A couple who had their car stolen from outside their Dublin home at the start of the year spent the best part of 10 months trying and failing to get their insurance company to do what you might imagine it is paid to do.
And getting a resolution took all that time despite the fact that their car was recovered by An Garda Síochána just days after the theft.
The story about Allianz as shared to us by Nancy and Marcel is long and not uncomplicated so you might want to strap yourself in.
Until the middle of February the couple lived in Dublin, at which point they moved to the Netherlands.
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Weeks before that, on January 13th, their car had been stolen from in front of their house in a Dublin suburb.
They had taken a policy out with Allianz via an online broker in November. It contained this clause: “The maximum amount we will pay in respect of any claim for loss or accidental damage to your car will be the market value immediately prior to such loss or damage” minus a €250 excess.
The car was stolen at 2am, and the theft was reported to the guards hours later. It was a weekend. When the couple called Allianz they were told the claims department was closed and asked to try again on Monday. Fair enough, perhaps. They were told the call would be noted.
In the meantime a neighbour shared CCTV footage of a suspicious car driving in and out of the neighbourhood before 2am and leaving with the couple’s car behind it a short time later.
On the Monday they rang Allianz again and there was no note of the weekend call. As requested the couple filled in and sent back a motor incident form, which was signed and stamped by a garda. An email asking about a temporary replacement car went unanswered.
On January 23rd the couple heard from gardaí that the car had been found so they contacted Allianz again asking about a courtesy car and inquiring about the procedures given the car had been recovered.
A week passed and they heard from gardaí again. The vehicle was back in the Republic, and they were asked for a spare key “so a forensic examination can begin”.
The key was dropped to a Garda station and the couple once again contacted Allianz and expressed concern about the absence of correspondence.
They were assured all was well and were told that once the Garda forensic examination was done they could either pick the car up themselves or give Allianz permission to move the vehicle and send a spare key and the logbook to a service provider for an official assessment.
The couple mailed Allianz again to say they would be ‘contacting third parties to file a complaint on the negligence regarding communications with customer service’. That mail was also ignored
On February 14th, they contacted Allianz again to say the forensic exam was done and the release papers were available to be signed while the car was in a garage.
The couple asked if it was “better to have the Garda release the car to me or to Allianz and in case of the latter, how to proceed and what follow-up procedure was”.
They reminded Allianz that they were relocating to the Netherlands. The email was ignored. They followed up with a call asking Allianz to arrange the pick-up of the car. Nothing happened.
On March 2nd the couple heard from Allianz. A mail said it had arranged for the car to be taken from the garage and inspected, and when the report was filed it would be in contact to discuss options. A request from the couple for a timeline was ignored.
On March 13th the couple again asked for an update and almost a week later heard from Allianz. They were told that the car had been “found with false plates, hence the delay in collection of vehicle. Uplifting and inspection of vehicle still pending”.
On April 4th the couple had to mail Allianz again and complained about how long the process was taking and how poor the communication was. They also noted that the motor tax was about to expire. This mail was ignored.
A further two weeks passed and the couple mailed Allianz again and relayed their frustration “with the lack of service (no replacement car nor answers to information requests) and poor communication”.
In May, Allianz were in touch to said the car had “minor damage” and asked if the couple would “like the vehicle to be moved to one of their ‘approved repair garages’ to get an estimate and carry our repairs”.
The couple mailed back almost immediately to “relay uncertainty regarding decisions and requesting a direct number to discuss it further. [They] also relayed [again] that we no longer live in Ireland, that we have no car and that the motor tax has expired. [And they] relay the urgency in resolving this case.”
This mail was also ignored, as was a mail 10 days later looking for an assessment report.
On May 22nd the couple mailed Allianz again to say they would be “contacting third parties to file a complaint on the negligence regarding communications with customer service”.
You guessed it: that mail was also ignored.
[ Seriously ill man left paying insurance for a car he doesn’t own and can’t driveOpens in new window ]
At the end of May they found out Allianz was still waiting to hear if the couple wanted it to estimate and repair the damage.
Marcel says he told the company he did “not have enough information regarding the damage and what impact an estimate and/or repair may have on (a) what is covered by our policy and (b) how Allianz chooses to handle the claim. I tell them to go ahead with an estimate first”.
On June 12th almost exactly five months after the car was stolen, they heard from a garage with an estimate of the cost of repairs. It was €1,362.
The couple were told their insurance would cover the costs, minus the €250 excess, and so they agreed to the repairs.
At the end of June, in an email, Allianz confirmed that “based on all the evidence presented to date, we are now in a position to make the following offer of settlement in respect of your claim for €1,112.56″.
On July 6th the couple heard from the garage and the repairs were done.
Sadly the story has some way to go yet.
“We fly into Dublin. Upon inspection, we are dismayed to see long scratches along the passenger side that were never there before and the spare tyre and tools missing, both of which [the garage] was aware but neither Allianz had recorded, nor [the garage] had fixed or replaced. We leave without signing off on the car,” Marcel tells us.
The couple then visited the Allianz head office and were assured that “all will be sorted out”.
Allianz recognises and apologises for the communication breakdown that led to the customer’s frustrations on this occasion
In the middle of July they heard from the garage with news that the insurer had given the green light for the paint work to be repaired. On July 29th they got an email from Allianz that said it could “confirm that, based on all the evidence presented to date, we are now in a position to make the following offer of settlement in respect of your claim for €3,589.58″.
The couple also asked Allianz to “inform the Department of Transport that our car was stolen on January 13th, 2024, and should since have been assigned the ‘Off the Road’ status for all purposes relating to motor tax and otherwise.
They heard back for Allianz, which said: “Please note your vehicle has not been noted as stolen on our system as it was recovered again the following week. It has been noted to the Department of Transport that the vehicle has Min (stands for minimum damage). Regarding the stolen items, these are not recoverable on your policy as you don’t have any personal effects cover. If you had cover it would be up to €200. Also, your vehicle was only missing for 10 days so there would only be 10 days car hire entitlement from your policy. As a gesture of goodwill, we will allow reimbursement of 14 days of car hire but only at the Allianz rate with Enterprise car hire company. This amounts to €434.”
Our readers point out that although their car was recovered by An Garda within 10 days, a full eight months passed before the car was repaired, and over that period “Allianz has been alternately unresponsive, referring the car to a garage that said the repairs were done. Yet, when we arrived, more than 80 per cent of the damage and issues from the theft were not even addressed.”
More correspondence was ignored by Allianz and the couple only managed to pick up their car in the middle of September, more than eight months after they first contacted Allianz and following repeated emails, unanswered phone calls and a visit to its Dublin office. “The cost of car insurance in Ireland is so high and yet – I do yet see how insurance serves us as consumers,” their mail to Pricewatch concludes.
We contacted the company and received the following statement.
“Allianz recognises and apologises for the communication breakdown that led to the customer’s frustrations on this occasion. At the time of writing, we are attempting to reach the policyholder to reach a satisfactory resolution. We appreciate the patience and understanding of our customer, and we have taken steps to ensure such issues do not recur in the future.”
