Should I Accept First Offer?

Rooster_Norwich

I recently damaged my laptop so claimed through my accidental damage policy. I had a Compaq R4000 if that helps.

The insurance company, or rather the evaluators, have already selected a replacement for me , a Samsung R40.

I would however like a choice, not just to accept the first one I am offered. I checked up on the R40 and it is classed as a "budget" laptop retailing around £500-£600 yet my Compaq cost me £850.

Although the Insurance company say they will renew it on a similar functional basis, not a cost basis. I don't accept that at all. Thats like saying you crashed your Porsche but they will replace it with a Ford Focus cos' its got wheels and goes from A-B.

Am I right to ask the Insurance company to give me a selection of laptops to choose from?

Can I dictate to them what laptop I want or can I selecet one to the value of my old laptop and get it myself?

Hope someone can shed some light on this.

mattymoo

I'd be inclined to write back and ask them to review the offer. It would annoy me if they tried to replace my Panasonic TV with a Samsung or Goodmans for instance.

Computers are a difficult area though because spec per pound constantly gets better for the consumer. You need to do a careful comparison in terms of screen size, DVD RW functionality, memory, CPU and GPU. It would also help if you could provide 2 or 3 alternatives you think are a closer match to your machine. Also consider the OS.

You don't say how old your Compaq was but I'm guessing it is 3 - 4 yrs as most compaqs are now branded HP (I may be wrong on this). £850 might have been considered budget at that time.

DavidHM

Although the Insurance company say they will renew it on a similar functional basis, not a cost basis. I don't accept that at all. Thats like saying you crashed your Porsche but they will replace it with a Ford Focus cos' its got wheels and goes from A-B.

But if you bought a Porsche for £40k ten years ago and it's now worth £10k, they'd only give you £10k to replace it with. You could then choose whether to buy a new Focus or an old Porsche.

If the R40 has the same specifications as your old model (or better) in terms of RAM, hard disk space, screen size, etc. as above then I'd accept because you're still getting a laptop that's at least as good in terms of specification and performance, but newer, so it should last longer. If not, fight it.

As for Compaq machines being older - they've not been great machines for a while but I know that PC World/Currys were still selling them recently under that brand for home users, although business machines have typically been branded HP for about five years.

mattymoo

DavidHM wrote: »

But if you bought a Porsche for £40k ten years ago and it's now worth £10k, they'd only give you £10k to replace it with. You could then choose whether to buy a new Focus or an old Porsche.

Yes, but household insurance is on a new for old basis whereas motor is indemnity (the market value of the item).

Thx for clarifying about Compaq / HP laptops though.

ohmsoft

New for old rarley applies with fast moving technologies - with computers Moores Law states that every 18 months processing power would double....if they offered new for old in the truest sense I think you would find alot of PCs falling down stairs at around the 3 year mark!

As stated above, i think if the specs are same (or more likely) better take it.

nooksky

We had our laptop replaced under our home insurance policy and they came to us with an offer of a Fujitsu. I asked if we could have a different make and the company (seperate company to the insurance company) were extremely helpful and said if I told them some makes I prefered, they would send me some alternative specs. We had a lot of options in the end and we ended up getting a Dell laptop which we are really pleased with.

Rooster_Norwich

Cheers, I stood my ground and now the company have offered me a few others to choose from.

I have to ring them Monday to confirm model numbers and specs etc. See how far I can get them to go.

Thanks for all the advice, top banana's all of you.

:T

nooksky

Well done!! I just thought, they also gave us the option of paying a little extra if we wanted extra items on the laptop, for example we got quotes for intergrated bluetooth, wireless etc.
Hope you are pleased with what you decide on

Astaroth

Whilst it is new for old that is based on specification and not "where in the range it is".

If the model you have is simply not made any more it does become very difficult to decide what is the new equivilant... take my old desktop which is based on a pair of P3 processors... any PC now will have a more powerful P4 processor but am I right in still demanding a dual core to mirror the pair of processors I originally had or does the increased power of the P4 over the P3 already compensate for the lack of a second core/ cpu? (ps retorical question)

Certainly if you are not happy with the offer then discuss it but go with a realistic expectation, if you simply want the samsung PC with a Dell badge on it then call them with the Dell model number... just dont think that because your old PC was top of the range when you bought it several years ago that you are now entitled to another top of the range computer