Insurance Ival whexpress theavin sods help needed!!

oskanoears

oskanoears

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Andy
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So I finally get to replace my stolen camera gear... I call ival and send them a screen print of my online shopping trolly for warehouse express requesting they replace the items listed... you'd expect some discount though right???
WRONG!!!!
price to any consumer of a d700 on warehouse express £1700 odd quid price to me when ival replace it through warehousee express £1900 odd quid and this continues on eevery item on my list:eek:

they wont give me cash to spend instead or a credit note and the only vouchers offered are for comet or dsg group and whilst i could get a camera body from them and have it priced matched this doesn't stop me been robbed for a second time by ival to replace the lenses I as a consumer can get cheaper!!!

answers on a post card please guys I need help.. and before its mentioned iv already thought of having the stuff from warehouse through ival returning it for a credit note and then rebuying the same kit from them with some extras but warehouse wont do this.

please help!

cheers andy
 
I'm not familiar with Ival. Whoever they are, how can it be more expensive to replace through them with the same supplier that you can replace through, only cheaper? It doesn't make any sense, that is, if I've understood correctly.
 
:thinking: Sorry, am I missing something? The insurance company will pay to replace your stolen goods at full retail via WHE, but you think you should get it at a discount with extra cash your way for more kit that you didn't own before? Or have I missed your point entirely?
 
I think Andy is saying Warehouse Express are charging his insurers more than the listed prices for his replacement kit. Which is very odd, have you tried ringing warehouse express and asked why, I have always found them very helpful over the phone. Are you still going to be able to get all your kit replaced at these higher prices? and are you sure it is Warehouse Express charging the extra, and not the insurance company adding the extra to cover some sort of costs?
 
I'm pretty sure that IVal will get the goods cheaper, but put on a margin to cover the admin time etc. of sourcing replacements, well that is what they said to me, when I queried it...
 
I had a simular problem with Ival through Barclays, however I complained to Barclays Insurance & they sorted it out I recieved a credit card with the agreed value and shopped where I liked.
 
I'm a little clearer now. If your kit gets replaced like for like, the insurance has done its job; to put you back in the same position you were in before the loss occurred. You are not losing out, or am I missing something here?
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
I think Andy is saying Warehouse Express are charging his insurers more than the listed prices for his replacement kit. Which is very odd, have you tried ringing warehouse express and asked why, I have always found them very helpful over the phone. Are you still going to be able to get all your kit replaced at these higher prices? and are you sure it is Warehouse Express charging the extra, and not the insurance company adding the extra to cover some sort of costs?
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Jimmy has it right here sorry if my rant was unclear... I hope this will clarify it.

said goods i need to replace come to a value of £7890.00 the budget limit imposed by my insurer, if ival charge me more for the goods il be a lens short because they value things higher... iv spoken with warehouse express who are aware this is the case and although they know its not right cant do anything to change it, although as stated have been most helpful as always.

so in order to clarify: statements like as long as its replaced who cares are null and void thats the whole point the because of ivals inflated prices il be short of gear not even or up on it
 
perhaps he doesnt want his insurers to get ripped off? :)

Edit: I'm still not 100% i get it. Do you insure your kit as one big lump sum or as individual items? It seems crazy that you might not get all your kit back due to them over valuing your kit and using retails who sell things high than RRP. :(
 
Yv said:
:thinking: Sorry, am I missing something? The insurance company will pay to replace your stolen goods at full retail via WHE, but you think you should get it at a discount with extra cash your way for more kit that you didn't own before? Or have I missed your point entirely?
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sorry yea point missed, my rant may have been unclear i hope my reply to another post clarifies this
 
oskanoears said:
Jimmy has it right here sorry if my rant was unclear... I hope this will clarify it.

said goods i need to replace come to a value of £7890.00 the budget limit imposed by my insurer, if ival charge me more for the goods il be a lens short because they value things higher... iv spoken with warehouse express who are aware this is the case and although they know its not right cant do anything to change it, although as stated have been most helpful as always.

so in order to clarify: statements like as long as its replaced who cares are null and void thats the whole point the because of ivals inflated prices il be short of gear not even or up on it
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This may be stating the obvious, but refer the matter to someone senior at your insurers. The whole point of the cover, assuming you have new for old cover, is to be put back in the position you were in before the loss occurred. Assuming you have insured for the replacement cost, your insurers should pay up to that value to replace your goods. If they choose to use someone that charges more, effectively using some of your sum insured to pay their fee, that is wrong. You could not build a third party's fees into your sums.

Refer the matter back to your insurers. It would be interesting to see how your policy is worded. Who are you insured with? I am also sure the Financial Ombudsman would be interested in this if it cannot be resolved using your insurer's complaints procedure.

I have never heard of anything like this before.
 
Cyprio said:
perhaps he doesnt want his insurers to get ripped off? :)
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actually I didnt want warehouse to lose trade which is one of the reasons i called them... think about it... your insurer quotes you prices higher than you can buy them yourself from the same store do you say yea no problem il have less stuff or do you say hell no give me vouchers for somewhere else... warehouse express just lost my business to the tune of 8k hows that fair on their business whilst ival cream off the top at my loss?
 
Yv said:
Now that makes it clearer, though now I am wondering who ival are? I assumed from first post they were your insurers, though I now assume they are some kind of assessors/valuers?
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Ival are appointed by my insurers to replace goods... they seem to do all elec goods in the insurance world my insurance was through hsbc
 
Goody13 said:
This may be stating the obvious, but refer the matter to someone senior at your insurers. The whole point of the cover, assuming you have new for old cover, is to be put back in the position you were in before the loss occurred. Assuming you have insured for the replacement cost, your insurers should pay up to that value to replace your goods. If they choose to use someone that charges more, effectively using some of your sum insured to pay their fee, that is wrong. You could not build a third party's fees into your sums.

Refer the matter back to your insurers. It would be interesting to see how your policy is worded. Who are you insured with? I am also sure the Financial Ombudsman would be interested in this if it cannot be resolved using your insurer's complaints procedure.

I have never heard of anything like this before.
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sadly we were under insured but had no time to check the policy as we were robbed the day after the policy arrived!
total value of pinched stuff was around 17k we have been allocated 6k as cash and 6.5k to be spent at warehouse so every penny counts.
am speaking with hsbc (the insurer tomorrow and will be threatening press never mind ombudsman!)

if I had currys vouchers instead id get 6.5k to spend at currys representing 6.5k of real product but as it stands throught ivals and warehouses contracted deal 6.5k will actually yeild around 5 grands worth of goods leaving me a lens or two short.
 
As I posted earlier I had the same problem wiyh Ival but complained to my insurance company who had instructed Ival. They sorted it out & I got a like for like replacement. Ival are just assessors and your contract is with your insurance company. Being a lens down is not right
 
Peter_Hartland said:
As I posted earlier I had the same problem wiyh Ival but complained to my insurance company who had instructed Ival. They sorted it out & I got a like for like replacement. Ival are just assessors and your contract is with your insurance company. Being a lens down is not right
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cheers pete its nice to know im not alone here im just miffed the buggers are creaming off the top and i lose out!
 
Might it be worth getting your own loss adjuster/assessor involved? Unless I've misunderstood it sounds like Ival are assessors working on behalf of your insurer and in that case it's their job to get the claim down as low as they can get away with. Also if you were underinsured how was the settlement figure agreed?

A quick google for personal loss adjustor throws up a number of no win no fee outfits that would be on your side and might even things up a bit.....just a thought.

PS - didn't Ival make that shiny toilet paper your Nan used to have? :))
 
I dont think he would be underinsured if the items required were at shop price but if Ival are adding their 'handling fee' ontop this pushes him over the limit he has, that really sucks!!

I would do as Pete says and tell your insurers that they will lose your future business if they dont get their third party Ival sorted.
 
He was underinsured for less than half the value of goods taken so, in theory, could have been worse off. Now we have a little more info on this, it may not be quite as straightforward as would first seem and it is hard to comment without the full facts.

I'm not one to defend insurers, but sometimes the insurance industry does get an unfair press as not all facts are always presented as they actually are, not that I'm saying that is the case in this instance.
 
Ival can be a bit flakey - when I dropped my 28-70 f/2.8 AF-S in Scotland, they wanted to replace it with a Nikon 24-120 VR :gag::nuts:

A quick call to them made them see sense and I got a Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 AF-S from WHE the next day. Didn't want that, so sold the 24-70 f/2.8 to someone here, and bought a 28-70 f/2.8 AF-S again!
 
There's a lot of iffyness that goes on like this - I claimed for a damaged carpet a few months ago. The specialist flooring loss adjusters offered me a voucher for a selection of chain stores or a cheque which was -20% of the value of the claim.

When I spoke to the carpet company who actually finally were fitting it for me, they told me that this loss adjustment company were raping them for more like 30% of the value of the entire spend I had with them (because of course the claim didn't include anything but the carpet itself).

This whole outsourced loss adjustment thing is just banditry. I suspect thats where the bloody increases in insurance claims/premiums comes from - if these guys are inflating claims by 20-30% :(
 
In reality, insurers normally deal with a particular supplier in return for a discount, which keeps their costs, and our premiums, lower. I have never heard of things costing more through a firm dealing with replacement, which is why I find this most odd.
 
If you Google Ival, loss adjusters, there are many stories similar to yours. They are in fact not quoted as loss adjusters but as people who source replacements for certain insurance companies. There is a lot of bad comment from people with similar experiences to you.

It has become common practise for insurers to source replacements themselves as some insureds were claiming high replacement costs and then benefiting from the discounted price they could obtain.

However, if the item can be obtained from the same supplier in the open market for less than Ival are sourcing it, I think you have a valid complaint. Go back to your insurance company and politely request that they correct this. If they refuse, threaten to take them to the Ombudsman.

Ival appear to be part of Powerplay who sell DVD's, CD's and books!!!!

As regards under insurance, I think you are lucky to be offered what you were. They could have refused the claim. At best they could have imported an average clause, which means that they would only offer to pay a proprtion of the loss calculated as the same percentage of your under insurance. Not sure that last statement is too clear but I know what I mean!

Hope you get it sorted but please post again if you get more problems.

Ken
 
My insurance company arranged to replace my wifes Ferrari Laptop through powerplay, p/play offered a replacement which I could buy on the high street for less than half of what I paid for the Ferrari, I refused to accept the replacement, I then complained to the insurance company and sent them links to the same laptop as my wifes which luckily someone still had in stock, result a cheque in the post for the full purchase price. :)
 
oskanoears said:
sadly we were under insured but had no time to check the policy as we were robbed the day after the policy arrived!
total value of pinched stuff was around 17k we have been allocated 6k as cash and 6.5k to be spent at warehouse so every penny counts.
am speaking with hsbc (the insurer tomorrow and will be threatening press never mind ombudsman!)

if I had currys vouchers instead id get 6.5k to spend at currys representing 6.5k of real product but as it stands throught ivals and warehouses contracted deal 6.5k will actually yeild around 5 grands worth of goods leaving me a lens or two short.
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For your sake don't do that.

Press threats are rarely taken very seriously in large business unless there is a chance that press coverage could impact their profits. IN your case, they won't. If you're lucky you'll end up on about page 10 of a paper with a photo of you looking sad with a camera and the story will point out you were under insured.

Deal with your insurers as other folk have, if that fails go to the ombudsman, follow due process, and you will get what you require.
 
Mike.P said:
My son chucked a toy at my 42" LCD a couple of weeks ago, busting the panel. I put in a claim and they didnt even inspect it .. just sent me a cheque for £700. :thumbs:
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I dont think they even check tvs anymore.I know two people that they just paid out too.
 
"Deal with your insurers as other folk have, if that fails go to the ombudsman..."

I complained to the insurance ombudsman about an issue I had years ago and unfortunately in my case the ombudsman repeated word for word lies told by the insurance company I was complaining about. Only the threat of legal action against both the insurance company and the lie repeating ombudsman helped in my particular case.

When dealing with insurance companies and the ombudsman I think you should proceed with the expectation that they are potentially in bed together or at least do not necessarily have honesty, integrity or your personal interests at the top of their list.
 
thank you all for your input and thoughts.... I spoke with my insurance loss adjusters Crawford and company in Birmingham this morning who apologised for the problems I had with Ival and have now issued a cheque to me with warehouse expresses name on.

Sadly iv had to rant a little to get things resolved with insurance/ival and as a result have got what I was owed but for all those who just accept what they are told its just plain criminal!
whilst I understand businesses are not here to look pretty any profit made should be as a result of contractual agreements between mutually benefiting companies i.e. ival receive 30% discount from whexpress but dont pass that on to the consumer... thats fine with me they are after all a profit making business and no a charity... however to add another 20+% to goods and steal from a consumer who is already trying to replace stolen goods is just plain morally wrong!

For reference here I just received an email from ival stating this " have finally heard back from warehouse express and they have confirmed that the figures on our system are incorrect."

iv learned 2 valuable things from this experience from this that i wish to share

1: for god sake list every singular item with your insurance company down to the last filter, including making sure you have pictures and serial numbers for anything that doesnt have a reciept... metadata is not proof of ownership! being under insured has been costly to me and tring to prove ownership of lenses 10 years old has been impossible!
2: check your replacement prices yourself it could me a lens or not!

thanks again for every ones comments. if anyone ever experiences these problems I would be happy to share my experiences and resolution tactics to help them out.

ps just called aaduki to get insurance on the new stuff to make sure its properly covered by people who specialise and because iv had stuff nicked they wont give me a quote!
 
oskanoears said:
1: for god sake list every singular item with your insurance company down to the last filter, including making sure you have pictures and serial numbers for anything that doesnt have a reciept... metadata is not proof of ownership! being under insured has been costly to me and tring to prove ownership of lenses 10 years old has been impossible!
2: check your replacement prices yourself it could me a lens or not!
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i'll just add to that.. whoever you are with READ your small print from start to finish. photoguard will accept photos of the kit as proof etc.

glad youve got it all sorted out now though :)
 
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