Advice sought please
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dearfiona
Posts: 5 Forumite
Hello everyone.
I'm not entirely sure which forum this would be most appropriate to, so I'm posting it here, and on the insurance forum as well. I hope that's ok ?
I'd really appreciate some help regarding an insurance policy I have.
I've had both a Debenhams store card, and a Laura Ashley store card for well over 10 years now. They are both Mastercards. When I took the cards out, I was offered an insurance policy that covers me for sickness, death, unemployment, and, most relevant to this post, price protection. I've never claimed for anything other than price protection.
Basically, if I buy something at full price, and it is subsequently reduced, I can claim the difference back. The terms and conditions of this are, there is no time limit in which I have to claim, there are no exclusions, and the procedure I have to follow is self verify that the items are reduced, either instore or online, providing the difference is less than £50.
In the instance where an item may have been reduced by more than £50, I have to fill out a "price verification form" whereby I approach someone in store, and they formally verify the reduction in price, and sign it off. I'm not much of a shopper, so I haven't availed myself of this policy very much over the years. I've ALWAYS taken a LONG time to process and send off the claims forms. And although it's sometimes been nice to buy something designer in Debenhams for a nice occasion, and not worry about the price because I know it will be reduced, I've only ever bought something so expensive that was reduced in price by more than £50 three times, and hence had to fill out a price verification form. All the other times over the years, it has been just self verification, and I have indeed always submitted truthful information of course. My claims have all been successful, no matter how old the receipts are.
I got divorced 5 years ago, and even prior to that, I had let many many things run away from me. I moved to a different city, and started all over again. I borrowed 5k on a balance transfer credit card, and set up my own property management business, which has been hard hard work, and only just in this last year have things settled down for me, and I'm finally keeping my head above water, and taking care of other things in my life.
In November just gone, so 2016, I sat down for 2 days to organise all the receipts and forms to catch up with my claims on this policy. I was a bit taken aback to see that they went back as far as 2011 ! However, I had at the time verified the receipts and price reductions, I had just never got round to filling out the forms themselves, and sending them off. I suppose the " no time limit " clause gave me a sense of security that I had all the time in the world.
I filled out all the forms, organised the receipts by date, put it all into envelopes, intending to just post them all off one by one. In any given envelope, there will be one claim form, with a list of receipts for perhaps 7 items at a time, and each claim might range from £70 for 6 or 7 items in all, or perhaps £400, again for 6 or 7 items.
In November I sent off the first claim, for £363.88 altogether. Processed, and paid out immediately. I sent the next one off in December, this time for just £78.70, again 5 or 6 items. I received a phone call from a lady in the company asking me to explain why these receipts were from so long ago, and why they hadn't been sent in sooner. I apologised, and explained. She responded, very pleasantly, that they would be honouring the claim, however, in the future could I endeavour to send them in sooner. I didn't see the point in stating the obvious, that actually I wasn't do anything technically outside of the contract I have with them, otherwise they wouldn't be honouring the payment at all !
In January I sent another claim form off, this time for £130.30. I received a letter from them as follows " As part of our claims audit process, your claim has been selected for review and as part of our review we will need price verification from Debenhams, that the eight items you are claiming for have been reduced in price "
Further on, " Once we receive these, we will assess your claim against the terms and conditions of your insurance, at which point we will send you a letter to confirm if a payment can be made, we will explain how much will be paid, by when, and to whom, plus any further action you need to take to continue to receive payment. If we cannot pay we will explain the reasons why. "
Further on " AXA Group acquired Genworth LPI in December 2015. This acquisition does not impact your insurance, there is no change to the benefits or cost or to the underwriters and administrators of your insurance "
The thing is, that I've tried to verify the receipts in store, but because it was so long ago, it's no longer possible. Please can I just make very clear at this point that I did verify them at the time, independently, in line with the policy. This extra condition they are attempting to hold me to is NOT part of the original policy, and I've never been required to do it before for anything under £50.
The claim I sent off in January takes me up to the end of 2012 in terms of receipts, so I'm slowly ploughing through them. I have another 6 envelopes all ready to go, one by one, which come to perhaps an £800 claim all in all. And will bring me pretty much up to date.
I don't want to lose that money. But equally, I'm not sure whether it's worth fighting them ? Might I have a leg to stand on ? And how might I go about it ?
I also don't want to risk losing the policy altogether to be honest. If I were to fight it, and be successful, would they then be able to make me forfeit the policy from now on ? I call these cards my " magic cards . " Seriously. I don't buy a lot of clothes at all. But it is such a good feeling to sometimes splash out on something expensive at full price, knowing that it will be reduced, and I will get it at sale price anyway. I don't want to risk losing the policy.
Can I also just add, that I sent them the original receipts. In their letter they say that they have enclosed copies of these, knowing that I will need them to get them verified in store. However, they did not send me copies. Fortunately, I photo copied it all anyway before I sent it off, I always do. But if I hadn't, I'd now have to be chasing them for them. Hmmm.....not sure if I'm being paranoid that this is deliberate on their part ?
So folks, there is my dilemma. Entirely of my own making of course, but I'd so much appreciate any advice/thoughts/insights into how to proceed with this ? Is it worth pursuing ? Or shall I just write it off to my own silly fault ?
Apologies for this rather long post, and if you've got this far without me putting you to sleep....THANK YOU !!!!
Fiona
I'm not entirely sure which forum this would be most appropriate to, so I'm posting it here, and on the insurance forum as well. I hope that's ok ?
I'd really appreciate some help regarding an insurance policy I have.
I've had both a Debenhams store card, and a Laura Ashley store card for well over 10 years now. They are both Mastercards. When I took the cards out, I was offered an insurance policy that covers me for sickness, death, unemployment, and, most relevant to this post, price protection. I've never claimed for anything other than price protection.
Basically, if I buy something at full price, and it is subsequently reduced, I can claim the difference back. The terms and conditions of this are, there is no time limit in which I have to claim, there are no exclusions, and the procedure I have to follow is self verify that the items are reduced, either instore or online, providing the difference is less than £50.
In the instance where an item may have been reduced by more than £50, I have to fill out a "price verification form" whereby I approach someone in store, and they formally verify the reduction in price, and sign it off. I'm not much of a shopper, so I haven't availed myself of this policy very much over the years. I've ALWAYS taken a LONG time to process and send off the claims forms. And although it's sometimes been nice to buy something designer in Debenhams for a nice occasion, and not worry about the price because I know it will be reduced, I've only ever bought something so expensive that was reduced in price by more than £50 three times, and hence had to fill out a price verification form. All the other times over the years, it has been just self verification, and I have indeed always submitted truthful information of course. My claims have all been successful, no matter how old the receipts are.
I got divorced 5 years ago, and even prior to that, I had let many many things run away from me. I moved to a different city, and started all over again. I borrowed 5k on a balance transfer credit card, and set up my own property management business, which has been hard hard work, and only just in this last year have things settled down for me, and I'm finally keeping my head above water, and taking care of other things in my life.
In November just gone, so 2016, I sat down for 2 days to organise all the receipts and forms to catch up with my claims on this policy. I was a bit taken aback to see that they went back as far as 2011 ! However, I had at the time verified the receipts and price reductions, I had just never got round to filling out the forms themselves, and sending them off. I suppose the " no time limit " clause gave me a sense of security that I had all the time in the world.
I filled out all the forms, organised the receipts by date, put it all into envelopes, intending to just post them all off one by one. In any given envelope, there will be one claim form, with a list of receipts for perhaps 7 items at a time, and each claim might range from £70 for 6 or 7 items in all, or perhaps £400, again for 6 or 7 items.
In November I sent off the first claim, for £363.88 altogether. Processed, and paid out immediately. I sent the next one off in December, this time for just £78.70, again 5 or 6 items. I received a phone call from a lady in the company asking me to explain why these receipts were from so long ago, and why they hadn't been sent in sooner. I apologised, and explained. She responded, very pleasantly, that they would be honouring the claim, however, in the future could I endeavour to send them in sooner. I didn't see the point in stating the obvious, that actually I wasn't do anything technically outside of the contract I have with them, otherwise they wouldn't be honouring the payment at all !
In January I sent another claim form off, this time for £130.30. I received a letter from them as follows " As part of our claims audit process, your claim has been selected for review and as part of our review we will need price verification from Debenhams, that the eight items you are claiming for have been reduced in price "
Further on, " Once we receive these, we will assess your claim against the terms and conditions of your insurance, at which point we will send you a letter to confirm if a payment can be made, we will explain how much will be paid, by when, and to whom, plus any further action you need to take to continue to receive payment. If we cannot pay we will explain the reasons why. "
Further on " AXA Group acquired Genworth LPI in December 2015. This acquisition does not impact your insurance, there is no change to the benefits or cost or to the underwriters and administrators of your insurance "
The thing is, that I've tried to verify the receipts in store, but because it was so long ago, it's no longer possible. Please can I just make very clear at this point that I did verify them at the time, independently, in line with the policy. This extra condition they are attempting to hold me to is NOT part of the original policy, and I've never been required to do it before for anything under £50.
The claim I sent off in January takes me up to the end of 2012 in terms of receipts, so I'm slowly ploughing through them. I have another 6 envelopes all ready to go, one by one, which come to perhaps an £800 claim all in all. And will bring me pretty much up to date.
I don't want to lose that money. But equally, I'm not sure whether it's worth fighting them ? Might I have a leg to stand on ? And how might I go about it ?
I also don't want to risk losing the policy altogether to be honest. If I were to fight it, and be successful, would they then be able to make me forfeit the policy from now on ? I call these cards my " magic cards . " Seriously. I don't buy a lot of clothes at all. But it is such a good feeling to sometimes splash out on something expensive at full price, knowing that it will be reduced, and I will get it at sale price anyway. I don't want to risk losing the policy.
Can I also just add, that I sent them the original receipts. In their letter they say that they have enclosed copies of these, knowing that I will need them to get them verified in store. However, they did not send me copies. Fortunately, I photo copied it all anyway before I sent it off, I always do. But if I hadn't, I'd now have to be chasing them for them. Hmmm.....not sure if I'm being paranoid that this is deliberate on their part ?
So folks, there is my dilemma. Entirely of my own making of course, but I'd so much appreciate any advice/thoughts/insights into how to proceed with this ? Is it worth pursuing ? Or shall I just write it off to my own silly fault ?
Apologies for this rather long post, and if you've got this far without me putting you to sleep....THANK YOU !!!!
Fiona
0
Comments
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So you did or you didn't send the price verification form with these receipts?
How is this verified in store? Do they have to fill out the form too? Do they stamp the receipt?Shampoo? No thanks, I'll have real poo...0 -
And they can change the terms and conditions of your card by sending you notice, so now they've noticed you're doing this, expect one of those to come through the post.Shampoo? No thanks, I'll have real poo...0
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Sounds like a very handy benefit which the OP has rather abused by not submitting receipts in a timely fashion. Very easy to correct in the future, but difficult for the current "claim".
Nothing to do with PPI, of course.0 -
Taff
No. I didn't send in a price verification form for either of the claims in November or December. They only wanted one off me for the claim in January. the forms are filled out by any member of staff in store, however, because they were so long ago, they can't do it anymore.
Can they just change the t and c's for me individually ? Just like that ? Or would it be accross the board ? Do you think they can force me to cancel the policy ?0 -
Yes.Can they just change the t and c's for me individually ? Just like that ? Or would it be accross the board ? Do you think they can force me to cancel the policy ?
You are clearly working your way through ancient receipts with no way for the insurer (or the retailer) to verify their validity.
You may well have been repaid on earlier claims, but your claim for £800 more is likely to meet with significant resistance, especially as there is now a new insurer involved.
Of course, if you don't like any future changes to the insurance, you will have the option to cancel it completely without penalty.0 -
So the forms are suaully filled out by store workers and sent - this is in your original T&Cs or is this the new thing you've been asked to do?
And again, how are these receipts verified according to your original T&Cs?Shampoo? No thanks, I'll have real poo...0 -
Hi Moneyinepti and Taff.
According to the original, and indeed, current t & c's, anything under a £50 price reduction, does not need a price verification form. It is just self verification. Anything over £50 reduction for a single item, needs to simply be verified by a staff member, on a specific form. My claims in November 2016, and then December 2016, which had purchases on them from 2011, All of the separate items were reduced by less than £50, and they paid out for both claims, as per the t & c's. So what they are asking of me now, are beyond what the actual t & c's state, so I'm not contractually obliged to do it. I did find these items, either in store or online, for that reduced price, and wrote it down. I just never got round to filling the forms out and claiming.
I cannot imagine that they may think I'm lying about the price reductions, or doing anything "fraudulent" as such. There's no room for that. Things go down in the sale at Debenhams in quite predictable ways. And I wouldn't be so stupid as to lie anyway.
I may just have to write it off, and only have myself to blame really.
Although I'm 100 % certain that I would win this if I pursued it, because I have 100 % not been fraudulent, and more importantly, I have 100 % followed THEIR t & c's, as proven by the fact that they paid out in both November and December on these ancient receipts, I'm not certain it would be the best course of action, because I don't want to risk losing the policy to be honest. Even though I don't use it that much.
Could I be forced to cancel the policy ? I've certainly done nothing illegal. Surely they would have to have some legal reason to force someone to cancel a policy ? I do have a copy of the original t & c's.
Thank you so much for your input here. i do appreciate that I have created a pickle.0 -
You cannot be forced to cancel the policy but they can cancel it, with notice, or they could remove your card altogether.
In any contract there is an implied expectation of reasonableness. Your failure to claim for such a length of time may well be deemed unreasonable, as you have left it such a length of time that they cannot verify your information. I would not be at all certain that you would win if you pursued it.
Whilst you have not acted fraudulently, I can see that they may feel that you are abusing the policy. If you want to keep it then I would tread carefully (and act more reasonably) from now on.0
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