AA Insurance Services - Home Insurance

...rang Customer Services at the AA and spoke to Diane who told me that my kitchen would not be covered as matching items were not part of the terms of the insurance. I explained that when I had agreed to take my insurance with The AA that the sales advisor had assured me that if a part of a three-piece suite was damaged then if it could not be matched they would replace the whole suite. At the time I thought this would mean all matching items. She ...
...our documents received from The AA and found that in fact we had not received a policy booklet – ever. (If we had I would have kept it – I have bank statements in date order for the last five years!). I phoned back and requested a policy booklet. (I had to phone again 6 days later when one had not arrived in the post!)

I explained my current predicament to Mr Dowe who told me that he would quote separately for the ‘un-insured ... more

This is a letter I have sent to the Insurance Chumps today, if you read it (I warn you it is extremely long!!) then you will know why. Take my advice don’t touch this company with a barge pole you are just throwing money down the drain. I have changed the names of the people involved for obvious reasons.

Dear Mr Bloggs,

I have been given your name by the Home Insurance Customer Services Department. I hope by addressing this letter to you personally that you will actually get to read it and that it will not be dealt with by an ‘Executive Complaints Department’.

I am writing to you over the fiasco concerning my recent claim against my Building Insurance Policy and the fact that your sales advisors are still giving out wrong information.

I was with Eagle Star Insurance for five years before I was lured away by ‘the insurance champions’. When phoning around for a quote I was quite comprehensive in the questions I asked. I wanted unlimited cover for my building insurance with comprehensive accidental damage. As a mother of two small children I wanted a policy that would cover me against every ‘accidental’ eventuality. I was assured by your Sales Advisors that the policy I was after could be provided by The AA, so I left Eagle Star.

I have had a policy with you for the last two years and have not long renewed my policy. I now have buildings insurance with Groupama Insurance.

At the beginning of September 2001, I noticed that there was lying water under some of my kitchens cupboards. Upon further inspection I found that my dishwasher had been leaking for some time and that five of my kitchen cupboards were damaged beyond repair. I phoned the claim line and was told ‘find someone out of Yellow Pages to give you a quote’. Now there are a lot of cowboys out there posing as tradesmen and I commented about this to the advisor on the claim line. She told me that I would just have to ‘trust my judgement’.

Groupama sent me a letter on the 4th September putting the conversation into writing of which a copy is enclosed for your perusal.

After ringing a few maintenance contractors and talking to friends and relatives we appointed Applied Contracts to come and give us a quote. We had heard that they were of a high standard and that they charged reasonable rates.

A Mr John Dowe of Applied Contracts came and looked at the damage for us and duly provided a quote. He assessed the damage caused and told me that the kitchen was a least 8-10 years old and that it was doubtful as to whether the cupboards could be matched. This would mean that the whole kitchen would need replacing. I rang Customer Services at the AA and spoke to Diane who told me that my kitchen would not be covered as matching items were not part of the terms of the insurance. I explained that when I had agreed to take my insurance with The AA that the sales advisor had assured me that if a part of a three-piece suite was damaged then if it could not be matched they would replace the whole suite. At the time I thought this would mean all matching items. She told me to read my policy booklet. I hunted through all our documents received from The AA and found that in fact we had not received a policy booklet – ever. (If we had I would have kept it – I have bank statements in date order for the last five years!). I phoned back and requested a policy booklet. (I had to phone again 6 days later when one had not arrived in the post!)

I explained my current predicament to Mr Dowe who told me that he would quote separately for the ‘un-insured work’. Mr Dowe then faxed this quote to Groupama on our behalf. I also rung Groupama to ask if they could consider the claim as urgent as I have two children (4 years old and 10 months old), and the kitchen was virtually unusable.

Groupama then sent me a letter on the 18th September saying that because the claim was above a certain amount, they had appointed a Loss Adjuster to handle the claim on their behalf. (Copy enclosed)

On the 19th September I was contacted by Captia McLarens – the Loss Adjusters who were very helpful. They sent a contractor round to assess the water damage and the contractor then provided dehumidifiers to try to dry out my kitchen. Munters -the contractor - told us that the dehumidifier would have to be in place for 4 weeks minimum to ensure that all water had been removed. So we were now in a position where our long and narrow kitchen had a big dehumidifier in it taking up over half of the floor space near the sink. (Not ideal with small children). But if it dried out my floor then I wasn’t too concerned – I could live with the inconvenience.

On the 20th September Pete Smith from Capita McLarens came to assess the damage. He was in full agreement that the units were damaged and he added on another unit after reading the moisture report by Munters. He also said (in agreement with Munters) that the floor tiles would have to be removed so that dryness could be guaranteed.

On a subsequent visit by Munters they discovered that the floor, which was thought to be concrete, was in fact chipboard. Munters explained that the chipboard was damaged beyond repair and that the whole floor would now have to be replaced not just the ceramic floor tiles. Mr Taylor from Applied Contracts came back and upon further investigation he found that the chipboard was laid over polystyrene insulation. He determined that both the chipboard and insulation would need replacing and prepared a quote to cover the cost of removing all the base units and replacing the whole floor. This was forwarded to Capita McLarens.

Capita McLarens, after conversing with Applied Contracts agreed that the extent of the work would mean that all kitchen units would need replacing. They wrote a report detailing this and forwarded it to Groupama. Capita McLarens also told Groupama that the claim was now three weeks old and would required prompt attention.

At this point we had three costs. Repairing insured damage to kitchen units, replacing the floor, and the remaining cost to cover replacing all the fitted units. Groupama spent two weeks ‘assessing’ this claim, including the report from Capita McLarens and after numerous telephone calls by the Loss Adjusters and finally by us, they came to their decision. On the 5th October (5 weeks after the claim began) Groupama informed us that they would only cover the cost of the insured work leaving us with a bill of £2873.00.

I phoned Groupama immediately, to tell them that this was unacceptable and they told me I would have to put my concerns in writing to Fred Flintstone, Claims Manager at Groupama. I explained that this claim was already five weeks old and that Applied Contracts had said that if the claim went on for much longer they could not guarantee getting the kitchen replaced before Christmas. I was told that I had to put it in writing.

On 8th October I sent a letter recorded delivery to Fred Flintstone (copy enclosed) asking him to reconsider his decision. We cannot afford to cover the outstanding amount as I only work part time and we have children. I phoned on 9th October to see if they had received my letter, they hadn’t so I emailed a copy direct to Mitch Goodwin. He replied to this email (copy enclosed) to say that he would reach a decision in 14 days.

We phoned Groupama today to see if they were near to a decision as the 14 days were nearly up. Fred Flintstone was not available but an advisor there said she would contact him by mobile phone to see if he had reached his decision. He told her that he was ‘vaguely’ aware of the case and would contact us this afternoon.

He phoned us this afternoon, and after telling me that it wasn’t really a policy of Groupama to cover un-insured work he would make an ex gratia payment of 50% towards the cost. He told us that he could offer no more.

He then phoned Capita McLarens and told them to let us go ahead with the work and that Groupama would send us a cheque direct for £5729.00.

We are now left with a bill of £1433.00 and I want to know what you are going to do about it Mr Bloggs.

I want to know for the following reasons:

When I originally agreed to take out the policy the Sales Advisor assured me I would be covered.

I have a kitchen that is uninhabitable. It has been like this for 7 weeks. 7 weeks, in which half my floor is missing, the rest smells terrible from water damage. 7 weeks in which I have had a big dehumidifier that is noisy, hot and smelly taking up a large part of my kitchen. 7 weeks in which my children have not been allowed in the kitchen and I have had to cook and prepare babies bottles even though it is smelly and damaged.

I have had 7 weeks of phone calls, in which the AA took no responsibility, all Customer Services would say is that I would have to contact the insurance company direct – but isn’t my ‘contract’ with you?

7 weeks of which for some of the time I was on anti-depressants because my beautiful fitted kitchen (the main reason we bought the house) was now ruined and it would never be the same again.

So tonight at approximately 8.15pm I phoned The AA on 0800 444 777 for a ‘quote’. I spoke to a nice advisor called Jamie and asked him if I could clarify a few things before we went ahead with the quote.

I asked him how long it usually took to settle a claim – he replied ‘straightaway’. When I questioned this he said he would check with his manager. When he returned he told me that his manager had made a claim recently and it had took 7 days to settle (perks of the job I suppose).

I then told him that having small children I would require comprehensive accidental damage, as you never know what might happen. So as an example I asked him if my sofa were to get damaged would the whole suite be replaced? He replied that they would try to match the sofa, but if this could not be done the whole suite would be replaced. So I asked him would this be the same for a kitchen if half of it got damaged? He said he would have to check and off he went. He was gone for quite some time but eventually returned and said ‘I have checked with three managers and they have said that WE WOULD LEAVE YOU IN THE FINANCIAL POSTION YOU WERE IN BEFORE THE CLAIM’. I asked him to clarify this and he repeated it. So then I asked him why I was now in a position where I would have to pay £1433.00 if The AA were going to leave me in the same financial position? He then transferred me to his Manager. She told me that the whole idea of insurance was that the policy holder would not be out of pocket in the event of a claim. I explained my situation to her and she said I would have to speak to Customer Services for Home Insurance.

So Mr Bloggs, being as I have been told on two occasions – once when I took the original policy out and once again tonight that I would not be out of pocket I expect you to cover the rest of the non-insured work.

I do not appreciate being left in the position to ‘fend for myself’. I have had to do most of the phone calls, letter writing, and bargaining. The AA would take no responsibility of this claim or for that matter even get involved.

I do not appreciate being miss-sold an insurance policy when I was quite clear what type of insurance I required. A copy of this letter will be sent to the Insurance Ombudsman and the general Insurance Standards Council for their comments.

So I expect acknowledgement of this letter by return of post. I will then await a cheque for the outstanding amount within 14 days. I will not settle for less and in fact should be claiming more to cover the cost of phone calls and two weeks (unpaid) absence from work due to the stress your company has caused me.

Yours Sincerely

Aflynn – opinionated person!!!

Cc: Insurance Ombudsman
General Insurance Standards Council
 

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