Advice needed after burglary

beverley1296

Had house burgled while at work, 3 druggys stole my 50 inch plasma and 37 inch LCD tv, plus kids laptops games consoles, games and loads more stuff, the police have returned my 2 tvs, and a mobile and the xbox360, no wired headphones and all the bits though.
I want to know can I still claim for my TVs as these were as new and had never been moved from their stands, both are under 18 months old, but have been returned all scratched. I'm livid. Never needed to claim before and do not know how insurance works?
I rang up and the lady I spoke to told me to write down everything that was taken and price them from the argos catalogue, but not sure whether I could ask for these to be replaced? Obviously I would expect the insurance to take them away, I'm not trying to get extra TVs.
One is in prison one bailed and other a juvenile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Justice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there

I feel very sorry for anyone who has gone through a burglary; it's not a nice experience nad I hope you get through it all ok.

Firstly, make sure you have still got every key to your home (including all the spares). If not, your Contents insurers will pay to have your locks replaced. TAKE THEM UP ON THIS; you never know who the little s0ds will have passed the keys on to, even if they have been caught.

Secondly, you are entitled to have all items that have been the subject of the theft either repaired (if recovered) or replaced. What you need to do is make it clear in a covering letter to your insurers that the TV's have been "recovered damaged and are available for collection" and that you would prefer to "have them replaced and the damaged TV's taken as salvage".

Thirdly, who the hell are you insured with? I cannot believe that in this day and age any insurance company is asking you to flick through the Argos catalogue!! Perhaps you should think of upgrading your insurance next renewal to a company that actually knows how to do their job!

Cheap insurance is a wonderful thing if you have low value contents. From the items you have had stolen, I would suggest you may want to be looking more at the cover provided than the price and speaking to a mid/high net worth insurer rather than someone who thinks everyone buys their TV's from Argos. Let me guess, their replacement firm for jewellery is Ratners (sorry; showing my age again).

All the best,