First big accident

[Tynan]

yes, Keith at Condor I think it was, knew his stuff, he'd had a shoulder injury, dislocated shoulder and broken collar bone I think, some time before another cyclist pointed out that he was favouring the shoulder

a period of time doing exercises fixed it he said

Condor Cycles was good fun, nice shop and good blokes

I'm doing Law on evening classes and we're doing mediation and out of court settlements lately, insurance companies are routinely reported to be souless, heartless, mercenary bastards that care about nothing at all other than paying out as little as possible, end of

self regulated beyond a doubt I suspect as law doesn't seem to apply to them, quite why they have four months to even respond to the initial claim is beyond me

 

[Nigeyy]

I also painfully recall that in my experience. They have the money, and it behooves them to hold on to it as long as possible. At the time I thought the response time given to them was outrageous, and that their valuations (at least the one I was given) are so far off that you know it's got to be deliberate time wasting on their part -or given in the hope that some poor sap is in such need of any amount of money they'll take it.

I'd love to see a six month window for settling a claim in its finality, with a substantial penalty given to any insurance company who makes an initial offer that is (say 10%) below a third party independent arbiter who assesses value.

I'm doing Law on evening classes and we're doing mediation and out of court settlements lately, insurance companies are routinely reported to be souless, heartless, mercenary bastards that care about nothing at all other than paying out as little as possible, end of

self regulated beyond a doubt I suspect as law doesn't seem to apply to them, quite why they have four months to even respond to the initial claim is beyond me

 

[HJ]

Try the yellow pages under Assessors, these guys work on a no win on fee basis as clams negotiators, you should be able to get back the full cost of your lost (although they will take about 10% of difference between the insurance companies initial offer and the final settlement).

 

[Trillian]

Try the yellow pages under Assessors, these guys work on a no win on fee basis as clams negotiators, you should be able to get back the full cost of your lost (although they will take about 10% of difference between the insurance companies initial offer and the final settlement).

or he could continue letting the CTC insurance lot sort it.

 

[Tynan]

I started to think about accepting the offer on the way to football, I had a drink with my brother who works in insurance, he furiously and expletetively landenly told me to tell them to pay in full, every penny, said the other party was some snivelling 17 year old whose job was to nick pennies anywhere he could, keep on insisting they pay until it gets kicked high enough to someone senior who'll look at how much they're arguing about and roll his eyes and say 'pay'

sounds good to me

expecting no end of trouble when they see the receipt the LBS gave me a copy of and see the bike was £500 new but the replacement one is £700

going to go long this one I suspect, especially if it takes them a month to reply to letters

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

20% wear and tear knocked off the bike, it was three months old after all

20% off for 3 months old!!! Is that assuming that a bike only last 15 months then as they must surely reduce it to zero worth at the end of its life???

they won't accept the debit card receipts from LBS I presented for the shoes, and shirt and mudguards as a proof of purchase, so offered me half on all of those

Can't see any difference if you can get the LBS to match the receipts with what was purchased (so they can see the amount paid was for what you are saying it was for)

turned down some of the claim for scooter petrol and mileage as 'I should have bought another bike', erm, I'd have loved to if you'd paid for the old one, and I was physically capable of riding it,

Interesting argument. You aren't capable of riding a bike but you should have bought one anyway.... muppets!

and this on top of being told I couldn't claim the cost of a new BB, new hub and trued wheel on the old bike to get it back on the road

Words fail me about the fantastic logic...

refused to pay for SPD pedals as the new replacement bike will have pedals on it

As you say, it won't... but it shouldn't matter, they were damagaed and it's not up to them to say whether they want to replace them or not.

and refused to pay for a new rack as they don't understand what that is and what it has to do with the accident

Irrelevant. If you broke your watch you could claim for it... doesn't have anything to do with the accident though, the accident wasn't your fault. With that logic they could say they're not paying for anything as they don't know what it had to do with the accident.

I'm sure I'll be in a similar position myself as my claim has now gone to the Solicitors (the driver's Boss didn't get back to me at all after he said he'd pay, so I just went down the legal route).

Good luck Tynan, these muppets need sorting out. !!

 

[Tynan]

indeed

I got halfway through my stern and indignant letter before the lady wife pointed out to me that the LBS receipt clearly shows the bike being bought in 2005 and not 2007

sigh

sorry to hear about your one sharky, someone elsewhere suggested that legal claims for less than £1000 have to be done personally through small claims, I have no idea if that's true or not, if you have any sort of injury claim to add it's bound to go over a grand

 

[Tynan]

call from Condor

it's ready to collect

(in their warehouse anyway but looking like Wed after work)

can

not

wait

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

Is he going to be charged?

 

[Tynan]

cops asked me if I wanted him to be charged and I said yes

so they sent him on a refresher course for driving without due care, he did it a few months ago

 

[PBancroft]

cops asked me if I wanted him to be charged and I said yes

so they sent him on a refresher course for driving without due care, he did it a few months ago

Good.

It is my view that with all motoring offenses (no matter if it's a minor infraction like speeding or something much more serious like this) that a refresher course should be the bare minimum that the offender gets.

Three points on your license is like getting told to Sssh by your librarian. Nobody pays the blindest bit of notice.

 

[BentMikey]

cops asked me if I wanted him to be charged and I said yes

so they sent him on a refresher course for driving without due care, he did it a few months ago

You OK with that result? I think I would be when combined with the effect on his insurance premiums, but then it didn't happen to me.

 

[Bollo]

sorry to hear about your one sharky, someone elsewhere suggested that legal claims for less than £1000 have to be done personally through small claims, I have no idea if that's true or not, if you have any sort of injury claim to add it's bound to go over a grand

T'was I and it's true. Under a grand and its small claims, where you can't claim costs. Although you can drag a solicitor along, you'll pay his or her bill even if you win, so its just not worth it financially. Also, I'm told its frowned upon by the magistrates, or whoever sits on small claims cases.

I've got a story to tell about my claim so far, but it'll have to wait. I know how to wait.....

Settlement sounds like testicles. Fight it.

 

[historyman]

I witnessed a crash not unlike this on Outer Circle of Regents Park, jan 2006. I was the cyclist behind the one that got trashed. Police quite sensible. Two weird things.
a) on the witness form, I was asked 'What do you think the appropriate punishment should be?' I thought, why are they asking me that, if i write that the driver should have his hands chopped off, and 'violent criminal' tatooed to his forehead, are they going to do that?
All I have is a letter saying the case 'has now been brought to a satisfactory conclusion'. Bit strange as you feel quite involved but there's no way of knowing what the actual outcome was. Or is there?

 

[TwickenhamCyclist]

Tynan – just read through the thread – firstly, glad you survived the initial accident – sounds like it could have been a lot lot nastier – thoughts with you re insurance – can’t add much to what’s already been said – which insurance company is giving you the run-around though? I’d be temped to become the most irritating thorn in their side, bombarding them with constant calls and correspondence, get MP’s involved, write to the chairman at home, at his golf club etc, annoy shareholders etc and just be the most irritating sod you can until they literally pay you to go away– good luck anyway