Saga Insurance + Norwich Union + Cunningham Lindsey

MikeM

I was being a little cruel to Saga Insurance with 'nil points' - some of the claim has been (eventually) resolved to my satisfaction and to be more realistic I would offer 3 points so far !

Looking at my original post I was looking for both positive and negative feedback on the way users had their claims dealt with, so that I could choose a better supplier next time. After my experiences I would be willing to pay more for better service - so looking for the Waitrose of Insurance companies ? Pricey but good ! So easy to be seduced by the lowest price but difficult to work out from the glossy brochures ** just who is going to give a good service in the event of a disaster.

Perhaps Martin has somewhere on this site a Customer League Table for Insurance companies where the thousands of users of this site could contribute to a 'J. D. Powers' type survey. Also would be interesting to see how often people claim on their house insurance - I have only claimed once in 20 odd years ?

** P.S Just where do they get the pictures of those happy customer advisors who are gleefully answering the phone in a lovely call centre ?

FlameCloud

I was more interested in the percentage of the claim that the loss adjusters company would take ?

Havent got a clue! Probably sensitive company-specific data few people will have access too. I dont think they take a '%' as such, I know we have specific fees for sending an external out which is far higher than our own costs, and is about £400 from what I remember.

Why are loss adjusters 'separate' from the insurance company ? Would have thought it best that they were directly employed by the Insurance company ?

Because other companies want to make money from the insurance game You have two sorts- internal and external. Internal are employed directly by the insurance company and tend to be more organised and experienced. The external ones work for lots of insurance companies there own firm has contracts with. As such, they often have more work than they can handle because their own bosses just want to take more fees for the work. You are right, it is best they are employed by us, but we tend to be more picky about who we take on.

And why the sudden crisis of not enough loss adjusters in the world?

Not so much a sudden crisis, theres just far more insurance-savvy people around now who try and make fraudulent claims, which need to dealt with by roughly the same number of loss adjusters.

Finally the guy I am dealing with is a 'Claims Technician' - what is one of those ?

One of two reasons-
1. Fancy title for a claims handler to make them feel better.
2. You are being dealt with by the special investigations team at the insurance company. We are called technical claim technicians at our place, so that maybe the reason.

NOTE however though that this does not mean the claim is neccessarily wrong. We get alot of claims that over zealous claims handlers think theres something wrong with (power trips etc). What happens then is that it sits in our ques for bloody ages before we can have a look at it, check it and send it back, before then it is locked out to anyone but us. Note also that it is not always fraudulent claims SI deal with- deaths, argumentative/abusive customers and claims that have dodgy grounding in the policy booklet get sent to us as well.

Sorry for so many questions but there is a whole world of insurance out there that I am trying to understand !

Not at all, happy to help!

FlameCloud

MikeM wrote: »

Looking at my original post I was looking for both positive and negative feedback on the way users had their claims dealt with, so that I could choose a better supplier next time. After my experiences I would be willing to pay more for better service - so looking for the Waitrose of Insurance companies ? Pricey but good ! So easy to be seduced by the lowest price but difficult to work out from the glossy brochures ** just who is going to give a good service in the event of a disaster.

Do a search for defaqto ratings on your chosen policy. Basically, rated from 1*-5* policies.

5* are the top 5% of policies, in terms of broad limits, liability, a range of coverages. Examples include halifax, liverpool victoria.

1*/2*- cheapest policies (bottom 50%). Examples include tescos, payment shield.

MikeM

Thanks FlameCloud - most interesting - pity I didn't know about the ratings system beforehand. You paint a somewhat poor picture of the insurance claims industry - as usual too much work for too few staff !

poundsshillingsandpence_2

poundsshillingsandpence wrote: »

have spoken to them today, they still have not got the necessary plan of work and costings through and have now levied a complaint to the contracters.

just to update. have received a huge pile of paperwork today to go through with a fine tooth comb . have had a quick read and see there are some areas that need questioning .

I can see they have covered all decorating in the way of emulsion and wallpaper etc. but cant for the life of me see they are intending emulsioning ceilings and doing internal paintwork surely they wouldn't decorate a room and not renew the paintwork ??

We now have 3 options available.

1. the chosen CL contracters do the whole job with an open facility for adding on anything else they find along the way and in the event we get further problems it would be a continuation of this claim .

2. they do the structural work only and release an allowance for us to get the decorating done ourselves

3. we take an agreed settlement figure and sub the work out with our insurer and mortgage providers permission [ this option would remove subsidence cover for the duration of the work, no storage facility and no inconvenience money if needed included and in the event of future problems a new claim and another excess would be needed]

I know we should be going for option 1 but why are we apprehensive and feeling nervous ???

Has anybody on here actually had a claim with their insurer using CL and been completely satisfied with the contracters chosen and the end result ???

MikeM

poundsshillingsandpence wrote: »

I can see they have covered all decorating in the way of emulsion and wallpaper etc. but cant for the life of me see they are intending emulsioning ceilings and doing internal paintwork surely they wouldn't decorate a room and not renew the paintwork ??

QUOTE]

Oh yes, they woulld ! If it doesn't specifically detail what is going to be done it won't get done - so I have discovered. However with a bit of 'grumbling' these things can be negotiated.

You have a real dilemma there - best of luck !

poundsshillingsandpence_2

QUOTE]

Oh yes, they woulld ! If it doesn't specifically detail what is going to be done it won't get done - so I have discovered. However with a bit of 'grumbling' these things can be negotiated.

You have a real dilemma there - best of luck ![/QUOTE]

how's it going Mike, are you getting sorted yet ??

2 weeks again since last negotiations with C+L and I have grumbled and got a few points sorted but a no go on the interior paintwork....... insurers dont cover this unless it is damaged during movement

however they have offered a seperate settlement figure if we want to do the decorating instead of the contracters.

We are seriously considering it as it will get the contracters out of our hair quicker and means the complete works will get done and not half a job .

It will mean re-scheduling our lives somewhat to fit in 2/3 of house interior decorating this year instead of the occassional room as and when

On another downside through their time lapses between each communication we wont get a start date now for at least 4-6 weeks from when we actually sign and agree to everything so the summer will be wrecked by the looks of things

We are now considering putting the house on the market as we are assured as best we can be by both our insurers and C+L that it shouldnt effect the market value as it is already a claim being dealt with and they would support any queries raised by potential buyers and mortgages

not too sure I would entertain something I viewed swamped by builders or the house itself looking like a battle ground but we are having a selection of valuations done this next week and will take it from there

kierancassidy

The builder submtted a quote and was told to drop it by £1200 which he did. The loss adjustors agreed to the new quote and work commenced. A few weeks later they sent a letter stating that the payment is in the post and the claim has been cosed. Since then no payment arrived, I caled them and they have said that the original quote was to high and that they refuse to pay, the builder has walked off the job and will not finish job. He has also seeked legal advice and has been told he may have to sue me! How can a company agrre a figure let the job start and then change the figure? Anybody have any ideas as to how I can get this resolved quickly?