Last November, an elderly driver on the Isle of Wight lost control of her car and smashed into three vehicles in a health centre car park.
One of those vehicles belonged to Mandy Lambert, the mother of inspirational ‘Sip & Puff’ teenager, Natasha Lambert.
It was towed away and a couple of days later a replacement vehicle was provided by her insurance company, Aviva.
As you might expect, Mandy’s vehicle was not an ordinary car, it was adapted to ensure that Natasha, who is severely disabled and wheelchair-bound, is able to get around.
Vehicle written off, but not because it’s unrepairable
The insurance company told Mandy that her vehicle was going to be written off. This is despite a local garage advising that it was repairable.
Aviva believed the repair would take too long and therefore cost them too much because the adapted hire car was being charged at £100 per day.
Aviva’s offer £3,000 short
Mandy started the search for a replacement vehicle, found one and two days before Christmas, Aviva made her an offer. However, it was £3,000 short of the asking price.
Money the family doesn’t have, and shouldn’t have to pay.
After Christmas and New Year spent worrying about how the situation could be resolved, it escalated last Friday when Aviva called and gave one hour’s notice for the replacement vehicle being picked up.
Sure enough, one hour later the vehicle was gone and Natasha house-bound. All because of one driver’s mistake on 10th November.
OnTheWight intervention reaps results
Hearing about how the Lambert family had been treated by Aviva (there was more to the story, but it would take too long to detail) OnTheWight got in touch with the insurance company this week.
We’re pleased to say that it had a very positive effect. Not long afterwards, Mandy got in touch to say,
“Have just had an email from Aviva saying they are going to organise a hire car for us and look into my complaint.
“So thank you so much for your intervention,”
Although the situation is not fully resolved, at least the hire car is returning and the insurance company now taking Mandy’s complaint seriously.
It’s amazing what a little bit of publicity can do.
