My daughter bought a Nokia 5800 8Gb from phones 4 U about 8 weeks ago. She took out the insurance and 3 weeks ago she was assaulted and the phone was smashed up.

She contacted the insurance company who required her to send in the remains of the phone and supply a crime reference number, which she did.

When the new phone arrived it was the wrong colour but worse than this it did not contain the 8Gb of memory the old one had. When she phoned them yesterday they told her she had gotten all she was getting and as far as they are concerned that is the end of the story.

What I need is some help composing a letter to the insurance company (as you can tell from this post I am not good at getting things down in writing). I guess it needs to rely on some legal issues, but I'm not sure which ones. This was a New phone picked for its colour and for the capacity of music it could hold. The replacement will not hold two tracks and therefore defeats the object completely.

Any comments/help would be appreciated.

Regards

Andy

Dear Insurance company

I took out insurance *on date* in good faith to cover the Nokia 5800 8Gb bought from phones 4 U *on date*

To this end I would expect that you being a reputable company would honour your commitment to replace the phone to the same or better specifications of the insured item.

On claiming against this insurance you specifically asked for the old phone and a police incident number to be sent to you. This request was complied with *On Date*.

Imagine my disgust to find that the replacement handset was of a lesser specification than that which was insured.

I have require you to replace the old handset with a similar like for like handset within the next 14 days. failure to comply means I will have no alternative than to report you and your company to Trading Standards; The Financial Ombudsman and lastly to Phones 4U, who recommended you to me - Take out if not the case.

I hope that common sense prevails and you honour the agreement we entered into, also take note that when contacted by phone *on Date* the person who dealt with this query stated, and I quote "she had gotten all she was getting and as far as they are concerned that is the end of the story" - Very professional!!

I await your response

bigandy

from their policy cover

available, the replacement will be of a similar specification and quality, which will be determined by us.

Thanks, reply sent via email in the first instance. I will let you know how it goes.

Regards

Bigandy

I'm amazed they can put in a comment such as "will be determined by us" in there - doesn;t seem that it can be contractually binding. The general reason for this sort of thing is that if you have an old model that is no longer made then it allows the insurer to get the closest match (which is fair enough) - not to decide to just skimp on the specs to what they can be bothered to give out (which is outrageous).

Interested to see what they have to say.