Mugged On Holiday Insureandgo worthless WARNING.

TheShadow_2 · 28 June 2006 at 3:04PM

Just back from Albufuiera in the Algarve. While on holiday on the second last night my girlfriend and I where attacked with Pepper spray / Cs Gas and her bag was stolen.

We where sitting on the beach at about 11:30 just watching the sea as you do on holiday. When a man jumped from beside the cliff edge shouting when we turned round he sprayed us in the eyes with pepper spray / CS Gas.

I promptly grabbed my shoes and chased him as I new he had grabbed her bag.. at this point i didn’t have my shoes on I got to a cliff edge put my shoes on (half blinded) ran half way up and by this time he had climbed the cliff (100ft+) i attempted to go after him on the stairs but I was concerned about my girlfriends safety.
We both found each other again both with pepper spray in our eyes , helped by some local bar staff we got the pepper spray out of our eyes. We promptly reported the incident to the Police and later on that night made a full statement.

Now that I am home I am in the process of trying to make an insurance claim with insureandgo. Bare in mind we paid for Baggage and cash to be covered.

In the bag there was the following plus quite a bit more.

1 Digital Camera
1 non digital camera
1 Pair of Oakley Minute sunglasses polarised
2 Purses
A Fancy lipstick
And 200 Euros in cash.
Driving Licence

And several other items.

Insure and go have told us they don’t cover glasses of any kind so there goes £125.
They wont pay out on items without receipts or sufficient evidence we had them.

There goes the bag (£50+)
The 2 Purses
The Digital camera (Bought 2 years+ Ago.)

So what am I left with that I can claim the lipstick , and the 200 euros and possibly the driving licence but I have a feeling that this will find away to get out of both of these .

If the claim for the above is accepted they say they will pay me second hand values for the items. (Second hand lipstick anyone?) NOT the cost to replace

I am under the impression what we will be very lucky if we get £50 after the excess is take off for a bag that had over £450 worth of stuff in it.

Just a warning to you all , read you travel insurance document carefully. And maybe consider a company that provide more comprehensive insurance than insureandgo.

Second hand values + No payout without a receipt is a con , in my eyes. Just think if you lost your suitcase how many items could you provide a receipt for?

Lorian · 28 June 2006 at 3:26PM

Is this what it said in the policy details when you bought the policy?

Astaroth · 28 June 2006 at 3:53PM

Insurance is on an indemnity basis which means they pay the value of the goods not the new price to buy them again. There are exceptions to this like home insurance when you can get "new for old" but this is against the general principle of insurance and therefore has to be specifically stated. Hence why if you get a 3 year old car stolen you get about 60% of the new price back rather than the money to go to BMW and buy a brand new car again.

As with all claims it is up to you to prove your loss which includes you proving you owned it in the first place. It is amazing how many people suddenly had £300 pairs of glasses etc until you ask them to prove that they owned them.

Also check your home insurance - if you have personal possessions cover on the policy it will probably cover the loss as well but they too will ask for proof that you owned the items

TheShadow_2 · 28 June 2006 at 5:06PM

I do have proof of ownership for the sunglasses.. but there are excluded from the policy which is a pain.

As for proof of ownership i agree it may sound sus but some of the receipts for peaces of jewellery where in the purse which got stolen.

I am pretty much fubbered , just rather annoyed to be honest what’s more annoying is its my girlfriends stuff. Well with the exception of the sunglasses.

CharleneUK · 28 June 2006 at 5:15PM

I'm sorry I can't advise you regarding your policy, but I HAD to post and say how sorry I am that you two went through that!! Awful!!

Hope you can get something worked out.

Jays · 28 June 2006 at 5:20PM

Have you checked your home insurance as Astaroth suggests?

You may find the items are covered under it.

Astaroth · 28 June 2006 at 5:21PM

TheShadow wrote:

I do have proof of ownership for the sunglasses.. but there are excluded from the policy which is a pain.

As for proof of ownership i agree it may sound sus but some of the receipts for peaces of jewellery where in the purse which got stolen.

I am pretty much fubbered , just rather annoyed to be honest what’s more annoying is its my girlfriends stuff. Well with the exception of the sunglasses.

Do you have other proof of ownership like photos of the jewelary on her etc? It can be a bit dodgy if you are claiming it is all 24c platinum with 5c diamonds from De Beers but can be acceptable with more standard jewelary.

oldwiring · 28 June 2006 at 6:38PM

A bit OT! This may not apply to The Shadow but those who have a House Contents policy with cover for goods outside the home might be covered by that policy. Some TI policies recognise that fact and allow one to exclude baggage cover for that reason. Many house policies are except for clothing on a new for old basis.

pjran · 29 June 2006 at 7:59AM

Sorry, what an awfull experience.
I'm about to start the whole claim proccess with insureandgo and am after any advise.
Please keep this site posted.

ArchieB_2 · 29 June 2006 at 1:11PM

Don't accept the fact that you need receipts for everything. Write back and state that you believe it is a wholly unreasonable clause as nobody keeps receipts for x amount of years and if they did most houses would be full of receipts. Say you will persue it with the ombudsman and I believe they will backtrack as the clause is unreasonable and the claim isn't big enough to contest.

Many Travel policies have this clause, 99% pay on a wear and tear basis and I believe this policy charges an xs for the money, for the camera, for the bag and purses (total at least £150 xs!) even though it is single incident you would be claiming under at least three sections of the policy.

I wrote back when my insurer stipulated I should have kept and sent them my smashed, glass aftershave bottle and produce a receipt (it was a gift) and produce a receipt for my 3 year old watch. I questioned the basic common sense of transporting broken glass back home and how should I send it to them and they sent me a check immediately. It was clear my claim was legit, as it is yours so any attempt not to pay out is clearly unreasonable.

What about an instruction manual for the cameras as well or any accessory you still have. As always though, home insurance is the only way to effectively cover your posessions.

davey4444 · 29 June 2006 at 1:30PM

Not sure if this will help either but if you have some photos from the digitial camera stored on your PC then they should have the camera details in the photo info, most photo progammes can read this.

Mugged On Holiday Insureandgo worthless WARNING.

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