19 replies to this topic

[STI_Tom]

 

I've found myself in a never-ending nightmare with Just Car Insurance F****ng me and my car over for what seems to be an eternity.

 

I thought I'd start a thread to vent, and for everyone to share their stories about being ripped off by insurance companies.

 

Here is my story:

 

 

WARNING: DO NOT INSURE YOUR CAR WITH JUST CAR INSURANCE.

 

My 2015 STI was insured with Just Car Insurance from new, unfortunately someone else ran a red and T-Boned my brand new pride and joy at 60KM/hr.   Luckily I was OK, as was he.

 

That was 6 months ago and since then not only has my car not been written off, it's been repaired poorly to the extent that it has been into the repair shop 4 times! They did a bad repairs and refused to take responsibility for it, and instead lied to my face and told me that the cars inability to drive in a straight line was somehow my fault, and that other visual defect with paint and panel work were not their problem. I raised the issue with the insurance company and they didn't want a bar of it, I've been chucked under the bus by everyone. It took a 4 day long argument with my assessor to have the work rectified elsewhere (this is a right of the consumer under the NSW fair trading insurance industry code of conduct). In the last 6 months my STI has spent over 3 months in various workshops; and the other 3 months it's been an ugly mess of a car that is difficult to drive in a straight line. I've been lied to and no one in the company at any level wants to help me. I was even told that the windscreen cracking in the accident wasn't covered under the claim, event though someone had authorised the repair a few weeks before I asked why it wasn't done when I first picked the car up!    

 

I've sent an angry letter to their HQ and fingers crossed I will get the result I desire (car replaced). I'll update this thread when I get a resolution, but until then, I urge everyone with a car they care about to NOT insure with Just Car Insurance. All they care about is shareholders, they couldn't give a single s**t about the customer, or the customer's car. /rant.

 

[Adam]

A bloke I worked with hit someone who ran a stop sign or something and went through a similar thing with his insurance. He got a third party to measure the chassis and found it was twisted even after the repair. Basically kicked up a big stink and they ended up writing it off.

[duncanm]

Sounds like you've been screwed around right royally.. I suggest going to fair trading and using their large stick against the insurance company.

Also note the insurance code of practice http://codeofpractic...ake-a-complaint, to which Just Car say they abide.

Remind them of the dispute resolution process and their responsibilities regarding timely resolution.

basically -- hit them over the head repeatedly with as many government and association bats that you can find.

Adam's suggestion is good -- ask them if they'd agree to a mutually-acceptable independent third party assessing the car.

[STI_Tom]

The worst part of all of this is that I might not even have my car back in time for HVC    .

 

 

 

Sounds like you've been screwed around right royally.. I suggest going to fair trading and using their large stick against the insurance company.

Also note the insurance code of practice http://codeofpractic...ake-a-complaint, to which Just Car say they abide.

Remind them of the dispute resolution process and their responsibilities regarding timely resolution.

basically -- hit them over the head repeatedly with as many government and association bats that you can find.

Adam's suggestion is good -- ask them if they'd agree to a mutually-acceptable independent third party assessing the car.

Cheers for that bro, my letter was 4 pages long and I've highlighted where they screwed up according to both documents.

 

I'm going to the ombudsmen once their time to resolve my complaint expires according to the code of practice, they've told me it's been escelated internally, so they have 15 days of "level two" before I lodge with the ombudsmen. The ombudsmen will start actions immdeiately once their time expires, other wise the ombudsment waits 45 days for the insurance company to respond before they do anything. 

 

[XTFoz]

get a lawyer on the *****!!

[Niko]

Ombudsmen are like vampire hunters, I'veseen all sorts of companies shit themselves after the Ombudsman gets involved.

As for Just Car, I was never keen on it, but heard good things about it with small repairs. Honestly I'd say any Insurer gets dodgier as the claim increases,they are under immense pressure to limit their exposure. Just Car is AAMI yeah?

[STI_Tom]

So I rang the panel beater this afternoon, they have that much work to rectify the car, the estimated completion date has been pushed waaayyy back. That means they will have had it for almost 2 months once it's done!

 

This causes two issues, the first one being that I won't have it back in time for HVC
The second one being that I'm leaving the country the day after HVC.

 

The can of worms has been opened, how do I make sure my car doesn't get forked up while I'm gone?

 

 

 

Ombudsmen are like vampire hunters, I'veseen all sorts of companies shit themselves after the Ombudsman gets involved.

As for Just Car, I was never keen on it, but heard good things about it with small repairs. Honestly I'd say any Insurer gets dodgier as the claim increases,they are under immense pressure to limit their exposure. Just Car is AAMI yeah?

They're owned by AAMI,which is owned by Suncorp. They use services and departments of both Suncorp, AAMI and AAI. It's a ginormous s**tfight and they couldn't organise a root in a brothel with a handfull of Fiftys.

 

I suspect some serious quote undercutting and less-than-ethical assessing went on with my claim, there's just no way that they could have repaired it for what they quoted. On top of that, it only shows up as $4,500 worth of damage when a REVS check is done?

 

DODGY DODGY DODGY

[Niko]

Yeah, so an insurer pretty much tells a repairer what they will pay them per hour, inclusive of parts, to repair a vehicle.

 

The repairer will tailor the repair job to within that budget. If JustCar pay shit per hour, then it's in the repairer's best interest to get your car out of the garage ASAP, so the job may be rushed.

 

Going by JustCar's target demographic, I wouldn't expect them to be the greatest when it comes to write offs. 

[Shaz]

 It's a ginormous s**tfight and they couldn't organise a root in a brothel with a handfull of Fiftys.

 

Made me laugh

[MI55EE]

I was with just car when my s15 got rear ended not my fault, and that was a nightmare start to finish should have been easy. Went to nrma for my wrx, then shannons for my sti, shannons is good, my panel beater gave them the nod of approval, said no to insuring with just car, even though they are both owned by Suncorp lol. I do have a car insured with aami, which is also bad news, but it is just our run around lancer, so i don't care a whole deal


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[Da3dalus]

Nrma is also quite shit. Car was stolen and trashed. Repair quote of $3500, they knocked it back saying my story didnt match up to police report (hwp apparently never attended my vehicle, even though they came to my house to tell me they found it) so they denied my claim. Ive cancelled my policy after 5 loyal years and have since repaired it in my backyard for $500 being 2 parts that were broken instead of a whole list the assessor wrote up.


Also tom, didnt read who started this thread and when i saw it was a just car hate thread, i thought you might want to weigh in lol

-----------------------------------------
98 Lancer GLi
01 Hyundai Coupe
95 Skyline GTS-4
01 GD WRX

[Liberty]

I'm with NRMA, have had a not at fault claim and it was processed with complete ease as well as all repairs taking place whilst I was on a P&O Cruise halfway to Vanuatu. Choice of NRMA repair shop also which I guess is a bonus.

I would definitely recommend and have been with them ever since owning my Liberty.

Not every customer is going to have a good story no matter what insurance company you go with.

[STI_Tom]

Someone from Suncorp contacted me, told me she is in charge of dealing with my complaint and all that business. Seemed alright, spoke for nearly half an hour so she had all the facts right. She has to put together a report and send it to her departments management team because her department isn't allowed to award financial compensation to a level that will get me out of the woods. Under the code of practice they have to get back to me the 10th of this month.

 

I stopped by and looked at the car before I went off on my trip, it's in pieces waiting to be re-painted. The initial repair job was much worse than I had initially thought. The sealers in the boot were not applied properly, and the entire rear beaver panel had to be removed and a new one welded in because the other one was in the wrong spot by a few mm, causing all those panels to not line up. Car will probably be done next week, that's pretty much a full 2 months in the workshop. The initial repair was 3 weeks of actual labour, I can't wait to see how much this is costing the company.

 

Keen to see what suncorp comes back with. What I've inferred so far is that they know I'm right and need to read lightly, obviously they have a team of people dedicated to minimising the payout.

[CRUISN]

Hope you get it sorted to your standards.


On another note, I had an at fault claim with Just Cars about 11 years ago. Was a smooth transaction, assessor was a champ and included a stone cracked foglight in the claim that wasnt an obvious result of the accident but said it would detract from the clean front end once repaired.

[STI_Tom]

In the last couple of years there have apparently been a few changes to the way the suncorp group does business, and with changes to the write off laws in NSW the whole company has just turned to shit. There's little to no accountability in the assessing and repair side of the industry.

[STI_Tom]

Finally got a response out of Just Car Insurance.

 

They have offered a pittance at $750.

 

The email sent does not give me the option to respond with either an agreement or dispute. They simply said we will put the money in your bank account in 5 days and that's it. 

 

The reasons they say are "The car is not deemed a write-off or total loss", I never even said anything to them about writing it off, they're putting words in my mouth. They also referred me to their lifetime guarantee on repairs, I'm going to put my money on them NOT replacing the diff/gearbox if it were to explode in a few years. They failed to acknowledge any other issue I had with the car, and seem to have just skimmed over my letter, palmed it off, and are trying to take advantage of the fact that I'm overseas and have limited internet connection.

 

Ombudsmen involved. Getting a lawyer. 

 

Do not use Just Car Insurance, EVER!!

[mdac]

Can the car go to an authorised Subaru repairer who should be able to report back to your insurer the state of the vehicle and dodgy repair work already done?

Sorry about your situation; what about the insurance company of the driver at fault, can you claim through them?

[STI_Tom]

Unfortunately I can't claim this from the other guy's insurer, as the repairs were authorised by Just Car Insurance, who then billed NRMA for the work.

 

Part of their offer was to have the car inspected by Subaru. (I had already arranged this as part of the rectification work anyway, to measure suspension, chassis, wheelbase and general crash protection structure inspection. What they can't inspect is microscopic cracking in gears and housings, nor can they inspect the internals of the diff for any gears that may have come out of alignment). The fact that their response to the fact that the car being improperly repaired and nearly crashing me into a truck is to make sure that in the event of another accident it will be safe is laughable. They are either all too stupid to view the problem and complain holistically or they are purposely ignoring parts in the hope I pipe down. Either way it's bad practice and I'm dragging them through the mud for it.

[Grayfox]

Any update?

Get ACA involved as well.

Bad publicity makes companies act quick smart.

[STI_Tom]

Nothing has happened yet, Just Car never responded to me or the ombudsmen within their prescribed time frame, so now the ombudsmen is doing their part of the job and investigating. I'm in no rush to hear from them as I'm away from home and won't even be driving anything for another 2 months. I have thought about going to ACA but I hate everything they stand for so much that I couldn't bring myself down to that level.