AXA home insurance / Crawford & co. Adjusters - complete nightmare

Fairness_3

princess_loki wrote: »

at last!!!! axa have written to me to acknowledge my complaint (well the complaint through financial ombudsman - they ignored all complaints actually made by me) !!! hopefully things will get moving now!!!

has now been 8 months since i was burgled................

Hi, Princess Loki

I am watching your progress, very impressed.

I missed your post above when I submitted my reply to your post two days ago.

It took me a while from start to finish my writing, and things/progressed changed during the time.

I nearly wanted to cry when I see your post, very well done - Contacted Financial Ombudsman on 5 November, received acknowledgement from AXA on 11 November.

Keep up the good work.

I know that I should contact the Financial Ombudsman sooner rather than later, although I keep hoping that one day the loss adjuster will have the conscience and stopped trying to make a fool of their customers.

Look forward to seeing more progress on your case soon.

Best Regards

Fairness

hollydays

Certain posts here starting to read like a scamming email...

princess_loki

hollydays wrote: »

Certain posts here starting to read like a scamming email...

please clarify what you mean by scamming e-mail

Fairness_3

princess_loki wrote: »

hi fairness!!!

thank you so much for this info!

today i called mr ca at crawford & co to be told that 'the claim is in hand' - as it has been for much of this year! i then called axa who didn't want to take down any details of my complaint and just said they would log a complaint against crawford (how if they took no info???).

so then i was very very brave and phoned financial ombudsman and they were really nice! the lady listened to my complaint and took the claim ref number and my insurance policy number. she says that she will write to axa and that they have 8 weeks from the date of her letter to sort everything out. i will also receive a letter which gives details of my complaint and a form to fill in if axa / crawford / northern rock have not resolved everything within the 8 weeks. if they have not sorted it all out i have to fill in the form and send copies of the relevant documents to financial ombudsman who then do whatever they do...

in a way i hope that my claim gets sorted before the 8 weeks even though this means they will not get into trouble but i am still really glad that i complained because in the long run a record will be kept and hopefully my complaint will help someone else..

i told the lady that you had similar problems to me and she told me to urge you to make a complaint through the financial ombudsman too.

fingers crossed that we both get everything resolved before x-mas. it will be so good to start the new year with all of this sorted

best of luck
loki x

I have just now looked at the Financial Ombudsman Service’s (FOS) website. Apparently, before I complain to the FOS, I must complain to the company using its formal complaints procedure. If I am not happy with the outcome, a complaint can be made to the FOS. And I must complain within 6 months if I wanted to complain to the FOS.

I had only said to the loss adjuster and his colleague that I was not happy with the service, I had not complained formally yet.

So, it looks like it is ‘a long, long road’.

tralu

This is to all people that have been struggling to get their claims sorted out.
I would advise strongly that anyone in the positon of being fobbed off by Axa, to cut straight to the chase and take this money grabbing incompetent company straight to court!
I to have been given the run-around from Axa since May 2007!!!!! But have taken action to get them to face up to their responsiblities once and for all. This time they have no choice, they have to act or they will be faced with court action. Mind you, knowing just how Axa behave they will probably try to ignore this also. BRING IT ON!!! is all i say. They will get their comupence you`l see.
But please, to all of you out there, do not let them get away with fobbing you off, fight back with avengence!!

tralu

I don`t know why you are sticking up for Axa, (Maybe you work for them?) Which would explain why.
But Axa are one of the worst insurance company`s to insure with, and i have been told this by a very reliable source.
I would certainly not reccomend Axa to anyone, and hopefully the many people that view these threads will be forwarned about them and not touch them with a 10foot bargepole!!!!

theJudge

I can add my irritation at these 2 companies.

I filed a claim with Axa for house insurance at the start of December and was told that work would commence a week after the loss adjuster visited. Then total silence from Crawford & Co. After no response to 2 emails via their portal, I lodged a complaint with Crawford & Co. and got no reply then lodged one with Axa who did reply but I still heard nothing from Crawford & Co. Having sent a recorded letter to Axa customer services informing them that I'd be contacting my solicitor, I've now got the attention of Axa and Crawford & Co. but they've provided no explanation as to why things have been delayed by over a month (when it was supposed to take only 1 week to get to the next stage in the 1st place) and seem to think it's fine to just tell me that they're just starting to look at my claim now.

I'll let you know how I got Axa and Crawford & Co. to at least contact me once I've got this claim sorted (hopefully), it takes more than just mentioning your solicitor with these characters.

If you've already experienced a loss e.g. a burglary and Axa/Crawford & Co. are using delaying tactics then I'd recommend forgetting about the Financial Ombudsman Service and going directly to court. If you still need work doing then you may as well give them a spin whilst you sort out the work yourself. There are major questions about the FOS's impartiality, however, so if they're dragging their feet (their reputation for this is even worse than Axa/Crawford & Co.) then go to court instead. I'd recommend using a solicitor as they're more likely to back down before the court case, but otherwise use the small claims court, which you can file online (moneyclaim.gov.uk) and is dirt cheap.

dacouch

Do you realise that the Ombudsman have a habit of siding with the customer as they tend to look at what is fair rather than what is in black and white and make allowances for the knowledge of insurance of a normal member of the public.

A court will solely look at what is in black and white and rule on the balance of probabilities.

If you have gone to court and lost, you cannot go onto use the Ombudsman, if you use the Ombudsman first and lose you still have the court to fall back onto

theJudge

dacouch wrote: »

Do you realise that the Ombudsman have a habit of siding with the customer as they tend to look at what is fair rather than what is in black and white and make allowances for the knowledge of insurance of a normal member of the public.

A court will solely look at what is in black and white and rule on the balance of probabilities.

If you have gone to court and lost, you cannot go onto use the Ombudsman, if you use the Ombudsman first and lose you still have the court to fall back onto

The FOS website says that it upheld 43% of building insurance and 38% of contents insurance complaints in 2010. The only insurance product where the FOS does overwhelming side with the consumer is PPI and this is because of a general ruling by the FSA after sustained pressure from consumer groups. Of the upheld complaints compensation is reported to be lower than what a court would offer a successful case. The FOS is also funded by financial services companies which makes one wonder about it's partiality and it's understaffed and hence reportedly extremely slow in dealing with complaints. You could see the FOS not having to abide by the law as a good thing or as a bad thing. Personally, I'd rather take my chances with the judiciary. The other thing to bear in mind is that insurance companies don't fear the FOS because it costs the complainant nothing but it also costs the insurance company nothing. As the insurance companies 3 card trick is delay, deny, defend, any delays in the process deter the complainant from pursuing the case. As you have to complain to the company in the 1st place, then wait 8 weeks to complain to the FOS and then wait between 3 to 6 months for the FOS to "resolve" the case (by resolve this includes a lot of complainants who drop out of the process in despair, by the way), it's not exactly a great system from the consumer's perspective. In my experience, companies are much more likely to take notice of a solicitor's letter, and you can of course take a multi-pronged attack of also engaging the FOS before issuing the claim or indeed any of the other regulatory authorities that have power in this area.

At the end of the day, what any customer wants, however, is a good service with no hassle. Axa/Crawford & Co. would be better to remind themselves that communicating with your customer is the best way of avoiding getting a bad reputation. Sadly, Axa Insurance does appear very high up in the number of new complaints cases that the FOS has had to deal with. After the banks who act as insurance brokers, it's the 2nd worst actual insurance company after Aviva.
Again you wonder what the point of complaining to the FOS is, if the FSA hasn't taken action against Aviva and Axa after receiving so many complaints in such a short timespan.Today's papers reported the FSA fine against Barclays but this took 2 years of campaigning by the Daily Mail before they agreed to investigate. So, I wouldn't rely on our regulatory bodies to help you.

dacouch

With all due respect, I don't think you fully understand how the Ombudsman works, the service is indeed free to the consumer but does actually cost the Insurer £500 per case (Excluding the first three cases). The charge is levied whether the complainant wins the case or loses.

I would put forward that the Ombudsman siding with the customer on 38% and 43% of complaints for contents and building complaints is not a bad percentage. There are plenty of complaints that are made to the Ombudsman that have no realistic chance of succeeding so will inevitably lose.

The Ombudsman helpfully publishes cases they have ruled in favour of the customer and against the customer, if you have a look at them you will see that they rule in favour of the customer on cases that are clearly not covered by the policy wording but the Ombudsman feels it is right that they are paid. You will equally find cases that he rules against the customer where the customers complaint has no chance of succeeding under any circumstances.

I posted because you stating to ignore the Ombudsman and go straight to a court is not appropriate in all cases and I worry MSE members will follow your advice when it is not appropriate for their situation. We have seen an MSE member ignore the advice they received to go the Ombudsman and went straight to a court. They incurred very large costs including barrister fees and lost the case due to the way a court interprets a policy wording which in effect is a contract. As it has gone to a court, they do not now have the opportunity to use the Ombudsman who in their case would almost certainly have ruled in their favour (All be it after a long time)