DFS Five Year Optional Care Cover

pammya99

Hi, I'd like some help/advice please.  In Nov-18 I paid a premium to DFS for 5 Year Optional Care Cover and in Mar-21 requested this is cancelled.  To cut a long story short DFS didn't set up the cover (both they and the insurance company have confirmed this).  They are offering me a pro rata refund which is the amount I would be entitled to IF the policy had been set up when it should have been, which is when the furniture was delivered.  I don't think this is acceptable because they only set the policy up when I requested it be cancelled.  In the product T&Cs there is a 30 day cancellation period from the date the policy is set up (usually on delivery of furniture) and I am arguing that in this instance I should be entitled to a full refund because DFS have taken my money but because of their mistake I have not had the benefit of the product.
Any guidance or clarification would be appreciated.  Thank you!

JHW1942

pammya99 said:

Hi, I'd like some help/advice please.  In Nov-18 I paid a premium to DFS for 5 Year Optional Care Cover and in Mar-21 requested this is cancelled.  To cut a long story short DFS didn't set up the cover (both they and the insurance company have confirmed this).  They are offering me a pro rata refund which is the amount I would be entitled to IF the policy had been set up when it should have been, which is when the furniture was delivered.  I don't think this is acceptable because they only set the policy up when I requested it be cancelled.  In the product T&Cs there is a 30 day cancellation period from the date the policy is set up (usually on delivery of furniture) and I am arguing that in this instance I should be entitled to a full refund because DFS have taken my money but because of their mistake I have not had the benefit of the product.
Any guidance or clarification would be appreciated.  Thank you!

It's an insurance product, usually something you never hope to benefit from.  If the 5 year policy had been set up on delivery and you had no cause to claim for 5 years, you wouldn't have had any benefit anyway.

They created a contract which you agreed to back in 2018, and paid for.  Presumably that contract has a start date of November 2018 and the only thing they didn't do was press a button to start it, or similar.  Had you had cause to make a claim on the policy at any point, their error would have come to light and they would have had to honour the policy since the contract and evidence of payment exists.  

It's an interesting one, to which I don't have a definitive answer, but I can see how they might defend your claim.