Stress

[simont]

Direct Line rang me up yesterday, told me my car was a write-off, and let me know what paperwork would have to go where as a result.

Today I rang them back to ask them the one question I hadn't remembered to ask at the time, which is how long I get to keep the hire car they supplied me with. The woman I just spoke to had managed (or, more likely, her computer system had managed) to lose all my details, but said that the usual procedure is that I have to give the hire car back five days after receiving the settlement cheque.

That doesn't seem very long! I had guessed they'd at least let me keep it for a few weeks while I sorted out finding and buying a new car. I can of course start that process in advance of receiving the cheque – but I could easily imagine that not everybody would have the spare money to do that. So I'm less impressed with DL this week than I was last week.

On the plus side, my neck is definitely getting better. Can't credit DL with that one, though!

Comments

[xraycb.livejournal.com]

Do you have a fancy stereo system (ISTR that you had a hard disk mp3 system at some point) in the car? You might have to negotiate specifically to get it back, best to do that before they formally write it off.

If you can be bothered, try to reject their first settlement offer. If your car had full (main dealer?) service history, then it's probably worth a little more. You can check parkers, autotrader and pistonheads classifieds for an idea on price.

[simont]

I went to the garage at lunchtime and rescued the stereo :-) but thanks for the reminder – I would have forgotten if my dad hadn't mentioned it on the phone last night.

I checked with Parkers just now, actually, and they reckon it's actually worth less than Direct Line are offering. (In favour is a good service history and low mileage; against are some old scrapes from stationary objects that I never bothered to get fixed...) So I've probably done all right there.

[hsenag.livejournal.com]

Are you looking at replacement cost rather than resale value? The former is what you're entitled to, of course.