Help please re insurance claim

Y5VEE

I recently lost an engagement ring and never having claimed on my insurance before I wonder if the company are being fair. There has been no problem getting them to agree that they will pay out. My problem is their assessors have valued the ring at £2050 but I have a single item limit of £1855 with a £100 excess. In my ignorance I thought they would offer me £1755. What they want to do is give me a voucher for £2050 to be used at one of three jewellers. (H. Samuels, Ernest Jones or Leslie Davies). Or I can explain the type of ring I want over the phone to their agents Butler & Morton and they would make me one - I don't know about you but I need to try things on, I don't know what I want. I haven't seen anything I like in the jewellers I have to go to. I asked about using an alternative jeweller and was told if I bought something for £2050 from their choice say Ernest Jones they would only charge my insurance company £1339. therefore taking off my £100 excess I could have a cash payout of £1239 to use at my choice of jeweller. Does this seem fair to you because it doesn't to me. any suggestions would be appreciated.

unholyangel

What does your paperwork state?

It may not be completely 100% "fair" but its reasonable - to an extent - imo. If you were to go to a local jewellers, how do they know that you are not friendly with the management to the point that they will falsify a receipt in order to give you a £2000 payout?

They're not doing it to be awkward. They're doing it to limit fraudulent claims and therefore, keep your premiums down.

Most types of insurance would require that the work be done by an approved garage (for car insurance), building company (for home insurance), stay at a certain hotel (home/travel insurance) etc.

Have you looked around at other smaller jewellers in order to get an idea for what you would want and then can discuss it with their agents ?

irishjohn

Did you take any photos of the ring you lost? If so Butler and Morton could use the photos to make you a ring which looks like the original one.

visidigi

you must know what ring you want, you already had one you were happy with before you lost it.

They are being resonable - they are offering to put you back where you were which is the whol point of insurance. offering you less for cash is entirely legal and usually done by insurance firms to reduce fraud...

Aginoth

I lost my wedding ring a couple of years ago, was offered a voucher or a new ring made up.

Went for having a new ring made, and the firm was brilliant, sent a rep round to get a proper sizing used the photos of my original ring to produce what is actually a better quality ring than I had to start with - well except for the fact it wasn't the one my wife gave me on our wedding day.

I would recommend the getting one made option personally.

Y5VEE

Thanks for all your suggestions. I usually use a small jewellers near where I live and I trust him. He recommended that I went for a different design because you can never recreate exactly and I might always be comparing the new one especially because it was my mothers engagement ring that I lost. I would have liked to have him make my ring so I would have been happy if the insurance company would let me use him. I must also admit in my ignorance I didn't realise the mark up on jewellery was so much.