Brian Ridout is an avid cyclist. He rides 6,000 to 7,000 kilometres a year.

But his love of the sport was shattered after being hit by a car on a busy Toronto street last August.

The police and an ambulance were called. The driver was charged. And Ridout was taken to hospital with a dislocated finger, lacerations on his arm and leg, a bruised elbow and a bruised leg muscle.

Long after his injuries had healed, he was still out of pocket for the loss of his high-end bicycle. The other driver was not insured and his own insurer has since acknowledged that it mishandled the claim.

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Only this week – almost nine months after the accident – did he receive a $3,276.99 cheque from TD Insurance.

“We recognize and regret the challenging situation our customer has experienced,” said TD spokesman Pascal Dessureault.

I found it challenging as well, making me realize how complex Ontario’s insurance system can be for even the most determined consumers.

There were two tricky issues:

The driver who hit him was not insured. He was driving a car leased from an agency that had its insurance cancelled for non-payment.

Ridout wanted to file a claim on his TD car insurance. If he filed on his TD home insurance, he would lose a lucrative annual discount.

Not only did TD cover the claim under his car insurance after we intervened, but it made other concessions to Ridout – a customer for more than 30 years.

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“I sent them an invoice and photos of the damage,” he says. “They agreed to waive their normal requirement to bring the bike in and their normal $300 deductible for all the trouble I’d been through.”

Ridout, a professional engineer, said he was surprised right at the beginning when TD told him he had to contact the other driver’s insurance company. He thought his own insurer would take ownership of his case.

For four fruitless months, he chased the other driver’s insurance company and insurance broker. Only in January did he learn that the car was leased from an agency whose insurance had been cancelled for non-payment.

He even tried calling the driver, but left a series of voicemail messages that were not returned.

“It was a hobby, a cause, right?” Ridout says. “I would tell everyone at work about it and get a good laugh.”

Trying a new approach, he contacted the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund (MVACF). This is considered as the payor of last resort in Ontario when there’s no car insurance to pay for the claim.

The fund advised him to seek reimbursement for his $3,000 bicycle under his home insurance policy.

He said he had opened a house claim with TD Insurance – and dropped it after learning he’d pay a $1,000 deductible and also lose his $600 a year claims-free discount.

“It was quite a shock to realize that after 30-plus years of paying premiums to my house insurer, I couldn’t even make a claim on my policy without it costing me more than I received,” he told me.

I consulted several insurance experts, one of whom insisted that Ridout should make a claim under his car policy. That sealed the deal.

After escalating his complaint with TD’s customer service, Ridout did get what he wanted.

“I gave up several times,” he says. “But then I’d wake up in the morning and feel my finger was sore and I’d try again. It did become quite an obsession.”

This case shows the need to pursue answers and ignore setbacks if you feel you’re right. Even Canada’s largest companies can make mistakes.