Guardsman Sofa protection Vs home contents insurance

492800

We may be buying a 6k leather sofa from Furniture Village. They have an option for Guardsman Sofa protection, 5 years £160 single payment.
https://www.furniturevillage.co.uk/guardsman.html


Is this much different from having home contents insurance with accidental damage?

ashe

Suppose claiming a few times on your accidental damage cover would cost you in excesses and premoum
increases

with guardsman they will come out and do things but there are limits, pet damage is once per policy I think, and they have terms that they can't guarantee colour matches. Initially they will send you cleaning kits to resolve it yourself and then send someone out. We did use ours a few times as was a suede sofa and it stained easily 

Bigphil1474

OP, we got similar cover 'free' when we bought ours. Might have been from SCS can't remember. We simply said we'd like the cover but couldn't afford it so they reduced the price of the sofas to cover it, and a bit extra.
It gives you additional cover and won't affect any future premiums as there aren't any. If you can get it thrown in, then it's a no brainer.

ashe

Yeah agree with posted above, we've always negotiated a discount with scs of around 10% - on your sofa that would be huge so it's worth asking. If they say no, walk away. They're on commission and they won't want to lose that. 

Worst case furniture village are on topcashback - 7.5% so that would be £450 off, so I'd offer them 10% discount with guardsman thrown in else you will just order online, worth a try as I bet they have leeway to negotiate and they will want your sale in the store 

Sandtree

492800 said:

Is this much different from having home contents insurance with accidental damage?

No excess
No increase in premiums the following year
Animal scratched are covered - home insurance increasingly often doesn't cover damage by pets.

Cannot find the actual T&Cs readily but it does sound like its a warranty and not insurance, certainly Guardman themselves are not an insurance company, and so its likely there are no set channels of escalation if you are unhappy with their decision to decline a claim etc.

492800

Thanks for the input, some good things to cover.
TBH, we have no animals, nor kids, but do have guests over occasionally, so it may be a good option, and for piece of mind

492800

ashe said:

Yeah agree with posted above, we've always negotiated a discount with scs of around 10% - on your sofa that would be huge so it's worth asking. If they say no, walk away. They're on commission and they won't want to lose that. 

Worst case furniture village are on topcashback - 7.5% so that would be £450 off, so I'd offer them 10% discount with guardsman thrown in else you will just order online, worth a try as I bet they have leeway to negotiate and they will want your sale in the store 

good to know for sure. I wsnt sure if sofas are a haggle-able item, but if it is then great!

Although looking at topcashback I can see the 7% option, but when i log into my account i can only get 5.95%, which is odd.

ashe

492800 said:

ashe said:

Yeah agree with posted above, we've always negotiated a discount with scs of around 10% - on your sofa that would be huge so it's worth asking. If they say no, walk away. They're on commission and they won't want to lose that. 

Worst case furniture village are on topcashback - 7.5% so that would be £450 off, so I'd offer them 10% discount with guardsman thrown in else you will just order online, worth a try as I bet they have leeway to negotiate and they will want your sale in the store 

good to know for sure. I wsnt sure if sofas are a haggle-able item, but if it is then great!

Although looking at topcashback I can see the 7% option, but when i log into my account i can only get 5.95%, which is odd.

they wont know that though Just show them the 7% option and say can you do 10%, and ask to throw in the guardsman. Its cheeky but they get a big cut of that sale and if youre spending £6k a lot of that is profit, they won't want you to walk out and worst case you can walk out and just order it online

492800

As an add on to this question. If we are wanting this type of 'insurance' do we have to get it through Furniture Village or can we get it elsewhere that may be cheaper/better?

If so. Are there any specific companies?

Sandtree

There are two big players who've got the market stitched up and dont really do direct sales as far as I am aware. One or two large companies offer their own but only on their own furniture... as its not legally insurance its not that difficult to setup.

Staingard do mention about doing direct sales but its a faff with a visit to inspect the items etc before they'll quote so is unlikely to be competitive. 

ashe

Yeah I had a look around when we got ours and it was pretty sparse looking. It's essentially buy from retailer or rely on home insurance. 

Another factor to consider is you would have to declare the item to your home insurance as it's worth £6k, that will probably add something to your premiums over the life of the cover so as well as excesses, your cover will cost you  more