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It’s my first time of claiming ever on insurance so would appreciate any advice on how to proceed with motability and direct line.
Today as I was reversing out of a parking bay in a multi story car park, a car driving the wrong way drove behind me so my rear bumper made contact and damaged his nearside front and rear passenger doors as I revered out.u
The guy admitted he was driving the wrong way and it was his fault plus I have rear dash cam coverage and another car driver who witnessed the bump.
My bumper has a few scratches and scuffs and no dents or cracks. All reversing sensors and the rear reversing camera are working normally. The car is not registering any fault codes.
I completed a claim online with direct line and it was a simple enough process. A text link arrived to upload pictures of both cars and my dash cam recording.
I then received a call from enterprise not to arrange a replacement car but to discuss what happened in the bump. This discussion lasted forty minutes.
He stated that they were unable to provide a credit hire vehicle car as I did not meet their criteria. He advised me to contact motability or direct line for them to make alternative arrangements. When I pushed him for the purpose of the call he admitted that they were acting as a claims management company.
So an email tells me who the repairer is and they will contact me, but what do I do about obtaining a car in the meantime.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
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Since when has enterprise expanded its business from car rentals to claims management. Seems very odd to me!
Did Enterprise car rental & claims management , give a reason why you did not meet their criteria for a hire car from them?
If you have certain adaptions to you vehicle, this could be the reason why Enterprise car rentals or dare I say claims management couldn’t help.
I would give Motability a call & Direct Line to discuss the matter and at the same time enquire why a car rental company is dealing with the claims management, when that should be down the the insurance company, not as I’d expect much sense from either these days.
Please do let us know how you get on 🙂
When I questioned the guy who called from enterprise he actually was unable to answer why I didn’t meet their criteria.
In fact I had to push as to why I was answering the same questions as I already had for direct line. His response was that direct line had tasked them to deal with my claim.
The call didn’t feel quite right and at times it felt I was being questioned in a way to catch me out.
I will contact motability and direct line on Monday to hopefully resolve.
If you have a bump and decide to go down the insurance line then really the very last thing you should do is talk to anyone outside your insurance company and your solicitors.
They should be dealing with it all. Any callers should firmly be instructed to speak to them and hang up.
My 2peneth
The call followed after receiving a text from direct line motability stating that enterprise would be calling. I have spoken to no one else but will be calling motability and direct line on Monday.
If this bump was someone else’s fault, ie the driver who was going the wrong way. You should only have to make your insurance company Direct Line aware. Surely it is up the other party’s insurance company to assist you. If they will not assist you then motability and Direct line can hire you a car and then claim from the other drivers insurance.
Thanks for your comments, yes I have made direct line aware of the bump and provided a statement and uploaded the dash cam footage of him driving the wrong way.
The issue is when enterprise called yesterday it was not just to arrange a replacement car. They were calling on behalf of direct line as a claims management company and to arrange a car that under their unknown policy to me I do not qualify.
The car was to be provided under a credit agreement and not as a courtesy/replacemeny car as I was expecting.
I should only need to deal with direct line and for them to deal with the other parties insurance.
My guess having had similar in the past that the call was not from Enterprise, though they do higher cars to MB, but from the other party insurers.
You just can’t believe how fast word gets about, not from yourselves, but from the other party looking to reduce their claim. Last one I had was about 4 years ago under RSA insurance as was then. Someone drove into the back of my 2 month old MB car and made a hole in the plastic bumper plus damaged a parking sensor. This was about 500 yards from my home and by the time I got home, 5 minutes later, my phone was ringing from the other parties insurer, I kid you not. They wanted to do a deal to repair the car along with a bit of cash in the hand and when I told them it’s a MB car so out of my hands they just hung up.
Then I had the many, many, many calls for a year after from the “about your accident brigade” and about the £1,750 cash waiting for me just for making a claim.
My car is adapted so not any old hire car will do but MB suggested I used taxi’s at their expense so asked “do taxi have hoist in them these days”. Anyway in the end I told them I was quite happy to drive around with a hole in my bumper for the next 3 years until the lease finished and low and behold they found a hire car with a hoist in and the other adaption I needed before the week was out.
BTW Enterprise called me twice within an hour of each call that day, same caller asking the same questions and when I asked him why he’s asking the same thing over he said for security with that I just put the phone down on him.
They tell me that DL are worst than RSA so I hope for your sake it isn’t and best of luck.
In fact I had to push as to why I was answering the same questions as I already had for direct line. His response was that direct line had tasked them to deal with my claim. The call didn’t feel quite right and at times it felt I was being questioned in a way to catch me out. I will contact motability and direct line on Monday to hopefully resolve.
Having thought about this again, something doesn’t quite sit right here with Enterprise suggesting they are dealing with the claims management. If one of their rental cars were damaged, they would leave their insurer to deal with the claim, after all thats what they are paid for. It also seems odd Enterprise have given no explanation, why they are unwilling to let you have a car, especially as Direct Line passed you on to them and the fact its a non fault accident on your behalf and costs would be reclaimed from the third party by Direct Line. You may want to consider getting in touch with the CEO (andrewmiller@motabilityoperations.co.uk), if , as I suspect you get no joy from Motability reps and DLM on Monday, as its all very odd to say the least!
My mum had a similar instance earlier in the year where she was told a hire car wasn’t available after a non fault accident however, that was put down to a boot hoist and no cars being available with one, even though my mum and brother tried told them the hoist was put in for my dads scooter, which was no longer needed as he had recently passed away however, this was Motability saying this, not the car rental company and only got sorted once she emailed the ceo and recieved a car the same day and payment for the days she went without a car, which seems to be the prefeered option by customer services these days, if they can get away with it.
Yes I was apprehensive over the call, the phone number they called from was the same as the number in the text received from direct line saying enterprise would be calling.
Here is the text message received
Direct Line Motability have sent us your details. We will be in contact shortly to discuss your claim. From Enterprise Rent A Car.
Enterprise (DLM – Credit hire only) has been appointed and they will contact you to progress your alternative vehicle.Telephone number and claim referance number removed by me.
If this bump was someone else’s fault, ie the driver who was going the wrong way. You should only have to make your insurance company Direct Line aware. Surely it is up the other party’s insurance company to assist you. If they will not assist you then motability and Direct line can hire you a car and then claim from the other drivers insurance.
Typically your insurance deals with the claim and recovers costs from the third parties insurance provider. In some cases the third parties insurer will contact you first offering to carry out the work and provide a replacement vehicle, whils’t yours is being repaired. However, they are typically quite open who they are and will deal with the whole claim, not part of, as its cheaper for them to do this, providing you haven’t already filed a claim with your own insurer.
Yes I think that one is OK as it is similar from the ones I had back when, it’s just to muddy the waters I had that phone call from the other party before the text from MB.
Enterprise were useless in my case because they didn’t do adapted cars so MB got another company in from London in over a 100 miles away.
DLM – Credit hire only
Thats quite interesting, given what you have said initially. As in last comment, when your not a fault there are a few ways to pursue a claim.
Claim on your own insurance and let them recover costs from third party insurer.
Claim and recover costs directly from the third party insurer, which is typically by them contacting you and offering the service
Claim via an Accident Management Company who handles the claim and any repairs and/or arranges a hire car under a credit hire/repair agreement.
Having Googled Enterprise offers accident claims management services, especially for rental vehicles.
Accident management companies, can offer both Credit hire and/or credit repair, where in your case, you have been offered credit hire via Direct Line through Enterprise. From what I understand, its a type of unregulated agreement, where the accident management company (Enterprise in this case) calculates an inflated daily hire charges (credit hire) that are to be paid at a futurer date. Once the hire car period ends, the accident management company (Enterprise), will try and recover credit hire cost from the third party insurer and hopefully they agree to pay these costs under the credit hire agreement. However, under credit hire agreements, there is no guarantee, the third party insurer will pay these costs, especially if it decides it not fully liable, which would then leave you liable to pay the costs to the claims management company.
I don’t know much more than this sorry, other than your insurer should ask if you want to go through a claims management company, due to it being a non fault accident or whether you want the insurer to deal with the third party insurer fully.
I can’t say I’m shocked DLM would going this route on a Motability vehicle, as they aren’t a patch on RSA. It could also be why Enterprise didn’t offer a car because, they didn’t think your reasons were air tight for whatever reason and it isn’t as if they could come back on you to recover the costs, given it’s a Motability vehicle and we don’t own it and it would have been too much of a gamble to take over the hire from DLM. Who knows!
Interesting read of pitfalls of credit hire in plain english.
Accident Management
with EnterpriseNo one likes to think that they’ll be involved in a road accident, yet every year, UK body shops repair almost two million owned vehicles. The good news is that most incidents are relatively minor, with no lasting effect to drivers or passengers. However, even a minor accident can cause a disproportionate amount of worry, inconvenience and cost for anyone involved.
Enterprise owns the biggest fleet in the world and we have been managing accident claims for over 60 years. We are now able to extend this service and expertise to our customers.
taken from enterprise website
Accident Management with Enterprise No one likes to think that they’ll be involved in a road accident, yet every year, UK body shops repair almost two million owned vehicles. The good news is that most incidents are relatively minor, with no lasting effect to drivers or passengers. However, even a minor accident can cause a disproportionate amount of worry, inconvenience and cost for anyone involved. Enterprise owns the biggest fleet in the world and we have been managing accident claims for over 60 years. We are now able to extend this service and expertise to our customers. taken from enterprise website
You would think after 60+ years, they would have perfected that side of the business, but in reality their reviews are quite daunting and no better the the car hire side of the business. However, perhaps more to the point, should us Motabiility customers be getting a hire car, not credit hire as part of the worry free motoring Motability harp on about.
Just to follow this up after speaking to direct line this morning. They are unsure as to why enterprise went down the route of a credit hire car rather than just arranging a car for when mine is collected for repair.
When my car is collected for repair I am to call direct line and they will arrange for a bog standard car hire until my car is returned.
I have emailed motability with a complaint over the way this was handled, just to express my annoyance more than anything
I can’t fault the call handler at direct line so hopefully the rest of the repair process will go as planned.
Just to follow this up after speaking to direct line this morning. They are unsure as to why enterprise went down the route of a credit hire car rather than just arranging a car for when mine is collected for repair. When my car is collected for repair I am to call direct line and they will arrange for a bog standard car hire until my car is returned. I have emailed motability with a complaint over the way this was handled, just to express my annoyance more than anything I can’t fault the call handler at direct line so hopefully the rest of the repair process will go as planned.
Good to hear you got it sorted howeve,r I was under the impression it was DLM who arranged credit hire in the text they sent (DLM-credit hire)!
They apparently for whatever reason passed it to enterprise to deal with. Direct line have since called back with an apology over Saturday after motability had contacted them. I have elected for a taxi account rather than a replacement car when mine is collected. For the milage I would be doing it will be easier for me.
They apparently for whatever reason passed it to enterprise to deal with. Direct line have since called back with an apology over Saturday after motability had contacted them. I have elected for a taxi account rather than a replacement car when mine is collected. For the milage I would be doing it will be easier for me.
Don’t blame you opting for a taxi, especially if you won’t be travelling far, as it removes any responsibility to the hire car.
Hope your repair goes well and you get your own car back soon 🙂
Hi everyone,
A quick update and an unbelievably fast resolution with my car repair.
The car was collected on Monday and transported to the repairers in Salford. I received a call saying that it would most likely be just under two weeks and tge same day I set up the taxi account through direct line.
Yesterday I received a text saying my car was ready to be returned and to call them.
I called at nine this morning and my car returned fully repaired and gleaming inside and out at 2pm today.
I have to say I am impressed with the repair and time taken. Overall direct line and their repairers have been faultless and the only issue initially over car hire has disappeared into history.
So that’s it I am happy I have my car back as waiting for taxis is more stressful than I remember.
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