HolidaySafe Travel Insurance - Your Feedback

Lezbez159

This is the email sent to Ms Howard from Holiday Safe:

Hi Amber,
Thank you for your reply on MSE, I can give you the following details to the best of my recollection.

My initial email enquiry was answered by a Mr. Andrew Peck on 1st July, and when I queried something in relation to my submitted claim, I received no reply from him even though it was a direct response to a concern I raised.

I then sent the forms through by email, all present and correct, to which I asked for a email informing me that they had received them and indeed all was correct. I received 2 automated replies around the 12th and then Mr Peck did indeed email me on the 14th July to say that the forms had been sent to the ‘claims team’. Although id asked for email correspondence this was ignored and instead a letter sent to my c/o address around the 8th August asking for a missing piece of information which incidentally had been sent originally, even though I had specifically told Mr. Peck that I was still travelling and to correspond me directly through email only! After the letter had been scanned and sent to me via PDF, I resent the ‘missing’ piece of information and again asked for confirmation to which was again ignored.

I emailed the company on the 24th august after hearing nothing since an automated reply on the 8th. I again got an automated reply! This was the status quo until I returned to the UK in early September and I rang Holiday Safe up around the 9th sept and asked how my claim was progressing as I hadn’t heard anything for over a month.
I spoke with a gentleman who to be honest was absolutely useless and displayed a couldn’t be bothered nonchalant attitude and then informed me that my claim had been lost and then ‘dealt’ with, and it would be in my bank in the next few days, be £100 and a letter was going out. After a week or so of hearing nothing, I rang again only this time to speak with another next to useless ‘claims advisor’ who then informed me that I had received £57 that morning!

Im sorry, but your company is nothing short of utterly dreadful, I will not use them ever again, the attitudes of the staff, especially those that answer the phones, in my opinion deserves addressing immediately as judging by the replies on the MSE forum, is an ongoing cause for concern. I myself worked for 16 years in a high pressure ‘customer service’ role and know exactly how to speak and deal with people. In all fairness I would expect a monkey to have spoken to me better than these 2 ‘claims advisors’ who obviously had probably only just left school and didn’t know any better to be fair. In house training needs to be looked at urgently, as does the email responses sent- poor, very poor.

I obviously understand that you must extract the money from thousands of travellers every year, but I do expect value for money and to be treated like a customer should.

I hope that you can trace my phone calls and emails, but rest assured the service received was pitiful.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss this matter further.

Will it help us customers?!

Holidaysafe_Representative

Dear Lezbez159,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my comments. I just wanted to let you know that I have replied directly to your email, and I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Kind regards,

Amber.

vjc

I had a terrible experience with this company and will never insure with them again. I had a backpack stolen at Gatwick Airport on our return from holiday. It contained a 2 year old iPad, a Canon digital camera, a Sony camcorder and £80 in cash amongst other things. We did not take the most basic insurance and paid more to have higher levels of cover. I was paid £75.93 for these items whose value was more than £800.

I found this company on your website and thought they ought to be reliable for that reason. All I can say is thank heavens nothing more serious happened to any of us on holiday as I hate to think what the outcome could have been.

I posted on the forum as soon as this happened as I really think people should be warned or at least informed. At MoneySavingExpert, I would think twice before advertising this company on your site as I think ultimately it reflects badly on you.

Having previously been a devoted user, I am now not so sure about using your website for suggestions and have really lost confidence in the recommendations that are shown.

I know its difficult as new companies appear all time but perhaps you should check into the possible issues before 'advertising' them.

Holidaysafe_Representative

Dear VJC,

Thank you for your post. I did reply to your first post on a different thread back in October, but I don't think I ever received a reply from yourself. Just in case you didn't see it, the message said;

"Firstly I would just like to sincerely apologise that you were dissatisfied by the outcome of your claim. Unfortunately our cover is not new for old, and so our appointed claims assessors, Travel Claims Facilities, do apply a sliding scale of wear and tear to personal possessions claims.

If you would like to make an official complaint, or ask for your claim to be reconsidered, all of the details of how to do so are on the last page of your policy wording.

I will pass your comments over to our Claims team, and ask them to review their wear and tear scale for electrical items, to ensure we are offering the best outcomes possible for our customers.

Once again please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience.

Kind regards,

Amber."

I am still in discussions with our Claims and Underwriting teams regarding updating the wear and tear scale, so thank you for bringing this issue to my attention.

Lezbez159

Holidaysafe_Representative wrote: »

Dear Lezbez159,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my comments. I just wanted to let you know that I have replied directly to your email, and I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Kind regards,

Amber.

I just wanted to inform the forum viewers that since i posted my initial concerns i have had excellent communication by email with Amber Howard, followed up with a phone call from one of her claims managers who where both very helpful and understanding in my concerns over the way Holiday Safe dealt with my claim.

I'm happy to say that the matter has been dealt with to a very satisfactory standard and i am very glad to hear that my concerns over the training shortfalls that their staff seem to be sadly lacking in both on the phone manner and by email is likely now to be addressed by the employees in question receiving adequate training to stop customers being treated badly in the future.

I would like to thank Ms. Howard in the professional and understanding manner in which she has dealt with my concerns and complaint.

Kind Regards
Lezbez159

Bathsheba50

It's me again ... here to relate the end of the story.

Firstly to dacouch, in response to your question of 10.11.2014. Sorry I am late in clarifying. I hold Premier Multi-trip Annual insurance. It would not be accurate to suggest that travel claims facilities misled me regarding the issue of excess(es) for stolen items. My point was that they could not help me to understand any of the terms of my policy. This is because they hold no information about claimants or their policies.

I posted my claim for my stolen passport and consequent expenses last Tuesday, 11th November. Took a long time to make sure all was in order. Two days later on 13th November I received an email from Catherine Smith of travel claims facilities, informing me that she had tried to phone and had settled my claim in full. The money was in my bank account by the time I returned home. I wrote a thank you email.

A satisfactory conclusion to a sorry tale.

Thank you, Amber.

idealbloke

My wife and I have annual Premier Insurance with Holiday Safe. We had two holidays booked but unfortunately before we were due to travel my wife was admitted to hospital for unexpected emergency surgery. We subsequently had to make claims for both trips. This was a relatively straightforward process and each claim was dealt with promptly without query. We have since received compensation for both trips - minus a small excess.

LadyBird77

My husband and I tried to make a legitimate claim for a 24 hour flight delay only to have it rejected by Holiday Safe because we had taken a flight half way to our final destination. If we had known that they could reject our claim on this technicality we would have stayed at Gatwick airport for the night and taken a flight 12 hours later, ensuring that they would have paid our claim. MAKE SURE YOU READ THE SMALL PRINT!

Holidaysafe_Representative

Dear LadyBird77,

Thank you for your post, my name is Amber Howard and I am the Brand Manager for Holidaysafe.

Firstly I would just like to sincerely apologise that you were dissatisfied by the outcome of your claim.

Unfortunately it is standard practice across the industry to only cover delays to the first flight from your international departure point. However I will endeavor to make information about connecting flights clearer in our policy wordings.

If you would like to appeal the Claims team's decision, the complaints process is clearly laid out on the last page of your policy wording.

Kind regards,

Amber.

mummyoracle

we had our return flight cancelled by the airline 5 days before our outbound departure due to industrial action by airline cabin crew. They were unable to offer a replacement or alternative flight within 2 days of the original flight. We were unable to find our own replacement flights on the same date so had to cancel the whole holiday. Our claim was rejected as the small print apparently includes no claims for strike action by the airline. I had to trawl through the small print several times and eventually decided that the part quoted below must be what they referred me to.

"Any claim that is due to any failure (including financial) of your travel agent or tour operator, any transport or accommodation provider, their agent or anybody who is acting as your agent."

If you actually read this you are not actually covered for anything cancellation wise unless you become ill immediately before departure or during your holiday. This bit in the small print seems to cover absolutely any other reason for cancellation, which actually makes the policy useless. This is actually the reason we take out holiday insurance in case things go wrong with a holiday company or airline. When we took out the insurance 6 months before our holiday we couldn't possibly have factored in industrial action. No one could. Isn't this the point of having insurance!!!!

A complete and utter waste of money. DO NOT USE THIS TRAVEL INSURANCE FOR A HOLIDAY BOOKING AS IT WON'T COVER YOU FOR UNEXPECTED PROBLEMS.