Harveys Care & Protection

badaz52

If anything as I am paying them for the insurance, they have a contract with me to cover me for accidental damage. I don't have a contract with them and certainly not under their terms.

Under the unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations 1999, I found this:

Unfair Terms

5.—(1) A contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer.
(2) A term shall always be regarded as not having been individually negotiated where it has been drafted in advance and the consumer has therefore not been able to influence the substance of the term.
(3) Notwithstanding that a specific term or certain aspects of it in a contract has been individually negotiated, these Regulations shall apply to the rest of a contract if an overall assessment of it indicates that it is a pre-formulated standard contract.
(4) It shall be for any seller or supplier who claims that a term was individually negotiated to show that it was.
(5) Schedule 2 to these Regulations contains an indicative and non-exhaustive list of the terms which may be regarded as unfair.

The contract (if there is one) was not individually negotiated as it is a pre-formulated standard contract for all consumers who purchase the insurance and I was not able to influence the substance of the term before my money was taken for the policy.

And it is unfair because the exclusions/inclusions list causes an inbalance in the parties rights and obligations to the detriment of the consumer (me) they have more reasons to not pay out than reasons to pay out.

This website says it all really http://guardsman.!!!!edconsumer.com/complaints.html 4 letters blanked out are:

There are also many more websites dedicated to how guardsman will look for any excuse not to pay out, and with 75% exclusions its not hard to see why.

badaz52

There must be someone who has had a successful complaint against Harveys/Guardsman??? all you have to do is google complaints and there are 100s of them.

InsideInsurance

I suspect many on here don't buy extended warranties/ guardsman type policies.... I didnt when I bought my things from Harvey's

badaz52

I would never buy it again that's for sure. I am totally miffed about how they can even call it a service. Its 75% useless..

SandC

I know it's not going to help with the fact that you bought this cover in good faith, but have you checked your contents insurance to see if that covers it?

I can see why you are so angry and it's because of threads like these that more people are aware that these policies are not worth paying out for. However, in a situation like moving house I would have to agree that it's quite a normal exception because the liklihood of damage is so much higher than your unit just sitting at home.

Incidentally - £90 cover for some furniture - I renewed my household insurance last month and it is £151 for a year for contents and buildings on my entire house. That includes accidental damage cover on the contents. It's worth just doing a quick calc in your head whenever you are offered these things how much more you are being charged when your ordinary insurance may well cover it anyway - and if it doesn't, to add it on would cost less and cover just about everything else you own too.

badaz52

SandC wrote: »

I know it's not going to help with the fact that you bought this cover in good faith, but have you checked your contents insurance to see if that covers it?

I can see why you are so angry and it's because of threads like these that more people are aware that these policies are not worth paying out for. However, in a situation like moving house I would have to agree that it's quite a normal exception because the liklihood of damage is so much higher than your unit just sitting at home.

Incidentally - £90 cover for some furniture - I renewed my household insurance last month and it is £151 for a year for contents and buildings on my entire house. That includes accidental damage cover on the contents. It's worth just doing a quick calc in your head whenever you are offered these things how much more you are being charged when your ordinary insurance may well cover it anyway - and if it doesn't, to add it on would cost less and cover just about everything else you own too.

I'll have to check my home insurance but I really want my £90 back if I can get it, if they only pay out in a limited amount of cases then I personally feel I have not received what I paid for.

With regards to moving house, I can accept that the likeliness of damaging the product "accidentally" is higher but then what about moving it around the house that has to carry a high risk too? The way the policy is written is designed to exclude them from paying out in way to many cases.

I'm not the only one there are 100s of complaints about the insurance that is offered by furniture stores not to mention watchdog has received hundreds of complaints specifically about harveys.

It appears that not only do Guardsman exclude an uneven amount of potential claims they also call you a liar and say damage is caused by something in their exclusion just so they dont have to pay out.

I don't think I have seen any articles on the internet that suggest anyone has had a single successful claim from the insurance they have bought.

SandC

I've never bought any myself, nor extended warranties. But you are right. In fact, they should be banned completely, it is pure and simple a money making venture with seemingly very few payouts.

badaz52

This is too true