Thought my experience might be of interest. I am documenting below my experience of a 3rd party claim what happened and how much time i have had to wait. I am posting this incase others have a similar decision to make to allow you to make an educated choice.
If you don't like reading a lot of text you might want to give the below a miss.
Back on 3rd July on a ride out my best mate didn't see me stopping and we had an accident. He went over the handle bars ended up in a ditch and wrote off his bike. But for me it was a very minor tap causing minor damage to a bit of plastic on the exhaust and damaging the mount on the right hand indicator. We jointly agreed that we would go the insurance company route and get everything sorted officially.
I have my insurance with Bennetts he had insurance with Motorcycle direct. Both companies moved the claim to a company called 4th Dimension to handle.
I tried going the route of getting the main dealer to asses the damage and getting them to repair it and then just send the bill to the insurance company and this would have been a total bill of just £175 fully fitted. However I was advised if i did this it would not be a 3rd party claim it would be a fully com claim and I would need to pay the excess (£350) so basically I would have to cover the cost of the accident, so i chose not to do this and let it run its course.
4th Dimension advised they need to come and collect the bike (£250) which they did on the 13th July they would then have their assessment team value the damage (£70) and the bike would then sit in storage (£50 per day) until the bike could be repaired and brought back to me (another £250). They then tried to sell me that I have helmet and leather cover and would I like to make a claim for the full amount. I advised no because nothing was damaged and this would be wrong (they seemed most upset) they then asked if I would like a hire bike for the summer whilst mine was being fixed. This really upset me as I realized they were now just money grabbing and I advised the work is going to take somebody 30 minutes tops so why would I want a hire bike so "NO"
A week after the bike was taken it was valued. They quoted the damage at £1800, when questioned they advised the whole exhaust needed changing (my ass it did) and also a rear grab handle was damaged (my ass it was) and also the seat had a rip in it and needed changing (no it didn't).
Several weeks passed and I was contacted to say that the 3rd party's insurance company had not admitted liability and there recommendation was for me to change this to a Comprehensive claim that way work could start immediately. I questioned about the £350 excess and they tried to say that i would not need to pay it, after pushing further it came clear i would need to pay it but if the other party admitted liability then I would be able to make a further claim to claim it back, oh and by the way it would then become a claim that was my fault so my premium would then go up. So I pasted and said thanks for the advise I will wait.
At this point contacted my friend and asked him to call Motorcycle Direct. Within 24 hours they admitted liability and communicated with 4th Dimension to proceed with the repairs.
The big wait then started as they ordered parts (from the slow boat from china) and then scheduled the work. I was contacted multiple times to basically say my bike would not be back until the end of September but i continued to push with them getting confirmation when the parts had arrived and why my bike was not being repaired and why 30 minutes work was going to take 4 weeks to complete.
I then saw on my GPS tracking app for the bike it had been started and taken on a test ride on the 6th September so i called back and asked why is somebody riding my bike, I had a call back scheduling the delivery of the bike to come back to me tomorrow (13th September)
This lot are a bunch of thieving b'stards that have a license to print money and my god aren't they just If you want to know why our insurance premiums are so high this is why......
Original bill to fix it myself= £175
- New Indicator
- New bit of plastic to go on the exhaust
- 30 minutes labor to fix at a main dealer
Bill for Insurance company to fix it = £5420
- £250 bike collection
- £70 damage evaluation
- £1800 bike repairs and parts
- £3050 for 61 days in storage (at £50 per day)
- £250 bike return
If i had taken a hire bike and also gone for the helmet and leather cover think the bike might have been written off as the bike is only valued at £10,500 brand new. 61 days of hire bike costs i'm sure would have pushed it over the top......
So tomorrow will let you know how the bike comes back, if it looks like it has been left in a forest for the last few months or if its been looked after and if they have actually repaired the bike or if it is worse then before it left.
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