Brighthouse Insurance Scam

nomoneytoday

malcindebt wrote: »

Unfortunately it is a credit thing. He won't mind me saying when he first lost his job he got into bad debt, but he's almost cleared everything now and BH is the only place he can get credit now. I'd happily lend him a laptop...IF I had one.

Can't he use a 2nd hand one, or get a pc from freegle / freecycle?
I doubt he "needs" a hi-spec laptop to type up coursework.

bigmicky28

malcindebt wrote: »

HI, posting this on behalf of a friend.

They have recently agreed to buy a Laptop from Brighthouse. Not a great idea but it is needed as my friend is going to college to try and get some kind of qualification to get back into work.

They have said that he MUST take their insurance to cover fire/theft/accidental damage. He was told originally that he could cancel this IF his home insurance covered this.

He went back today with a copy of his policy which clearly indicated that the item would be covered in all eventualities.

Brighthouse have said that he MUST still have their insurance as HIS insurance company would replace the item with a new one if lost/stolen/damaged and that instead of this they would need to be paid directly for the item as any replacement would invalidate the HP agreement.

So he has a valid insurance policy, and now has to buy a second one to cover the same thing.

Surely this is a money making scam?

Is there anything he can do (other than not deal with Brighthouse).

I foolishly got an item from brighthouse and was subject to soething similar.
I told brighthouse that i did not want there insurance as i had my own.
They rang my insurance company came back and told me that my policy would not cover hp for exactly the reasons you mention above.

This is where it becomes UNBELIEVABLE. PLEASE ALL READ ON.

After paying the insurance for best part of a year, a person i new that worked in the store pulled me to one side and said relook into the insurance.

I rang my insurance company and asked if i was covered and was shocked at what I heard. The gentleman from my insurance company told me that brighthouse did call them a year ago and had a record of the conversation BRIGHTHOUSE WERE TOLD THAT I WOULD BE COVERED! the brighthouse worker has then came off the phone to me and told me i was not. The insurance company were furious and said i had indirectly BEEN COMMITING FRAUD BY HAVING TWO LOTS OF INSURANCE ON THE ONE ITEM (potentially could have claimed twice)

I went straight to my local star and demanded answers, they were not remotely shocked and said they would refund me for the insurance. They did not give me the cash but put a 100 pound in my store account, they also give me 4 weeks free rental but as of yet i have not recieved an apology from the individual resposible.

BRIGHTHOUSE YOU DISGUST ME!

dacouch

It is not comitting fraud by insuring the same item twice.

Report Brighthouse to the FSA as selling insurance using this type of method is totally against FSA regulations http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Doing/Contact/index.shtml

Scuba_Pete

dacouch wrote: »

It is not comitting fraud by insuring the same item twice.

Report Brighthouse to the FSA as selling insurance using this type of method is totally against FSA regulations

As dacouch says, there is nothing wrong (let along illegal) about insuring an item twice. It would only be illegal (i.e. committing and act of insurance fraud) if you tried to claim for the same item in full twice (as against just the share of the item each insurer is responsible for). Where possible, yes, you should try avoid insuring the same item twice as in most cases it only leads to both extra costs and extra hassle if you need to make a claim, but there are cases (such as this) where you may need to and, once again I stress: there is nothing illegal in doing this.

Reporting Brighthouse to the FSA is certainly a step I would take... it may just help stop them taking others for a ride!

bigmicky28

Scuba_Pete wrote: »

As dacouch says, there is nothing wrong (let along illegal) about insuring an item twice. It would only be illegal (i.e. committing and act of insurance fraud) if you tried to claim for the same item in full twice (as against just the share of the item each insurer is responsible for). Where possible, yes, you should try avoid insuring the same item twice as in most cases it only leads to both extra costs and extra hassle if you need to make a claim, but there are cases (such as this) where you may need to and, once again I stress: there is nothing illegal in doing this.

Reporting Brighthouse to the FSA is certainly a step I would take... it may just help stop them taking others for a ride!

Thanks for highlighting that having two lots of insurance on the one item is not fraudulent, I was only quoting what my insurance company told me, and i have no knowledge of such topics. I wish I had reported them but as of yet i have not

bigmicky28

Scuba_Pete wrote: »

As dacouch says, there is nothing wrong (let along illegal) about insuring an item twice. It would only be illegal (i.e. committing and act of insurance fraud) if you tried to claim for the same item in full twice (as against just the share of the item each insurer is responsible for). Where possible, yes, you should try avoid insuring the same item twice as in most cases it only leads to both extra costs and extra hassle if you need to make a claim, but there are cases (such as this) where you may need to and, once again I stress: there is nothing illegal in doing this.

Reporting Brighthouse to the FSA is certainly a step I would take... it may just help stop them taking others for a ride!

Thanks for your reply but who have clearly misunderstood what I was saying. Thanks for correcting me about the insurance aspect, but when you write "there are cases such as this where you may need to" is totally incorrect Brighthouse lie about this and if you contents insurance covers HP you do not need there insurance catagorically !regardless of how the item is replaced. The shop assistants are encouraged to lie to the customer for financial gains

WombleSW20_2

This all sounds very seedy. If they are setting unfair conditions around your ability to cancel or claim (come in on a Saturday to cancel it?!), then this feels like it's a breach of Unfair Contracts Law.

Also, if you have no other alternative but take this cover, it must be a conditonal part of the APR quoted. In all likelyhood it isn't and therfore the whole agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on.

I would consult Citizens Advice Bureau as this stinks!