Prang - Helphire Advice
- Thread starter Skeeter
- Start date
According to their website.... yes.
According to the people the other end of the phone.... no.
Pretty much yes, but they've gotten a lot bigger these days and their service seems to be suffering as a result.
Still a good idea to get a car off them though, if only because they attempt to give you a hire car that is similar in prestige and performance to your old car* wheras your insurer will probably give you a 1 litre corsa.
* doesn't always work out so well, they have nothing similar to a 200SX in stock so they gave my GF a Golf GT TDI and an apology and if you drive an import they'll have no clue what your car is and pick the closest sounding UK equivalent so my Legacy B4 RSK got me a sodding Vectra which I told them to go shove and swap it for something with a similar BHP per tonne figure. They couldn't so I ended up with that same bloody Golf.
Still a good idea to get a car off them though, if only because they attempt to give you a hire car that is similar in prestige and performance to your old car* wheras your insurer will probably give you a 1 litre corsa.
* doesn't always work out so well, they have nothing similar to a 200SX in stock so they gave my GF a Golf GT TDI and an apology and if you drive an import they'll have no clue what your car is and pick the closest sounding UK equivalent so my Legacy B4 RSK got me a sodding Vectra which I told them to go shove and swap it for something with a similar BHP per tonne figure. They couldn't so I ended up with that same bloody Golf.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Jul 2005
- Posts
- 17,616
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- Bristol
Not free for the people being claimed off...well their insurance company anyway, but yes, they are meant to take the hassle out of making a claim and getting the car repaired as well as providing a car if you need one.
Its things like this that make me glad I went straight to insurance companies when I had an accident.
Its things like this that make me glad I went straight to insurance companies when I had an accident.
I used Helphire a few months ago when I had a crash and they've been spot on, not one single issue!
Have you been phoning the branch in Bristol (Helphire) or Northwhich (Helphire Automotive)? I rang the Northwhich branch on 0870 241 1824 to sort my claim out.
Have you been phoning the branch in Bristol (Helphire) or Northwhich (Helphire Automotive)? I rang the Northwhich branch on 0870 241 1824 to sort my claim out.
Bristol - as its the number on the website, and then Manchester, which is aparently where the 'Recomended by a friend' department is. That number you have is now the 3rd ive got for them!?!?!
So, what shall I do? Get my estimate then see if they have contacted the other persons insurer? I have no contact from the other insurer at all yet, id atleast like to know if they have accepted fault. What steps did they go through for you? Did you get an estimate before they had even spoken to any insurance comapnies?
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I still disagree with this, it pushes up prices unnecessarily, but I've had this debate in other threads
So you think next time someone drives into the back of me I should spend 3 months driving a 1 litre Corsa to my customers? customers who are on average 4 hours drive away from me and sometimes as much as 8 hours. 8 hours in a Corsa will cripple me. Also bear in mind that my boss doesn't give a crap what the road conditions are like, snow, ice, fog or gales I still get sent out to sites so I'll stick with something 4WD and with decent traction thanks
How many boxed 4U servers do you think will fit in the back of a Corsa anyway? Not that many I'd suspect.
There are many good reasons not to do this. The main one being that your own insurance have the power to write your car off if they can't be bothered to fix it but the 3rd party don't.
If you have a particularly good condition car, or a heavily modified car you will get royally shafted in this situation. We've been there once, couldn't use Helphire because it was an uninsured driver who ran into the back of my GF's recently restored 250bhp 1990 200SX S13, we ended up with a little over a grand for it, a replacement car of a similar standard cost us 2 grand and we still had to see about swapping in the engine and drivetrain.
The other is that you lose your NCB until the claim is settled and if you're unlucky (or the driver later turns out to be uninsured) then this can take years. I still have one claim dragging on from when I was rear ended in 2004. This is due to a combination of incompetence by my insurer at the time (Churchill) and much heel dragging by the 3rd party insurer (Elephant), who really aren't helping their customer by dragging it out.
3PFT so all they will do is get there legal team to contact the other party, and then i end up with a 1l Corsa (if i get a car at all) while my car is fixed at "Cheapest bidder ****** are us" garage.
Atleast i know the garage HelpHire recomend and can confirm they do good work.
And this
And this.
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Bell.
I have spoken to them. There line was "seen as its not your fault our legal team will contact you and then you will be dealing with the other parties insurer". So I said I would be using a 3rd party and they said fine, gave me all the details i needed and said goodbye.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Jul 2005
- Posts
- 17,616
- Location
- Bristol
Its also not removeable on the FlexiBell policys....
Looks like im off to the garage for an estimate tomorrow then.
:S
Legal cover is removable..
Click for bigger.
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 4,898
I can see the benefits in using Helphire if your car is undriveable and will take time to repair, but for minor damage like this it's quite understandable that they're not particularly interested in taking the case on.
They make their money charging insurers for car hire. Under insurance law if you have a duty to minimise your losses and thus you aren't going to be able to justify a hire car for more than a day tops for a broken mirror on a Mondeo, hence there is little scope for them to make a profit and they're not a charity. The other issue is they have no incentive to get things sorted out quickly for bigger jobs- the longer you're in one of their hire cars, the more money they can screw the insurers for.
In clear-cut cases the third party insurers claims department will usually sort you out with a pretty much like-for-like car unless you've got something exotic and will get the matter sorted quickly to minimise their costs. I would only consider getting Helphire or similar involved if the third party insurer wasn't playing ball.
They make their money charging insurers for car hire. Under insurance law if you have a duty to minimise your losses and thus you aren't going to be able to justify a hire car for more than a day tops for a broken mirror on a Mondeo, hence there is little scope for them to make a profit and they're not a charity. The other issue is they have no incentive to get things sorted out quickly for bigger jobs- the longer you're in one of their hire cars, the more money they can screw the insurers for.
In clear-cut cases the third party insurers claims department will usually sort you out with a pretty much like-for-like car unless you've got something exotic and will get the matter sorted quickly to minimise their costs. I would only consider getting Helphire or similar involved if the third party insurer wasn't playing ball.
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We're in that boat right now and Helphire don't want to help other than the car.
1994 200SX S13, recent restore and respray, modded to 250bhp.
Helphire think it's only worth £850 and is therefore a write off after someone reversed into it while parked, denting the front wing and scuffing the bumper (and also damaging the arch liner). The driver of the car has admitted full liability and left a note on the windscreen.
Their insurer is Esure and my GF has not even been able to get them to answer the phone. You can only call during office hours and after 45 minutes on the phone on hold that's her lunch break over and still they don't bloody answer.
I wonder what to do next. She's collecting 3 quotes for repair currently so I imagine we have to send them a snot-o-gram by special delivery and if they don't answer that, then what? threaten the original driver with court action? Don't really want to do that as he was a decent bloke and has done everything right as opposed to the normal response of buggering off and hoping no-one notices.