Lifestyle Services Group w/ Barclays Insurance Claim

BJAYA2013

Hello All,
I need a bit of advise.
I lost my phone in Sri Lanka as it fell out of my pocket in a cab and then the cab drove off before I had realised.

I read the website, which stated i needed to contact the police within 24 hours and obtain a crime reference number. I was not sure if Sri Lankas crime reference number was sufficient and so I contacted a friend in the UK to ask if they could contact lifestyle services group for advise.

The advisor stated that I should contact my airtime provider to block the sim and then I can wait until I am in the UK to get a crime reference number if I felt the sri lankan police could provide what was required. They also said I had two weeks to log a claim from the incident. As I was using as sri lankan sim, I did not need to contact the airtime provider as I still had the UK sim. Within 24 hours of my arrival back into the UK I logged a claim and went to visit the police station.

Today, I have found out my claim has been rejected because I did not log a claim with the police within 24 hours and therefore did not meet the terms and conditions. As you can imagine I am left furious as I was advised by there representative of what to do and now the company have rejected my claim.

Lifestyle group services state that at first they look to see if the terms and conditions have been met and accept/reject on that basis. An appeal considers any personal factors. Thankfully my friend noted the time, date and person he spoke to and they have the recording available. I have appeal, forwarded the email correspondence between my friend and I when I was out in sri lanka and explained why I could not log a call within 24 hours to themselves and how I was advised that I could sort out the police reference in the UK.

I am awaiting a response from Lifestyle services group which could take 5 working days, but am expecting rejection as I dont see how they can give fair consideration when they are a profit making organisation. Do you think I will have a chance to take them to a small claims court?

grumbler

BJAYA2013 wrote: »

....The advisor stated that ... I can wait until I am in the UK to get a crime reference number if I felt the sri lankan police could provide what was required.

Does it make any sense to you? How can you get a crime reference number in UK if the crime took place in Sri Lanka? And why would you do this if you "felt the sri lankan police could provide what was required"

... I am left furious as I was advised by there representative of what to do and now the company have rejected my claim.
... Do you think I will have a chance to take them to a small claims court?

Only if you can prove that the representative misadvised you.

And it's naive to expect that the insurer will not use every possible excuse for not paying and not to follow every letter of their requirements for not giving them any excuses.

Silk

I would imagine Lifestyle will say you didn't give the Sri Lanken police the chance of recovering it by not reporting it and that you should have made the effort of reporting it to them.
As Grumbler points out theres not much the UK police can do is there ?

MikeWhite

BJAYA2013 wrote: »

Hello All,

I lost my phone in Sri Lanka as it fell out of my pocket in a cab and then the cab drove off before I had realised.

I read the website, which stated i needed to contact the police within 24 hours and obtain a crime reference number.

As an aside, what crime would the reference relate to? Was there a crime?
Mike

grumbler

Demanding a crime reference number for lost phones is a common dirty trick that many mobile insurers use.

JJ_Egan

Does the insurance cover use outside of the UK ???


jje

BJAYA2013

Hi

JJ Egan - yes the insurance is worldwide.

Grumbler - Apologies, my post should have stated "The advisor stated that ... I can wait until I am in the UK to get a crime reference number if I felt the sri lankan police could not provide what was required."

The problem is that the website does not state i had to contact the sri lankan police. According to relatives I have in sri lanka, it is not possible to get a crime reference number in sri lanka. Thus, I felt it was important to contact lifestyle group to see what it is I needed to get a new phone.
The reason why I thought they want a UK crime reference number is merely a admin thing. They even state on the website that loss will not always generate a crime reference number and therefore the claimant must get the PCs number and the police station they reported it to. This is what I did as the PC i spoke to, said they cannot generate a crime reference number for a loss in Sri Lanka.

I have spoken to another agent who explained that the T&C recently changed to only making a claim and reporting to the police within 24 hours and not 24 hours after a claimant returns to the UK. The agent I had spoken to made the mistake which I believe could have been the same mistake made by the agent who spoke to my friend.

In terms of proving that they ill-advised me, my friend is happy to make a statement or come to court to testify the conversation he had with the customer service agent.
What else will I need to prove the loss? and do you think I have a chance in court?

Silk

BJAYA2013 wrote: »

In terms of proving that they ill-advised me, my friend is happy to make a statement or come to court to testify the conversation he had with the customer service agent.
What else will I need to prove the loss? and do you think I have a chance in court?

Not much chance IMO although it will be down to the opinion of the Judge.
Unless it states in the T&C's you have to report it to the UK Police rather than just the Police.
Or perhaps if you can obtain the transcript of the conversation and the adviser instructs you explicitly not to go to the local Police then you may have a chance.

The fact that you "thought" there was no point in going to the local police or "thought" it was a UK crime number you needed is not going to affect what was required for you to do at the time of loss.

Had you at least tried to attempt to recover the phone by reporting it to the local Police then you would have been able to provide a date and time or even taken a name of who you reported it to ....as it stands at the moment the phone might have been handed in to a station which they are unable to match the owner to !

BJAYA2013

Hi All,

Thankfully my appeal was successful.

I sent three emails explaining why I did not comply with the current t&c and the actions i took to retrieve the phone without going to the sri lankan police. My main reason was down to the fact that I was given advise which was different to the T&C. What helped was when discussing why my claim was rejected with an advisor, that person also made a mistake and couldnt see why I got rejected until she got corrected by a colleague. I assume they would have heard the recorded to see I was advised incorrectly and thus won the appeal.

Silk

Good result
Well done