I was dropping my daughter off to her afternoon playgroup session and was parked just outside the school gates. As I was going straight out afterwards I thought nothing of leaving my partner's new sat-nav system where it was on the dash.

A fleeting thought told me to move it but I live in a nice area where there are about 3 crimes reported last year and just dismissed it. I was gutted when I got back to the car to find that the driver window was smashed and the sat he'd had for Christmas, barely even a month, was gone.

We've got a fully comp policy with Direct Line and the first time my partner spoke to them we were told it wouldn't be worthwile claiming for it as there was a £200 excess ( in addition to the excess for the damage). They implied that we would be paying a damage excess and also a personal posessions excess. As far as I'm concerned we pay one policy, there was one incident, and therefore there should be one excess charge. However they segregate it at their end is their problem, not mine.

I was disgusted with this response and he called them back and spoke to another adviser who implied that it wouldn't be a problem claiming for it and that there would not be any huge excess charges.

When I called last week to find out where our claim paperwork was, I found out that no claim had been logged - despite this being our third call.

The guy I spoke to said that as far as direct line were aware, the problem was resolved as the window had been replaced the same day. Nothing logged about the sat nav.

He also said that as the sat nav was visible, it was not covered by the policy.

I was extremely annoyed - what am I paying insurance for?! As far as I'm concerned, it was in a locked, alarmed and immobilised vehicle. It's not as if I left the vehicle unlocked and went on holiday! If my tv was stolen I doubt the insurance company would tell me they're not paying up because it could be seen through a window!

Where do I stand on this? I feel cheated and I just can't stop kicking myself. Some **** have completely cancelled out the lovely christmas we had by stealing something my partner had looked forward to for months. Now we're empty handed and seething.

Can direct line get away with this?

You really need to look at the policy wording....

Does it say anything about the Sat Nav needing to be out of view???

I think you are on to a loser over this - most policies specifically exclude valuable items or personal posessions unless they are locked in the boot or glovebox, or hidden away - Also most Comp car policies have a limit of £100 on personal posessions - The only way it would be covered in full under your car policy is if it was a factory fitted type. You could try a claim under your household personal posessions, but they may exclude as it was left on view..

My sis recently had a burglary, and her tomtom 910 satnav was on the desk plugged into the pc for updating, they took it, and also took her car from the garage, she had murder getting paid for the satnav as the car and house insurers just kept saying the other was liable...

Mike

Most insurers, whether motor or household, stipulate that personal possessions or other easily removable equipment must be placed in a locked glove compartment or boot.