Stolen bike insurance issue.

So this morning ive rung my broker, KGM through MCE Insurance services to see whats happening. Bear in mind the bike was only taken on Sunday, however i spoke to a guy there to ask whats the latest with the claim. He tells me that they dont have a time frame that they have to make a descision in regarding a settlement on my bike. This was not what i was told on Monday morning! The lady i spoke to said 28 days. I also informed him i had a phone call from the vehicle crime unit at Marylebone police station, where the copper on the phone pretty much informed me that it was unlikely that my bike was stolen by kids and that usually they are stripped for parts or sold on the middle eastern countries. (made me feel a load better!):frowning:

I also told him i have bike trips booked in the nexth month and i couldnt afford to be without a bike for too long, he seemed like he really didnt care, didnt want to be there. I asked him what he suggested i do? he then said, " well you could send your documents in" i mean my god who the hell are we dealing with these days? it annoyed me that no one at the time i made the claim even mentioned i send my documents to them, or even in the letter they sent me they didnt mention it!.

im not expecting to have miracles worked here, but its basic stuff that they should know.

I do not want to have this case strung out for months and months. Is there anything else i can do?

Here’s my advice, for what it’s worth

It’s gonna be a case of patience and perseverence with insurance companies. They will do everything they can to avoid or delay paying. I believe it’s oftern used as a tactic as some people will just give up because they don’t have the time or the energy to pursue it.

Another problem you’ll encounter doing things by phone is that you’re likely to get a different story each time depending on who you speak to. Therefore do everything in writing, that way there’s a clear and easily referrable record that you can rely on and on which they’ll have trouble backtracking/changing their minds later on. Ideally you’ll get the name of one person who you can then deal with throughout the process.

Have a read of your policy as well so that you know what you should be getting/what they’re obliged to do. Don’t take their word for what it says.

Escalate to the complaints department if and when necessary and don’t forget that you have recourse to things like the Financial Ombudsman’s Service if you don’t get a satisfactory response from the insurance company.

When I cancelled with one company they wanted to charge a £40 cancellation fee. I argued it was unreasonable and effectively a penalty to discourage cancellation and that they should waive it and implied I was prepared to take it further. Guess what, it was waived.

Sorry about the bike being stolen. Apart from losing your P&J it gets made worse when you get put through the wringer by the insurance companies!

they are norn excellent at paying out from the dealings i have known with them, going back to our convo last night what about the hire bike ?. it is normal for you to send in all the documents with spare keys to them, they arer only in woodford if you want to drop it all over to me i will take them there by hand for you

I agree fully with what’s been said above. Could be worth having a word with Rider Support Services too. Get some legal advice from them.

I hope they don’t drag their heels too much on this, make sure you keep a kind of diary of every bit of correspondence you have with them, it will help loads :slight_smile: Good luck hun.x

For lords sake, take a copy of all of the documents before you hand them in. My experience of insurance companies, I’d not even hand them in at this time as you relinquish all control.

Remember, the first offer will be an insult and your going to have to be hard nosed. So much harder when they have the bike AND the papers/keys to go with that.

I know you want a fast pay out, but THINK BEFORE YOU ACT.

Agreed. Keep copies of EVERYTHING, including letters you send to them.

as a matter of fact an inspector came round a few weeks ago and im currently waiting for the offer…im with MCE and RBS Finsure…has anyone ever had experience with making a theft claim with them? if so how long did you have to wait for the first offer and as OLDGUY says,was it an ‘insult’? the inspector said that the offer would be going by market value. and i know that CBR125Rs range from £1100-£2100 second hand.

will keep you posted once i get an offer…im ringing RBS Finsure up to see whats going on with my claim.

cheers,

john

You need to read your policy very carefully and do further research outside this forum (if you are, don’t mean to teach to suck eggs).

The legal requirement I have always used, but I’ve only ever been claiming on someone else’s insurance, is that you have to be put back in the position that you were in before the incident. Of course, even that is open to interpretation (they’ll say money if you’d sold to a dealer which is similar position to you now) so you’ll have to do some spade work and argue from strength.

Good luck and don’t be afraid to argue/negotiate.

i just rang the company who are dealing with my claim (cant remember what they r called) and i explained that the investigator/inspector came 2-3 weeks ago and the operator said that they havnt recieved the report yet so hes gunna ring the investigator n see whats goin on…i said that not having a bike is stopping me from working (which it is) so that put a bit of urgency on it.:stuck_out_tongue:

hopefully ill get my offer this week…but im not holdin my breathe…probs av to phone up again!!!

john

hi u may have to wait quite a long time as insurance company are increasily useing fruad companys to do there investigations into theft,fire claims due to the increase of these types of claims.these companys take a very long time and do credit checks,all prevoiuse insurance claims.beleve it or not they will allso interveiw u over the phone wilst connected to a stress meter to determine weather u are telling the truth and memory checks about the theft.i know this because iv gone through this over a my car that some scum bag set alight outside my house and its been some 75 days since the fire and still not been paid but it is due next week.im lucky as i could afford to replace the car,many people are not,its very unfair.if the bike is recovered it could speed things up,just keep on at them,best of luck.

well i finally got my first offer from QBE yesterday (2 june) of £1242, £842 after the deduction of the £400 exess. natrually im declining the offer and when i rang them up to decline the offer they said i need to put it in writing- look for bikes and write them down (specs etc) and with a covering letter back to them.

the cheapest bike ive listed is £1,250 and £1,899 as the dearest.i hope they give me at least £1300,not including the excess. the good thing is that they deduct the excess from the offer,so you dont have to worry about paying it yaself (especially if ya on the dole like me).

ill post my 2nd offer on here when i get it…is there normally much difference between the 1st and 2nd offers??

cheers,

JoHn.

depends mate when my mx-5 got written off, I was offered £3200 for it, but after much fighting go £4k for it which was what it was worth…depends on how much you want to kick your heels to be honest

Sorry to hear this Matt
When my bike was stolen, they said that after 14 days they would accept the bike was not going to be returned or found.
So during that 2 week period, I made sure that they took my full statement (it was a phone interview) and got one of their assessors to call me. He needed to have my other keys, documents, receipts, service history etc to value the bike and also because once they have paid out the bike is theirs should it turn up later. I know you’ve not had it long but it would be worthwhile having evidence of what your bike would cost to replace eg glass’s guide, bike trader, ebay… My bike was ancient and I got it really cheap so I ended up getting more money back from the insurance company than I had paid the year before. They will happily fanny about and not do this until after the 2 weeks has passed but that just wastes time.
I probably then got the money a couple of weeks later but I bought my new bike on credit card so it didnt matter so much for me.
I later found out that the phone interview is to check for fraud - they ask weird questions to see how you respond. I assume I passed.
Good luck.
Anita

*I later found out that the phone interview is to check for fraud - they ask weird questions to see how you respond. I assume I passed.
Good luck.
Anita *

If you’d thought to ask, and pushed and needled a bit, you’d have probably found out that you were being voice printed. The give away is if there are a couple or three questions with a slightly too long a gap before the next few questions.

Now this is possibly illegal and certainly not permissable court evidence, but when did trivia like that worry insurance companies?

Took me a moment to twig and do the asking, etc. but quite good fun from then on as you can get quite clear to questions like “How did you feel when you discovered your bike had been stolen?” Answer, in best public school accent, “F***ing furious”.

I was too stressed to ask because they gave me a choice of 2 times and the only one I could accept was half an hour before a train to Edinburgh. I only just made it out of King Cross underground in time to get the call and then couldnt get my train ticket out of the machine. So I had to speak to the guy whilst trying to figure out why I was going to have to spend £108 to get a train ticket. If I was lying about something, I might have bothered to ask but I didnt care. I knew something was going on but I didnt realise it was voice analysis.