Sent in by a visitor. AXA Car insurance has some of the worst customer service I have ever had the misfortune of having to deal with. None of the departments that deal with accident claims seem to know the right department to put me through to. It appears to be so unorganised that its been close to impossible to get the answer to what should be a very simple query. The funny thing is, I'm not even insured by AXA. It's the person who caused the accident who is insured by AXA. I'm the third-party.
But still, having to go through them in order to get the matter resolved has been met with stumbling blocks all the way. They have dragged their heels at almost every step. From taking a long time to make first contact after the crash (with me having to re-contact the person at fault in order for them to ask their car insurance company (AXA) why they haven't made contact with me), to paying me the settlement for my car being a total loss. Everything has been so slow.
But the worst and most shocking thing about dealing with AXA has been trying to establish what address to write on the online form that notifies the DVLA that the car has been written off. Or in my case, sold to the AXA Insurance company. Failure to inform the DVLA can result in a one thousand pound fine. I'm not sure what the timeframe is for notification but with AXA not replying to emails, and with it being near impossible to phone and get put through to the right department that knows the answer to this question, weeks were going by and I was no nearer to finding the answer.
Every phone number that I was given by AXA employees, who said to call them if there was anything I needed help with, all said the same thing. Either "This isn't the right department", and I'll have to transfer you (which still didn't help resolve the issue because the other department didn't know the answer either), or "We can't find you on the system", even though I gave them all the reference numbers I had been given by AXA. Some of their staff were also quite rude. Their telephone manner was generally abrupt.
To get the answer to this simple question (What address to use to inform the DVLA AXA had bought my total loss car), it took several weeks. Many ignored emails later, and phone calls which resulted in me being left on hold for over 1 hour each time and being so annoyed I eventually had to hang up. One day I thought to myself; Today I need the answer and I'm not getting off the phone with AXA until I have it. For the final call I had to be transferred to at least five different departments, spanning what appeared to be by the change of accents, the whole breadth of the UK, and spent another full hour on the phone.
After each representative claimed its was not their area of expertise and palming the problem off to another department (left on hold every time), the end result was the correct address. But wow, what a nightmare company to have to deal with. Overall this was a very shocking and disappointing experience, and I'm glad that I don't use AXA for my own car insurance.
The key realisation that I came away with after this experience, is that when it comes to car insurance companies, if you have trouble with your own company and feel like they are not providing a very good service, you can always change and go with someone else. But when its the car insurance of the other party, in my case the person responsible for the crash, and you have to go through them to resolve the matter, you are basically forced to have to deal with them no matter how terrible they turn out to be. If you want to share your experience of dealing with a car insurance company, good or bad. Let us know.
But still, having to go through them in order to get the matter resolved has been met with stumbling blocks all the way. They have dragged their heels at almost every step. From taking a long time to make first contact after the crash (with me having to re-contact the person at fault in order for them to ask their car insurance company (AXA) why they haven't made contact with me), to paying me the settlement for my car being a total loss. Everything has been so slow.
But the worst and most shocking thing about dealing with AXA has been trying to establish what address to write on the online form that notifies the DVLA that the car has been written off. Or in my case, sold to the AXA Insurance company. Failure to inform the DVLA can result in a one thousand pound fine. I'm not sure what the timeframe is for notification but with AXA not replying to emails, and with it being near impossible to phone and get put through to the right department that knows the answer to this question, weeks were going by and I was no nearer to finding the answer.
Every phone number that I was given by AXA employees, who said to call them if there was anything I needed help with, all said the same thing. Either "This isn't the right department", and I'll have to transfer you (which still didn't help resolve the issue because the other department didn't know the answer either), or "We can't find you on the system", even though I gave them all the reference numbers I had been given by AXA. Some of their staff were also quite rude. Their telephone manner was generally abrupt.
To get the answer to this simple question (What address to use to inform the DVLA AXA had bought my total loss car), it took several weeks. Many ignored emails later, and phone calls which resulted in me being left on hold for over 1 hour each time and being so annoyed I eventually had to hang up. One day I thought to myself; Today I need the answer and I'm not getting off the phone with AXA until I have it. For the final call I had to be transferred to at least five different departments, spanning what appeared to be by the change of accents, the whole breadth of the UK, and spent another full hour on the phone.
After each representative claimed its was not their area of expertise and palming the problem off to another department (left on hold every time), the end result was the correct address. But wow, what a nightmare company to have to deal with. Overall this was a very shocking and disappointing experience, and I'm glad that I don't use AXA for my own car insurance.
The key realisation that I came away with after this experience, is that when it comes to car insurance companies, if you have trouble with your own company and feel like they are not providing a very good service, you can always change and go with someone else. But when its the car insurance of the other party, in my case the person responsible for the crash, and you have to go through them to resolve the matter, you are basically forced to have to deal with them no matter how terrible they turn out to be. If you want to share your experience of dealing with a car insurance company, good or bad. Let us know.
