Sunday 1 December 2013

Had a (un)lucky break repaired by insurance claim

I bought a shiny new 27 inch Acer monitor for the home office a month or so ago. However during a minor reorganisation in the office managed to whack it squarely on the side with the metal base of a wastepaper basket.  Doh! that really gave the sinking feeling of £200 going down the drain.


The damage was obvious and immediate, a black bruise about a 1/3 of the way down on the left hand side and picture interference from that point down.  In action this looked just as bad.



The monitor was new, being less than a month old, but concious prevented me from going back to the vendor and saying it had been damaged in delivery.  However just before going out to buy a replacement I called up the credit card issuing company to see if they had any cover for newly bought articles.  Some cards have a new item insurance cover built in as a benefit of the account. This benefit was not mentioned on any statement but was in the small print of the card agreement. Turns out I was in luck as the item was covered for 30 days from purchase for fire, theft and accident. A couple of emails later with photos, a note from a local IT supplier saying item cannot be economically repaired and the claim was granted.  Given the £25 excess and £10 for the repair estimate I got back £165 of the £200 cost for a new replacement.

However this claim could have gone badly as buried in the small print of the claims process were some sweeping exclusions.....


I could understand if "Services" purchased from the internet were not covered but any items purchased online seems to be a very broad unnecessary exclusion. In this case the monitor was bought over the phone from a shop that has bricks and mortar stores and delivered a few days later. The purchase could have been made directly at the store, over the phone for collection later, or just as website mail order deal. Really not understanding how some of those purchase mechanisms are covered and other not when the goods are the same. Indeed many big box stores settle purchases using order delivery from a warehouse for in-store purchases.

Anyway the claim was paid so thanks very much Co-op Platinum new purchase insurance cover. 

  








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