There was no escaping the damage to Nicole’s two cars. The hailstorm hit so quickly that both of her vehicles got absolutely hammered, with the massive hailstones making light work of pretty much every panel.
Within minutes, Nicole was on the phone to Youi to get her claims moving. Hail assessment centres were set up nearby, ready to book in Nicole’s cars to be looked at, then to organise repairs to get her back on the road again.
SAVING MONEY WITH A SINGLE EXCESS.
Not realising the severity of the storm that was about to hit, Nicole and her family were just getting on with life. Her children were off to an event and she and her husband were getting ready for a nice dinner out together.
Then the heavens opened. Before they knew what was happening, they saw the hail falling and heard the sound of ice on metal. It was full-on.
“The hail actually hit straight away, with no rain or anything,” said Nicole.
Caught off guard by the sudden impact, it was too late for Nicole to move her cars to safety. “The cars were actually parked out in front of the house, and we had no pre-warning to move them under cover.”
It only lasted for a few minutes, but that’s all it took for the storm to make a mess of the vehicles. Dents, large and small, covered almost every surface. “Once the hail stopped, we went out and we could definitely see damage.”
From that point, Nicole jumped on the phone to Youi to get her claims underway. Nicole’s claims advisor, Locky, was on the case immediately, helping to get things sorted.
As well as collecting info from Nicole on the damage to her vehicles in what was a pretty tough time, Locky actually gave her something to smile about. He let her know that, because she was claiming under more than one Youi policy for a single incident that occurred at the same address and time, she’d only need to pay the higher of the excess amounts noted on her policies, not an excess for both.1
Understandably, she was pretty happy with the savings. “Yeah, she was rapt about that,” said Locky.
The next step was to organise for Nicole’s cars to be assessed. Not long after the hailstorm took place, the Youi hail assessment centres were set up in Nicole’s area, with specialist hail assessors on site and ready to look over the damage.
The process couldn’t have been quicker or easier for Nicole. On the scheduled date, she drove into the assessment centre and had her claims authorised without even needing to get out of her car.
A drive-thru light tunnel helped assessors spot any dents, and it was all done within about 10 minutes of arriving. Hail repairer Joel then organised with Nicole a future date to start repairs, and she drove away happy knowing her claims had been approved.
A few weeks later, Nicole dropped off her vehicles for repairs and within 5 days after that, they were as good as new. The dents all popped out and the cars ready to go again.
By staggering the repairs to her two cars, Nicole made sure the family always had one car to get around in while the other was being fixed.
She isn’t keen on going through an experience like that again, but Nicole says if she ever does, she’s glad to know that Youi will have her covered.
“From the very beginning, when we lodged our claims, all the way through to getting the cars repaired, Youi handled the whole process really well.”
“I wouldn’t change our policies at all – we’ll be sticking with Youi.”
1 This policy wording was accurate at the time of the claim and has since been changed.
