Accident claim

On 30 January my wife's car was hit from behind by the driver of an Avis rented car. The driver put us in touch with Avis as her insurance was done through the rental agreement. We got in contact with their third party claims department and provided them with all the information and documentation requested, including quotes, photos of both vehicles, police reports etc. It took us more than a week and numerous calls just to get a reference number out of them.

The next step for them was to get an independent assessor to assess the damage to my wife's vehicle. This is however not forthcoming even after numerous phone calls, where mostly phones go unanswered and I have to call the customer helpline to eventually get channeled through to the claims department. Each time the person there (don't want to name and shame just yet) promises to get back to us immediately, only to apologise the next time I call that he had forgotten. On their documentation it also states that a claim can take anywhere between 1 month and 3 years!!

In the meantime my wife's car remains unroadworthy while she has to struggle to get around to get the kids to school and buy groceries while there is absolutely no sense of urgency from Avis's side. We are getting the idea that they are trying to force us out into paying for the damage ourselves.