Lazy, inept Service

Just before Christmas, my car was rammed from the back, badly denting my hatchback boot, and damaging the back bumper. On calling my insurance I followed procedure: filled out forms and reported it to the police station. Later I was told to take my car to the panel beater of my insurance's choice for a quote. This I did, but since it was so close to Christmas, I did not expect to hear the outcome of the quote until business resumed a week into January. My car has been well maintained, and even though it is 11 years old, it is still in excellent working condition. Thus I was aware that the repairs may be worth more than the value of the car, but then as a consumer, we should always have the choice to s**** the car or keep it. But no, apparently my insurance made the decision to s**** my car without discussing it with me first. On Tues 2 Jan I received a call from a salvaging company asking when they could come and collect my car! Of course I called the Michelle in claims, who told me that apparently the car is a right off because the panel beating quote was "more than R50 000". She could not tell me the exact figure for the quote, nor have I ever received that quote. I'm intrigued, because the panel beater in question is still closed for the holidays, so how did she get this quote? She told me if I still wanted to keep the car, they would give me R36 thousand to FIND MY OWN PANEL BEATER! I thought this is why we pay our insurance companies so much money....so that they would FIND a panel beater and repair our cars back to its original condition! WHY, FNB Insurance, can YOU not do the leg work, and find a panel beater to repair my car for that cost? But, its gets worse: The accident was not my fault. I was driven into from behind in bumper to bumper traffic. Surely, the driver of the vehicle that drove into me should be paying for the repairs? So why does this push up my insurance premiums, if I am the innocent party? Even though I had had a conversation with claims dept, 2 days later Old Mutual salvaging dept called me to ask when they could collect my car! What? Does no-one communicate from one dept to another? Why does my car need to be s****ped for a dent, when the rest of the car runs perfectly? It makes no sense. Perhaps someone from FNB Insurance can contact me, and rescue your shoddy attitude and inefficient internal communications.