Protect my bubble (I don't think so!)

putney661

I recently had cause to claim for a cracked screen on my sons mobile phone. I had 4 family phones ins for 6 months from Protect my bubble (PMB). The claim was refused. I was truly shocked to find out why.
I purchased all 4 phones through Rakuten (formerly Play.com). The claim was refused because Rakuten do not pay their tax in the UK. it took me 2 emails and 3 calls to confirm this.
Now consider this...... The last time you bought a toaster did you ask the nice man at Currys where the company pays its tax? No you didn't. How many people make a tech purchase on line or abroad, maybe coming home from the USA on the far east and just add it to their PMB policy and forget all about it. There must be thousands of people wasting thousands of £s who have a policy with PMB who are not actually insured. It is buried in the T&Cs. But for obvious reasons they do not point this out when you purchase the policy. My phone was made in S Korea what difference does it make where the distributing company pay their tax. I argued the toss with PMB and had all my premiums returned.
what a rip off!

InsideInsurance

What is the actual clause in the contract they are relying on?

They are head officed in Luxembourg, like many companies, and so they may be avoiding UK tax but with EU laws on taxation and freemovement this isnt any legal issue at all.

As per http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/92/92-insurance-claims.html#cs13 the FOS previously have said the fact someone has bought overseas and not paid UK taxes as irrelevant - though in this case it was a case that the item had been illegally brought into the UK and taxes avoided rather than this case of taxes being paid within the EU but just a different country.

EdGasket

I would report it to the ombudsman as an unfair clause. You are right, most people won't know if the seller pays tax here or not and why should that have any bearing on the validity of the cover anyway?

forgotmyname

Did Rakuten actually sell the items though? When it changed hands i thought it went from a shop to an Amazon style situation but where they didnt sell anything themselves?

I used to buy all my memory cards from Play.com but when they changed i looked and there were about 3 sellers with many thousands of listings.

I gave up looking and never used the site since.

putney661

Im not that interested in the whys and where fors or the inner workings of PMB their policy details or getting in touch with the ombudsman.
I posted this to make others aware that they are being ripped off. As I said, I argued the toss with PMB, it took a few letters and phome calls but they returned all my premiums. I suggest others check their policies and do the same. Share with as many people as you can.