Tuesday, September 15, 2009

At the end of our tether

We are still waiting for the insurance claim to be sorted out. Between BMW, the insurance company and the finance people, they've managed to cock it up big time, what with losing all our paperwork several times over, buggering off on holiday without briefing colleagues, and generally not giving a toss. The latest bombshell is that Zurich has pulled the plug on the Italian subsidiary dealing with our claim, and recalled all the paperwork. According to one source, all claims already in the pipeline will be seen through to settlement, but according to another source, Zurich came by the office and collected every single file and there is nothing more that can be done to help us. So, now we have to find the correct person within the vast conglomerate of Zurich insurance to try and find out what's happening with our claim. In the meantime, does this mean the process has to start again from scratch, or will Zurich be in a position to sign off and cough up the cash? The problem is, each person we speak to has a different story.

We were supposed to ride up to the UK next month and make this leisurely trip through France and Germany our honeymoon. Much as our Corsica holiday was all but ruined with the theft of the bike, so it would seem our honeymoon is also in jeopardy thanks to the sheer incompetence of the bodies dealing with our claim. By the time it's settled the weather will be so bad that it will be completely pointless to buy a new bike. We are beginning to feel that buying the bike in the first place was a really bad decision. My rant against BMW surpassed Charley Boorman's rant against KTM in Long Way Round. I think we should ditch BMW and buy a KTM or a Moto Guzzi Stelvio myself. After all we chose BMW's own insurance and finance to keep things simple and because it seemed like a good deal at the time. We should have taken heed of the forum posts saying that they were a pile of shite and really slow at settling claims. Could this be why Zurich has grabbed it all back, because of all the complaints?? Hope so, because that way they might just be keen to make amends... Watch this space.