Unhappy with insurer's replacement phone

Quentin

Raise a complaint about the condition of the replacement.

Then if you are unhappy with the reply or they ignore you for 8 weeks you can then escalate to the fos for their adjudication at no cost to you

Poppy9

Kim_13 wrote: »

OP are you sure it's a 5 and not a 5s?

.

Just checked and it's a 5c

missbiggles1 wrote: »

If you haven't even switched it on yet, how do you know whether it works well or not?

I'm not accepting the cosmetic appearance of the phone. I would assume it's been tested for functionality as it's a refurb.

csgohan4 wrote: »

For the sake of a phone your premiums for the next 5 years are going to being increased. That is not money saving.


If you had to claim because of large leak in your house causing your ceiling collapse, fair enough.


Just because we have insurance, doesn't mean we need to claim on it, as there are consequences, expensive ones.

When I was looking at contents & phone insurance for DD when she moved into private rented accommodation I followed a word of caution from this site that if I relied on away from home cover for DD then if she needed to claim my home insurance would rise so I should consider a stand alone policy. In Y2 it was cheaper to go for a free standing contents and free standing mobile phone policy (she was house sharing and didn't have lock on her room etc.). In Y3 different property and it was cheaper to have free standing contents with optional extras added for Laptop, Ipad, Iphone etc.

The policy was in DD name for her uni address. It is specialist student insurance. It comes with a £10 excess on a claim. DD is only home for a few weeks as she's off travelling for months. She has protect my bubble for her new phone and I believe it doesn't ask about any claims.

I asked my home insurers about declaring claims for any now residents who had claimed on a freestanding policy for their then home address and they said only myself and OH as policy holders contents claims affect policy and as it was a mobile phone, away from home and free standing addition not applicable.

I am not an excessive insurance claimer. In over 30 years as a home owner with building and contents insurance I have claimed twice. Once for a leaking roof 27 years ago and second time for storm damage to my roof 20 years ago. Car insurance, no at fault claim ever twice for a car/bus driving into me in over 35 years of motoring.

I am meticulous in declaring for insurance and OH is obsessive an even pointed out his insurers had applied a discount for holding bike licence as long as his car licence which was incorrect. They didn't adjust his premium for his honesty but said they would note for future years but never increased price and they are still best value 5 years on!

missbiggles1

Poppy9 wrote: »

Just checked and it's a 5c

I'm not accepting the cosmetic appearance of the phone. I would assume it's been tested for functionality as it's a refurb.

Style over substance!

Poppy9

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Style over substance!

Not at all. As the phone is in poor cosmetic condition it's not been well looked after so I think this will affect it's durability as there is no warranty with it, no details of what has/hasn't been replaced.

A phone that looks neglected is not the same as a phone that has been well looked after.

Just as I wouldn't buy a car with dings /dents rust etc even if they claimed mechanically it's sound. Is that style over substance, I think not.

FutureGirl

Your daughter had her own home insurance policy, and is making a claim on that policy. If she moves back home, and you are asked if anyone living there has made a claim, you have to declare it.

For example Direct Line ask about claims by you, and anyone living with you.

Poppy9

FutureGirl wrote: »

Your daughter had her own home insurance policy, and is making a claim on that policy. If she moves back home, and you are asked if anyone living there has made a claim, you have to declare it.

As I said I spoke to my home insurers and they said it's irrelevant and I don't need to declare it as a claim as it's not contents insurance as such. I gave them details of company and the type of policy and they said I would only need to inform them if it was a claim for home contents but as it's an add on for a mobile away from home and accidental damage it's not relevant and doesn't affect my premiums. Also as I was due for renewal I asked them if my renewal quote was the best they could do as I can get £20 cheaper from my car insurers due to multi policy discount and they matched it. So £150 for building & contents with accidental damage, I'm happy with.

I even tried declaring it on confused.com to check renewal quotes and it's made no difference with my lowest quotes.

Kim_13

5c has been out of production since September 2014 (if 16 or 32GB) and since September 2015 if 8GB, so again there would likely be issues in sourcing a replacement.

I would be pushing for a cash amount if they can't provide a similar condition of 5c (most insurers don't guarantee to match the colour so if the insurer has, perhaps they can get a better condition handset in a different colour?) Again a 5s would be an improvement (released at the same time as 5c but the 5c has iPhone 5 internals) so the insurer is under no obligation to do this even if such a handset was available.

Every retailer of used handsets grades the phones by cosmetic appearance; I think it fair to expect that insurers should do the same and as such, this phone would be either Grade C or unsellable.

FutureGirl

Your current insurer might be OK with it, but if you go to another insurer, double check the question they ask. As I said, Direct Line ask about claims made by any adult in living there - so you'd need to declare it. Not declaring it will be like having no home insurance at all.

Who is your daughter insured with now?

Poppy9

FutureGirl wrote: »

Your current insurer might be OK with it, but if you go to another insurer, double check the question they ask. As I said, Direct Line ask about claims made by any adult in living there - so you'd need to declare it. Not declaring it will be like having no home insurance at all.

Who is your daughter insured with now?

She's with Insurance2 go full cover. She had her new phone before she made insurance claim as she was told her phone would dry out and the screen would start working again if she placed it in rice. The phone was live, charging etc. but the touch screen wouldn't work so after 2 weeks she gave up and submitted a claim thinking they would just replace touch screen. There doesn't seem to be a bit on Insurance2 go about previous claims.

As I said I also tried putting it into Confused.com as I always shop around and it's made no difference even though I couldn't specify it as a phone only as accidential damage away from home.

It might be because I don't insure any item for away from home on my home insurance policy.

Poppy9

Kim_13 wrote: »

5c has been out of production since September 2014 (if 16 or 32GB) and since September 2015 if 8GB, so again there would likely be issues in sourcing a replacement.

I would be pushing for a cash amount if they can't provide a similar condition of 5c (most insurers don't guarantee to match the colour so if the insurer has, perhaps they can get a better condition handset in a different colour?) Again a 5s would be an improvement (released at the same time as 5c but the 5c has iPhone 5 internals) so the insurer is under no obligation to do this even if such a handset was available.

Every retailer of used handsets grades the phones by cosmetic appearance; I think it fair to expect that insurers should do the same and as such, this phone would be either Grade C or unsellable.

It's 8gb I believe as she hated how little storage it had and now has 64gb. Yes they did match colour though she didn't ask them to as not really bothered by colour as phone always in a case. I would even pay a reasonable amount to reflect different in value if they wished to upgrade the phone but I would expect it to be in excellent condition.

I will get DD to ring Monday as when she previously spoke to them they were very helpful as their repairer had phone for almost 3 weeks before saying they couldn't fix it and would replace and insurer said it wasn't their normal level of service. I wonder if they just sent anything as they had it on their "work bench" for so long!