I think it's a standard procedure. They said that the excess fee is taken until the van driver's insurance company confirm that they accept their driver is to blame and that the costs will be covered. As soon as that has been done, I'll receive the £250 that I paid back from them
I trust what Bath Audi have told me and it seems like a pretty common way to do it based on what I've been told
Thanks for sharing your story, it's helpful to see how it affected you and how you sorted it out. For me, I've not told my insurance company yet as the loan car was covered by Bath Audi's insurance policy which is completely different to the fully comp policy I have on my A3. At renewal I will have to tick the box about accidents in the past five years and provide the required details but that's understandable. I'll have a year's no claims by then so hopefully it won't be too big of a jump. Out of curitisity I looked at insurance (using all the details I did when I bought the policy in August) but with the accident declared. Results:
02/08/17 - £2517
15/09/17 (with accident) - £5432
What a pain! Only passed in February so I really didn't need this
Every panel on the A1 was damaged as well as the electrics and radiator where rocks were thrown through the grill at 70mph