M&S Home Insurance - Help!

Loobeylou

Can anyone give me some advice please concerning our home insurance with M&S?

We got back from holiday and discovered that our several years old portable Sony TV (which had worked prior to us going away) was not working. We discovered there had been a bad storm just prior to us returning, and it is assumed that this was responsbile for the TV damage.

We got in touch with M&S, with whom we have "Premier Contents Cover". They told us they would allow us money against a new TV and via a company called Ival, we were offered £90 which we were advised was the comparison to a Hitachi TV from Comet. They took our excess on the policy (£50) and stated that in addition to the £90 they would offer us £26.94 for the delivery of a new TV and the take away of the old TV. We were sent a Comet card which had the £116.94 on. We were offered no alternative to purchasing from Comet.

Being thoroughly naive we agreed to this and that is when the problems started. We got one TV of a different make from Comet and used the Comet card in part payment. This TV would not work. Comet obtained a second TV of the same make - this second TV had a fault on the sound and was returned for a refund after nearly three weeks. Comet in their wisdom then put the £116.94 on to a new Comet card and refunded the remainder of our money.

In view of all of this I am now having horrendous problems with M&S and Ival. The long and short of it is that I stated that I was not happy that they had offered no alternative to me purchasing from Comet, and also that I was not happy that the old Sony portable was compared to a Hitachi. I asked if it was possible for a cash alternative, so that I could purchase where I wanted to instead of being dictated as to where I should spend my money.

All of a sudden the goal posts changed. Now M&S state they are willing to offer a cash settlement of £70.01 and no £26.94 for the delivery/collection of the old TV.

This so called "Premier" cover is turning out to be nothing of the sort, and after having spent at least three hours on the phone chasing this up, plus visiting three Comets, none of which sold portable Sony TV's, I feel that I am well and truly getting the run-around.

So, where do I stand?

Astaroth

It will state in their policy book (almost certainly) that they reserve the right to choose how the claim is settled and therefore whilst they may choose to accomodate your request for cash etc they arent under an obligation to make the offer the same.

They will undoubtably receive a fair discount from Comet with the volume of money they put through their tills, and so they will not offer cash which is greater than the price they would pay for the £90 on a store card. On top of that the discount they get from Comet is based on the volume they put through and so they will want to discount the cash further to reduce the number of people that go for it.

A total settlement figure of £166.94 (inc the excess they have deducted) does not sound a bad price for a "several years old portable" TV irrespective of make. Looking at the Comet website their portable TVs range from £50 - £90 with delivery being £5.95

I think you have been put off by the replacement TVs that you actually chose from Comet more than the insurance claim itself. These however are issues that really need to be brought up with the store in question more than the insurer as they will simply be message passing.

Loobeylou

I can see the reason in your response, and thank you for taking the trouble. We have indeed had major hassle with Comet over this, and although they finally did the decent thing by refunding our money, that in itself was not without quite an amount of argy-bargy!

However, this whole thing with M&S and Ival is really getting up my nose. Surely it is unfair for us not to have any say in the matter as to how and where we get a replacement. They have now deducted the delivery/collection charge of £26.94 which Ival themselves offered initially. My argument is that if we purchase something over the Internet, then the chances are that we are going to get charged delivery. So to take that charge away when they were the ones who offered it in the first place is, to my mind, just not on.

And yes, M&S have stated that the £19.99 is to do with the business of putting business through Comet, but rightly or wrongly, I am getting the impression that it is mainly Ival who are calling the shots here.

The policy document states:

How we will settle your claim - contents

When we agree to pay your claim under your policy we will, at your option, either:

1) arrange and meet the cost of replacement as new for each item lost or damaged or

2) arrange and meet the cost of repair for any item damaged or

3) pay a cash sum equipvalent to the cost to us of repair or replacement.

Whichever option you choose the maximum amount we will pay is the lower of the cost to us of repair or replacement as new.

Any excess for contents shown in your current policy schedule of your policy will be deducted from the claims settlement.

Astaroth

So they have done what they have said, paid the cost of replacing it to them - if you follow their "rules" of buying it from comet then there wouldnt be a delivery fee (or at most the £5 minus their discount). Whilst they may have offered you a goodwill guesture of a high fee for delivery it is not part of their T&Cs and so technically they are not obliged to honour it if you decide to change the settlement method - as per my original post there is a lot less incentive for them to try and "win you over" as you are no longer wishing to follow their prefered method of settlement.

I dont know the company Ival and so cannot comment on what they do or what level of delegated authority they may have been given by the insurers.

Having a quick look for Sony portable TVs the 2 which I have found are both are £150. Given that your TV was several years old it isnt unreasonable to say that it was probably wasnt up to the standards of the latest model and therefore the original offer of £140 (minus £50 for the excess to give you £90 settlement) does seem fairly generous even without any extra for delivery.

I think that you dont have very strong case for arguing this one to be honest. The only real grounds for arguement is that comet is unable to provide a suitable replacement as they do not stock anything but budget brands in the portable TV range and therefore a reduction in the settlement figure is unjustified as Comet cannot replace the item suitably.

Loobeylou

Astaroth wrote:

Having a quick look for Sony portable TVs the 2 which I have found are both are £150.

As a matter of interest, where did you find the two Sony portables for that price?

Astaroth

just did a quick search on pricerunner.co.uk - if you use other price comparison sites there may be cheaper ones