Appliance Insurance

Easysilence

Hi, I need some advice regarding kitchen appliance insurance.
I have a plan in place with British Gas which costs £72.38 a year, covers breakdown on 3 kitchen appliances (washing machine, cooker, fridge). Call-outs are subject to a £50 excess charge. I've had this cover in place for about 3 years and have only recently had the need to call them out, for the washing machine.
Getting on for a month ago now, the washing machine broke. I arranged for British Gas to come out and fix it, and they gave me an appointment which was 12 days after the day I called them, which I felt was unacceptable, and complained. Some people may be able to manage ok for that length of time without a washing machine, if they have a launderette next door or family nearby who can do their washing for them. I have neither, it was a real problem for me. British Gas offered me £30 compensation which I wasn't happy with, so they referred it to their complaints dept., who according to their terms, have up to 8 weeks to respond.
6 days before my appointment, British Gas called and cancelled it. They had higher priority customers. I went back to the end of the queue and the re-booked appointment was another 6 days later, 18 days after I had originally booked the appointment. A lot of dirty clothes building up in the bathroom now and I had no choice other than to go out and buy new clothes. Not something I had planned for or could afford.
As of Tuesday this week, the washing machine is fixed. Hooray!!
British Gas have presented me with their £50 bill for the excess charge, which I am obliged to pay.
I want to cancel the policy. A policy which makes me wait 18 days for an appointment is no good to me. Problem is, I have an outstanding complaint. If I have cancelled the policy, will they still address the complaint and give me a sensible amount of compensation? Is the repair they have just done guaranteed if it breaks again? I hate the fact that I am still paying a monthly charge for a policy I don't want while I am being held in limbo over their 8 week delay on addressing my complaint. I'm hesitant about telling them I am intending to cancel the policy as I feel they won't address the complaint if they are going to lose me as a customer anyway. I'm not the sort of customer they want anyway as I'm a complainer, so I don't suppose they care.
I want to get a policy in place with domestic and general who don't have the same engineers doing appliance repairs as other types of repairs, so don't put people like me at the bottom of the priority list. Problem is if I take out a policy with d&g I need to have it in place for a month before I can callout, so don't really want to delay, but also don't want to be paying both d&g and British Gas for the same cover at the same time.
I will add here that all this happened before all this business with the snow. I fully accept that people with broken boilers are higher priority than me and my washing machine. But it wasn't snowing during the 18 days I was waiting for this repair.
I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on the best course of action over cancelling the policy.

FutureGirl

Could you not hand wash the clothes instead of buying new clothes?

Easysilence

I did hand wash a few bits but it's very difficult to get sopping wet clothes dry in the winter when hanging them outside isn't an option.

EdGasketTheSecond

Why not forget insurance and just pay someone to fix it next time; I bet they'd be round right away if you were paying! Alternatively check on the internet, there are often youtube videos of how to fix common problems yourself.

In general insurance is only worth having if you can't afford the potential loss. I wouldn't put appliance insurance in a 'must have' category but house insurance I would.

Easysilence

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

Why not forget insurance and just pay someone to fix it next time; I bet they'd be round right away if you were paying! Alternatively check on the internet, there are often youtube videos of how to fix common problems yourself.

In general insurance is only worth having if you can't afford the potential loss. I wouldn't put appliance insurance in a 'must have' category but house insurance I would.

Yeah you're right. I think because in the past I had a machine that was constantly going wrong and I was always having to call them out I felt it was necessary, but this bad experience has convinced me otherwise.

EdGasketTheSecond

Plus fridges hardly ever go wrong; ours never have and one is about 30 years old. Cookers, if electric, do burn out elements but they aren't that difficult to change and the part is usually < £20.

Della99

Do not use above company for your appliance insurance if you have built in appliances. Also they are very very expensive.
I had my boiler, washing machine and dishwasher insured with them. They cancelled the annual boiler service on the Silver Plan insurance and wanted to move me up to their Gold Plan which had boiler service on but was far more expensive.
My washing machine was repaired twice by their engineer and then there was a problem with the spin cycle and when the engineer came he refused to take the washing machine out as the other engineers had and quoted health and safety. He asked that next time I take it out and put it on the kitchen floor for him to repair and then I could put it back. I SAID I COULDN'T BECAUSE I AM A 74 YEAR OLD LADY. He said he couldn't repair it then. I rang Customer Services who said it was in the Contract (which went on for ever in Font 6) and I should have read it. I said why didn't the sales rep point this out went he signed me up and the reply was they can't know every appliance. (I did tell them by the way they were integrated). Use a local man for your repairs and services it is much cheaper and faster.

csgohan4

cheaper to save some money every month to use to fix appliances.

Also research appliances which have long warranties and good rep. Avoid Indesit

Paul_DNAP

csgohan4 wrote: »

cheaper to save some money every month to use to fix appliances.

Also research appliances which have long warranties and good rep. Avoid Indesit

Yes, I am another vote for the "self insuring" for small appliances. Putting £72.38 into an instant saver every year for three years, plus your £50 spurious charge, then you'd have over £260 which would be more than enough to buy a decent new washing machine, delivered, set up and the old one taken away in less time than it takes British Guess to answer the phone.

In any case, if you want a repair rather than replace (lower your carbon footprint) then instead of the utterly ridiculous £50 excess call out fee, you could spend that to pay for a decent local plumber to come out and have a look at it for you and then pay the repairs out of your insurance fund.


But to the main question in the opening post - cancelling your policy should not alter your complaint progress as your policy was in place on the date of the claim, make sure you keep your policy documents etc.