When it comes to personal lines insurance there are really only two attachment points – acquiring the policy and making a claim. The first is fairly simple, although less so if you happen to be a young driver. It’s the second that causes the problems. It’s fairly certain that a majority of the insurance buying public doesn’t have a favorable impression of our industry.

This view is overwhelmingly due to a problem they’ve experienced – or have heard somebody else’s experience – with an insurance claim. When an insurer does something wrong – denies coverage or tries to reduce a claims payment, for example – they are attacked from all sides. But, when they do something right – something that may be above and even beyond the strict terms of the policy – we rarely hear about it. This is the story of one of those times, as narrated by the person who experienced it, my son Michael.*

This is the story of a problem encountered with a car during holidays and how the insurance company helped.

Our trip was 1800 kms [1118 miles] from Paris to Cadiz in Southern of Spain. The car had been serviced before the trip to try to avoid any incident, but I wouldn’t be writing this if that had worked.

We [Michael, his girlfriend and another couple] had been on the road for approx. 850 kms [520 miles], when we passed the border into Spain and needed to fill the tank with gas.

Arriving at the gas station, the car suddenly stopped. Fortunately we had enough speed to reach the pump. At first we thought we had maybe run out of gas, so we filled the tank, but we realized that the car wasn’t starting at all. It was already 1:00 AM Friday night to Saturday morning. Some very friendly Portuguese tried to help us to start the car again, with no success.

So I had to call my insurance company – Direct Assurance, a part of France’s AXA Group – who first managed to find a tow truck with a mechanic to try to fix it immediately. It was now around 3:00 AM and the first diagnosis was that the fuel pump was out of order; impossible to leave.

We had serious problems at this point. The tow truck could only fit 3 people, but we were 4 and it was Saturday. In France, garages are closed on Saturday and Sunday. We called the insurance company back, who found a Spanish cab to bring us back to France to spend the night in a Hotel in Biarritz. We arrived at the hotel at 5:00 AM, and, despite the fact that it was a very nice hotel, we didn’t really enjoy it a lot as we had to wake up early to find our way down to Cadiz.

After a little sleep, we got up for breakfast and start calling the insurance company again.

The first call was really good news, as the lady on the other end of the phone told me that she would get us a rental car and that we could continue our trip. So we decided with my friends to leave our bags at the reception and go take a walk on the beach expecting to leave in less than 1 or 2 hours.

Having no news after 1 hour, – it was around 11:00 AM by then – I called AXA again. This time the conversation was much less joyful. Indeed, the new person I had on the phone told me my first call in the morning didn’t exist on the records and that I couldn’t get a rental car. She handed the phone to the “correct” service person, and then a long negotiation started.

We were at the beginning of our vacation and wanted of course to continue our trip. The problem was that we hadn’t done more than half of our trip, so AXA wanted to bring us home and then find a way to get me back to my car. No way.

So the guy on the phone tried to find a rental car. He didn’t succeed in doing so for several reasons.  First, we were on one of the busiest weekends of the summer and not many cars were available, especially in the South of France. Secondly, none of us were over 23 and rental companies are skeptical on lending cars to young people, especially when they are going to Spain.

One hour later, he called back with the bad news and tried to get us to go home. I was getting a bit nervous at this point so I handed the phone to my girlfriend, who is usually calmer. They started to look for trains and buses, saying nothing was available, etc. This conversation ended with AXA allowing us a 90 euro [$119] each, budget to continue our trip and with a deal saying: “O.K. we will bring you to your vacation destination but you have to get your own way back to your car.”

We went back to get our luggage as we were hoping to find anyway to continue our trip soon.  We finally ended up by doing their job and going to the local SNCF shop to find trains, but of course it was already too late. Then we went to the tourism office. We found some sort of route by bus, having to take 3 different ones and taking around 20 hours. It was really long and painful but we were willing to go on this adventure.

Our first bus was supposed to leave at 4:00 PM, but it never arrived. So getting really mad we called AXA again, who finally agreed to find us a taxi to bring us to our final destination. We were near the tourism office, on the sidewalk in front of the bus stop. We had been there for 2 hours already waiting for our bus. We waited an extra 2 hours at that exact same place waiting for the cab.

We finally decided to grab a beer at the restaurant across the street. It was 7:00 PM by now. On and off the phone with AXA, asking where the ******cab was. “It will be there soon,” they kept on saying. We finally had dinner in that restaurant. After a few more phone calls, getting the cab’s number, and a promise from one of the managers at AXA, that the cab was on its way for sure and would be there in less than one hour, it finally arrived at 11:00 PM.

When we left the GPS indicated 1155 kms [718 miles] to our destination. We arrived the next morning at 9:00 AM. Thanks a lot to Jose Antonio, our very tired driver. And, although it was really hard to get it, thanks to AXA for paying the tow truck, the cab, the 4 of us in a hotel and the long distance cab. This last one costing 1500 euros [$1980], the 2 rooms at 205 euros [$270] each. If we estimate it correctly, AXA probably spent just under 2500 euros [$3,300] for us.

We had planned 2 days in Barcelona, so we managed to find a carpool to bring us there and then a bus at 7:00 AM to go back to Biarritz and get the car.

*Introduction by Charlie Boyle – IJ International Editor