I don't think I'm being treated fairly for my claim

mattw89

First of all, I'm a university student who's never made a claim before, so this might all just be normal and above board and just me not knowing the system, but any help or advice is great and what I love this forum for!

Scenario: Used Endsleigh in September to get my contents insurance.

January 09: Bought a laptop costing £651 with student discount from Dell, it was all fully customised as I'm a bit of a techy geek! I rang endsleigh and got accidental damage insurance costing me a further £20 for the year, I was told the excess would be £50 and agreed.

April 09: Laptop broke, bag broke and laptop was in it = kaboom. Rang endsleigh, was told about the excess and sent it off to an external company called Lakeside.

19th May 09: I get a text message to ring them to discuss (!!) , and after 20 minutes of holding I get through to the call centre. They says its not repairable and will have to replace it and tell me the model that they're replacing it with if i'm happy with it.

If I was happy and wanted to go through with it the excess was now £149 I was told, which I'm not sure why or how they've managed to change my excess just like that and tied my hands!

Not only this but the laptop they were willing to give me missed all the upgrades I bought;

External GFX Card
Fingerprint Scanner
Backlit keyboard

(All geeky but still cost me a further £100 when I bought it!) The fingerprint scanner cost me £10 and they said they don't do it anymore, they just do facial scanners that cost £10. I said well that surely can be subbed into it as its the same thing and she told me that it's above my limit.

I thought if I insured £651 with £50 excess i'd pay £50 to get £651 worth of kit or at least a like for like model, all the same features even if its gone down in price due to moors law!

She then said well your getting a better hard drive, 250gb instead of 160gb. After further probing I found out that this was actually a downgrade, and it was 5400rpm (slower hard drive), to what I upgraded to 7200rpm last time.

She put me on hold again to talk to whoever she deals with and told me they can't change any of them and I have two choices, except what they're offering me or they'll offer me a cash settlement of 565.00.

Is there anything I can do here, any suggestions? I just feel that If they cant fix my laptop I should at least get the same laptop of them and not a worse one. And I don't think its fair insuring an item for £50 excecss and then on the day being told its shot up by 3 times.

Sorry to moan.

There, its off my chest!

Quentin

You need to get them to explain the excess - is it to do with you paying your premium by instalments, and they now want it fully paid up?

Only they can tell you!

Once that is sorted to your satisfaction, the cash settlement looks your best option, so you can then get exactly what you want by way of a replacement.

cogito

Was the £50 excess confirmed in writing? What does your policy say?

You are entitled to a like-for-like replacement or enough cash to get one.

mattw89

I'm going to have to ring up and find out about the agreed excess. They did say it went up from £50 so I should have it in writing once I go back home. The lady from lakeside didn't have the best english in the world and so it was hard to understand what it was exactly for but basically she was saying because it was more expensive or something and went over my limit the excess went up. She didn't seem to know too much and played more of a messenger role, she kept putting me on hold to speak to other people.

I've went on the Dell website and a like-for-like replacement costs around £650 and thats me using student discount and finding other coupons. For a standard user with no discount it'd probably be 700, (I got it for 650 when I bought it using the same discount type things).

When I filled in the claim form I put that I bought it for 650 and that actual value now is 700 when I first went through with it and that was going fine.

I'd be delighted with just the exact same model again so I don't mind if I don't get the cash offer but if I pay excess for the cash, then also have to pay the different of another £100 (thats a month and a halfs food to us students!!) then I'm going to really struggle. I just thought it'd be easy and fair enough if they replaced it with what it actually is.

At the moment they've told me its A or B, lakeside. What do you think I should do, ring endsleigh and complain or lakeside and say what etc.? Hopefully will learn my rights etc. from this as I have no clue about insurnace!

Thanks soooo much for all your advice

dogbot

Sounds like the problem could be that you have not insured for the full replacement value. Specified items are not index linked.

The student discount wouldn't be availible to the insurer so, as you have found by going to Dell, you haven't insured for enough. The problem at the moment is that, while electronics prices have been falling for a long time, the current issues with exchange rates mean prices have actualy lept up.

The excess would be deductable from whatever amount you insured for not over and above!

I would go back to the claims department you dealt with and complain that you are not being provided with a like for like replacement. Provide proof of specification of your old laptop and the cost availible to you with your discount for the replacement - its worth a shot!

FYI: Endsleigh are a broker not an insurer.

mattw89

Ok thanks for clearing that up dogbot.

Well on my document I've just checked one of them (doesn't mention excess in this one), it says I'm insured for a laptop for £651 (exact price I paid).

I have spoken to parents as well and they agree that its best to ring up claims department and tell them thats its not like for like. I was under the impression that if a like-for-like laptop is £10 or £800 (i.e. more or less), they'd still give you a like-to-like replacement as that is what insurance is (i thought). I'm hoping if I ring them they'd be willing to listen and do that.

As I've only spoke to LakeSide so far and they weren't useful they just said its A or B and thats all they can do.

dacouch

If the Insurers supplier cannot offer you and equivelent lap top there is a chance you can insist on a "cash" settlement which looks like it will be of benefit to you.

Have a read of these case studies / guidance notes from the Financial Ombudsman which should help you request a cash settlement from them.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/10/oct-repair-replace-cash.htm

By the way your parents home insurance probably already covers your contents at your halls or residence or student digs free of charge. You may well have had to pay a bit more (Probably around £20 to cover the lap top). Your parents policy would normally offer wider cover than the Endsleigh policy as it has fairly low inner limits for certain items. It might be worth you ringing them when your Endsleigh Policy is due for renewal to find out what cover they offer and any policy restrictions (They normally state theft claims are subject to signs of a violent or forcible entry)

pedro123456

Matt you are a student, but don’t take this personally the IC’s don’t mind turning you over at any opportunity, they are not prejudiced and show no compassion towards students or anyone else for that matter, they will cut costs at every opportunity, you have paid for like for like and you get like for what we want to give you.

Smacks of in house loss adjusters and palming off old stock TCS no doubt…………anyway…………complain …………..contact FOS by telephone and ask their advice.

Z

pedro123456

Alternatively (or as well as the FOS) Matt you could get in touch with the FSA, ring and talk to them, e-mail whatever. You were led to believe it was like for like, you shouldn’t be expected to except their old stock.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/index.shtml

And highlight their point 5 here, its part of their customer care initiative.

Firms should be focused on delivering the six TCF consumer outcomes:

i. Consumers can be confident that they are dealing with firms where the fair
treatment of customers is central to the corporate culture
ii. Products and services marketed and sold in the retail market are designed to meet
the needs of identified consumer groups and are targeted accordingly
iii. Consumers are provided with clear information and are kept appropriately informed
before, during and after the point of sale
iv. Where consumers receive advice, the advice is suitable and takes account of their
circumstances
v. Consumers are provided with products that perform as firms have led them to expect, and the associated service is both of an acceptable standard and as they have been led to expect
vi. Consumers do not face unreasonable post-sale barriers imposed by firms to change
product, switch provider, submit a claim or make a complaint

The fsa state -

“By the end of December 2008 we expect firms to be able to demonstrate to
themselves and to us that they are consistently treating their customers fairly”

Z

cogito

pedro123456 wrote: »

Matt you are a student, but don’t take this personally the IC’s don’t mind turning you over at any opportunity, they are not prejudiced and show no compassion towards students or anyone else for that matter, they will cut costs at every opportunity, you have paid for like for like and you get like for what we want to give you.

Smacks of in house loss adjusters and palming off old stock TCS no doubt…………anyway…………complain …………..contact FOS by telephone and ask their advice.

Z

Your ignorance has absolutely no limits.

Endsleigh was established by the National Union of Students to provide insurances to their members who were not well served by the insurance market.

pedro123456

ok cog................so they aint trying to palm this young lad with their old stock............and they aint stitching him up.......thanks for you input, now can you offer this young lad advice on how to sort this problem?

Z