Warning - don't insure with Towergate! (Beware if you use an insurance broker)

keitaiprincess

I want to warn people about this company. I didn't know that's who I would be insured with because I used the broker CIA. Please beware! Here is my story:

1. Claim first lodged: 14th October 2010. Trying to report a leak under the floorboards under my landlord insurance (an urgent matter which needed immediate response), I first tried to seek assistance. Despite holding on the phone for 40 minutes (and racking up a considerable bill whilst doing so) I could not get through to the insurance company. When I eventually did get to speak to someone, I had to call four different numbers, re-telling my entire story at each step, before successfully lodging the claim. In the meantime, the water spread and the problem worsened.

2. The insurance company failed to call me back, as promised, so I contacted the complaints department, who then had to chase up each step over the next couple of weeks before I received any help.

3. When the claims advisor finally came out (an hour late) she claimed that dampness in the bedroom was not caused by this leak – despite not being an expert in this field. Not put off, I asked both builders who came out to quote if that were the case. Both agreed without question the two were connected, and one of them actually proved it, so the insurance company were forced to compensate me for additional expenses that they wanted to avoid by denying the link. Even so, what they are covering is only half the expense I forked out.

4. My tenant, due to this dampness which the insurance company tried to avoid liability for, was hospitalised with an infection from the mould growing in the flat. Still, nobody seemed to care and my emails and phonecalls went unanswered. My tenant could not shower for ONE MONTH in the flat whilst everything was being “dealt with”, and though this was not my fault because I could not proceed any further, I was harassed daily for this entire time as to why the problem was not being sorted out more quickly.

5. The claims advisor (from RSA - they are equally to blame here) continually, over the next few months, replied to my emails and calls only after several reminder emails. This advisor also lost TWO emails (how does that happen?) with receipts attached to them for the claim, stalling the payment further.

6. MORE THAN THREE MONTHS LATER, as of the 22nd January 2011, I still haven’t received the cheque I was finally promised in an email from the 30th December 2011. In the meantime I have racked up further debt in overdraft fees and have been struggling to cope with this loss of money. In addition, the stress caused by dealing with this awful company, pacifying complaints from my tenant and his family, whilst working full time and raising my one year old daughter has been horrendous.

In summary: do NOT insure with Towergate. They and the claims adjustors they contract out are desperately inefficient – to put it in the nicest way I can. They will avoid your calls, fail to call you back, lose your receipts and generally stall you at every turn. The only people who ever helped me and had any sense of professional responsibility were in the complaints department – and that’s because of damage control.

I hope this helps someone else to avoid a horrific experience!:eek:

jfh7gwa

That sounds like a pretty horrific experience. You mention that their complaints department have been slightly better than the other shambolic communications - I take it you've now got to get backto them as per point 6?

Personally, I'd be invoicing them for every phonecall, every letter, whatever. I might even be tempted to bill them at my hourly rate (justified in detail) from my paid employment - I've only done this once or twice, when companies have REALLY !!!!ed me off, and each time I have ended up with a goodwill gesture payment (as if it made up for the woefully lacking service - yeah, right).

You may want to contact a consumer complaints advocate about your experience too e.g. the Money team at the Guardian, or Watchdog. Maybe even Trading Standards.

I dunno, that's what I'd do.

But then I'm quite vindictive when a company has screwed up so badly, and I like to ensure these things are reported / highlighted just for the sheer principle of it - to hopefully shame the company into making improvements so that other customers don't have to deal with the same crap.

InsideInsurance

Towergate is itself an intermediary and not an insurer. Their level of authority and control varies greatly depending on what product you are buying via them as for some products they are almost an insurer in authority but others all claims are handled by the underlying insurer. Their business is also run in a very disparate way so the experience of one section of the business is no indication of how you'll find another part.

Was it actually TG that was dealing with the claim or was it passed to the insurer RSA to manage the claim? It sounds like it could have been the later from what you say

dunstonh

I want to warn people about this company. I didn't know that's who I would be insured with because I used the broker CIA.

CIA are initials that are used or have been used by a number of companies over the years. If you are going to name companies in a post then it is important to make it clear who they are so you dont defame companies unfairly.

Towegate are not an insurer as mentioned above. It sounds like RSA were the insurer here.