making an insurance claim with a certain dodgy insurer

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BigLebowski

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hi there

My horse has "choke" and I'm having to ship him to the vets. I'm with an insurer with a very short name (two letters) that is apparently notorious for not paying out. I was not aware of this until I called them yesterday to ask about my cover and they were evasive and obstructive. I then spoke to others and heard nightmare stories.

If anyone has experience of claiming via this insurer, please kindly pm me so that I can avoid falling into any obvious traps. They already suggested not paying out because I gave the wrong height of the horse, but I've never had him measured and am not a horse expert.

They say they have sent a claim form but based on my experience so far I doubt if it will arrive.

Cheers
Dude
 
ive had a large, claime that was on going over 8 months (will mention here, i was a named person on a policy )

i knew The reputation they had and just delt with the same person all the time, any thing sent to them was done by special delivery.

in the end, hand on heart this is true.. they were chasing me for invoices from the vets!

a couple of tips for you.

deal with the same person from the start. dont be affraid to be pushy , make sure you have read ALL of your policy
they actually have a paper file on you and your horse so when they say but we havnt had this bla bla bla demand they go and look in the folder as its often there but not on computer.

when you cant get through on the claims line use the new quotes line and asked to be put through to claims.

to be fair I had no issues atall with them and would very possibley use them again. (yeah yeah shot me now.:D)
 
I sucessfully claimed with said insurer, wasn't a great experience but I got thosands for vets fees and 100% of the sun insured back on loss of use, without a concrete diagnosis. My main advice would be to be as tough as you can just bully everyone you speak to to get what you need, ask to speak managers, refuse to hang up unless you get answers ect ect phone everyweek for updates. On the claim form make sure when they ask the question do you want them to pay the vet direct or you tick vet direct, I didn't big mistake! Forward all bills, reminders final reminders ect to them and get photo copies yourself. I also kept a diary of times and names of everyone I spoke too. It took me about a 9 months to get my Loss of use and about 4 months to get vets fees, but I won't have got that if I just took what they told me.

Hope that helps and good luck.
 
Thanks guys, very interesting :)

I'm claiming vets bills only cos he's a pet. They're already saying there's a £137 (or £139) excess - I'll have to check. They also say I'll have to pay 17% of the final amount. Again that sounds unusual and they could be trying it on. I pay almost £30 a month for one horse and have done for several years, so I expect a good service.

My vet said give them as little information as possible since they seem to "grasp" at anything to wriggle out.

They apparently have regular "fires" which result in records being destroyed.

Dude
 
Can you print the claims form off their website?
I would suggest when posting anything to them to send it recorded delivery (to be signed for), i know it costs a bit more but they then can't easily claim they havn't received said document, and keep a copy of what you have sent them for yourself.
 
I had my rottweiler insured with a certain insurers and had to make a claim when she needed a crutiate ligament op, they sent me a claim form which was the easy bit after that it all went downhill, they lost my claim form twice and were really unhelpful at a stressful time. Enter my wonderful vets who took over dealing with them for me but it still took 5 months for the vet to revive their cheque.
 
echo what's already been said

I was with them 12 years - i've got payouts on all claims (4 - one of which was their limit)

from my experiance
keep a dairy - names/dates/times
multiple copies of everything as things get lost at varying stages - i faxed, posted and then called to confirm reciept

chase weekly

read the small print carefully -

i came to expect claim refusals - it seemed to be the norm as if they were seeing if i could be put off easily-i.e the tendon injury was a result of ongoing pasturn dermititus -(mud fever- bless them)

good luck :)
 
BigLebowski said:
Thanks guys, very interesting :)

I'm claiming vets bills only cos he's a pet. They're already saying there's a £137 (or £139) excess - I'll have to check. They also say I'll have to pay 17% of the final amount. Again that sounds unusual and they could be trying it on. I pay almost £30 a month for one horse and have done for several years, so I expect a good service.

My vet said give them as little information as possible since they seem to "grasp" at anything to wriggle out.

They apparently have regular "fires" which result in records being destroyed.

Dude
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If I remember rightly the excess system at said insurer is weird. theres a minimum charge of about £137 then it changes to 17% once you reach over that minimum value I moaned about it att he time but it is int he small print somehwere relating to the excess.

Yes they do grasp at everythingg. I had to wriggle out of a few things... one I remember was when I stated the activities the horse was involved in were SJ,xc ,dressage and hacking they sent me a letter back asking me explain the nature of the xc the horse did. I quickly looked at my policy and I was in the type 1 use group which was riding lcub activities, low level sj and dressage. I had to quickly back track and say all activities stated were riding club activties undertaken as a member of my local riding club :eek:
 
oh, re excess

it was the set amount OR a percentage of the whole bill (17.5%?) which ever was higher
so this is the norm
 
Miss-rose you just made my day!! "took ages for the vets to revive their cheque" - most people would say that if CPR doesn't work after 5 minutes then its time to give up! I had visions of it on its back on the vets examination table. Classic :)
 
fatpiggy said:
Miss-rose you just made my day!! "took ages for the vets to revive their cheque" - most people would say that if CPR doesn't work after 5 minutes then its time to give up! I had visions of it on its back on the vets examination table. Classic :)
Click to expand...

Oh dear ivejust read it back and nearly wet myself laughing lol I had exactly the same vision as you. Sorry for my appaling spelling but I'm on my I phone
 
Their claims manager is a member on here, I think his username is...claims manager.

Get hold of him and deal only with him, he will get things sorted very quickly.

We have had very recent experience of claiming and it all went quickly and smoothly :eek: Which is the complete opposite to our first claim several years ago.
 
my friend (not me) had a horse for 3 weeks, insured for 2.5weeks, first payment had not been taken out of her bank (wasnt due yet), horse broke leg and was destroyed-£4500 was not paid out by said insurance company as they had not received first installment even though it wasnt due to paid for another few days!!!!! totally disgusting
i had my own problems as people on here know with another insurance company and they are still due me money back!!
good luck s
 
Right my lovely i will tell you no lies, they are C.R.A.P with a capital C hence why i am moving insurers!! I had a claim last year and it took forever to process!!! here is what you will have to do (from experience this is how I eventually got mine processed!!)
- make sure you call them EVERYTIME your vet gives you an update
- E-MAIL them and keep the e-mails!
- get a name!!! I ended up only dealing with a girl called lindee mcbride, she was the only person who helped me!
- they were obstructive to me. Ask them what documentation they require early on as they willl ask you stupid questions like' what type of use is your horse under' um i put that on the insurance?!! they also lose things to keep copies and never send originals!
-they require you to pay admin fee and the liver fees to the vets yourself. They reimbursed me for half but I had to pay initially £400 to get my beast home
- golden rule KEEP BUGGING THEM!! e-mail, calls, whatever it takes!!

i'm sorry if this worries you but I'm just preparing you. I eventually had to threaten them with going to the financial ombudsman if they didn't process my claim as I had done everything they'd asked and they were still being a nightmare. This was 4 months after my claim, I called them the day after I sent my e-mail (to poor lindee!) and ended up speaking to a guy called carl who miraculously sorted my claim there and then and lo and behold my money was with me in a week! funny that eh?

Seriously bug them. You pay for a service, they don;t provide it you have every right to bug them!! and if you need to send a 'i'm speaking to my financial ombudsmen' e-mail let me know I still have a copy!!

hope this helps!!
 
I am also insured with said insurance company. I have had 3 claims in 4 years resulting in thousands in vets bills. Each time they have paid out to the full. It has taken an average of 6 months to get them to pay out. I had to fight tooth and nail for it. I found that I was phoning them virtually the minute the vet had left to give them the latest update. The reason behind this was that in my first claim they said that they had not been kept to date throughout and were trying to wriggle out. Even though my last 2 claims were within the space of a year, they were not able to retieve the previous years claim! I found that once the claim had been sent, they sent me a letter each time asking ridicolus questions which were not relevant. Also when you phone them and explain what you are claiming for they do not appear to know one end of a horse from the other, making further difficulties. They will pay out in the end!!
 
we claimed a few years back and they were very stubborn and it took lots of letters and phonecalls b4 they paid. agree with vet, give them as little information as poss about the claim over the phone. keep photo copys and reciepts of all your letters that you send etc and make sure you read all your small print to.
 
I was with them when I first bought my horse. My vet told me to leave them as soon as poss- that they were a nightmare. I did move (have done twice since). I've come to the conclusion that none of them are good. I've only insured my event horse for vets bills. The other three are death, 3rd party and theft only. We put the same amount of money that we would pay in insurance each year into an account, and take our chances. We've amassed quite a bit over the last couple of years. I got fed up of them exluding the slightest problem. We were paying a couple of hundred a year for an £800 pony, and it seemed silly... I also find that the vets are more sensible now they're not insured - not sending them off for x rays at the drop of a hat. Touch wood we've not had any big problems...
 
All i will say is the vets round here will not touch said insurer's!They ask who you are insured with and if it them they insist YOU pay the bill in full and YOU claim money back from said insurance company!Enough said i think!Wouldnt touch them with somebody elses bargepole never mind mine :D
 
We made a claim with "said" company. The vets said that they were the only company that they do not deal with directly. I would have to pay the £2,600 and calim myself off the insurance!!! Purley because they take so long to pay. I spoke to the insurers and they explained that they are claiming "my" expenses...... As I did not have the money to pay the vets were cool and waited to be paid out for 7 months.

With our pony, he is insured with a different company. Speaking to the vets on the subject of insurance, they also said the same, they don't deal with E & _ direct either and expect the client to pay and then claim off insurance.

Mandy
 
I used to be insured with them years ago but when my vet rolled his eyes at the name I changed straight away, my friend put in a claim to them months ago for her horse and only got paid out last week after lots of phone calls.

My friend also moaned about how much their phone number charged per minuite, so presume its a premium line, I put a claim in for my pony with my insurers 6 weeks after friend did and I was paid out within weeks she was still at the "we have not recieved your claim bit" with them.

What a lot of people also do not know that there is also a online insurance company getting lots of old *&* cutomers, these people need to read the small print because they are *&* too. But it is not obvious untill the papers come through your door, because the same friend has removed her horses from *&* and went with the online company and when the papers came through she was shocked to find it was infact *&* again. lol

Insurers are supposed to give you peace of mind so what is the point of going to a company who make a possibly worrying time "vet bills" even worse, pay a bit more and use a company that is recomended by your vet.
 
marmalade76 said:
If this company is really that bad, why do people use them?
Click to expand...

Because they're often half the price of other companies - I learnt my lesson though, took four months of weekly phonecalls to receive a payout for a very small routine claim. Ditto others on keeping records, names/dates/receipts, and call frequently.

Now with NFU, paying significantly more but receiving an absolutely 100% service. :)

Incidentally, our vet now regards anyone 'insured' with that company to have no insurance. :rolleyes:
 
If you do not feel like they are performing as they should, not responding to calls etc etc. I would ensure that you send everything recorded delivery, keep a diary of who you speak to (full name) and exact time of call and dept/team. If you dont get through note down the time and what happened.

Give them a chance first (because they may have improved) and if not, write a brief letter (recorded delivery) of complaint to the Insurer (you have to do this first) and if they do not get back to you within 5 days then refer the matter onto the insurance ombudsman - call, email or post. You can also just give them a bell for advice.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

Insurance companies/brokers are regulated by the FSA (Financial services authority) and have to adhere to a certain level of customer service and if they don't you can complain to the FSA who will make a judgement.

I know of this Insurance company and I am frankly quite amazed that they havent already been penalised and/or fined by the FSA. If more people were to complain and go down the route of the ombudsman then maybe they would be forced to clean up their act.

Each time someone complains to the ombusman it costs the insurer money and I have to say (subject to the circumstances) the favour does tend to go to the client so it is worth a go.

Doesnt solve your immediate problem I admit but at least you know there is someone out there that may be able to help!
 
I am insured with them and even though my vets were rubbish and could not find a real diagnosis and then filled in the claim form wrong (giving them every reason to try and wriggle out!) they have been fab and Paid out alot of money for my horse over the last 9 months.

Best advice is to just keep them informed and make sure all the information you have given them is correct.

The excess is normal for all insurers, you are basically paying the VAT
 
blackcob said:
Because they're often half the price of other companies - I learnt my lesson though, took four months of weekly phonecalls to receive a payout for a very small routine claim. Ditto others on keeping records, names/dates/receipts, and call frequently.

Now with NFU, paying significantly more but receiving an absolutely 100% service. :)
Click to expand...

We have all our ins with NFU. No, they are not the cheapest (except for house ins, they charged £100 less than my bank would have), but they have an office near Gloucester which I can ring direct for the price of a normal phone call, they answer straight away and I can speak to the same person every time. They also knocked £50 off my car ins when I said I could find it cheaper elsewhere. The service is great.
 
Unluckily had to make 2 claims for mare several years apart, after accidents that both involved surgery.

The claims all went through and were paid, I just find they are slow to pay out but never had any problems the money all came through eventually.
 
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