Pet Insurance, Exclusions applied mid policy.

cheeseman002 · 12 October at 3:22PM

sheramber said:

cheeseman002 said:

sheramber said:

As I said anything you have mentioned to the vet and is noted in the medical records, whether treatment is given or not , becomes a pre existing condition from that date.

I would suggest you go back to the vet and ask them to confirm to the insurance company that the diagnosis was heart related and was not connected in any way to the previous cough.

It I’ll be up to the vet whether he will confirm it is not connected to the previous cough.

There is the possibility that the original episode of coughing was an early indication of the heart problem.

We did ask the vet to speak to Animal Friends about this, and apparently they did have several conversations with them and they refused to change their position. The cough we spoke to the vet about in year one we felt was throat related and completely different to the horrendous cough that lead to his final visit to the vet.

Then submit a formal complaint per the details in your policy document.

They have 8 weeks to reply.

If they do not reply in that time or you are not happy with their reply yiu can refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

Hi sheramber, Thanks for your reply,
I did start a formal complaint with Animal Friends on the 12th September and I am still awaiting a decision!
I also requested a data subject access request under GDPR , I have received all the data from them and it makes for interesting reading! Including all recorded phone calls, where some of the staff appeared to be lacking in knowledge about the company they work for ! They had a considerable amount of information about me and medical records of our dog before they provided a quote for the second year of insurance.
I'm quite prepared to escalate this to the FOC, and a local radio consumer programme have shown an interest in my concerns about pet insurance!
I also have concerns they may have outsourced their claims assessor department!

cheeseman002 · 3 November at 5:30PM

Well ! Good news !
Animal Friends have given a final response to my complaint and have overturned the rejection of the claim for the condition "Cough" and are going to reimburse us for All claims relating to Reggies final days, in line with their vet fee limits.
For the claim of £836.31 for the heart scan they will pay £677.31
For the claim of £403.38 for Euthanasia they will pay £116 ( This claim included a private cremation and Reggies ashes returned in a bamboo casket, we were happy to pay for this part and did not expect the extra cost to be covered.
We also claimed for "death of your pet" which is included in the policy to cover the cost of purchase of your pet in the event of death or euthanasia. This was for £800, we no longer had a bill of sale but luckily we managed to find screenshots of conversations with the breeder, they accepted these as proof of purchase and deducted 25% for the 2 years we had with him and are paying £600
They also apologised for the death of our Reggie and the parts of the customer service which they belive fell below their expectations, with compensation of £50.
In total we are expecting to be reimbursed a total of £1443.31
We are happy with the outcome, and would advise anyone who feels they have been unfairly treated over pet insurance to make a complaint with a level head, also request full GDPR disclosure as this reveals interesting information that they hold on you and your pet/s.
Thank you everyone for your messages and comments !