BLD Nightmare ...is it just me?

Hi all, brand new here and new to biking so apologies if this is the wrong place or I ramble. This is partly therapy and partly a request for info from anybody who has had dealings with BLD good or more likely from my experience bad.

After years of waiting and things getting in the way I finally took my test. After much deliberation (I agonised for months over what to get) I made the only choice there was and got myself a gorgeous shiny new Street Triple last September. After making it through a relatively mild winter without a single slip up we find ourselves in March.

On the 20th of March while filtering on Whiteladies road in Bristol at no more than 10mph a helpful young lady opened her door even though she admitted to having seen me.

Her insurance company admitted full liability. But my bike has now been with BLD (Bikers Legal Defence) since they picked it up on Monday the 23rd of March. Since then my life has been nothing short of a nightmare filled with continuous chasing and phone calls from a mobile to no geographic numbers while at work. The reason I am writing to ask if anyone else has had any experience with them is that after being told there was a problem with getting hold of a clutch lever for my bike I went away and was passing the workshop in Birmingham as I was travelling back from the north. I had spoken to them a week earlier and they said they would contact me via email. I had had nothing from them and decided to pay them a visit. They told me that my clutch lever had been superseded and that they had been sent an alternative but it was a different colour. They had not done anything since the phone call I’d had with them a week earlier my bike had just been sat there in there warehouse racking up storage fees for them to charge the third party insurance company. I suggested what I thought was a relatively simple idea ...change the brake lever as well. This seemed like a revelation to them when to me it was just common sense. But I left the shop happy that some progress was going to be made.

Once I had left and I was back in the car I decided to call the dealer I had purchased the bike from only 7 months previously and ask them if they had a spare clutch lever hanging around as they had been superseded by Triumph. I was told that they currently had 16 in stock but that they had NOT been superseded they were NOT obsolete and that if they hadn't had any in stock it was a next day delivery item. I wanted to ring the BLD workshop back again to ask WTF they had actually been doing all week when it took me less that 5 minutes to locate a seemingly unending supply of replacement gear levers for a 6 month old bike ...luckily they had closed. I contacted Triumph UK the next day just to confirm and they provided me an email to support the fact that the part was still current. I emailed BLD and asked them what was going why I had been lied to and told them i would like to raise a complaint and that regardless of the outcome of the complaint I would still be taking it to the Ombudsman. I got a reply telling me that my lever would be in the next day and they would start to build the bike at the beginning of next week (after the bank holiday Monday) as a matter of urgency. Yet again ignoring me as I had asked to raise a complaint. They have had it SIX WEEKS. It doesn't take that long to build one from scratch all they had to do was replace an indicator the tank and a clutch lever.

Minimal damage I wasn't even thrown off and miraculously didn't drop it.

They did give me a hire bike but after getting it and it being on the red already I managed to get it home from work where they had dropped it off. It was a 2009 model and had 25k+ miles on it. I don't know if the Street Triple inspires confidence in new riders but the ratty old bandit (nothing against bandits this one was just not quite right) they delivered didn't feel safe or stable. I asked them if they had any alternatives they said they had nothing else so I told them to collect the one I had as it was no good.

Thank you to all of those who made it through this I feel better just for having a rant. But is my experience common or have they just been taking me for a ride ...boom boom.

 

Swinton is the Broker they appointed BLD who are apparently repairing it now and Zenith is the underwriter.

I will be requesting that the Bike is delivered to the dealer I purchased it from and that Swinton BLD or Zenith cover the cost of a Triumph Mechanic at that branch going over their work and looking for any further repair work that needs doing that they have either missed or that has been caused as a result of their negligence/incompetence.

I think my tolerance has only been due to my naivety. The third party insurance company did contact me and ask to collect the bike at my earliest convenience so that they could arrange for estimates and repairs. I'm sure they would have been a lot more effective and efficient in getting the bike back on the road. But I was told not to speak to the third party insurers by my brokers and to let BLD deal with things ...I now know that is because Swinton get a kick back from BLD for the referral and BLD make bucket loads of cash in extortionate hire and storage fees that they pass on to the third party.

Fun times maybe I will get it back in time for Autumn

 

Thanks Guys for the warm welcome and all the replies.

Once bitten twice shy, I still have the text from Royal Sun Alliance ...the third party insurance company apologising for the incident with their driver and asking me when would be best to pick up my bike for estimates and repairs and would i ike either a bike or car to replace it while the work was being done.

But as Swinton my own broker told me not to entertain any offers from the third party I ignored it as I thought Swinton would be acting in my best interests ...how wrong I was. They have not looked after me not communicated effectively or sometimes at all between he various companies they are connected to and that have been involved Hoopers, Markerstudy, Quindell Legal Services ...this list goes on.

I did consider writing to Ride as I've seen the White Dalton page and it does seem to throw up some interesting info but I think i have left it too late as things seem to be coming to a close now. But depending on how the complaints are handled I may still write for help. And I will definitely be contacting the ombudsman.

Just be warned stay well clear of BLD I'm just glad that unlike Stollydriver I will hopefully be getting mine back in one piece.

 

The problem is Swinton hasn't handled it the last response I got (which was before i had started to insist that all communication was conducted via email) was that they were just the broker and that my policy was actually with Zenith. I have done all the chasing since then.

I did make Zenith and BLD aware that the reason I was now insisting on all communication being via email was that when (not IF) I took it to the ombudsman there could be no confusion as to what had been said and where I had been misinformed and simply lied to. I haven't actually contacted Swinton for around three weeks as they have been next to useless. I'm emailing them this evening and opening a complaint also contacting BLD and Zenith for their failure to reply to the emails I sent them Thursday and Friday.

I also definitely want the bike checked over independantly ...it's not the same as a car and a bit of dodgy work just causing an accident a bit of dodgy work could cause my death. The bike was so confidence inspiring when I got it. Probably a little too confidence inspiring at times I just want to get her back and feel as at home as I did the first time I sat on her.

I wonder if I can claim for the fact that I've missed out on some gorgeous weather and if they can arrange to replace my bank holidays as well. Or more seriously the fact that the bike has been sat in someone else's warehouse for ...well we are now into 7 weeks and counting. Covered by someone else's insurance policy so I have paid out to insure a bike I cannot even ride because of their fraudulent and incompetent behaviour.

Oh forgot to add that the day after the accident I changed jobs and am now doing 4000 miles a year less and the bike is ...sorry would be parked in a secure compound with 24/7 manned security gate. But they wanted me to pay £86 on top of my premium. This did get waived after I had a colourful conversation with them. That was only 2 weeks into the claim ...those happy days seem so very long ago

 

Thanks for the welcome.

The responses to the three emails that I sent yesterday will determine my next course of actions. Officially I think they have 8 weeks to respond to my complaint but if I get no response I don't want to be hanging around that long so I will seek advice.

 

I would like to be compensated for the two months insurance I have paid out but not actually utilised, for the work I have missed due to not having transport and having to get lifts with people who haven't wanted to take advantage of bank holiday work or overtime and for the cost of phone calls made chasing everything up before insisting that all communication was via email.

...But somehow I don't think BLD or Zenith are going to Be that generous. I think I'm meant to feel grateful that I'm getting my bike back at all.