NU & Ival

[smooth123]

We suffered a house fire in October 2008 and everything had been relatively running smoothly until now. We have been living in alternative accommodation while our house has been repaired and we are due to move back very shortly so we started the process of claiming for the items that we lost. Our loss adjuster told us on the 4th April that a company by the name of Ival would contact us to discuss the replacement items. It took them over a week to make contact with us. Another week went by so on Monday of last week I phoned them as I had heard nothing from them.

 

I was informed that our claim was almost finished and that we would be receiving vouchers/cards to be spent at Comets or PC World. I spoke to them again on Thursday of last week to find out when we would expect to receive them and no one was either able to or was unwilling to tell me. During the conversation with them i was told to hold on and they would put me through to someone who could help me only to be cut off.

 

I phoned them again and asked for the person i was talking to and was told that if i gave my telephone number he would get him to phone me back straight away. He never did.

 

They emailed a list through and we noticed that there were many items missing and that they have offered us the value of inferior goods compared to the originals. I expect a Sony to replaced with a Sony, not a High Street store own brand.

 

My wife phoned them on Friday morning to speak to them about this and they read through the list of items that they were going to send us the voucher/cards for. She was told that there we several items deleted from their system and when my wife questioned why, she was cut off. She phoned back immediately and was told that their system has crashed and nobody could speak to her.

 

I phoned my loss adjuster to complain about the way Ival had handled the matter and have asked for a cash settlement instead. This has been agreed.

 

I also phoned NU to complain about Ival and was told it was nothing to do with them and that i should complian to Ival or our loss adjuster!

 

The moral of the story is if you have a claim handled by Norwich Union that is refered to Ival then insist on a cash settlement.

 

Needless to say, we won't be renewing our policy wtih them.

 

Thanks for listening