Whitehorse Insurance

...to contact the insurance company WHITEHORSE INSURANCE and put in a claim, we did so and awaited a reply, they then sent out a consultant/claims assessor to interview us and take down the relevant information of which went well we thought, nothing was said and he left. Then a few weeks later WHITEHORSE wanted a letter from the travel company saying that we had reported the baggage missing, so we sent them what the required, then they wanted a full ...
...suitcases aswell. We then contacted WHITEHORSE INSURANCE again and they sent us another letter requesting more information such as a new list of what was missing etc, again we sent this off aswell as a delivery note from the courier company as proof of delivery. Up to this point in time there was signs that anything was going bad with the claim and we were confident of having a suitable "agreement" to cover our lost contents, we were never ... more

I went on holiday with my wife to Mexico in the middle of october for two weeks last year, we had planned this holiday since we got married three years ago and paid the holiday off over an 18month period which also allowed us time to save for spending money to do all the activities we wanted to do i.e mayan temples, swimming with dolphins and other tourist favourites. The reason we booked for this time of year was a)it was out of the school season, and b) work allocation of holiday meant that i was restricted in what i could have.

As you may know (or if you don't know), last year was not the best for weather across the caribbean or florida etc and there was a large amount of tropical storms across this region of the world, however this did not deter us from going away.

Moving on, we arrived at the hotel in the early hours of the morning and the sun was already beginning to show its full fury, there was no clouds in the sky, just a cooling light breeze to take the edge off the ferocity of the heat. We unpacked our bags and went for breakfast and had a nice relaxing day just lounging by the pool, sipping margarita's, and admiring the beauty of the coastline, totally unaware of the events to come.

On the evening when we were in our room getting ready for our evening meal we had the tv on in the background to find out the weather for the following few days as we were wanting to go to the mayan temples but were advised to go on a cooler day due to the location and travelling time, what we heard from that moment was what we were dreading to hear and sent a cold chill down the back of our spines......"Hurricane Wilma is currently heading across the atlantic and looks as though the gulf of Mexico could be in its sights, the Hurricane is currently rated at a category three and is picking up strength" we both stopped what we were doing and stared at each other in disbelief, did we hear right?

We went and spoke to our MY TRAVEL rep (who we later found out was about as useful as having a garden gnome as your travel guide) and she denied there was a hurricane in the atlantic, when i mentioned to her that i was sure CBN News were not liars she still denied all knowledge of it.

So, we carried on the next couple of days, watching the news once a day to check the progress of Hurricane wilma, the skys over Cancun were beginning to get cloudy and the wind was beginning to pick up but still our "award winning" rep refused to believe.

Skipping a few days...... the Hurricane hit, and boy did it hit hard, a full blown category 5 hurricane with no remorse, the only way i can describe the sound of it hitting is like this: Imagine being stood on the edge of a train platform with the high speed trains going past non-stop for 5 days, the pressure in your ears makes you want to cry and there is no let up. We were evacuated to a shelter further inland but were not allowed to take our suitcases due to lack of room so everything was left at the hotel (which was damaged severely), oh, i should also tell you that the "shelter" was a brothel that was hired for the period of the hurricane and the women that supplied our rations of food and drink were the "workers"........ we also found out that the rooms had x-rated television when one of the children from the 4 familys we had to share a room with switched the TV on later in the first night (15 people in one room that was12ft x 12ft square), that was an eye opener for a 12 year old!

Skipping a few days of hell and misery, after the hurricane subsided we were informed that we would be evacuated to the Dominican republic as cancun was no longer habitable and our flight would be the next day, we asked our rep about the suitcases and she said that the hotels were ruined so badly and with the looting that was going on it was highly unlikely that our case would be there, again she was wrong, yes our hotel was destroyed but i managed to (stupidly) enter the carnage of twisted metal and rubble and reclaim my baggage, it was sheer luck that i stowed my baggage in the side of the hotel facing inwards from the coast, all the coastal side rooms had nothing left in them as it was all sucked out by the winds.

Our contents were damp and some were slightly water damaged but it was goood to put on clean clothes after wading around in urine,faeces and god knows what else for 5 days due to the sewage systems failing and no running water etc.

Next day we arrived at Cancun airport and looked forward to a few days of comfort, however, we were then informed we would have to leave our suitcases again as there was no airport security and the baggage would have to be checked prior to transportation, but, our rep told us, "it will meet you at the hotel".
Another 3 days followed of living on borrowed clothes from a donation cabinet that was set up in the hotel and donated toiletries and we were still not reunited with our luggage.

We flew back to the uk 3 days later than we should in only the clothes we were stood up in, no suitcases and no money, at the airport we were told by a MY TRAVEL rep to file a lost luggage report with the travel company (MY TRAVEL) and the luggage would be returned when or if it was found, this is why we took out gold level insurance to cover such events and losses.
A few days later after hearing nothing we contacted MY TRAVEL and we were told to contact the insurance company WHITEHORSE INSURANCE and put in a claim, we did so and awaited a reply, they then sent out a consultant/claims assessor to interview us and take down the relevant information of which went well we thought, nothing was said and he left. Then a few weeks later WHITEHORSE wanted a letter from the travel company saying that we had reported the baggage missing, so we sent them what the required, then they wanted a full breakdown of what was in the cases with ALL the receipts (quite impossible to do as not everything was new) anyway, we sent them what we could, (we also sent themeverything else they required over the next SIX months of which was (briefly) letters from the airline,travel company, travel group, logged telephone calls, meetings with MY TRAVEL, basically everything they wanted and more! )

A week later our suitcases arrived with (as expected) most of the contents missing and damage to the suitcases aswell. We then contacted WHITEHORSE INSURANCE again and they sent us another letter requesting more information such as a new list of what was missing etc, again we sent this off aswell as a delivery note from the courier company as proof of delivery. Up to this point in time there was signs that anything was going bad with the claim and we were confident of having a suitable "agreement" to cover our lost contents, we were never trying to claim against the holiday as we were aware from the beginning that hurricanes and the like, are acts of god and are not usually covered, plus we went at a particular season when hurricanes are more frequent.

Anyway, after 9 months of contact by email,telephone and post we recieved a letter stating that we were going to recieve ZERO as we missed the claims deadline due to this reason : "upon landing in the UK you should have informed WHITEHORSE TRAVEL immediately of your loss, however as you informed the travel company before us the time period in which your claim could be made had lapsed" the letter then went on to say they knew it would not be what we wanted to hear but that was their final decision and NO money would be paid out for the loss of our belongings.

Apart from having our holiday that we had worked hard to pay for ruined, we came back to the UK in just the clothes we were stood up in but lucky to be alive and we understand that we should be happy about that and we are, but what we are not happy about is the fact that we paid good money for the gold level insurance to cover against such losses and after months of deliberation and us providing anything and everything that WHITEHORSE INSURANCE wanted for them to turn around and refuse to pay anything because of some miss-information at the airport is more than an insult, i feel like i have been kicked in the teeth and robbed.

What is the point of travel insurance if the company can refuse you compensation through no fault of your own?

Even this far down the line we are still replacing the items that went missing and it is a financial burden.
If i could give any piece of advice to anyone booking insurance is DO NOT GO WITH THIS COMPANY, it is the closest i have come to legalised theft.

All the holiday has left us with is a few broken memories and a lot of heartache, my wife still has bad dreams from the situation that we were in at the shelter, not just because of the sanitary but also because of the danger of which we were in and this company has managed to write the final chapter of this sorry affair by stabbing us in the back and then twisting the knife into us for a final turn!

 

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