Home Contents Insurance

[salixx38]

Hope this is the right place to post, please move around if its wrong.
On 16th June my freezer decided to pack up and I made a claim with my home contents insurance for accidental damage. I gave all the details over the phone and was asked to add up all of the items and telephone them back with the info. I did this and was told that someone would contact me. They did, about 2 weeks later and I gave all the info again. The man asked loads of questions, including why do I pay for my food with cash, do I not think £300ish worth of food is a lot to have in a freezer, why do I not keep all of my receipts, why do I not have a receipt from the dump that the freezer was taken to and do I realise how much fraud goes on! He then told me he would get back to me. I have since heard nothing and phoned them last week and said I had no idea that it would take this long, he replied that he would get the info and call me back. He did, and said that my claim was being dealt with in date order and mine shoud come up in the next couple of weeks, at which point I would be given a list of options regarding my claim????????? He couldnt tell me what these option would be. Has anyone else had similar problems or have any advice as this seems a long drawn out process. Of course I am still paying my monthly insurance payment as I have done for the last 7 yrs and have only ever made one claim previously.

[andrew1]

Which insurance company is it?

Unlesss it's some cowboy outfit I'd speak to one of the directors and ask what the hell's going on. Don't get off the phone until you have spoken to someone in authority. It is not a legal requirement to keep a receipt, but you ought to have some proof of purchase for taking things back to a shop. Fridges last forever so you cannot be expected to keep one. I'd go mad. Read your policy and quote it back at them wherever you can. I will not tollerate this brushing off by anyone anymore.

[Bookworm]

That is a total disgrace.

My freezer died the summer Britain got its highest temperatures... as it would

I was fretting because of course, I did not have a single receipt, it's groceries, ffs! Plus I do a lot of bulk shopping in France, things you can't get in this country, so you can imagine what my list was like!

My insurance was impeccable, I asked about the need to keep some of the stuff that was starting to go off for proof, the girl told me not to be daft, and to get rid of it, and no-one would expect me to do so! They paid £270 or so, and never blinked, bless their hearts.

Right, now that's how it should be done, now time to thump the table:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wish to complain in strongest terms about the way your company has so far failed to handle my claim.

I submitted a claim on xx date, it has now been xx days/weeks since I first advised you, and it seems you are no further toward honouring the policy I have been faithfully paying for 7 years than on the day I notified you.

I wish to make a formal complaint against Mr xxx, who called me on xx date, and asked offensive and insinuating questions. I am not in the habit of having my word questioned, and when I tell you the contents of my freezer, I do not take kindly to being asked why I do not keep receipts for groceries, or whether £300 worth of food is a lot to have in a freezer, and I certainly can not help but question the way things work where that man lives if he expects the local dump to provide receipts! I take great exception to the way he hinted that a great deal of fraud goes on. I'm sure it does, but if you have the slightest inkling that this may be the case here, I suggest that you be ready to prove it to a court of law, and have serious evidence to back those assertions, or this claim will end up costing you a lot more than the simple cost of replacing my groceries.

If, on the other hand, your employee was simply having a bad day, I suggest that you now pay up what I am covered for, and promptly so too. I am totally disgusted and upset by the way this employee felt it was ok for him to interrogate me and question every thing I said, and unless I get a satisfactory response about both my complaint and my claim within 7 days, I will have no option but to take my complaint higher up, up to the Insurance Ombudsman if necessary.

Yours etc....

Fill in the blanks, fire that off, let us know how you get on.

PS: Moved to Insurance Forum.

[girlynutnut]

Curious to know which insurer this is? At my company, we don't even ask for a list anymore. We found that giving people time to write lists resulted in a lot of lobster and expensive cuts of meat being added! We just ask them on the phone how much it was roughly then send them a cheque less the xs!

And no, I'm not gonna tell you where I work!

[salixx38]

Thanks for all the info guys. The insurance company is CIS, I have since heard quite a lot of complaints about them. I will send the letter today and let you know how I get on. Thanks again.

[Rob S]

That is disgraceful behaviour by CIS! A total contrast to how Halifax dealt with my contents claim when I was burgled in 2003. I phoned them to make the claim on a Wednesday morning. They gave me a claims reference and then told me to contact Empire Direct, give them the claims reference and tell them what goods would be replaced under the policy. I phoned Empire Direct, told them what property had been taken and they said it would be despatched immediately. The first replacement items arrived the next day and the final items arrived on the Friday.

My treatment by Halifax was exemplary. They were courteous and efficient and the speedy replacement of the items was totally unexpected. If I had been on the end of the treatment you have from CIS I would be trying to resist the urge to throttle someone right now!

[salixx38]

That is exactly how I feel and the longer it goes on the more angry im getting. And I still have to be polite if and when they ring me back. All I know is that they are certainly not rushing! I will be looking elsewhere after this.

[salixx38]

I have just received a call fron Conversant Claims who are dealing with my claim before they pass their report back to CIS. The man told me that he does not believe the amount of food that was in my freezer and even if it was the largest freezer you can buy (8.5 cu ft) you would not even be able to get £400 worth of food in it! He said he believes CIS actually allow about £1000 for food in a freezer but this is totally out of the question for him. I had to give him the list of food again and said he does dispute my claim. I asked for him to put everything in writing that he has told me on the phone and he said he will be advising CIS to make a part payment offer.

[Bookworm]

What he does or does not believe is neither here nor there.

What he is effectively doing is accusing you of fraud. So make a stand on that. Did you actually send the letter?

Couple of things: From now on, do NOT discuss anything by phone. This man is accusing you of lying and attempting to defraud an insurance company. If that is the case, you want it in writing. If he calls back, tell him that from now on, every single communication MUST be made in writing, that you are not prepared to discuss this over the phone any more, and put the phone down. I mean it.

It's really quite simple: Either they can prove that you did not have that amount of food in your freezer (not guess, not believe, PROVE), in which case, they should withhold claim altogether, and get you done for fraud, or they pay up 100% (minus excess). It is THAT black and white, and that's the stance I would take any time.

That guy's job is to mitigate the insurance co's costs, and to get you to accept a lower repayment offer. My advice is, stand your ground and see who blinks first.

[salixx38]

Thanks Bookworm. They are quite intimidating but at least I got his name. Will keep you updated.

[andrew1]

The taxman once asked me how much I used my car for business and I said 80% of the time. He said I can't accept that so I said " do you want me to lie? "

[salixx38]

Hi all, Just to let you know that today I received a response from CIS as to the letter that was sent to them! It is 3 pages long and some of their facts are wrong (dates etc). The argument seems to be that as a childminder I should have receipts for all of my food and that I cannot supply bank statements/credit card vouchers or proof of cash withdrawles even though I explained that often I am paid cash. They have also stated that it is unusual for anyone to make cash purchases for food on this scale (£180 a wk). They have also stated that they estimate the contents of my freezer to be around £90, maybe 20% higher or lower but is far short of the £360 that I have claimed. They also said that making a reduced offer was based on a misunderstanding of procedure and this claim must be based on evidence. So my claim has been rejected. If they hear nothing from me within 8 weeks my complaint will be closed.

[Bookworm]

Cheeky sods.

Answer:

You do not accept their estimate. YOU know what was in your freezer, THEY don't. As previously stated, either they pay up in full, or you expect them to take legal action against you for attempt to defraud the insurance company.

You now expect payment in full of the amount claimed within 7 days, or a visit from the police, as you personally have nothing to hide, and are prepared to take this as far as required. Further state that failure to do one or the other will result in a formal complaint to the Insurance Ombudsman, as well as reserving the right to take them to small claims for the owed sums.

As a matter of interest, did you replace the freezer with one of more or less identical size? It would be interesting to do a pricing exercise now, add what is in your freezer now, plus whatever it would take to fill it up, if it's not full, and send them that as an example.

[salixx38]

Thanks Bookworm, I will write back to them. There are a lot of discrepancies in their letter that I am not happy with either, so I will let you know how I get on.

[salixx38]

This is the reply that I have sent;-

I am writing in response to your letter dated 29th August 2006.
The incident described occurred on 9th June 2006 and not 9th May 2006 as you have quoted. And yes I did telephone CIS in the 10th June 2006. I spoke to a very helpful lady who took all of the details, which were that on my return from Liverpool on the Friday teatime, I noticed a pool of water on the floor. I looked at the freezer and saw that there was no suction around the door seal and the sides and top of the freezer were warm. I checked the food, which was defrosting already, and then closed the door, put a chair against it to keep it in place and put it on fast-freeze. I then went out to my son’s presentation evening, (which is the only reason why we had returned from Liverpool) only to find when we returned that there was a serious problem. I was told to write a list of everything in the freezer and telephone her back with the list of food and the amount it had cost. This was done in the phone call on the 12th June 2006. It was in this telephone call that I asked what I should do with the food and I was told that I was not expected to keep it and it should be thrown away, especially as it was defrosting and we had no idea how long it had been like this, especially as we were at the time in the middle of a heat-wave and I had not been at the property for nearly a week.
It was not at all by coincidence that Conversant’s report arrived in your office by email on the same day as my letter had arrived by post. I had spoken to Zaine Brookes the previous day to ask why it had taken 11 weeks since my original telephone call to your office and why had I not received anything in writing. I told Mr. Brookes that I did not appreciate the manner in which he was speaking to me and asked him to put everything in writing, as I would be making a formal complaint. And no, Mr. Brookes did not write to me as you have stated, and still I have not received a letter from him.
As previously stated to Mr. Brookes I am paid my wages in cash and I pay cash for my purchases. Yes I do spend approximately £180 a week on shopping, I did not say that this was all frozen food and I did not state that I fill my freezer from empty each time I shop. If Mr. Brookes has filled in his report properly, he will have also stated that I was questioned as to why my freezer was still full a week after I had been shopping. I explained that I had been in Liverpool prior to this incident at a family funeral. I was noticeably upset at this stage but told that this questioning is normal procedure.
I did tell Mr. Brookes that I have 2 other freezers, 1 which is in the top of my fridge and another that is a small chest freezer in my shed which contains large amounts of ice, ice-cream, boxes of lollies. The food in the damaged freezer was not moved as it had already started to de-frost.
The freezer was not monitored whilst I was away as there was no one left in the house as I did also explain to Mr. Brookes. The freezer was moved from the house to the garden because I had a kitchen floor covered in water, a freezer with defrosting food in it is not hygienic at the best of times let alone 90 degrees in the heat. I telephoned CIS again to say that I had an impending inspection and was intending to move the freezer, as Ofsted would have made my garden out of bounds the governing body for childcare. It is classed as a dangerous item as a small child could get injured or maybe even shut in. I was told that it was all right to do this. I paid £40 for a van to take the freezer to my local dump, which does not give receipts. On further analysis I have been told that I would only get a receipt if I had taken it to a scrap dealer.
I told Mr. Brookes that the freezer was over 3 years old and I did not have a receipt but I had contacted a repair center that had told me that it would not be worth my while to have the freezer repaired due to the cost of the repair and the age of the freezer. Mr. Brookes was told all of this information on two different occasions.
I will be making a formal complaint to the Insurance Ombudsman.