Insurance - the enemy

 I left my car at the mechanic to be repaired and it ended up in a freak accident. Apparently they were moving a car at the mechanics and the accelerator stuck. It rammed into my car which smashed into another car and that third car was still travelling with so much momentum it shot out of the mechanics and took out a fence on the other side of the lane. So it was a three car and one fence write off. And as I wasn't even there at the time I'm clearly not at fault.

My car was deemed a write off. My own insurance company - CGU, avoid them if you can - failed to do the right thing big time . And the mechanic's insurance company took forever to get me a cheque. 5 months, to be precise. But eventually I wrote them the following letter when they suggested I would receive my cheque  'shortly'. I got my cheque in 3 days.

Hi David,

Thank you for taking the trouble to get back to me.  You and Joy have both been very helpful so I wonder if I could trouble you further for some advice.   I am not fluent in insurance speak  and 'shortly' seems a very elastic period of time. I could benefit from some clarification and your considered insurance opinion.

Would you estimate 'shortly' to be:

a) more than a day but less than a week?

b) more than a week but less than a month?

c)  more than a month but relevant parties are reluctant tell me in case I adopt an understandably foul mood and start invoicing for car hire and generally creating a bit of a stink with the insurance ombudsman. 

d) After I die. Assuming average life expectancy for a female in Australia this affords Capricorn Mutual about 34 years to get me a cheque. If you anticipate this will be the case please advise so I can forward details of my next of kin.

I myself, even as an amateur and infrequent cheque writer, find I am able to write a cheque in under 4 minutes. This includes time taken to write slowly in neat cursive and fill in all the stub details. It also affords enough time to address an envelope and place the cheque inside it. It would not be unreasonable to assume then, that someone who writes cheques professionally might be able to do it in an even tighter timeframe.  This, however, appears not to be the case. 

The process of cheque writing is clearly more challenging than it first appears.  I would be most willing to give the person involved some coaching tips and encouragement if they are having difficulty with the more technical aspects of getting a cheque into the mail. I could even send a stamp  to Capricorn Mutual if you felt  that the lack of 60c might be the cause of the delay.

If you could kindly pass on the contact details of the person at Capricorn Mutual who is responsible for writing the cheque. I feel strongly that my contacting the person directly at the bottleneck might see the fastest resolution to the problem.

Best regards,

Carol