Question:
I would like to ask your advise if I may. The lady at office was in an accident. No negligence from her side at all. Someone drove into her , damaging her bumper, and now she is claiming from his insurance (the other driver), however they requested her to get three quotes and she did so, only then to accept the lowest saying the insurer encourages repairers to use refurbished items. My question to you is then why should she sit with an inferior product thus reducing the value of her vehicle?
Is there something we can do or request.
Answer:
Each insurance company would have their own procedure on how third party claims are handled. For example at OUTsurance, we do not usually ask for quotes but would request that the person claiming, take their car to one of our assessment centres.
Where companies request the claimant to get their own quotes, it is very probable that they would go with the lowest quote provided by the claimant. If the claimant felt that quote was incorrect, it should not have been provided to the insurance company.
Using second hand parts is also fully acceptable in the industry. There was communication from the short term insurance ombudsman previously discussing the acceptability of use of such parts.
Hope this is of some assistance.
Natasha