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

theJudge

dacouch wrote: »

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)

I'm not saying that in all circumstances an MSE member should go to court and not the FOS. For example, if you have limited assets but aren't on benefits, you really don't have a choice in the matter. Also, if you have a weak case and want to have a pop at seeing if the FOS will side with you, then you'll probably be willing to give it a spin. Also, if you're complaining about the product that the FSA has already made a ruling on e.g. PPI then definitely go for it.

I'm not convinced that there are that many spurious claims given that you have to already have complained to the company and waited 8 weeks and filled in a form, in order for the FOS to even consider your case, however. Of 925,905 complaints lodged with FOS in 2009/10, only 163,012 turned in to cases which shows a massive dropout rate so the 38%/43% of cases in favour of the consumer distorts the percentage favourable outcomes for the consumer rather than the other way around.

I just wish to present a balanced point of view i.e. there are severe delays in the FOS looking at your case, more cases go in favour of the company than the consumer, your case will initially be decided by an amateur with no legal education (this can work for and against you. i.e. if you feel that you have a strong case, the adjudicator can side against you which means you've wasted months of time when you could have lodged a claim) and if you want to take it all the way to an ombudsman (who also can ignore the law and is unaccountable) then you're in to a delay of years rather than months. Due to staffing issues, adjudicators are incentivised to dismiss your case. There's no cross-examination and the case is decided by reading available written material. The Courts will look at the technical aspects of the law and not necessarily impose justice but where there is ambiguity in the law, the law favours the weaker party.

What's most noticeable are the people who complain about the FOS
i) small companies/brokers/agents
ii) consumers
Large companies never complain. Maybe they just take it on the chin or maybe they know that the odds are stacked?
The FOS used to publish a customer satisfaction survey but abandoned this when the results showed what people who used their service really thought of them. The FOS publishes some representative cases on their website but not all cases or even aggregated statistics e.g. how many people dropped out before the adjudicator made his decision, how many people were satisfied with the result, how many adjudicator decisions were overturned by the ombudsman etc. are provided.

Like everything, do your own research and make your own mind up.
In my opinion if there are common themes in posts about companies e.g. in Axa/Crawford & Co.'s case, there are common themes about delays in processing the claims, and these themes appear in multiple places on the web and from credible sources rather than hearsay s, there's likely to be some substance to it.

theJudge

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?243853-FOS-complaints&p=3279119#post3279119

TishBish

I tried writing, they said they didn't receive it.

rmasurveyors

Interested in your comments. I left working for a loss adjusters as a surveyor as I had so much feedback to that posted here. I now work independently doing the same work and can provide a far superior service. Check out my blog about some of my experiences.