Domestic & General said it would cover £3,000 plumbing bill - then did a U-turn: SALLY SORTS IT
I am 81 and have been paying premiums to Domestic & General Insurance for many years to cover seven appliances, with the total adding up to nearly £105 a month or £1,260 a year.
One of those appliances covered was my Aqualisa shower which recently stopped working.
On phoning D&G I was asked to find my own repairer who was Aqualisa-conversant, have it repaired, pay the company and forward them the bill for reimbursement.
Now D&G is saying it won’t reimburse the almost £3,000 bill. Please help.
A. P., Chelmsford, Essex.
Sally Hamilton replies: You were quick to shower D&G with praise over your past dealings with the firm, as claims for various repairs on other appliances it covers, including your dishwasher and washing machine and even an issue with your shower eight years ago, were always sorted without a fuss.
Denied: An insurance company told a reader to find a repairman to fix a broken shower but refused to pay the bill
But you were flummoxed by this latest response.
This particular claims experience was unusual from the start because you have never had to arrange your own repairer before – D&G normally organises the callout and repairs itself.
But since you were asked to find your own plumber, you looked online for one that covered Essex. You stumbled upon Plumbing Force.
The engineer came as arranged and was on the job for about four hours – including one hour when he went to collect a spare part from nearby Basildon.
On completing the repair, the plumber asked for your payment card so he could charge you for the callout fee and other costs and asked you to sign a tablet to confirm it has been done.
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You were happy with the repair but shocked at the size of the bill – £2,984. You felt you had no option but to pay it.
For that kind of money, I would have expected a new shower, redecoration and a retiling job. I looked up the purchase price online of new Aqualisa showers and struggled to find one at more than £1,000; most were far cheaper.
Although worried about the bill, you felt reassured that D&G would take care of things. But despite you sending numerous emails and making many calls, D&G declined your claim.
Your daughter stepped in because she was concerned about the strain the unmet claim was putting on your wellbeing. She got nowhere.
On your request, I asked D&G to investigate what had gone wrong. I can imagine why it would wish to resist turning on the tap for a bill that worked out at a fantastical £650 an hour. But that wasn’t your fault as you had been directed to find a plumber under your own steam.
I also thought the decision to decline harsh, especially as you have been spending a fortune on its cover over the years.
As an aside, although these kinds of policies provide peace of mind for customers, I personally prefer to self-insure – that is, dip into my savings if I need to have an appliance repaired or replaced.
Once I’d turned up the pressure on D&G, pointing out your loyalty and how you had complied with the instructions on arranging a tradesman yourself, it soon agreed to meet your claim in full.
A spokesperson says: ‘We quickly contacted the customer and believe the situation has now been satisfactorily resolved. We strive for consistently high standards of customer service, so apologise for any inconvenience.’
D&G says standard practice is for it to arrange callouts. But in rare cases when there are no repair agents available, there is a ‘pay and claim service’ which you were advised to use.
It says the majority of engineers it works with are accredited by the appliance manufacturers, which have charging and pricing policies in place with the engineers.
A spokesman says: ‘We don’t support any deliberate overcharging by engineers that customers have had to contact themselves, and we will review our approach for these rare occasions when one has to be booked direct. For example, the customer informing us of the engineer and quote in advance so we can check the price for them.’
I contacted Plumbing Force to ask it to explain your bill. It said it would only discuss it with you. At the time of going to press, the company had not provided any explanation for the high bill other than informing you it would be investigating your complaint.
I’d advise anyone calling out a tradesman to always demand an estimate in advance and, if insured, then to check the cost with your insurer before going ahead with the work.
Can't access mother's life insurance policy
My mother, who died last year, had a life insurance policy with Phoenix Life. Ten months on I have still not received the proceeds, around £25,000.
K. B., Hitchin, Herts.
Sally Hamilton replies: Painful as it is, insurers rightly need to see the correct paperwork such as death certificates and medical records, but ten months is an inordinate amount of time to be strung along.
Despite promises from Phoenix that the money would be sent as a matter of priority, it never arrived. You calculate that before you asked me to intervene you had called customer services 17 times.
You said that every call seemed to generate a new letter asking you for another document.
It appears the process was delayed partly because you switched banks, and on notifying Phoenix so that it could send the insurance proceeds to the right place, it asked you to complete the claim forms again.
Eventually, you asked if it could raise a cheque as you had lost faith in the money ending up in the right bank.
You were told to send this instruction with a covering letter, which you did in January. But by the end of February there was no sign of it.
On my contacting Phoenix, it pulled its finger out and the cheque for £25,768, which includes £661 of late payment interest, was soon in the post.
It has also promised £200 as apology for the delays. A spokesman for Phoenix says: ‘We recognise we have fallen short with our service, and we are sorry for the trouble and upset this has caused during what is already a difficult time.’
- Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
