Council wont pay up

by nickmalone

12 Jul 2010

hello, i drove throught a particuarly bad pot hole one evening when it was dark and raining so therefore didnt see it untill i had hit it, i stopped the car to find that my alloy had been damaged beyond repair, (was completely bent over on the edge) so the car was undriveable until had this fixxed, i took the car to my main dealer for ford as the car is only a year old (ford fiesta zetec s) it cost me £160 for the new alloy and the £10 for fitting and with all of this i kept the reciepts and service reports. i then contaced my local council (plymouth) and asked for the relevant claim forms which after alot of phone calls they decidied to send me, i sent them pictures of the pot hole, all the reciepts and a letter detailing what happened, they replied and said they would carry out an investigation into the matter.
After a long time and no reply i phoned them up and said i should have had a reply by now, which i hadnt so they went throught it again and said there and then on the phone to me, that my claim had been not approved because the pot hole had already been identified and repaired within 24hrs of my incident, i argued that didnt help my situation and that they should have repaired the pot hole asap but the long and short of the matter is they wont pay up, several phone calls later to no avail and the woman that i have been dealing with is a very angry person and has zero public relationship skills. im writing to find out if there is anything else that i can do? i wouldnt mind if i had an old car but seeing as it is nearly new and my pride and joy i am very unhappy about the situation.
nick