Home contents insurance settlement - is this this allowed?

Olliebear55

We recently made a claim on damage to a 3D TV. Unfortunately, 3D televisions have been discontinued & our insurance company asked that we provide alternative replacement televisions. As it's not possible to provide a like for like we suggested 3 possibles with similar sound & vision quality we had previously ranging from £1200 to £1500. The insurers emailed agreeing to a cash settlement against the cheapest of the 3 suggested alternatives of £1199 less £350 excess. We emailed a reply accepting their offer. A further email from them asked for payee details to send the agreed amount and 2 days later they said they are prepared to pay £500 less excess! As the offer was made & accepted in writing, do I have a case to pursue the original offer? Any advice much appreciated.

Sandtree

It is more or less accepted that people that work in insurance companies are human and therefore can make mistakes. If a mistake has been made then they generally can reverse it however they may be responsible for any additional costs you have incurred having relied on that incorrect advice. 

What is the size of the TV and what is its age (or model number if known)? A 3D TV is likely to be at least a few years old so unless its a 75" type affair I'd be surprised that a like for like TV would be £1,500. With the pace of technology a top of the range TV 3 years ago is equiv to a mid range TV today etc

Ganga

Looking at the figures quoted it seems that £1199 less £350 is £849 .i wonder if who ever sorted the payment thought it was £849 less the excess so £499 to you.

Sandtree

Did you demand cash or was a cash settlement their idea?

It could be human error in the calc rather than the settlement, as I say, we may have somewhat chosen to work in insurance but we remain human.

If you demanded cash rather than a replacement unit then the other possibility is that they have forgotten to apply their corporate discount as the Ombudsman do allow them to harmonise the cash payment with what would have been the total cost had they put the claim through their preferred supplier. If they choose to settle cash rather than the preferred supplier then in all probability they dont have one but even if they did they couldn't apply the corporate discount