Sylvie down and damaged

[dizzyblonde]

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

My SV might just be an old K3 SV to those who have not put the hours of polishing, cleaning and riding into her, but she is my precious bike, I have done a lot of work to her and I ride her a lot. My friend knows this and it is for this reason that she was so upset when she knocked it over.

I'd be rather devastated too. Suzy might only be an old k1, but she is my precious bike, with precious shiny things as well as precious memories bolted to her. Women, friends or not, do get rather upset when damaging something, thats precious to another.
Sorry haven't caught up with this sooner, but my interwebs has been down for a few days and I've still got limited access til its fixed.

Originally Posted by suzukigt380paul

protected no claims means protected no claims,so after a claim you still get your how ever many years no claims of your next policy,i know cos ive done it on 2 renewals,and it does work,otherwise my insurance would go up by 70% and i shoped around and got it £100 cheeper

They will give you x amount of ncb im sure, but you'll still get higher premiums, so that means nothing.

Just a word of warning. If the insurance company decide that they are going to write the bike off, you may as well have said goodbye to it when it left your hands to go to the assessors. You will have a devil of a job getting your bike back off them now, because it is probably a hundred or so miles away and if you do decide you want it back then you'll have to pay to get it home, that is if they will let you buy it back for sensible money.

My advice to all is this - Never ever let the bike go anywhere under the care of yours or anyone else's insurance company until you have received a cheque that has cleared or full payment into your bank. If they want an estimate take the bike to a local main dealer and pay them the 35 quid or whatever it is to have them do it, then take the bike home afterwards. If they require two estimates then take the bike to the second and pay again, then take it home again straight away. DO NOT leave the bike at the dealership because once there it starts racking up storage costs. I've lost count of the number of bikes I have seen lost to dealers because the storage costs have exceeded the value of the bike - the shop I work for have taken possession of a few this way because insurance companies have been too slow sorting a claim, the costs have risen way above value and those bikes have ended up being broken for spares. We regard them as freebie bikes because all they've cost us is the time taken to break and list on ebay.

Present the receipts for estimates to the insurance company and take copies of everything so you can keep a day by day record of progress. Do not let them pick up your bike and take it away, it may be the last time you see it and once they have it they are calling the tune as far as value is concerned. At least whilst you have your own bike and a hire bike to ride you have the upper hand, let your bike go and that's it... game over for you.

You can insist that your bike is rebuilt to pre-accident condition. It's not your fault the bike was damaged and it's your bike to decide what happens to it, not the insurance company's. They are legally obliged to either return your vehicle to pre-accident condition (btw, your bike didn't have welded up and resprayed panels or tank before the accident, don't accept them after it either) or pay you the market value for a bike of the same model, age, condition and mileage - regardless of how much they may think it is worth, Glass's Guide top retail value is what you should receive so have a quick word with a bike shop locally for an idea of what that value is for your bike. They took a risk insuring your friend, that risk worked against them and now they have to pay... tough **** for them, they can't win every time.

Whatever you do, insist they return the bike back to your house asap once the assessment has been carried out, and find out exactly what they plan to do about repairs if they do want to rebuild. I don't like seeing repaired panels, I want to see new ones. I don't like seeing resprayed fuel tanks either because it's always very obvious that a crash repair has been done. If they say they can get a firm to plastic weld this and paint that, tell them to eff off because you know it'll look crap... it always does. If someone comes to our shop with a bike that we can see has been repaired with welded and resprayed panels/tank then we do adjust the value figure to take that into account. it doesn't matter one little bit if the HPI report says it's clear, it's still got obvious signs of repairs and we don't like that because our customers don't like it either. Simple truth is, if you can see or feel the repair, the value is lower by a considerable margin.

Personally, I'd take the best offer and go buy another bike that hasn't been damaged or I'd ask to keep the bike with a slightly reduced payment and repair it myself like I did with my black SV650 K5. Tbh I don't trust many places to do accident repairs to a standard that I'd be happy with.

[Jayneflakes]

Thank you Lozzo for your input.

The company involved are called Plantec and have so far been very nice.

I will admit that I am worried, I have never had to deal with anything like this before and I am learning some horrible lessons. I do wish that I had known this before letting her go.

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

The company involved are called Plantec and have so far been very nice.

I will admit that I am worried, I have never had to deal with anything like this before and I am learning some horrible lessons. I do wish that I had known this before letting her go.

Forget "nice".

They are not your friends, they will never be your friends, they are only playing at being nice.

Deal with them in a professional manner, dont let them get away with things because they were nice.

After its all sorted out as you want it, THEN is the time to be nice.

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

Forget "nice".

They are not your friends, they will never be your friends, they are only playing at being nice.

Deal with them in a professional manner, dont let them get away with things because they were nice.

After its all sorted out as you want it, THEN is the time to be nice.

Absolutely. Hit the nail right slap bang on the head there.

Just remember this. Your bike is not Sylvie to them, it is just another damaged motorcycle. It is a cash-cow from which they will attempt to extract as much money. This will be attempted with the minimum of effort and outlay. They are not 'nice' people, they are business people who have to appear nice to get the money.

They couldn't care less if it is every last bean you own all tied up in one SV650, they are there to make money from that bike in whatever way they can.

[Jayneflakes]

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

Forget "nice".

They are not your friends, they will never be your friends, they are only playing at being nice.

Deal with them in a professional manner, dont let them get away with things because they were nice.

After its all sorted out as you want it, THEN is the time to be nice.

Originally Posted by Lozzo

Absolutely. Hit the nail right slap bang on the head there.

Just remember this. Your bike is not Sylvie to them, it is just another damaged motorcycle. It is a cash-cow from which they will attempt to extract as much money. This will be attempted with the minimum of effort and outlay. They are not 'nice' people, they are business people who have to appear nice to get the money.

They couldn't care less if it is every last bean you own all tied up in one SV650, they are there to make money from that bike in whatever way they can.

Thank you Gentlemen for your words of advice, they do not fall on deaf ears, just frightened ones. I am not good at confrontation and standing up for myself and am generally a bit of a wimp. Fear not though, for where I am soft, Wifey is as hard as nails. I fear that I will need all of my strength to deal with this and a lot of hers too. Sylvie is the only "thing" I have that I actually really love.

sorry to hear about the bike damage Kinda sucks when things like this happen.

Most bikes now go to a big center in sandwich kent, you can demand that it gets repaired tho, They tend to write them off instantly now due to the cost of replacement panels from the main stealers plus a 10 hour day at £25 ph for a 15 year old aprentice to fit one panel,

If you need any parts repairing and painting then gve us a shout and I'll help you out as much as I can, I could even do you a repair estimate if it helps

[Jayneflakes]

Originally Posted by sv_rory

sorry to hear about the bike damage Kinda sucks when things like this happen.

Most bikes now go to a big center in sandwich kent, you can demand that it gets repaired tho, They tend to write them off instantly now due to the cost of replacement panels from the main stealers plus a 10 hour day at £25 ph for a 15 year old aprentice to fit one panel,

If you need any parts repairing and painting then gve us a shout and I'll help you out as much as I can, I could even do you a repair estimate if it helps

Thank you, I just need to get the bike back from them first. I am getting ready for a fight and have the wife on stand by to go and verbally batter some Insurance gits if I need to. I am still hoping that all goes smoothly, but many of the posts here have me rather worried, it seems that this will be a good learning experience if nothing else. As long as I get my precious Sylvie back, nothing else matters.

[Kenzie]

I had my TS125R knocked over after parking in a marked bay at the side of the road. The woman (notice a trend? No offence!) backed into ot a sent it flying. Luckily it was just an indicator but she said "sorry, I didn't see it" handed me a tenner and drove off. How can you not see a great big yellow dirt bike in your mirror???
Anyway, the wife has had a few off's caused by other drivers and the last one the insurance coughed up £1200 worth of repairs on a 2001 DT125R. Now don't let the bully you, make it clear what you want and stick to your guns. I took over for the missus during the claim and managed to get them to cough up for new kit (gloves, lid and jacket) and also for loss of earnings while the bike was being repaired as she couldn't commute on it and had to make other arrangements.