Storm damage dispute rec phone call

martwise

Hi all
Anybody been down this path before after the storms in Jan i found that our property had sustained damage so i duly rang direct line and a nice person explained up to £750 get repair done and send invoice if over that figure but below £2500 get 2 estimates and get the work done by the cheapest and send all details to them. You just know whats coming next repairs done £2185.62 rang to confirm procedure team leader tells me whooo no no no we dont authorise anything over £750 who did you talk to i told him it was i nice young lady he said checking our records it was a gentleman but he can be mistaken for a lady "the mind boggles".

After telling him in nice but determined way that i had not been hearing things and the ladyboy had definitely said £2500 he agreed to listen to the recording (my turn to say yippeee) and he would contact me. He didnt contact me so i rang back and was told recording had been listened to and £1500 had been stated clearly (so much for the whooo no no no no).

I asked for copy of recording and was told write a letter and pay £10 so i rang the place and they said the claims dept could put it on a conference call just ask for team leader.

State of play at the moment no team leader available, will ring you back, anybody else listened to recording of making a claim and if so any joy.

Cheers
The man who will not give up

queensway_boy

I sympathise with you over this and don't give up pursuing it as i'v had hassle with insurance company in the past but not quite to the degree you've got but one big lesson here is NEVER get any work done before you get it in writing off the insurance company exactly what they are willing to pay,especially at the amount of money you are talking about.I recently had a claim and they okayed it, but i insisted i got it in writing first to the amount we agreed over the phone.

JeNjEn_3

Our house insurance is with Zurich

We had some damage to our house in a storm over new year, I made a claim, firstly they said that the claim was refused because there had been no storms, then when we proved them wrong, they said that they were refusing the claim because the cost of the repair was less than the excess -which is £50 - we asked them for the name of a builder who would come and repair the damage including scaffolding for less than £50 - they couldnt!!!!!! Our builder has quoted £380 !!!

Now they have agreed to repair the problems , using their own contractor - 2 months after the initial claim - today I received a letter from a limited company firm of builders asking me to send them £50 and saying that they will come and do the repair in approx 4 weeks - checked out the company with companies house and they are 12 months late in filing their annual return - doesnt inspire much confidence or tempt me to part with £50 to them!!!! Rung Zurich who just are not interested its a case of send them the £50 excess or go away!!! I have been with them for 15 years and this is my first claim!

savvy

Can't help really, but it reminds me of the time I had to claim after our washing leaked and part of the kitchen floor collapsed. I too had to use the company that the insurance firm wanted!

After their foreman had finished talking to my chest, we agreed the work and it got underway...............but I wouldn't say it was a great job, I questioned a few things when they were here and got them changed...........but you can't stand over them all the time, so some things slipped my attention til they finished. I didn't complain afterwards because I didn't want the creepy boss man coming back!!!

Keep at it martman, I did with npower.....took 3 years, a lot of stress and repetition...........oh and getting sh!te off a debt collection agency, but I won in the end!!!

Good luck!

Barnei

Hi Martwise,

I work in the claims department of one of the large direct insurers. What I would advise is to call the insurance company and firstly ensure they have registered a complaint for you regarding this. Politely explain the situation to an adviser and ask them to refer your query to their team leader (personally, doesnt come across too well if you just straight away ask to speak to a supervisor). You have a right under FSA guidelines to listen to the call via conference call or request a transcript from the company, although they can levy a charge for this. Most supervisors are willing to assist with arranging a conference call although can take a while as can be tricky isloating the call! If you have been mis advised the company will honour this, I have never known an occasion where they havnt if the company was in the wrong! If you still get no joy, just accept no rubbish from them and the complaint would be escalated through to a complaints department to deal with. The best plan is to just explain the full situation to one of the advisers, stay calm, get them on side then they'll get it sorted via their team leader. From personal experience dont lose you temper and ball at them! It tends to get you nowhere with a call centre office, although it can make you fell better!