Travel Insurance Claim-Am furious

FutureGuy

I'm literally furious as I type this. I'm getting the run around at the moment and it's now coming to the boil.

Long story short, my girlfriend became ill in US in April and required hospitalisation. As required, we rang the emergency assistance number to state we were in hospital.

Came home, rang insurance and told them the story. I didn't have any bills etc so they suggested that I wait until I get some bills or an idea of the costs. 4 weeks later, no sign of anything. Ring insurers fo advice and now they say I should now chase up the hospital. Did that and they sent out bills, but the hospital say sthey have tried to contact the insurers many many times but have received no reply. To make matters worse, the emergency assistance company has no records of my girlfriend, and that the insurers apparently never sent on her records.

Getting a little annoyed. I finally get all the stuff required to make the claim and I send it via re post on a Saturday. I tracked the delivery and it arrived on Monday (2 days later). I rang the insurers to confirm delivery and they said it had arrived and that X was looking into it. I had spoken to X a few times and he made me so angry-everytime you are saying something, he buts in and never lets me finish a sentence. Fine, I e-mailed X Monday morning to thank him for looking at the file so quickly and if he needed any assistance let me know.

No response. Rang the insurers again on Thursday, X not there, talked to Y who said X was dealing with it and should be done by following Tuesday. Sigh.

In the meantime, hospital send letter stating they would not be contacting insurers again, and that I have to pay.

So rang insurers again this morning. Finally got through to X. Was a total pr1ck with me saying that he received nothing and that he was too busy in meetings to deal with it. He said hed call back. After waiting 5 hours I ring again and he said hed look at it tomorrow and that it be weeks before he asks for more info (despite me sending EVERYTHING to them).

And to add the cherry to the icing, when I was trying to explain something to him just now, he said that he would "look at it, take care, bye" and hung up.

I'm still raging. So what do I do next. Is it time for the financial ombudsman?

foggy_lad

a strongly worded letter of complaint to this company should be your 1st action here as the ombudsman can only take up your case when all other avenues are exhausted. so just make the complaint in writing outlining the issues you are facing with your claim and then allow the company a reasonable time to reply before calling on the ombudsmans office.

Sam Vimes

call againm make a complaint against him and ask to deal with someone else. you shouldn't completely bypass the company because of one person.

if they refuse to let someone else deal with it, then it's time for further action

FutureGuy

It's my first insurance claim of this magnitude, amd I am living with my heart in my mouth the last few days.

I get the feeling that they are stalling so I pay the hospital, and at that stage they can refuse to pay me. I think X hasnt a clue what is going on. He claims that he has only received 2 statements from me when i sent in about 20 separate pages of details backing up my claim.

FutureGuy

Sam Vimes wrote: »

call againm make a complaint against him and ask to deal with someone else. you shouldn't completely bypass the company because of one person.

if they refuse to let someone else deal with it, then it's time for further action

Would it hurt my claim?

Sam Vimes

FutureGuy wrote: »

Would it hurt my claim?

it's not that it would hurt your claim, they would just refuse to do anything for you until you had exhausted your options with the company

FutureGuy

Right,
Rang the insurer again. I immediately asked to be put through to a supervisor. I got hold of the office manager. Very nice woman indeed and took the time to talk to me. I told the person I wanted X off my claim. She said she would deal with it herself and contact me tomorrow.

Yer man had the customer skills of a lemon doused in vinegar. :mad:

ncmc

I'm interested to know how this turns out Futureguy, did the superviser call you back?

Colonel Sanders

Even if you get this sorted eventually I'd definately advise a strongly worded letter of complaint to the company.

If you get no satisfaction then don't be afraid to contact the Financial Ombudsman.