[LoveItCoverIt] Need advice on how to proceed. Horrible gut feeling.

cflowers1981

I took out mobile phone insurance in June this year through LoveItCoverIt (Pier are the actual insurance company). I've never taken out gadget insurance before but these guys seemed to have positive reviews, website looked professional with 5 star Defaqto and regulated by the FCA. They sell a VIP service which offers next day doorstep replacement or repair for an authorised claim which is made before 4pm. This is the level of cover I opted for and felt reassured that my Samsung S7 Edge was now covered in the event of an accident.

On Wednesday 9th November I dropped my phone which resulted in the screen smashing. Immediately I dug out the policy documents and emailed LoveItCoverIt at approximately 11am to make a claim. I expected to receive at the very least, an automated reply to say that my claim had been received however I received nothing and at around midday I went to their website and noticed they had an electronic claim form. I completed this form and submitted it. Again, I expected a form of reply but I waited until the evening and had received nothing. So I called them at 1700 that evening to ask if they had received it. They confirmed receipt but required proof of purchase and I was advised to contact EE (my operator) to acquire this. I did this right away and EE informed me that the proof of purchase would be with me within 48 hours. I emailed LoveItCoverIt back just to update them that I'm awaiting the proof of purchase and that once it's arrived I'll forward on to them.

Thursday 10th of November, overnight the proof of purchase had arrived in my inbox and I forward it on to LoveItCoverIt at approximately 0715. Again no response, so I called them up at around 1100 to ask for confirmation that they had received my proof of purchase. They confirmed that they had and that they were happy with it, as it details the IMEI number. I was then instructed to wait for an email from them which would instruct me to call them to proceed with the claim.

Rightly or wrongly, I expected this would happen by the evening of the 10th but I heard nothing. So I started, as you do, to look to Google for reviews of the company again. It didn't take long before I started to get that horrible feeling in my gut. The more recent reviews, from those who were going/gone through the claims procedure were terrible. Everything I had experienced so far, primarily lack of communication was being highlighted by reviewers. But not only that, poor service and poor quality of replacement items were also being described in the reviews (via review site Feefo).

I scrolled further back in history to their better reviews, and the reviews I had based my initial purchase on, and it started to become apparent that most of the better reviews, were reviews based on the experience of purchasing the insurance and not actually using the service. Then it clicked, I remember after purchasing the insurance that they immediately sent me an email asking to review them. Putting two and two together now in hindsight that's a pretty sneaky way of doing business. Because they will quickly build up a decent review off the basis of purchasing the insurance, which by the way as reviewed, goes smoothly and not actually on the basis of the service offered, which is now evident from the recent reviews to be poor.

As a result of reading these reviews at around 1800 on the evening of the 10th I emailed them back addressing it to the management to express my concern about the claims procedure and lack of feedback from them throughout thus far. And that given I'd purchased their VIP service I expected things to move a bit more rapidly then they had been. I also made comment about my concern over the growing number of poor reviews they have received in recent months. I requested a response by telephone.

It's now 1230 on 11th November and I've still heard nothing from them.

I'm now in a quandary over what to do. Part of me wants to give them the benefit of the doubt, as it has realistically only been 2 days however I don't feel that meets the VIP service they advertise. However, off the back of the poor reviews, I now have concerns that if they eventually get back to me, and I go ahead and pay my excess, that if a replacement is offered as opposed to a screen repair that the quality of the replacement won't be up to par. I appreciate that they may supply refurbished models as replacements, however surely they have a duty to supply a working like-for-like condition one?

The other part of me feels the urge to start thinking about contacting the Financial Ombudsman Service to complain and contacting my credit card company, which is how I paid for the years cover, to recover the payment.

Or am I being far too hasty? Were it not for the lack of communication and the poor reviews, I probably wouldn't be bothered.

How long should I leave it before I hear from them? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

glentoran99

You have nothing to claim for, to use the FOS anyway you would need to have exhausted the companies complaint process.


If the replacement isn't up to standard only then can you complain, and you wont be able to claim on credit card if they meet whats in the agreement you have with them, You should always go for new for old insurance, and your phone could well already be covered on your home insurance.


Have you not already paid the excess? Have they got your phone yet? When I claimed just last week id to pay the excess before they collected

cflowers1981

glentoran99 wrote: »

You have nothing to claim for, to use the FOS anyway you would need to have exhausted the companies complaint process.


If the replacement isn't up to standard only then can you complain, and you wont be able to claim on credit card if they meet whats in the agreement you have with them, You should always go for new for old insurance, and your phone could well already be covered on your home insurance.


Have you not already paid the excess? Have they got your phone yet? When I claimed just last week id to pay the excess before they collected

Hi and thanks for replying. I appreciate I've no case at present, I'm operating at the moment off of a bad feeling having read the recent reviews of the company. I'm looking further ahead in the event of 'what ifs' and how to proceed.

I've yet to pay the excess and they don't have the phone yet. Don't get me wrong, I understand I'm perhaps being a bit hasty and as I stressed in my original post, were it not for the lack of communication from them and reading the bad reviews I probably wouldn't be here right now.

I'll give it until the end of the day on Monday next week before I contact them to get an update. I had just assumed, rightly or wrongly, that things would move a little quicker then they have done so far.

I've not looked at claiming off the home insurance because I had this seperate insurance.

glentoran99

Might also be worth investigating if a repair would be less than your excess

cflowers1981

For this insurance, the excess is only £50. My home insurance excess is £200.

A repair is anything from £150 to £200 I'm lead to believe.

glentoran99

Whats the phone? is it an iphone?

cflowers1981

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

TSx

Deal with them by telephone.

I work for an insurer - our post queues (emails coming in) fluctuate on a daily basis and sometimes take 24 hours to get a response, other times take 5 working days. It's poor form to not indicate timescales but if they haven't done anything with your first email, the odds are they haven't even read your second one. You are much better off ringing them to chase.

cflowers1981

Thought I'd drop by and update. So called the insurer today at around midday. Took a good 25-30 minutes before anyone answered. Once through, I asked about the status of my.claim. It hadn't yet been processed, so the rep was going to push it through to be processed as a matter of urgency.

Then it got, in my opinion, a bit weird. So the guy said that due to a "countrywide" shortage of Samsung replacement screens AND handsets that they're advising customers to seek out a repair shop themselves, acquire a cost to repair quote, send it to the insurer for approval. If approved, pay out of your own pocket for the repair and the insurer will reimburse less the excess.

Is this normal behaviour!? Or does it seem a bit weird to anyone else!?

rs65

cflowers1981 wrote: »

they're advising customers to seek out a repair shop themselves, acquire a cost to repair quote, send it to the insurer for approval. If approved, pay out of your own pocket for the repair and the insurer will reimburse less the excess.

Is this normal behaviour!? Or does it seem a bit weird to anyone else!?

It used to be quite normal for most types of insurance but over the years insurers have moved to arranging repairs/replacements themselves to manage costs and maximise buying power.

If there is a nationwide shortage, surely that will affect all repairers? Also, doesn't quite tie in with the VIP service you've been paying for.

cflowers1981

So, I obtained a quote from the Samsung Experience Store in Milton Keynes.

£190...

I've forward it on to the insurers to await their approval of the quote. However, there is up to 28 days wait for the parts to come in, which correlates with what the guy from the insurance company was saying I suppose.

I'm not happy about forking out £200 and awaiting reimbursement, but looks like I'll have no choice.

I've learnt a bit of a lesson from gadget insurance though which is some positive I guess.

1) ensure its a new for old policy
2) do more research about best company to choose