BS: UK - experience of loss adjusters?

Subject: RE: BS: UK - experience of loss adjusters?
From: gnomad
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 02:47 PM

My experience was a few years ago now, and of a different firm, but here goes:

I was burgled (rear window jemmied while I was away on holiday) by someone who took a number of watches & similar portable valuables, all my CDs, TV, video, a couple of bags & a curtain (ripped off its rail, I imagine to carry the swag)

Loss adjuster visited within days of my claim. Quotes arranged to replace window frame 'as was' but happy for me to arrange a higher-quality alternative with insurers contributing quoted sum.

Lost timepieces (some antique) a fair value agreed in days, credit note arranged to purchase my selection goods at any of a range of dealers. Clearly insurers & dealers had a mutually beneficial arrangement, but I had no quarrel with the outcome. Electrical goods I could have a similar arrangement (choosing what I then preferred) or let the insurers find the best match they could for the goods lost. I went and chose for myself.

Best of all was I listed over 100 CDs, some of which were pretty obscure, and they handed it to some firm specialising in such things who found the vast majority of them over a period of about 8 weeks and mailed them to me. This was before the likes of Amazon, so finding them was a feat I would never have accomplished alone. A quite generous flat-rate payment was made for those discs they couldn't source.

The minor damages & replacing curtains (full set for all windows in that room) I submitted receipts and got cheques by return.

I think that the fact I worked in a large branch of a well-known bank right next door to the loss adjuster's office (a coincidence, my home was 20 miles away in another town) may well have smoothed the passage of my claim, but I have to say that the adjusters were very fair, quick, polite, and probably the nicest part of an otherwise rather unpleasant business.

Getting burgled is nasty, and you have my sympathy. Like you I fitted an alarm after getting done, but it rankled for a surprisingly long time. Just glad I was nowhere near at the time.

Subject: BS: UK - experience of loss adjusters?
From: Anne Lister
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 01:26 PM

We were burgled in the first week of October. The thieves (one of whom has been charged and was in court this week) took a bunch of small, portable electronic items and all my jewellery worth anything that wasn't actually on my fingers or around my neck. Oh, and to pre-empt any suggestion that we might have prevented the burglary in some way - they gained admittance to the house by somehow opening a kitchen window that had been locked. We've now got locks on locks and a full alarm system.
Since early October we've been trying to get our insurance claim sorted out. We're insured via Northern Rock with AXA, and they use a loss adjuster company in Gateshead called Crawfords. They in turn go to expert companies to assess the value of the stolen items. So far we've received a replacement iPod and what was supposed to be a pair of replacement headphones, although what went was a pair of studio quality Sony cans and what they've sent is a pair of cheap earbuds to use with a Walkman. We're still waiting for some other replacement items. They've quoted us a cash settlement offer for some of the other items, but not all (why not all? Who knows? I've written twice and had no reply). The jewellery "experts" called me in early November for a full detailed description of all the items and have today written with an offer - which turns out not to be a cash settlement, but instead either an offer of their jewellers creating items for me or a voucher.

So I suppose my question is - have any other UK 'catters had dealings with loss adjusters and is this time scale typical? Because it seems to me we've been left hanging for weeks with no communication at all, the communication there has been has been very poor (we've had to give detailed descriptions to each company at least once each, despite the existence of photocopiers and faxes and email attachments) and we're generally totally hacked off with the lot of 'em. Bad enough to cope with the intrusion of the burglary without feeling totally unsupported by their bureaucracy and system.

Disgusted of Pontypool