Best Lifelong Pet Insurance.

NeverEnough

Well, for starters really sorry about your dog - lost ours only a few months ago and its real heartbreak. Now about the bills - had you at any stage paid the vet any fees? It sounds to me like you hadn't and were relying on your vet to bill the insurance directly. So when a cheque in a huge sum of money, which you had not personally paid out to the vet, arrived, however tempting, you should have questioned it as not being due to you, but directly to the vet.

Having pet insurance does not absolve you of all responsibility to pay the vet - the "contract" is between you and your vet - not the vet and the insurance company. They claimed directly as a concession to you, not because they have to. So, you are still 100% liable for the outstanding vets bills - just becuase insurance mistaken sent you the cheque does not absolve you of the responsibility legally, to pay the vet. The vet can take legal action if you don't pay, instruct debt collectors and eventually mess up your credit rating.

And anyway - why should the vet suffer because of the insurance company sending you the money to pay the bill - you had no right to that money and you need to go and explain the mistake to the vet and make arrangements to pay.

To be honest, I think its disgraceful that you seem to have no intention of paying the vets bill - it is entirely your responsibility to pay it, what if insurance said they wouldn't pay for whatever reason?? Just laugh at the vet and claim you don't have to pay? As for a Court saying its your responsibility or not - well- take it that far if you like, but I think you will find it is ABSOLUTELY 100% your responsibility, so prepare for the CCJ now if you don't intend to pay up.

solbamba

Thank you Never Enough for your advice.

Obviously I will have to talk with the vets. I honestly thought that this payment was due to me, otherwise they would have dealt with the vets directly.
I don't think I will be able to take out a loan and I want to avoid any CCJ's, so I will have to come to some agreement with them.
I still think that both companies have acted unprofessionally in not keeping informed about the status of my account.

Thank you for thoughts on my poor dog Tom.

Dollardog

Solbamba - Very sorry to hear about your dog, its heatbreaking I know.
I think you have got confused, the money sent to you was 100% the money that should have gone to the vet. Just because the dog didn't have to have the whole £2500 spent on it, it doesn't mean that you can claim the difference for yourself. You must find a way of paying the vets for their services. It was obviously a mistake by Argos that caused the confusion but you need to put it right, you should not have spent it. If everyone took your stance that you are not going to now pay the vets, they will stop claiming direct from the insurance company and make everyone pay up front and claim the money back themselves which would be an impossible situation for some of us.
You need to do the right thing, they gave you the services you required and now you need to pay for those services even if it means borrowing from somewhere else.
If it did go to court, you will certainly lose as you knew the vet was owed money. If you weren't sure why Argos sent it to you, you should have rung and asked them, or asked the vet if they had been paid.

solbamba

Thank you Dollardog for your kind thoughts.

Your point about knowing the vet was owed money illustrates the point I made earlier. I did not know how much was being claimed and how much was being paid out. I will contact them and offer them as much as I can afford but not before getting every bill/invoice that has been submitted.

Thank you for your advice.

NeverEnough

I muyst say, from our experience recently when our own dog died , the vet practices have a lot to learn about "customer service" - OP you are right about not being kept in the picture by the vets as to what they are claiming and how much - they were downright unpleasant when I insisted we needed to see what they were billing our insurance, as if I had no right to know!!

In the end, I paid most of it and claimed it back directly, only a small portion was direct, but I appreciate many people find it hard to do that as vets bills are astonishingly high. It still doesn't take away your responsibility to settle the vets bills though - the insurance is your arrangement, not the vets, perhaps they will make a part goodwill payment due to their mistake? You can but ask!!

solbamba

Thanks for the advice.

I reiterate I did not know that the money was owed to the vets. On the insurance letter it stated it said the money was "due to you".
This is the first time I have had any dealings with pet insurance and perhaps in hindsight I was abit naive.