Yes, we called our insurance, and they directed us to Garda. After several back and forths with Garda, they directed us back to our insurance (the other driver was indeed uninsured). Called our insurance back and they said they were submitting a claim form that is submitted to a national scheme of some sort (so it doesn't affect our rates). This was five days ago, form never arrived.
Sooooo, I am arriving at the conclusion that our very over-priced insurance is, in fact, not any good. It's very frustrating and confusing to not have any knowledge of the usual protocol in these situations AND to have the insurance misinform us. We still have no idea how this will play out and I find it unbelievable an uninsured motorcyclist weaving in and out of stopped traffic trotted off on holiday without any flack from Garda.
If you get nowhere with your car insurance company you might want to take a look at this http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/travel_and_recreation/motoring_1/motor_tax_and_insurance/motor_insurance.html
The financial services ombudsman handles unresolved disputes. I can't imagine a car insurance company letting something simple like this go that far though.
My husband finally broke down and just bought a new tail light online last night (cost way more than we expected because we own that fabulous obscure Japanese car lol). Now he's looking for a mechanic to install it. We just felt defeated. Insurance wouldn't return our calls, Garda basically told us to just deal with it as it is, and here we are. 🙁
Will check out the link just the same. I'm really baffled how an uninsured driver could do this to us and face zero consequences?
Who are you insured with out of curiosity?
Currently we are insured through It's for Women, was a good price but their customer service is non existent.
I have insured the older car through First Ireland brokerage using past named driver experience, so far they seem fairly good. Chill and 123.ie were previously good to work with
oh no! i hope something works out for you with this! i was having the same problem with people passing me back and forth with trying to find out how to get my kid over. i wonder if the squeaky wheel gets the oil trick might work for you. don't let em off easy!
Octane is the insurance company my husband went with, and it is obviously NOT all that fantastic. I have no idea how well he researched this decision (best guess is "not well").
We are phoning the insurance again tomorrow to give it one last go. Fingers crossed... my hopes aren't high at this point.
Octane are UK Underwriters usually quoted by "specialist" companies like Adrian Flux (great UK broker) so probably offered a really good price based on US experience? no harm there but unfortunately good prices don't always mean good customer service.. I spent an hour on the phone this morning with It's4women's complaints dept !!
Might be an idea to have a list of underwriters who cover US drivers and feedback on experience using them?
Well, we FINALLY heard back from the other drive and he miraculously provided proof of insurance (after seven/eight weeks of waiting and Garda stating they assumed he was uninsured). So we have submitted a claim. Though he can dispute it. Not sure how, my husband was in stopped rush hour traffic at a light when the motorcycle hit our back right tail light/bumper. But initially the motorcyclist was claiming memory loss, soooooooo I'm guessing this isn't the end of the drama. Considering we'd nearly given up it's really just entertainment at this stage.