Direct Line - not impressed

[macabethiel]

Well its been several weeks now since we were advised by Direct Line that the Hyundai was a write off and I have rung them a couple of times in the last week to find out when they were sending me the cheque.

I was given the usual run around about the cheque having to be authorised by a manager bla bla bla and its been in the post since the 6th March. I rang them last Friday and was advised if cheque was not with me by today to ring back.

I rang them back advised cheque was sent out 2nd class business post on the 7th March and if it did not arrive by this Thursday to ring them back.

Had my first phone call from them this afternoon to advise me that I had been wrongly advised about the cheque having been posted as that was a cheque to the other party involved and that our cheque had not been raised as the vehicle had a marker on it that it was on finance.

I pointed out to them that I had paid cash for the vehicle in August 2013 and that they had a copy of my purchase invoice from the trader as they requested. Then they advised me that the outstanding finance was from 2009 and the Finance company involved were in liquidation and they would look into it and write to me.

I contacted the Trader I purchased the vehicle from and he was very helpful he rang me back half an hour later to tell me that he had just done another HPI check on the vehicle and there was no outstanding finance just a marker saying the vehicle was a write off by the insurance company in February this year.

I rang direct line again and presented them with the fact that it was HPI clear when I bought the vehicle as I had done my own HPI check when I purchased the vehicle. They then said it could be that there was outstanding finance that had been settled but that the cheque may have bounced after I had made the purchase as a result of the previous owner not having settled the account.

I then advised them that I had been in contact with the supplying Trader and that as at 30 minutes ago there was no trace of finace outstanding with HPI. Long silence someone would ring me back.

They rang me back 20 minutes later to say there had been a mistake and the vehicle was not subject to outstanding finance !!

I now await a bacs payment that will take up to 5 days. I pointed out to them that when I make a bacs payment during working hours its virtually instant always within the day. Another long silence on phone. No wonder no one rates insurance companies.