Just less than a year ago my husband was involved in a serious car accident. He was badly hurt, taken by ambulance from the scene and kept in hospital for several days.

The police had called a recovery vehicle from a local garage to remove the damaged car. Ever since, we have been trying to get his insurance company, Swiftcover, to pay up as per the terms of his policy.

When he later went to the garage to try to remove his personal items from the car, he was refused access on the grounds that Swiftcover needed to inspect it first. The problem is Swiftcover has not, as I understand it, ever examined the car, and has certainly not paid the claim. The car was old, 2005, but had done a very low mileage: 65,000.

My husband is Egyptian and does not find email communication in English easy. Can you help us get the £1,000 or so the car was worth, as we are not getting anywhere?

AES, by email

It’s fair to say that you are not the first Swiftcover customer to complain they have been let down by its customer service. The firm’s Trustpilot page makes interesting reading, with some customers reporting long waits on hold, and problems after claiming.

Happily, Axa-owned Swiftcover quickly moved to put this right. It told us: “This was a complicated claim where a vehicle was scrapped without ours or our customer’s knowledge; however, we accept the investigation shouldn’t have taken this long to resolve. We have apologised and have offered to pay £974 for the car – after the £250 excess is subtracted, though with interest at 8% added to cover the delay – as well as £350 for the mistakes made during his claim.”

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