A warning about tesco insurance.

hatingutilities

with winter ahead and the season for broken pipes and burst mains. just wanted to give you all a bit of advice if you have to make a claim for water damage.

After a recent holiday i returned to a water logged house, a pipe leading to the toilet sistern had come loose. there was about a cm of water all over the ground floor and water still leaking though the ceiling. down the walls and into TVs and other small electrical devices ( thank god for circuit breakers.) i dried the house with the use of many towels and a air blower i borrowed.

anyway tesco took away the TV after about 2 weeks so obviously the water had mostly dried up. and the report that came back says that there was no water damage, despite the fact there was water dripping out of the bottom.

God forbid if you have to make a claim, take as many pictures of any damage at the time so when they delay getting people out to you you can give them a decent set of pictures showing the damage when it had happened not after you have been given time for damage to have dired up. sadly I wasnt able to having just come back from holidays i had zero charge on my phone and frankly was more concerned about clearing up the water to even think about it.

there was one thing i wanted from you lot, should they refuse to pay out on the claim i wont want to stay with them, does anyone know where i stand with moving insurers after i have made a claim? is it like car insurance, if you make a claim you have to stay with them till the current policy expires?

InsideInsurance

It is like car insurance in that it is a year long policy and therefore any cancellation after a (fault) claim would not result in a refund if you've made full payment/ all other instalments would become due if you were paying monthly. There are a very small number of policies that are actually monthly policies with an annual review instead in which case your obligation is to month end but I do not believe Tescos is such.

hatingutilities

turns out i cant cancel the policy, had one letter on the 1st of may that made no mention of cancelation charges, but they sent a 2nd letter on the 5th i didnt rececive. that did mention cancelation fees, so be watchfull of getting one contract that isnt right.

sick to god of companies happy to take your money but not at all happy in doing anything to help you when you need things from them.

Screw you tesco, you are a bunch of robbing lying cheats.

InsideInsurance

You would be able to cancel it just you'd still have to pay for the complete year. If they say you cant then (1) it makes no business sense because you could no longer have an insurable interest and so they shouldn't want to be the insurer of something you no longer own (2) it is against one of the fundamental tenants of Treating Customers Fairly which the FSA requires insurers to follow.

hatingutilities

just had a call back seems they are happy to pay out for the damage done to the rest of the house, but not the TV. looks like they are just trying to pull a fast one on me and lower the amount they pay out.

If anything they should be offering me a thank you for being a good customer, in 13 years of buying home and contents insurance this is the 2nd claim i have ever done, the other being a small window pulled off with the wind, and wow had i been like most people there is loads of things i could have claimed on that i didnt.

no wonder people hate insurance companies, all you ever see on the TV is people that are in the wrong and claiming for things they shouldnt, maybe there should be a program or two about how they dont pay out when they should..

Keep on the ball peeps, photograph everything if you have a video camera on your phone, record things as they are happening so they can see the full extent of the damage done.