Problem with a customer, need advice please

Manxman_in_exile

dacouch wrote: »

Do you not have a Shop Keepers Policy, a decent such policy would automatically include "Treatment Risks" under the Product Liability section which is specifically designed to pay and handle claims against you for mistakes etc in treatments you provide.

Who are your Insurers?

I'm quoting this in the hope dacouch (who I assume works in insurance) can give the OP some good advice


EDIT: looking at OP again there seems to be a court date set and an exchange of correspondence, claims etc. Quite a lot seems to have happened.

J_B

Nicole85 wrote: »

£38.50!!!! What company is that? I pay almost £700 to AXA.

She uses the the local broker in town - she is a 'one woman band'

peachyprice

Nicole85 wrote: »

Because I know that I'm being scammed and I'm going to put an stop to this behaviour instead of encouraging it by getting my insurance involved.

Oh dear.

It doesn't matter whether or not you're being scammed, you're being sued, a court date has been set, this is happening. What are you going to do if she wins (unlikely, yes I know, but still a possibility)? You'll be personally liable for any costs, it will be too late then, if it isn't already, to go to your insurers.

This should have been passed to them straight away, they would then have fought your (their) side and stopped this in it's tracks if it is indeed a scam.

What on earth do you think you pay £700 to AXA for? It's to protect you from exactly this. If you had passed it straight to your insurers it would probably have frightened her off straight away, by dealing with this yourself you have given her the impression, as you have the people here, that you have no insurance and have left yourself wide open to being scammed. Only a person with no professional insurance would behave the way you are, she thinks she's got you over a barrel.

Manxman_in_exile

peachyprice wrote: »

Oh dear.

It doesn't matter whether or not you're being scammed, you're being sued, a court date has been set, this is happening. What are you going to do if she wins (unlikely, yes I know, but still a possibility)? You'll be personally liable for any costs, it will be too late then, if it isn't already, to go to your insurers.

This should have been passed to them straight away, they would then have fought your (their) side and stopped this in it's tracks if it is indeed a scam.

What on earth do you think you pay £700 to AXA for? It's to protect you from exactly this. If you had passed it straight to your insurers it would probably have frightened her off straight away, by dealing with this yourself you have given her the impression, as you have the people here, that you have no insurance and have left yourself wide open to being scammed. Only a person with no professional insurance would behave the way you are, she thinks she's got you over a barrel.

That's certainly what I think!


(EDIT: mind you, I'm not certain I'd be suing someone I thought didn't have insurance! Like you, I assumed from the early posts that the OP wasn't insured. I was gobsmacked when she revealed she was paying £700 pa and hadn't involved them!)

brianposter

Maybe the OP feels that her insurance is so expensive because insurance companies do not deal adequately with scams.

Manxman_in_exile

brianposter wrote: »

Maybe the OP feels that her insurance is so expensive because insurance companies do not deal adequately with scams.

The OP may very well feel that. But by not passing the claim onto her insurers (and I'm assuming she has not - by what the OP has posted) she may have invalidated her insurance and caused problems further down the line.


Insurers don't pay out money they don't have to. I have no doubt that if the claimant is claiming for loss of earnings as a "surgeon" the insurance company would check this.


The OP should pass all legal claims onto her insurer!

peachyprice

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

That's certainly what I think!


(EDIT: mind you, I'm not certain I'd be suing someone I thought didn't have insurance! Like you, I assumed from the early posts that the OP wasn't insured. I was gobsmacked when she revealed she was paying £700 pa and hadn't involved them!)

I guess the woman may be thinking if she has no insurance she'll pay up herself just to make it go away, whereas an insurance company would put up more of a fight so they didn't have to pay out.

Manxman_in_exile

peachyprice wrote: »

I guess the woman may be thinking if she has no insurance she'll pay up herself just to make it go away, whereas an insurance company would put up more of a fight so they didn't have to pay out.

I guess so - but suing somebody who isn't insured seems a bit of a lottery to me.


Funnily enough, my wife had some kind of cosmetic eyebrow treatment a couple of years ago. (She grew up when plucking your eyebrows to within an inch of their lives was fashionable). I was totally against it, but now her eyebrows look great!


What if something had gone wrong? I'm not sure my wife made sure the practitioner had adequate insurance cover.


I do wonder if all of these "beauty salons/practitioners" have proper insurance cover in place.

unholyangel

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

I guess so - but suing somebody who isn't insured seems a bit of a lottery to me.


Funnily enough, my wife had some kind of cosmetic eyebrow treatment a couple of years ago. (She grew up when plucking your eyebrows to within an inch of their lives was fashionable). I was totally against it, but now her eyebrows look great!


What if something had gone wrong? I'm not sure my wife made sure the practitioner had adequate insurance cover.


I do wonder if all of these "beauty salons/practitioners" have proper insurance cover in place.

Undoubtedly not all of them will because insurance is usually to protect them rather than their customers. Some trade bodies require their members to have certain insurance to comply with their code of practice but its not required by law.


Look at car insurance - that IS required by law yet some people still drive without it. Anything to save themselves a few £.

Manxman_in_exile

unholyangel wrote: »

Undoubtedly not all of them will because insurance is usually to protect them rather than their customers. Some trade bodies require their members to have certain insurance to comply with their code of practice but its not required by law.


Look at car insurance - that IS required by law yet some people still drive without it. Anything to save themselves a few £.

What concerns me is that I suspect many beauty salons and hairdressers etc. don't have any appropriate cover at all. What happens when it goes horribly wrong?