 Ignore
Appreciate any help with this, as this adds insult to an already painful experience (£2.5 k down and rising!)
