Supercover Mobile Phone Insurance - warning!

cherrywooden

My daughter insured her mobile with this company who were mentioned on MSE as providing cheap cover. The cover may well be cheap but if you think you'll ever need to actually make a claim then I'd think twice about using this company.

Her phone was lost on 7th June. Since then we have spent numerous hours on the phone to a 10p per minute number trying, unsuccessfully, to 'jump through numerous hoops' to actually get a replacement phone. I have now found an alternative local number for them so at least I am no longer holding for 45 minutes at 10p per minute.

They have tried every trick in the book to delay and stonewall us including:
1. never phoning back as promised
2. saying the person we need to speak to is out of the office & will call back (see 1.)
3. taking weeks to organise a conference call with us and the service provider to 'verify' our claim but then saying that the claim couldn't be processed as the phone was not coming up as 'barred' on their system. After phoning the service provider back several times they pointed out that Supercover have no access to their system so have no way of knowing if they have barred the phone or not!
- saying that our police reference number has too many digits wasting more time (ours and the police's) while we confirmed it was correct. We called back to tell them and they then said they would have to verify it themselves!

I have honestly tried to be polite, calm and patient and give them every opportunity to sort this out but it really has now gone beyond a joke. On Friday after another week elapsed with no resolution I made a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and I'm hoping they will help us to resolve things.

Maybe we have just been unlucky in our experience of Supercover but with the level and extent of maladministration and poor customer services I somehow doubt it!

Supercover mobile phone insurance - the cheapest is definitely NOT always the best - BEWARE!!:mad:

fluffnutter

Good luck with your claim, cherry. Hopefully you'll have some success with your FO complaint. Personally I think mobile phone insurance is one of the biggest rip offs going - it doesn't often cover by far the most likely scenario [that you lose it away from the home]. Instead there are all sorts of excuses such as it was unattended or you left it somewhere accidentally, and it won't pay out as a result.

About the only cover you'll get is if it's stolen from your home (in which case it will be covered by your home insurance anyway). Or if you're mugged (which is unlikely).

loutalucat_2

Be aware of the finer points of phone insurance. My daughter had her mobile stolen last week from her handbag which was on her shoulder! The police were called as she wasn't the only victim.

She'd had it for 2 weeks and it was insured but the insurance company won't pay as they said there is a 14 day period from taking out the insurance before she can claim. The letter from the insurance states in bold writing that her insurance is now up and running from 26th July (stolen on 6th August) and payment for it has been taken from her bank account. The 14 day exclusion is of course in tiny writing in the terms and conditions. She now has no phone and a 2 year contract to pay. Surely the letter should have stated that the insurance was valid from 8th August when she would have been able to claim.

The phone wouldn't have left the house had she known that.

fluffnutter

loutalucat wrote: »

Be aware of the finer points of phone insurance. My daughter had her mobile stolen last week from her handbag which was on her shoulder! The police were called as she wasn't the only victim.

She'd had it for 2 weeks and it was insured but the insurance company won't pay as they said there is a 14 day period from taking out the insurance before she can claim. The letter from the insurance states in bold writing that her insurance is now up and running from 26th July (stolen on 6th August) and payment for it has been taken from her bank account. The 14 day exclusion is of course in tiny writing in the terms and conditions. She now has no phone and a 2 year contract to pay. Surely the letter should have stated that the insurance was valid from 8th August when she would have been able to claim.

The phone wouldn't have left the house had she known that.

Pursue it. The contract's unfair and misleading. I'd write once more asking for a payout advising that I'm taking them to the small claims court if they don't.

One other thing - has she tried claiming on her home insurance?