E & L Pet insurance

in_debt_again_but_dealing_with_it

Has anyone any dealings with this organisation? We put in a claim for our dog on 1st Feb and they are realy procrastinating, queried our move to another vet, full medical history faxed twice - he's only 20 months and has only ever had routine jabs and no previous claims!! Phone call last week said its with the adjuicators and they can't specify how long it will take before they even make their initial offer suggested I call back in "a couple of weeks"! I'm getting a little impatient cause the surgery and treatment cost us £270!! Am I being unreasonable and can I hurry them up? Any advice warmly received. Many thanks.

money.saver_11

Hi there,
Im sorry you have had to have dealings with this company. I work at a veterinary surgery as an independant insurance advisor, out of all the companies we deal with (almost 50) E&L are by far the worst. As well as being a very poor level of cover for longterm problems they take months and months to settle bills. I had one gentleman who waited 6 months for return of funds totalling just under 1000. Their average claim turnaround at best is 3 months however it can be much longer particularly if the claim is large. Depending on the condition you have claimed for you would be well advised to look for alternative cover once this claim is settled. If the condition you have claimed for is ongoing then this would be excluded from any new policies, however most e and l policies only cover a condition for a maximum of 12 months so after this period has passed there are no benefits to stay with them. However if the condition you have claimed for has no longterm affects ie a cut pad then as soon as your claim is settled I would move elsewhere. In most cases I recommend marks and spencers as the best ins company. They certainly pay quickly but also offer 7k cover each year, cover for ongoing medical conditions, cover for dental treatment and prescription diets and a zero excess option. There are obviously many other insurers but many have hidden downfalls. IE morethan have v high excesses if you make large cl;aims, many dont cover dental fees and some make unreasonable deductions. As regards getting your current clm settled e and l will drag their heals as much as feasibly possible. You need to do several things:
firstly the operatives are quite used to people ringing up and making demands, you can be quite rude and demanding if nothing else it makes you feel a little better. Ring them daily if you have to, threaten to send them your phonebill. Once the claim has been looked at, they send you a letter offering a settlement, no other ins co does this they just send you a cheque. Once you sign to say you accept their offer they proceed with your claim, you would think this would mean a cheque would be sent but usually they pass it around the office for a further couple of weeks. (I believe but this information is completely unfounded) that they make paper aeroplanes out of them, those little cube things you used to play with at school, oragami swans..... anything but process the bloody things and send out payments. Rule of thumb is complain frequently persistantly and with vigour, threaten to report them to the FSA (which many people do) and probably dont bank on the cheque arriving til about may. Sorry.

kathfisch

money.saver has said it all really but I too have heard nothing but negative stuff about them - sorry if that's not what you want to hear! I'd keep calling or writing and make your voice heard, anything to get things going as quick as possible.

Best of luck with it!

tigzem

I used to work for an Insurance Broker and they refused to deal with E&L due to their poor claims service!

vics_1982

I too have heard that they are seriously rubbish, in the horse insurance they definatly are so i guess they are equally as carp in the smaller animal insurance. I have also heard that they will try anything to get out of it.

I don't know if NFU do insurance for pets but thats who my horse is with and they were noe trouble paying out 2k for him in the first year of insurance and they still cover him for the illness he had.

Good luck and keep pestering them.

Then switch!
Vics
xx

in_debt_again_but_dealing_with_it

Thanks for all the advice, you're all echoing my own thoughts!!! Perhaps I'll ring the insurance ombudsman and then call e and l and let them know - probably won't help but I'll try anything now. Was thinking of switching to Pet plan as our vets deal directly with them - anyone having any experience of them! Thanks again for all the advice!

sophiesmum_2

HI
I recently took out insurance for two horses. After asking on several forums for advice on which company to use I was inundated with e mails telling me not to use e and l, accompanied by many stories of bad service and refusals to meet claims.:mad:
Overall most of the positive comments were for petplan and the NFU, with some really good recommendations for petplan. I decided to insure with them for peace of mind, horses are not cheap when it comes to vets bills!!

Hope you get your claim sorted,
sophiesmum

Careful_girl

My horse is insured with them. I sent them a bill after she had a skin infection and they both refused to pay it but also exempted all other claims for her skin. Just imagine if other insurance was done that way. Sorry mate no more bumps to the back of the car insured!!!!!
Trouble is they are the cheapest n'est pas? Then again false economy I know if they won't pay out. Sadly Martin has not yet done a cheapest equine insurance comparison affiliated link!!!:rotfl: :mad:
Vet coming out tomorrow funnily enough!!!!:eek:
CG

in_debt_again_but_dealing_with_it

Hi all
have just spoken to the financial ombudsmen (08450801800) who were very helpful and happy to write to the company on my behalf. Decided to call E & L first and let them know and low and behold the offer letter will be with me by the end of the week (??) but the cheque they don't know cause there's a backlog(!!). Have told them if it takes too long I will let Ombudsman deal with them. Lets see what happens now!

in_debt_again_but_dealing_with_it

Well here we are its Monday and still no news from E & L :mad: so another phonecall followed and apparently an offer letter was sent out on 23rd (??) I asked how much and as I was happy with it told him I would agree now but surprise surprise you have to return the slip at the bottom of the letter :mad::mad: . Said I would fax it as soon as it arrived, could I have a name to fax it to he said just send it to claims and would reach them eventually :mad: :mad: :mad: Insisted he gave me a time limit for the cheque to arrive - eventually said 10 day. So once the offer letter gets here(??) I will phone everyday until they pay up. But with Easter thats not likely to be anytime soon is it???:eek: :eek:

AVOID E & L LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!

in_debt_again_but_dealing_with_it

Just to conclude this thread - I finally received a cheque on Friday 4th May - but only after making a formal complaint and threatening them with the ombudsman. So after 3 months and 1 week we have finally been paid - only use E & L if you're happy to spend a fortune on phonecalls and wait over 3 months to be reimbursed!!