‘My insurer has kept my motorbike for 5 months’: One mans fight with MCE insurance

A motorcyclist was left without his bike for five months after making a claim with his insurer following a crash that he’s adamant was not his fault.

After being involved in an incident with a car in August of last year, Stuart Stow, from Middlesex, was left waiting for his insurance firm, MCE, to repair and return his motorbike. 

However, in a situation familiar to other crash victims who have disputed insurance claims, more than seven months later he is still without his beloved bike. Meanwhile, Stuart claims he is receiving limited updates about his case, despite constantly chasing MCE for information. 

Stuart’s case is one in many that highlights how policyholders can be kept waiting for months on end by insurers when it comes to resolving their case. 

Having an accident that warrants contacting an insurer is bad enough, but then having to wait much longer than expected for them to decide what customers could be entitled to adds more stress to an already frustrating situation. 

This is something that Stuart, unfortunately, discovered after he was involved in an accident on 14 August last year after a collision with a car on his way to work. 

On the same day he contacted MCE to raise a claim, which subsequently passed it on to Plantec Assist, a claims handling company.

However, this is when Stuart says everything went ‘downhill’. 

He was advised by the insurer that the driver of the car involved in the accident was claiming it was not their fault, with the CCTV evidence showing otherwise deemed not suitable for evidence.

At the same time, Plantec were instructed by MCE to provide a loan bike for Stuart which they did on 16 August, at the same time taking his motorbike away for assessment.

Two days later, Stuart returned the loan bike as he said it was ‘horrible to ride’ and not suitable for his daily commute of 27 miles each way. 

In order to get to work, he added another personal bike to the existing policy which cost an extra £200 – adding insult to injury. 

He contacted both firms on multiple occasions, often having to wait for 40 minutes at a time to get through to the call centre, which is a situation encountered by many policyholders, no doubt putting them off contacting their insurer when there is a problem. 

Each time he was advised that the third party had not admitted liability, meaning the claim was ongoing. 

It wasn’t until four months after the initial accident that a firm of solicitors appointed an independent engineer to assess the damage and provide a quote as to how much they think it would be to repair. 

The engineer’s report revealed that the total for repair would cost a huge £3,592.84 and included a recommendation for a new brake pedal, a replacement brake lever, clamp and wheel cover amongst other things. 

After reading the report, Stuart wanted further repairs to take place believing the full amount of reparations was not covered, but was told by the insurer that if this was to take place, it would delay the return of the bike even further and could push the repair cost over the viability of repairing it. 

Stuart said: ‘I was told that to do what I requested would take more time to assess and delay things further.’

When This is Money asked BMW for details on how much the parts would cost, we were told this wasn’t possible due to the age of the vehicle.

He was also told that if he claimed on his fully comprehensive insurance, because his claim was being processed as a third party non fault claim, it would become his fault and he would have to pay the excess, which initially made no sense to him. 

However, if he claimed on his fully comp insurance, his insurer would have to pay for the repairs in advance of seeking admission from the third party.  

If the third party subsequently did not admit liability and his insurer cannot recover what they have paid out, then it may go down as a claim on his own policy. The blame then stays with him and he would lose his excess and no claims bonus. 

For those who have a protected no claims, this will usually allow them to make a certain number of claims over the policy duration, without losing all or part of any no claims bonus they have built up. 

As Stuart wants to protect his no claims bonus and not accept any liability, he is left in a tight spot.  

Eventually, Stuart raised a complaint with Plantec on November 11 but no there was no immediate recognition of the complaint until he posted a negative review of the company on Google at the end of November. 

Only at this point were solicitors that were initially appointed, re-engaged and they confirmed they had closed the case in August, confusing Stuart as to what the process taking place now was.

He said he has repeatedly asked for written confirmation of where the cost of his bike storage lays and was told by the complaints department that they do not issue written confirmation and his recorded phone call would suffice.

He has also repeatedly asked for his bike back but was denied this request.   

Stuart also decided to submit a stolen vehicle report to Surrey police as he hadn’t had his bike returned in so long. He said they considered it with a couple of return questions but ultimately said it was a civil matter and that he should contact Citizens Advice.  

This is Money has attempted to contact both MCE and Plantec Assist multiple times but has found that neither companies have no departments to deal with press inquires and numerous attempts to make contact via email or phone have been ignored. 

However, since we have tried to contact them, Stuart’s bike was returned. He eventually received it back in mid-January, five months after the incident but with absolutely no repairs made, leaving the bike unusable. 

He is unsure now how the claim is due to proceed but has heard from Plantec which said mistakes appeared to have been made. 

One of the managers reviewed the notes made on the case and offered to pay for the repairs, including the replacement of the front forks which were initially not mentioned on the damage report. 

Since then, the bike has been collected yet again by Plantec with the third party insurance company verbally agreeing to pay for the repairs – although no admission of liability has been forthcoming. 

A further £400 was offered to Stuart as recompense for the delays and lack of use of his motorcycle. 

Although this is welcome news, throughout the process Stuart has remained frustrated at the amount of hours he has had to spend on the phone trying to sort out the incident as well as the time off work he has had to take to receive the bike. 

Stuart said: ‘As far as I am concerned, MCE still need to settle this to my satisfaction with a competent satisfactory repair. No money or repair has been provided to me.’  

Due to the length of time it has taken to resolve, he has now also raised a complaint with the Ombudsman and is hoping for a speedy outcome. 

Whilst this can sometimes be a lengthy process, previous research has shown that taking complaints to the Ombudsman is worth doing as 29 per cent of complaints about car insurance providers were upheld by the service in 2018.