Not my week!!

[whitehawk]

Came out of work today,walked back to the next street where i park my baby, only to see a crowd stood round the truck. As i got nearer i could see some bas**rd had wiped out the offside from the drivers door right to the front. A Business Post truck had apparently hit it and never even stopped. Luckily for me, several people had seen it happen and got the number. Off i went to the local plod shop and nobody would be surprised to know they weren`t really interested. They wouldn`t even make out a report until i had been home and produced my documents. The long and short of it is they have now filed a report, which gets sent to a central office and if i`m lucky it will be investigated when they have time to allocate someone to look into it. I have been told that it will get sorted but don`t expect anything for quite a while. (Enough said!) Next job - phone the insurance. Axa were very helpful on their claims line and at the end of giving all my details they asked if i wanted to take the motor to an approved repairer. I said i would rather take it to the local toyota dealer in Canterbury, thinking it would be better from the point of view of getting a decent job done and hopefully the right parts. After all, if the insurance is paying for it, who cares about cost? Now i have had a couple of hours to think about it, i wonder if this is a good move, after all we all know about Toyota dealers attitude to imports. If anyone has any advice or comments, i would be most grateful.

Cheers, Ken.

[Vagrant No2]

I work as an Insurance assessor and have the wonderful job of dealing with damaged vehicles . Yes , the approved repairers can be the best option ,as can be Toyota dealer . But you have an import and most bodyshops take a short intake of breath and close the door .

I would ask around on here first , as you have , and see if someone knows of a good local repairer . It will help the assessor , like me , if you can provide suppliers of parts , specialists etc to assist in the repair of vehicle . He may say 'can not supply parts as an import 'and total loss it . If you have proof of supplier and costs it will prevent this . You may consider secondhand parts to speed things up , your choice .

In brief , but if you want more , ask

Rick

[whitehawk]

Interesting comments Rick - i`ll have to make a few phone calls and decide the best course of action. As i said, Axa were brilliant but i think they are assuming i want to claim on my insurance for now (fully comp protected ncb) and assume they will try to recover costs when the other driver is traced. I know this means i can get back on the road quicker but i don`t fancy having to stump up the £250 excess.

Ken

[TAZMAN]

Hi Ken.

I had mine repaired by an insurance company approved garage, unfortunately not near you though. I had the usual deep breaths and sucking of teeth too, but, I offered them the addy's of a couple of web sites for parts ie: Milners, Roughtrax etc which they accepted happily. I must admit, if I hadnt, I dont think I would have got my Surf back as quick as I did. Just a thought, if you decide not to go to a Toyota dealer, make a list up of some parts suppliers to give to the repairers and see how it goes.

Good luck mate.

[marky]

Have you got the registration No of the other vehicle if so you can claim directly from there insurance rather than your own

[whitehawk]

Thanks for the comments guys, first thing i need to do is wait until i`ve calmed down. I know accidents can happen but the fact this plonker didn`t stop has really wound me up. Judging by the amount of damage and the fact i`ve got his rear light cluster, he must`ve known he`d hit me. I`m not a vindictive person but at the moment the thought of his nuts on a silver platter, tied with parcel string and delivered to my door sounds really good.

Ken

[marky]

Phone the local depot of Business Post & speak to the TRANSPORT MANAGER he will know of any damage to one of the vans.

[ship]

[ It will help the assessor , like me , if you can provide suppliers of parts , specialists etc to assist in the repair of vehicle . He may say 'can not supply parts as an import 'and total loss it .

I,m sure Rick will put me right on this, but can you not find a friendly local garage to say they can,t get the parts, it,s an import, the assessor then "total loss it", you buy it back from insurance co. cheap and repair it yourself or pay someone to do it, just a thought

ship

[UKWolf]

Just wondering, Vagrant No 2 would be able to correct me here, but as its a hit and run can you not claim through the Insurance Beurea, so that you do not need to pay the excess or have future issues with your insurance Co.?

[silvtr1000]

I'm pretty sure that in Ireland, the Motor Insurers Beaureau only covers traffic accidents resulting in the injury of a person - not injury-less vehicular damage...

If you have the reg of the truck and witnesses, why not contact the transport company, either yourself, or via a solicitor?

They won't be able to deny it was there truck.
Their truck will be damaged.
They will have a record of who was driving that truck at that time.
They will be interested in sorting you out, otherwise they can enjoy the attentions of the court, where it will inevitably end up.

You don't seem like a guy who wants to take anyone for a ride - you just want your Surf back to the way it was before they damaged it. You're even willing to help, with names of reliable Japanese parts suppliers...

Mark

[da SLUG man]

we had a hit and run off a parceline truck... just phoned parceline and they sent insurance details... simple... although in our case we were sitting in our truck so we chased him and caught up... resulting in a very scared parcel delivery guy.

[whitehawk]

Things are looking up, have identified truck and depot, waiting for transport manager to get back to me. Will keep you all posted with future developements.

Ken

[That Ruddy Squirrel]

So time to polish the silver platter and get the parcel string ready ????

Trev

[sumo]

Hi Ken sorry to hear of your misfortune,you have done the right thing by getting in contact with the trucks depot and once you have the details get your insurance company to go for the juggular of theirs. As for the toyota main dealer repair worry I should think that by now,with so many surfs in the uk attatudes to the repair job should have changed. Supplying places to get parts will help but it only takes my main dealer a couple of days to get parts from Japan,so genuine parts must be available.

sumo.

p.s. do you want to borrow a knife and silver plater,Iv'e got a very nice one that you put cakes on......Its even got its own stand...

[Vagrant No2]

OK , Tam , me wife bless her , was in her car at traffic lights when a skip lorry ploughed into the back . Result , total loss .

She had a camera with her and took pictures of lorry and driver for our records . He refused insurance details , which is illegal not to give , as he said it was the companys info and he did not know .
After claiming on our own insurance , plus me being in the buisness , a search was done on the company to locate the insurance company name etc . We then got our insurance company to claim straight against them and recovered all costs , plus a little more .
It is the same check the police do roadside when they check you . Your insurance company MUST do this to act on your behalf as contract .
Yes we lost no claims bonus for 11 months while it was sorted , but now it has been reinstated with no loss to Tam .
You pay enough for insurance get your moneys worth out of them . PUSH them every day . I work for one and I know they can do the minimum for you if they can .

Rick

PS Ship , these days buying back salvage is getting rare , due to fraud .