MCE Total Nightmare, i think they are giving me the run around could someone help?

[tippytoppy]

Hi all,

Just want to say thanks for anyone who takes the time to post and help me out.

My motorcycle was knocked over in a hospital car park on the 10/07/2014 i found it on the floor at 12:30am after visiting someone, i dont live that far from the hospital so picked the bike up and managed to get it started and drove home, the top right handle bar was broken, but managed to ride it home.

When i got in i rang the insurance and told what had occurred they logged the claim and told me to ring the police to gain an incident number if it is found on CCTV or someone calls in with evidence to who has knocked or revered into it (guess) then to ring back and speak to the accident team who will take all details over the phone regarding damage. I rang back in that same say and listed what had broken and they told me a company would call me to arrange collection of the bike. I asked for a courtesy bike but they told me my fully comp insurance did not include one, i argued but they assured me that my policy does not cover it, they then listed my options:

1) The bike has an excess of £1800, if the damage is below this i would have to pay for repairs ( I took out excess protection
2) if the bike was a wright off the £1800 would not needed to be paid

3 days later a company comes to collect the bike and they take it away, 4 days later the ring me to tell me thats in a complete wright off and that somone would later call me to talk settlement. So far so good. I get a call and the valuation team and they tell me that the value the bike at £2000 which is what i paid for the bike so was happy with the claim. I also receive letters that tell me to send documentation in of driving license and V5 etc... which i do 1st class signed for.

A letter comes through the door telling me my settlement amount and they now have all my documents. 1 week has no passed so i call up and they tell me that the payment has been approved and my 1st payment of £200 would be processed in 14 days days then 7 days to clear, i get frustrated and ask why they are splitting they payments they tell me MCE will pay the £200 and the excess protection company will pay the other £1800! they tell me what i must wait for the £200 to arrive in my bank, then £1800 would be transferred straight after. Today the £200 arrives into my bank and i call up asking for the 2nd payment and they now tell me they dont think i have excess protection!

I tell them i have the documents infront of telling me my certificate number for the excess protection and i also do infract have a courtesy bike on my policy and i would like to make a complaint, she logs the complaint and then tells me it could take a month for them to look into the excess protection problem!

i ask to be passed through to a manager she just cuts me off the phone goes dead. I call back up and speak to another lady who tells me the email of the advisor who is dealing with my complaint.

Does this sound like a shambles or are they allowed to do this to me?

thankyou all for taking the time to read this.

[des8]

Re: MCE Total Nightmare, i think they are giving me the run around could someone help

Hi,
It is not acceptable for a broker not to know what cover their clients have purchased.
Write to their customer Services Dept @ Customer Services Department, The Bike Insurer,
Queen Anne House, Queen Anne Street,
Southport,
PR8 1EH
Tell them you expect recompense for lack of a courtesy bike, which they failed to arrange, and immediate payment of the sum due under the Excess Protection Policy.
Advise them you are also writing directly to the Excess Protection Insurers.

I would then write directly to the Excess Protection Insurers.
Explain what has happened and enclose copies of your claim and settlement received from MCE and ask them to settle directly with you.
Complain to them about the poor service from your broker,their agent

Keep a copy of all letters sent, send "signed for" and keep the receipt slip from Post Office,

[tippytoppy]

Re: MCE Total Nightmare, i think they are giving me the run around could someone help

Hi,
It is not acceptable for a broker not to know what cover their clients have purchased.
Write to their customer Services Dept @ Customer Services Department, The Bike Insurer,
Queen Anne House, Queen Anne Street,
Southport,
PR8 1EH
Tell them you expect recompense for lack of a courtesy bike, which they failed to arrange, and immediate payment of the sum due under the Excess Protection Policy.
Advise them you are also writing directly to the Excess Protection Insurers.

I would then write directly to the Excess Protection Insurers.
Explain what has happened and enclose copies of your claim and settlement received from MCE and ask them to settle directly with you.
Complain to them about the poor service from your broker,their agent

Keep a copy of all letters sent, send "signed for" and keep the receipt slip from Post Office,

Thankyou so much, how would i go about composing such a letter? does legal beagles keep any templates that i could use?


I cant see who the excess protection is with, on the bottom of the excess insurance certificate all i can see

http://www.alphagroup.dk/

as i am new to looking for legal advice i am not sure on how i can go about getting them to pay direct.

again thanks for your help

[des8]

Re: MCE Total Nightmare, i think they are giving me the run around could someone help

Sorry, but you won't find a template for this.
If you could draft a letter and post it up, we could look it over, but to do that properly it would help if you could post up (redacted so personal details, policy numbers etc are removed)
policy documents and any correspondence from MCE.

The Alpha Group are Danish insurers who only work through brokers, so I would not complain to them yet, but keep it as a threat.

[tippytoppy]

Re: MCE Total Nightmare, i think they are giving me the run around could someone help

Sorry, but you won't find a template for this.
If you could draft a letter and post it up, we could look it over, but to do that properly it would help if you could post up (redacted so personal details, policy numbers etc are removed)
policy documents and any correspondence from MCE.

The Alpha Group are Danish insurers who only work through brokers, so I would not complain to them yet, but keep it as a threat.

Des,

thank for the information, ill scan in all the information but remove persona information like you said, ill make sure this is done by 1pm tomorrow, again thanks for all your help.

[des8]

Re: MCE Total Nightmare, i think they are giving me the run around could someone help

No hurry

[tippytoppy]

Re: MCE Total Nightmare, i think they are giving me the run around could someone help

Des

Sorry for the long reply. I had made considerable progress with MCE or so i thought. I eventually got this head of complaints Terry and his email. i sent him a strongly worded email in which the gist of his reply was

We are sorry for the confusion, thank you for the proof of your no claims bonus and your proof of curtsey bike, i can confirm these are both valid and i have processed the no excess claim now and you should get that into your bank account for Friday 22nd or sooner.

- that was Wednesday 20th

I got a call telling me they could arrange the hire bike Tuesday -I emailed back saying well there is not really any point in the curtsey bike for that short space of time, i asked for £100 for the transport costs incurred during this duration and still accepted the hire bike.

The next day i had found a new motorbike on ebay, i told the buyer i was waiting on payout from my insurance... i emailed terry twice asking if he could confirm that date and told him fully of my intentions, he did not reply so i called him and left a message on the direct number on his email and told him i would be going down due to him

I travelled on two trains, 1 bus down to my destination 200 miles away and a hotel on the 22nd and nothing came, i thought no worrys it will be there before 12pm that night, the next day came and nothing! I rang straight up asking to speak to Terry, i could here the snotty advisor telling me he was unavailable, the advisor told me "trent" services are responsible for payment, i asked for there details she would not give it me. I then hung the phone up in anger.

I google trent services, find what i think is the company and email them, the advisor was helpful told me how they had emailed MCE many times to just clear a pice of information up with them and they ignored it, i asked her to cc me in her next email which she did.

Good Afternoon

We have been contacted by mr xzzz today in regards to his MCE Excess Protect Policy, xxxxxxxx

Mr xxxx is under the impression that the Excess Payment would reach his bank account today following a conversation with yourself. I was just wondering whether you could confirm that this was your understanding of the conversation and clarify where this information was obtained from.

Regards,

Terry said

Good Afternoon,

The bordereaux was submitted to yourselves on Monday 18^th August and I advised our client that he should receive payment by 22/08/14 which is in line with your normal payment timescales when there are no issues. It does however transpire that you have declined payment according to the bordereaux for an outstanding query which refers to 2 policies sent to us. I have been in touch with Trevor Gawley at MCE who advises that you have all the information, and the correct premium. As far as he is aware all the policy terms have been met so unless there is a specific issue he cannot see any basis not to pay this.

Please can I have your urgent advises as to whether there is an issue, or if not when this claim will be settled and our mutual clients claim paid.


Kind Regards,

Terry

Today i got an email from trent

Dear Mr xxx

I am sorry as it would appear that you have become caught in the middle between information provided by MCE and ourselves unnecessarily.

There seems to have been some confusion with MCE regarding your claim and I will be addressing this situation further with the Claims Manager at MCE directly in regards to the issuance of payments and our usual procedure.

We have authorise your excess payment and you should expect to see £xxxxxx in your account in 3 – 5 working days time.

We did receive notification of your claim last week and although we aim to have processed all claim payments by the Friday, the payments still require time to clear through the banking system. We did have a query regarding data we had received from MCE due to the cancellation of the policy and reclaimed premiums and so we let MCE know.

I would like to confirm that the query has now been resolved which is why we have authorised the claim payment and I do apologise that you were advised your claim was declined as this was not the case.

I do apologise for the inconvenience and if you do have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely

Hazel

i emailed terry stating i was seeking compensation for the hassle that i had had and the wasted time/journey/train fare/hotels etc... he replied

Good Morning xxx

Please see attached e-mail sent to your excess protection insurer to which I am still awaiting a response. Unfortunately this payment is not made by MCE and as such we cannot take responsibility for what appears to be an error made by another company. I would stress that we have not given any guarantee as to timescales as this is something that we do not control, although we have give an indication as to normal settlement timescales.

I will continue to chase Trent on your behalf but must advise that we have no further offers of compensation to make at present.


Kind Regards,

Terry

Who is to blame and do i have any legal leg to stand on in seeking damages?

[des8]

Re: MCE Total Nightmare, i think they are giving me the run around could someone help

Well at least they agree your claim was valid and you will get a payout. Have you received it yet?
IMO MCE are the responsible party. They appoint/contract with Trent, and as such are liable for the actions (inaction?) of their agents.
As to your chances of success in pursuing a legal claim for expenses following you acting on their anticipated payout date, I think they are slim.
Did they agree your request for payment for not providing the courtesy bike in good time?

I would be thinking of a letter (sent recorded) complaining of the poor service, and pointing out that MCE cannot pass the responsibility on to third parties. They are responsible for settling your claim.
Ask for a full written explanation for all the problems (enumerate them in the letter including acting on their advice re anticipated payment and so incurring travel expenses etc) that you have encountered, and request they make a meaningful offer by way of redress.
Advise them that if they do not make a satisfactory reply within say 14 days,you intend to take the matter further and report it to their binding authority insurers.

See what that brings, and hopefully you won't have to write any more letters, other than to thank them.

[tippytoppy]

Re: MCE Total Nightmare, i think they are giving me the run around could someone help

Received my payout today Des8

No i asked for £100 to cover all costs of my travel... they agreed straight away. How would one word a legal letter so that it puts ownership on them and has enough technical jargon to worry them into paying and not have to deal with further legal costs.

many thanks

[des8]

Re: MCE Total Nightmare, i think they are giving me the run around could someone help

So you have now received full payment for your bike.
They have agreed (and paid £100?) for failing to supply a courtesy bike.

If that is correct, quite frankly I don't think you have a hope of getting any further payment as they have now fulfilled their contractual obligations.

It would not help trying to write a letter full of superfluous legal jargon.
If the man in the office didn't understand the letter, it would be passed to their solicitors for clarification, and they would see right through it.

If the claim has been settled in full you could try an email/letter to the Chief Executive, Julian Edwards (julian.edwards@mceinsurance.com).
A complaint to him, setting out the problems, delays and missed dates might produce a result, but don't hold your breath though, I think he might be a hard nosed businessman.