Flippin insurance company..... rant....

KautoStar1

KautoStar1

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So, after 3 months of dragging their feet, the insurance company with 2 letters have finally e-mailed me to say they are pleased to say my claim for the stolen trailer has been resolved and my cheque for £2000 is in the post.
OK, now thats a good thing after all these months, but I was asked to provide them with valuations - dealerships and private sales, which I did. And those valuations were between £3000 - £3200. The trailer was insured for £3k. And the small print says payment based on market value or sum insured, whichever is less. So, how did they manage to knock off a grand.
Just trawled thro private sales and there is nothing out there of the same make / model / condition for £2k.
I e-mailed them back asking them to explain themselves and to ask quite what they thought I would be able to purchase for £2k.
And if they think its possible to do so, they can go out and buy the damn thing for me. Either that or stump up the missing £1000.

What a bl**dy cheek. I'm the victim of the crime and these people are robbing me again :(

OK, rant over, but if anyone has any tips on how to extract more money from them, please let me know.
 
This is typical car insurers do it too. Reject their offer and tell them that the trailer was worth £3k and you have supplied adverts in support. Tell them that unless they can supply evidence to back up their valuation you expect to be reimbursed £3000.
 
agree with others... phone them up and ask why it is that value and ask how you then go about formally rejecting the offer. I had to do this with a certain "dodgy" insurer and they litterly came back within a few minutes (while I was on hold) and said they could now offer me the full amount insured and I did get that. This was with a loss of use claim but you should be able to do this with your tailer.
 
Katt said:
This is typical car insurers do it too. Reject their offer and tell them that the trailer was worth £3k and you have supplied adverts in support. Tell them that unless they can supply evidence to back up their valuation you expect to be reimbursed £3000.
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/\ Good advice here from Katt, as always :)

I've had to do the same; arguing with an insurance company after someone else drove into my car (and drove off, so I had to claim on my policy! :mad:) and initially they were offering me a v measly amount. After a lot of arguing they did have to give me a fair settlement. It was a PITA, but don't take less than you're owed ;) I just hope I don't have the same kind of fight on my hand with my current horse's LOU claim... :(
 
Its those lovely people ? & ?, you know who I mean !!! :)

I e-mailed back to them yesterday, so far nothing back, hardly surprising.
I do understand the depreciation issue, but IW's trailers, especially the 510's don't seem to loose their value. I bought it 2 years ago for £3k and I would struggle now to replace it like for like for the same amount. Mad really. But eitherway they need to show me the money.
Cheeky sods !
 
thought my hunch was right ;) dont give up, they soon give in! they just try it on! had the same problem with horse claim. took over 5 months
 
1. Never cash a cheque that they send you in advance of agreeing a valuation as they will claim you have accepted their offer.
2. Send them prints from web of similar trailers near to you (30miles or so) with exact (ish) specs. Ideally 2.

I did this with a written-off car and they coughed up as soon as I sent this to them.

On the other hand, I have just had 2 critical insurance policies cough up £1/4M without question, so currently I love them all!
 
Hmm does seem a tad harsh but they will not pay new for old, it will be sum insured or market value whichever is the lesser and they will most likely be basing their £2000 on that being the current market value if you were to have sold it. I know zilch about trailers and how long they keep their value but, if it was relativelty new I would have expected them to pay nearer the market value. If you are not happy and wish to argue your case I think it would be worthwhile you getting written estimates of current value for your trailer from a dealer and also maybe trawl a few ads and print them off for trailers of the same age and model at nearer the sum insured you have.

If you have sufficient evidence to prove your trailer was worth nearer to the sum insured you had it down for then yu0 are likely to be able to get a better settlement offer. I feel it is a little strange they have done this as, unless they have real reason to believe your trailer is worth less - ie say it was much older and you had not changed the sum insured since purchase - the usually on a £3K value insurers wouldnt quibble too much. At the very least you may get £2500.

Go back to them and dispute it, you have nothing to lose.
 
OK, just to clarify, at the start I provided them with 2 main dealer quotes (as asked for by them) and some private sale ads from places like H&H (which they didn't ask for) as proof of the approx value. That being at about £3000 (which is what I paid for it and what it was insured for)

so, just following on from last week..... and guess what, not heard anything from the insurance company via e-mail or phone, but just re-read the policy document and it says the following:

"we will pay up to the cost price, market value or the sum insured as shown in the schedule or any endorsement (whichever is less) for fire, theft through forcible entry or accidental damage to the trailer. We will base the settlement on the orginal cost price less depreciation or the market value (whichever is less) unless the schedule shows you have taken the new for old cover detailed below....."


Depreciation is based on 17.5% in first year and 10% for subsequent years. So, if the quotes I'd recieved were around £2.2k, I could understand depreciation and hence why they are offering me £2k. But dealer quotes and private sales all show HB510 trailers c2004 onwards at approx £2900 - £3500. So where is the depreciation ?

Before I go into bat with them again, can someone enlighten me please ?
 
KautoStar1 said:
OK, just to clarify, at the start I provided them with 2 main dealer quotes (as asked for by them) and some private sale ads from places like H&H (which they didn't ask for) as proof of the approx value. That being at about £3000 (which is what I paid for it and what it was insured for)

so, just following on from last week..... and guess what, not heard anything from the insurance company via e-mail or phone, but just re-read the policy document and it says the following:

"we will pay up to the cost price, market value or the sum insured as shown in the schedule or any endorsement (whichever is less) for fire, theft through forcible entry or accidental damage to the trailer. We will base the settlement on the orginal cost price less depreciation or the market value (whichever is less) unless the schedule shows you have taken the new for old cover detailed below....."


Depreciation is based on 17.5% in first year and 10% for subsequent years. So, if the quotes I'd recieved were around £2.2k, I could understand depreciation and hence why they are offering me £2k. But dealer quotes and private sales all show HB510 trailers c2004 onwards at approx £2900 - £3500. So where is the depreciation ?

Before I go into bat with them again, can someone enlighten me please ?
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Its E+L.....nuff said...they are renowned for this. Been there, got the T-shirt:mad:

Refuse the settlement and ask them how they reached the sum of 2K....they usually pay up if you refuse although obviously it takes longer ( delaying tactics yet again). As soon as they do settle- cash your cheque, cancel your policy and go with either NFU or Petplan Equine.
 
Horse is insured with Pet Plan.

Thought, wrongly, that trailer insurance would be simplier and less easy for said company to cock up. Huh, thats what thought did for me !

Definately won't use them again for anything, EVER.
 
What Flamehead said........

Seriously - the reason people keep using this insurance company is because they are cheap. They are cheap for a reason - mostly because they find ways not to pay claims it seems.

But it will all be there in the small print. The more reputable companies cost a little more because you are paying for a service on top of the actual policy.

The thing is, if you buy insurance you are presumably expecting something to go wrong, and so you want money back when it does. If you scrimp on the premiums you're kind of saying that you don't value your insurance - thing's probably won't go wrong, so why pay for a service that will make things easier when they do?

It's a balancing act, but another classic case of getting what you pay for in my opinion.
 
because they are cheap and if you are new to the insurance game you may not just realise. I insurded a horse with them, for completely other sneaky reasons... they were the only ones to give me loss of use on my horse without a vetting, which I new it would have failed and already new in 2 weeks time after taking the policy I would have the vet out to look at some "lameness":o

This is just typical of said insurer, they will not willing return your calls or E-mails they will leave you hanging on for as long as they can, money stays in their accounts then, you need to get on at them yourself, phone up everyday if you have too, ask how you go about formally refusing this offer and ask where you go from there, have your agruements ready, have some wordings written down which you can just reiterate on the phone, without getting tongue tied when put on the spot, all you have said are fair points that you need to put across to the insurers in a more forcefull way I can not stress that enough!
 
flamehead said:
So why do you all keep insuring with crappy companies?
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Because obviously you don't know they are crappy until you have to claim....their flyers drop out of ALL the horse mags. I personally hadn't had horses for a long time....in fact, when I was a kid .....horse insurance? whats that? Personally I feel they target the 'new' horse owner...anyone whose been on the horse scene, as it were, for a while knows who to avoid. The flyers look good, and if you don't know any better you fall for it.
 
I have four horses, two cats and my trailer insured with E&L.

My cat has been very ill, (long story) E&L have been great, first vet bill sent in was for nearly £3000, they paid within 30 days, the vets have been sending in claims every month for last 4 months and they pay within 5-7 days.

In total we are at about £14,000. the only things they have taken off were excess and 10% of hospital fees.

I know you read a lot of bad press about them but how many people can be bothered to write good stuff about them.
I am so happy and pleased with the them, if it wasn't for them my baby cat would not be here.


(just in case anyone wondered, cat stopped making red blood cells, 5 blood transfusions, and bone marrow biopsys and lots of drugs he is in doing well, chasing fly's round the garden)
 
Seriously OP, don't cash the cheque, go back to them with good reasons why you should be paid more - copies of ads, proof of service history etc. It has worked for me on a car and motorcycle now - increasing the payout on the bike by 100% and the payout on the car by 50%.
 
flojo1 said:
because they are cheap and if you are new to the insurance game you may not just realise. I insurded a horse with them, for completely other sneaky reasons... they were the only ones to give me loss of use on my horse without a vetting, which I new it would have failed and already new in 2 weeks time after taking the policy I would have the vet out to look at some "lameness":o

This is just typical of said insurer, they will not willing return your calls or E-mails they will leave you hanging on for as long as they can, money stays in their accounts then, you need to get on at them yourself, phone up everyday if you have too, ask how you go about formally refusing this offer and ask where you go from there, have your agruements ready, have some wordings written down which you can just reiterate on the phone, without getting tongue tied when put on the spot, all you have said are fair points that you need to put across to the insurers in a more forcefull way I can not stress that enough!
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You do realise that you have just confessed to insurance fraud on a public internet site don't you!?

Insurance fraud is a crime and many of the major insurance companys take a very hardline on fraud and take action against people commiting it which includes private prosecution......... Oh and they are perfectly capable of having a quick google!!!!
 
jemima_too said:
Seriously OP, don't cash the cheque, go back to them with good reasons why you should be paid more - copies of ads, proof of service history etc. It has worked for me on a car and motorcycle now - increasing the payout on the bike by 100% and the payout on the car by 50%.
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OP this ^^^^^^^^^ is spot on.


Send copies of the same ads, maybe some more as well. And tell them that unless they increase their offer to the full £3000 you are insured for or provide you with acceptable evidence to support their valuation you will be making a formal complaint to the ombudsman.

This is a common tactic. They almost always have scope to increase their offer, lots of insurers do this.

Oh and the depreciation figures would come off the original purchase price if they want to go down that route.
 
As everyone else has said really. Write and advise them that you are not accepting their offer. Provide copies of adverts etc for similar to substantiate your claim. However, if they have stated that their basis of settlement is based on market value or sum insured whichever is the less and it is stated in policy wording the amount they will deduct for depreciation then it would appear they have taken the si and then deducted the % for depreciation. For full cover you you need new - for - old cover.
 
flojo1 said:
because they are cheap and if you are new to the insurance game you may not just realise. I insurded a horse with them, for completely other sneaky reasons... they were the only ones to give me loss of use on my horse without a vetting, which I new it would have failed and already new in 2 weeks time after taking the policy I would have the vet out to look at some "lameness":o
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Are you mad! This is fraud and probably a large part of the reason companies like this do make claiming so difficult and put up premiums for genuine honest people. The guy from E&L comes on here from time to time so you may find yourself having trouble claiming a penny if he can identify you and as you have effecively admitted defrauding the company I would imagine H&H would be legally obliged to assist.
 
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