Broken computer, Home insurance

Jigglyfish

My 5 yr old spilt blackcurrent on my Apple macbook pro! When I got it new in 2019 I made sure it was on my home insurance as was expensive. £1400. I have been paying extra for accidental damage for a single item upto that amount although they cover upto £2000 apparently. Long story short basically the insurance company have it and obviously decided it's not fixable so offered me an Argos voucher for £1099, the link they provided takes me to a Apple macbook Air on Argos. I had a pro which is a more expensive model because it is used for a lot of design work which I do. The cheapest Pro now is £1699 as they have made them a bit bigger 14inch instead of 13inch and obviously it has other upgrades on my old one. They are arguing the current Air model is an upgrade on what I had as newer processor, screen etc and same spec. My argument is it is a cheaper model than I had and although the spec looks better it is not built to do hours of design work on like the pro models are. I rang my local Apple store to asktheir opinion as if the Air these days would ne o.k then I would take it but they advised I need a pro if doing losts of design work as it has a fan assisted cooler to stop it slowing down if i'm on it hours designing. I have said i'm not happy to accept their offer and told them to send it to someone higher up as i've got nowhere with 2 phone calls. I have to pay £300 excess which is fine, I knew that but feel they should be offering me at least the £1400 I had on my policy that my computer cost when I got it. It is new for old policy, Apple advised the equivellant s the Pto 14inch at £1699. Any ideas on my argument?

DullGreyGuy

What processor, RAM and SSD did you have in the old Pro model?

A voucher for £1,099 and so with your excess considered they're actually paying you £1,399 or is it a voucher for £799?

The MacBook Pro now also comes with a straight M3 processor that is identical to the one in the MacBook Air, with earlier models the M2 Pro was the lowest CPU available for it. Having a MacBook Pro M2 Pro myself (and a M1 Pro before it had a nasty fall) I can say in over 2.5 years use of both I have literally only known the fan to come on one single time for about 3 minutes. 

I dont think the "pro" designation really means much and isn't the basis for argument, I know a lot of self employed professionals that use a MBA, in fact Im one of the few using a MBP. However, I think you would have a stronger argument if there was some capability deficiency of the Air -v- the Pro that is critical for you. One of the reasons I went for the Pro rather than the Air was to be able to have 3 screens running at the same time which only the "pro" or above CPUs can do, the non-pro (inc the M3 MacBook Pro) can only drive two screens. 

Are the "designs" you doing for fun, business or the intention of generating revenue? Are the insurers aware of this if its the case its not for fun?

MattMattMattUK

Jigglyfish said:

My 5 yr old spilt blackcurrent on my Apple macbook pro! When I got it new in 2019 I made sure it was on my home insurance as was expensive. £1400. I have been paying extra for accidental damage for a single item upto that amount although they cover upto £2000 apparently. Long story short basically the insurance company have it and obviously decided it's not fixable so offered me an Argos voucher for £1099, the link they provided takes me to a Apple macbook Air on Argos. I had a pro which is a more expensive model because it is used for a lot of design work which I do. The cheapest Pro now is £1699 as they have made them a bit bigger 14inch instead of 13inch and obviously it has other upgrades on my old one. They are arguing the current Air model is an upgrade on what I had as newer processor, screen etc and same spec. My argument is it is a cheaper model than I had and although the spec looks better it is not built to do hours of design work on like the pro models are. I rang my local Apple store to asktheir opinion as if the Air these days would ne o.k then I would take it but they advised I need a pro if doing losts of design work as it has a fan assisted cooler to stop it slowing down if i'm on it hours designing. I have said i'm not happy to accept their offer and told them to send it to someone higher up as i've got nowhere with 2 phone calls. I have to pay £300 excess which is fine, I knew that but feel they should be offering me at least the £1400 I had on my policy that my computer cost when I got it. It is new for old policy, Apple advised the equivellant s the Pto 14inch at £1699. Any ideas on my argument?

I think you will ultimately have to take what you have been offered. The 2024 Macbook Air is more capable than the 2019 Pro. Doing the same tasks the modern Air will beat the legacy Pro. 

you also have to remember that your situation is not aimed to be one of betterment, you have had five years out of the machine and a replacement is both far cheaper and the existing unit you had also had a far lower retained value.

Now personally, if I was a Mac user I would be taking their £1,099, throwing a bit in myself and getting a a pro, but I am a geek a gamer (not that Mac gaming is really a thing even with MetalFX) and do a lot of heaving graphics, editing and UE5 work. I would say the fact that they offered that amount after five years is pretty good. 

DullGreyGuy

MattMattMattUK said:
you also have to remember that your situation is not aimed to be one of betterment, you have had five years out of the machine and a replacement is both far cheaper and the existing unit you had also had a far lower retained value.

Actually, with home insurance it is based on betterment rather than indemnity as most are written on a new for old basis. At a minimum you get a brand new version of whatever you've lost/damaged beyond repair and often you'll get the latest model of something which for white goods, tech etc tends to be better than your old one was. 

It's a well known moral risk and why there is always a spike in "dropped" phones etc when the new models are announced. 

Mark_d

I had a similar issue with a tablet computer about 10 years ago.  My tablet, which was accidentally damaged, was really very powerful with an i5 processor.  The insurer suggested a cheaper new model which was, on paper, better overall....but after some persuasion they agreed to replace my device with a refurbished item that was identical to the one I had.

Maybe your insurer can find you a refurbished 2019 macbook pro?

Jigglyfish

It is the cheapest Mac book Air they are offering me, when if it is meant to be new for old I think they should be offering me the same model which is clearly a better model since it's more expensive. It is new for old so I feel they should offer a new Pro instead of an Air. I have to give them £300 excess so will only end up with £799. If they at least paid the £1400 I have on my policy then I would get £1100, if they actually paid the new for old like they say they do then it should be £1399 as the lowest Pro costs £1699, single items are upto £2k on this policy.  If I take their offer I will have to pay another £900 to get the cheapest Pro! Why have I been paying extra to make sure it was covered at what I paid for it, to be then offered a cheaper model at a cheaper price? Doesn't seem right.

cw8825

Jigglyfish said:

It is the cheapest Mac book Air they are offering me, when if it is meant to be new for old I think they should be offering me the same model which is clearly a better model since it's more expensive. It is new for old so I feel they should offer a new Pro instead of an Air. I have to give them £300 excess so will only end up with £799. If they at least paid the £1400 I have on my policy then I would get £1100, if they actually paid the new for old like they say they do then it should be £1399 as the lowest Pro costs £1699, single items are upto £2k on this policy.  If I take their offer I will have to pay another £900 to get the cheapest Pro! Why have I been paying extra to make sure it was covered at what I paid for it, to be then offered a cheaper model at a cheaper price? Doesn't seem right.

they are offering new for old
they are offering an equivalent model

Jigglyfish

The equivalent model would be another pro, I had a Pro insured so the equivalent is another Pro, an Air is a down grade model. It's like insuring a Rolex and them offering you a Casio, just because they both tell the time. If it is new for old upto £2k then why is it not another Pro? Because there's a £600 difference is the reason. Anyway I will argue it. The guy on the phone agreed but told me he couldn't authorise it as they would have his guts for garters ( was his expression) talking about his boss's, they are just tryng to thob me off with a cheaper model.

cw8825

who are the insurers

Aretnap

It's absolutely normal that the replacement value of electronic items decreased over time - £1400 today will almost certainly buy a better more powerful computer that it would in 2019 and the insurance will pay out what it takes to buy an equivalent model today, rather than what the purchase price was. 

The flip side is that if it was something like furniture or jewellery, where prices tend to go up, the insurance would pay more than the purchase price if that's what it would take to buy an equivalent replacement now. Again quite standard - it's the current value not the purchase price that matters for insurance purposes.

By all means argue that they should be paying for a MacBook Pro as an equivalent replacement, but I would agree that your argument will be stronger if you can point to something objective that your old model had which the proposed new model is lacking. A more powerful processor, a bigger screen, more memory, or some functionality that you need. That more clearly puts it on a non-equivalent footing than whether it's labelled Pro or Air, which is mostly a matter of branding.

Jigglyfish

It's Swinton who use Lloyds, as soon as I heard Lloyds I thought here we go. I took them to the Financial ombudsman and won thousands for them miss selling PPI and home insurance before. I didn't realise Swinton used Lloyds until I put in the claim otherwise I wouldn't have gone with them. I left them years ago for banking. There is a reason they sell a Pro as it is better for professionals designing. I studies Graphics, the insurance company have my profession as a designer, I use it for a lot of design work on photoshop and illustrator, it's the reason I got a pro instead of a Air which is a cheaper model that is not really aimed at designers.