Comet Electrical Insurance money back offer

reef69

Hi there,

I have recently found a document detailing some insurance I took out for a digital camcorder in 1999. The cover cost £250 and there is a money back offer for the cost of the warranty provided I haven't claimed and I sent the registration back within 15 days of purchase and claimed within 30 days of the cover expiring. However I have done neither and now feel like I have been mugged. It was 5 year cover I paid for and expired in August 2004. I was just wondering if anyone knew if I had any comeback on this or if as I suspect I am pretty much shafted. I knew at the time I had bought insurance but was unaware of any money back offer until I recently read it.

Thanks for any help.

trafalgar_2

I'm afraid you have to register it and you have to claim it back at the right time................there's nothing you can do now .....sorry

shrek101

I did this around 6 years ago. Got insurance out for a Dyson dc01 hoover. I had to send some form in recorded delivery within some tight deadline if I recall correctly. They would send me some document which I keep for 2 or so years and claim back on the due date. I got my money, but it wasn't the full costs something like £50 or so. Its a few years back now so my memory is a bit vague.

I am afraid you wont be able to claim if you failed any of the procedures I think they are written that way in the hope people forget.

cheapie_claire

To reef69
It's always worth trying anyway, and appeal to their better nature. We had one of those moneyback warranties and lost the original certificate that they send you (which you need to keep in order to claim the money). They say that if you lose the certificate then it's tough luck, but we gave them some sob story about my husband's mother losing it who was elderly and in bad health etc etc and they sent us a new one. Worth a try, you've nothing to lose!

Bossyboots

We had a couple of these and managed to get all the bits right (amazing for us) and we got the full amount of our money back. One of the items was a Dyson as well. We redeemed ours about two years ago so maybe the terms were improved in between shrek101 getting theirs and us taking ours out.

trisontana

Why do these insurance / retail companies make it so hard to claim your money back? You have to send of the paper work when you purchase the item , and you have no proof that this was ever received. then you have to remember five years down the line , in a very tight time frame , to make your claim.

Of course the cynic in me says that the process has been made deliberately complicated so that the majority of people never claim. I listen regularly to a radio consumer programme and they are always having people call who are having trouble claiming. Sometimes they have sent off the initial paper work and now the company say they never received it , other times they are just out of the claim period. Then several companies, such as PowerHouse and Courts have since gone bust and that causes more complication.

If people are due this money , why don't the insurance companies just pay up instead of inventing these convoluted systems to prevent people getting hold of their own money?

MarkyMarkD

Because they are priced exactly on the assumption that half (or more) of those eligible won't comply with the conditions or will completely forget.

So they have a choice of a marketing message which says:

(a) get all your money back if you comply with the conditions; or
(b) get a little bit of your money back without having to go through any hoops.

Nobody sensible would buy the insurance, paying £250 (say) for breakdown cover, with a promise of a £30 rebate if they don't claim! But people will buy it for £250, expecting to claim it back, and then forget - or fail to comply with the Ts & Cs - meaning that the overall cost to the insurer is more like the £30.

If the companies had gone bust, you'd lose out whether claims are involved or not.

MarkyMarkD

I think you should really be submitting the claim in the name of the estate of your mum, but it's a bit of a formality.

Bossyboots

Paul_Varjak wrote:

You are probably correct, but there is no bank account for her estate, just a joint account in the names of my sister and I. If we asked them to pay to my sister and I, they would probably say that the refund on the guarantee is not transferable to someone else.

MarkyMarkD is correct but I'm with you on this one. I would just send it off. They aren't going to be any the wiser and it is money your mum's estate is entitled to. The companies get enough free money from people who don't claim properly, you don't want to give them the opportunity to keep some more.