More Protect Your Bubble

[KrashBandikoot]

Hi all

 

OK, in Feb this year my son bought for me a Nexus 7 tablet as a random present and in May I decided to insure it with Protect Your Bubble for pennies a week, £3.49 a month which I thought was great value.

 

I drop it I can claim, lose it I can claim, sit on it and I can claim.

 

I hadn't used it for a while so went to it and discovered the screen was smashed like something had been dropped on it

 

So I rang them and thought everything was reasonably straight forward, they wanted the serial number, date of purchase, how much it cost and all the usual grab. Now as it was an on line purchase Google sent an Email receipt showing all the relevant details - Name, address, order number, transaction number and so on so I thought all was good.

 

I was asked to forward this to PYB at their claims email address which I did and heard nothing. So I called them back to be told "Sorry, we can't accept a forwarded email. Print it out and send it to this address" which I did.

 

Next call was "Sorry, but that's a text file and we can only accept digital PDF files as proof of purchase" So I printed out the Email again, scanned it, saved it as a PDF and sent it to them. This still wasn't good enough, they then changed the goal posts to they wanted a PDF file from Google showing the receipt and wouldn't accept anything else.

 

Now I'm not having a go at Google here as they were brilliant, but they can't do this as it's not their policy. As far as they're concerned if the unit develops a fault within the warranty they'd access that and action a repair/replacement based on the manufacturers warranty.

 

Having explained this to PYB, I was told by an arrogant manager that Google are WRONG and they can do this no problems at all despite my being told directly by them, (Google), that they would not.

 

I argued this and asked how they could be so sure that any receipt, even as a PDF wasn't a forgery as I could reset all the Metadata myself and edit the document to show whatever I wanted. I was then told that if I bought it from a shop then I'd have to scan the till receipt along with the card receipt, save it as a PDF and then they'd accept this. I challenged them on what the difference is given all the transaction codes can be traced anyway on the information they have but they still weren't accepting it.

 

In short, I found this company does all it can to avoid claims by making up stupid rules that make absolutely no sense what so ever, (sorry but they can easily check with Google is the transaction codes are authentic without breaching data protection), so I made a few choice comments and hung up.

 

As I paid the premiums by direct debit I got in touch with my bank and in accordance with the direct debit guarantee they are reversing all the debits to PYB over the last few months and putting the money back into my account so I've lost nothing.

 

So folks, there's more than one way to skin a cat! If you have paid by Direct Debit and are running into a refusal to deal with a claim then contact your bank and have the funds removed from their account by electronic force.

 

If you have paid in one go by debit card, your banks fraud department will look at the case and because you have paid for a service you haven't received then they can and will reverse the transactions.

 

If you have paid by credit card, you can ask your card company to invoke Section 75 and have the transaction reversed.

 

In short, if you don't get what you've paid for then you can get your money back through your bank or credit card. Yes it's costly as you have to replace/repair your item yourself but it's far better than having to pay for "insurance" which isn't worth the electronic paper it's written on and having to replace/repair the item yourself.

 

This company needs to be hit hard where it hurts and putting out of business because of its unreasonable and atrocious practices. It's nothing short of con artist stagnant pond life with the way it behaves and the unbelievable excuses it comes up with for not dealing with claims are not acceptable on any level.

 

I really hope this helps a few people out there who have been ripped off by these [problem]mers.

[renegadeimp]

Could always get trading standards involved and consider legal action.

[unclebulgaria67]

You should have either gone to the FOS or issued a court claim against them.

 

Instead you have allowed them a way out, by claiming your premiums back,which is you rejecting the contract late in the day.

 

These gadget type Insurers are all the same. Because they charge such small premiums, they have to reject a percentage of claims or will frustrate as many as they can.

[KrashBandikoot]

Fair comment about offering them away out and to be honest it's only £13.96 I got back via the bank ........ BUT .......

 

If everyone they did this sort of thing to got their money back it wouldn't be long before these [pejorative term removed] went down in flames and had the official receiver banging on the door shutting them down. Think about it, 100 people paying what I paid running into the wall I ran into and claiming back what I paid is £1,396.00, 1,000 people is £13,960 and as word get around about their practices people will bail and seek insurance cover elsewhere taking even more money out of their pocket. It's a snowball effect and to my mind PYB is reaping what it sow's, you can't take peoples money, promise a service then use lame excuses to get out of delivering that service.

 

I have made an official complaint with the FSO which is in hand, I'll be contacting Trading Standards tomorrow and making another official complaint against PYB as their practices are bang out of order. They're very clearly not offering the service you're buying and are [edited] people off. With respect to County Court proceedings, I'll be issuing those against PYB for my time, (£45 an hour), and the cost of all the phone calls I've made under the umbrella or being put back into the position as though I'd never taken out the policy in the first place.

 

I'm going after these people hard for rude, unhelpful customer services and promising something they simply refuse to deliver.

Edited September 12, 2013 by honeybee13
Pejorative terms removed.

[KrashBandikoot]

Update:

 

I have contacted Trading Standards who say that because they are an insurance company, they do not fall under trading standards and so directed me to the FSO.

[citizenB]

Update:

 

I have contacted Trading Standards who say that because they are an insurance company, they do not fall under trading standards and so directed me to the FSO.

 

Do you mean the FOS ??

 

You might also want to make a complaint to the FCA (previously the FSA) - they appear more user friendly and appear to want to hear from the public whereas the FSA were too chummy with the industry.

[renegadeimp]

Agreed with CB. FCA seem to be taking a hardline approach to errant creditors and DCA's. Whether it lasts.. who knows. But you need to get in on it while they arent taking any crap from anyone.