New joiner.

[Peter1963]

Hi Mike aka Nickelback
Have tried a PM again but it just sits in my outbox. Strange - have sent PMs to another member and it worked ok. I just clicked on your name so no spelling errors I think.

[mgcjag]

Hi Peter....mail sits in your outbox till the recipiant opens it..Steve

[Heuer]

The way the PM works is that the message will sit in the senders 'Outbox' until the intended recipient gets around to opening it. If they can't be bothered to do that it will remain there forever or until you delete it. I have tried my best to make the PM system as friendly as possible with red flashing notifications (bell and envelope symbols) along with the number of messages waiting to be read but people seem to ignore those. The recipient should also get an email telling them a PM is waiting for them but a few people think it is a smart ass idea to change their email to a false one so never get the notification. In the old Forum software I invoked a pop-up but people switched on web wide pop-up blockers despite the fact it is easy to white list individual sites such as this one.

You have done the last thing I suggested which is to add a 'PM sent' to the relevant thread. If you want to test the system send a message to yourself. One thing I have noticed is you must ensure you get the 'Message Sent' notice so you may have to click on submit twice. The system seems to insist you preview your message before you can send it:

[Peter1963]

Thanks for the explanations about the ways of PMing. Much appreciated.

[Hugo]

Hi Damien

Only issue is the length of time DVLA takes. They won't issue a reg number until the car has an MOT..... and they quote 4 to 6 weeks although I am told it is more likely 2 to 3 weeks. Patience needed.

Ideal opportunity to stick some US license plates on there & drive on them for the next six months. Free parking, no speed cameras to worry about ;)

[Hugo]

I shied away from putting the E on it as I felt it needed a specialist insurer and thought it would flummox a regular insurer. I use Heritage. How was Admiral with insuring a vintage car, any hassles, guaranteed value, etc.? Would welcome feedback as I wouldn't mind keeping it all with one insurer for less hassle.

My experience when I first insured my E Type made me angrier than anything I can remember; I called for a quote, they asked where the car was kept & I told them on the drive or in my garage, which they were happy with. (The car was - still is - partially in bits & immobile). Then they called me & said there was a problem; the insurers had looked on Google Earth and decided I was lying, as my drive wasn't big enough to accommodate it. I said how dare you go spying on me & calling me a liar! I told them my house is on a corner and the front door (which they were looking at) is in a different road from my drive and garage entrance. I have room there for half a dozen cars.
And you know what? They STILL wouldn't believe me and declined to quote. And this was with my regular insurer at the time (whose name I can't recall just now). I was absolutely livid and told them what I thought of them. The underwriters were ERS. I have a small fleet of coaches insured with ERS and I told them I wouldn't insure with them if they were the last insurer on Earth. I had been a client of theirs in good standing for years if not decades, and this is how they treat me? Outrageous.

[Hugo]

It was Lancaster. I responded to their e-mail offering multi-vehicle cover, and they not only declined to cover the E Type, but made all sorts of unfounded accusations that I was in breach of me conditions with the cars I already had insured with them, then compounded that by effetively calling me a liar.
If anybody's interested, here is one of my e-mails to them.


This is truly exasperating. Either Lancaster have completely mis-represented my complaint, or you have completely misunderstood it. Let me begin again; I was informed that you, ERS, had looked at Google Earth and found ‘evidence’ that I was in breach of my insurance conditions. Apart from the fact that I think it is downright sneaky to go checking up on me behind my back without at least having the courtesy to tell me what you are doing, the ‘evidence’ shows nothing of the sort. Google Earth shows my wife’s car parked outside our house. That is where it lives. The present insurance provides for it to be parked in the street. So you have taken a photograph which shows me to be completely in compliance with my insurance conditions, and cited that as evidence that I am in breach of them. In any case, had you quoted for my insurance, and had I accepted your terms that the car be parked on the driveway or in a garage overnight, that photograph which you allege to be incriminating would still have shown no breach of your terms and conditions. The photograph was clearly taken in daylight, and your restrictive terms would not have applied outside the hours of 2200 to 0600.
I find the way you have treated me as a potential customer to be highly offensive, first by sneaking around behind my back looking at photographs of my house, and then by accusing me of being in breach of conditions when I clearly committing no such breach according to your own evidence.
In fact I am not a potential customer but an existing customer of long standing. I have a small fleet of commercial vehicles insured with Equity Red Star, but you may be assured that come renewal this will no longer be the case.
Finally, I am puzzled by this sentence in your letter; “I have since been advised that you have now received a quotation with the parking amended but have not chosen to accept this cover.”. This is the first I have heard of this. Can you elaborate? I was told you were point blank refusing to quote under any circumstances, even if I agreed to your off-street parking conditions. Clearly this implies that you thought I was lying when I stated where the vehicles would be parked. I most certainly was never quoted for occasionally leaving them parked in the street.
Perhaps you can clarify this?

[Herzeg]

My experience when I first insured my E Type made me angrier than anything I can remember; I called for a quote, they asked where the car was kept & I told them on the drive or in my garage, which they were happy with. (The car was - still is - partially in bits & immobile). Then they called me & said there was a problem; the insurers had looked on Google Earth and decided I was lying, as my drive wasn't big enough to accommodate it. I said how dare you go spying on me & calling me a liar! I told them my house is on a corner and the front door (which they were looking at) is in a different road from my drive and garage entrance. I have room there for half a dozen cars.
And you know what? They STILL wouldn't believe me and declined to quote. And this was with my regular insurer at the time (whose name I can't recall just now). I was absolutely livid and told them what I thought of them. The underwriters were ERS. I have a small fleet of coaches insured with ERS and I told them I wouldn't insure with them if they were the last insurer on Earth. I had been a client of theirs in good standing for years if not decades, and this is how they treat me? Outrageous.

Hugo. It's an interesting use of technology and also out of date when they get it. If I check Google Earth (just did it), the picture is 2-3 yrs old because of the cars the neighbours have. How can you make a judgement using software that is not current?

John

[Peter1963]

Gents
Thanks for the advice on Insurance.
I'm about to sign up with Heritage Insurance. Had quote from them and Footman James. (Still waiting for Admiral and Richardson Hoskin to get back to me - a week later.)
The facts are -
Series 1 FHC 1963. Rebuilt 9 years ago.
South African import.
3000 miles p.a. £500 excess
European cover upto 90 days
Agreed value - 6 photos required.
Free Skytag tracker (Not sure how good this is - will need to pay a subscription after the first year I think)
Garaged in rural Warwickshire
£263.
I'll probably sign up for breakdown cover which I think is around £25 extra.
I thought this was pretty good.
Foot man James came in at £376

Any thoughts?

Peter

[Herzeg]

Peter

I have Heritage. The tracker is free but you have to pay a subscription to use it from the start. I paid £80'ish last year but now they only do monthly DD. It does work, they even tracked my car when it was in an underground car park. Not real time though like some.

John

[Peter1963]

Thanks John.
Mmm - I would have thought that real time tracking was quite important.

Peter

[Herzeg]

Peter

There are some that you can look on an app and see where it is. The Skytag system checks your car once a month and reports it's working by e-mail. If the battery is disconnected you also get an e-mail and it runs on internal power for around three days.

If your car is stolen you get a crime number, call them and they activate it for the police to track. I think I might move to the app one eventually but at least if it goes missing you can track it, the only downside is if you don't know its missing for a few days it could be long gone.

I probably wouldn't have paid the £250 to buy it, but for £80/year it gives some peace of mind.

John

[Peter1963]

Firstly, thanks John for your response re the tracker- I suspect I will follow your example. Apologies for not replying earlier - must seem a little ungrateful! I could ask you where you fitted yours but that might be a bit of a dumb question for public consumption!

Anyway, after a long delay with the shipping company who were getting it through its MOT I am now, finally finally able to see my car on my driveway. Spotted it on the internet in Durban in mid Feb, researched it and previous owners for around 6 weeks, took a 'day trip' to S.A. to see it on March 29th, took ownership n March 30th, watched it being loaded onto a flatbed then flew home straightaway. 4 weeks at sea aboard the MSC Adelaide (huge container ship) then another few weeks with the shippers. Friday June 23rd at 12 noon it arrived on my driveway.

[media][/media]

If anyone wants any thoughts/ experience stories of importing a car then let me know. Happy to share what went on.

I now have many questions ...... time to post them under the series1 part of the forum.

Thanks again to everyone who took time to reply to my earlier questions.

Peter