A New Phone at Last after the Accident Scam in Southsea!

You may recall this blog where I described what happened to me as a result of which youths stole my brand new mobile phone:
http://michaelrcread.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/a-new-type-of-accident-scam.html

Well, after over two months I now have a replacement - and here it is:

But its replacement wasn't exactly straightforward as it was covered by our household insurance policy due to the phone company wanting to charge £10 per month for their insurance cover.  The initial claim was straightforward enough, but there was a £50 excess that wasn't exactly convenient to pay at Christmas, coupled to which I had a windscreen claim, for which there was a £60 excess.  However, we did agree that the household insurers would replace the handset through Amazon as soon as I had paid the excess.

So I just carried on using the old phone and thought little more about it until I had a phone call from the insurers last week to ask whether I still wanted to make the claim.  Of course, I said yes, and they told me to expect a call from someone who would take my card details and make arrangements to send me the new phone.

Sure enough, the next day I had a phone call, but it wasn't from the insurers but from a company called Be Valued, who turned out to be "Insurance Replacement Specialists."  In fact, what they specialise in is starting the claim all over again.  The woman asked me for all the information I had given the insurers: the circumstances of the claim; evidence of loss and ownership; proof of value; whether I wanted cash or replacement. I refused point blank to play their game and immediately rang the insurers, who called Be Valued back and gave them all that information.  I also asked the insurers to make sure that the replacement phone would be white, the same as the one that was stolen.

Later on that day I had another phone call from Be Valued, this time just asking for may card details, which I gave them, and I sought assurance from them that the replacement phone would be white. The following day - last Thursday - the phone arrived by Parcelforce.  I opened the parcel and found that the phone they had sent was - you've guessed it - black!!!

Here it is with the unbroken seal as I had a feeling they would send the wrong one.  I phoned Be Valued and they swore blind that I hadn't asked for a white one - and they even said that they had recorded the conversation!  However, not only had I asked specifically - twice - but it was on the contract I had faxed the insurers back in December.  Anyway, on Friday they collected it via DPD, a courier service and on Monday I phoned Be Valued to advise them that we would be out all day on Tuesday, so would they please not arrange delivery for that day.

Yesterday, we had a wonderful day visiting my mother on the Isle of Wight and when we arrived home in the evening we found this:

Yes, they had tried to deliver when I said we would be out all day.  However, the good news was that they had left it at the local post office, so I picked it up this morning.  I went home and entered all the accounts and apps before going into Eastleigh to get the new SIM for it, but I forgot to get my contacts transferred, so it's back to the phone shop tomorrow.

What we can learn from this:

From the accident scam: 

• If in doubt don't get out of your car.
• There's now a real shortage of police

From the insurance claim:

• It's certainly cheaper to use your contents insurance
• Making an insurance claim is now very much more complicated than it was when I was in insurance years ago.
• The use of  "Insurance Replacement Specialists" causes delay, mistakes and inevitably increases premiums.
• I felt when dealing with these replacement specialists that the customer is always wrong.