PC Performance Cover, Damaged deemed misuse.

[arcadian]

Hello All,

 

I would really apreciate some advice on substantiating my apppeal to PC Performance regarding there decision to decline my claim. Below is a letter I am sending them today. any advice would be hugely appreciated.

 

Claim Reference; B875W72N

I write in reference to the letter dated 17/3/2010 the letter outlines that you have come to the decision that the damage to my laptop was considered to be due to misuse or neglect.

This letter is once again intent on appealing your decision and further stating my grounds for appeal, the letter as been sent to both the CEO of your business, the office of fair trading, consumers direct and if the necessary outcome is not met I am fully intent on passing the matter to the small claims court.

I have now owned my Advent Laptop for 16mths and it has been used on a daily basis as I am a Keene astronomer and have invested lots of my time and money into constructing my own observatory. The laptop plays a vital part in controlling such. I have installed endless software and programs to make all this work. Over the last 16mths the laptop and been subject to the usual wear and tear as I often move it between the sitting room and my observatory, to expand on this it was also have been subject to a slip, when it fell from my chair and hit the fireplace. However in spite of this the laptop continued to function properly and in the interest of not putting myself to any unnecessary hassles in arranging the repair and backing up the endless software I opted to continue using the laptop.

It was not until the laptop slipped from my chair to simply knock over my coffee that it was damaged to a point that I could no longer use it. At this time I was forced to make a claim using my PC Performance Cover. The claim’s process was very simple however in the first instance even your claims advisor raised suspicion of the claim I was making, indirectly taking away the credibility of my claim, despite this collection of the laptop was as agreed and collected from the address I requested on the date agreed. After approximately 10 days I received no more than a text message to advice that I would be receiving a parcel from the tech guys the following day. This seemed like great news to me my laptop had been repaired, it wasn’t until the parcel arrived that I discovered that the laptop had not been repaired.

A note was enclosed with it to advise me the engineer had deemed the damage to be misuse and that this was not covered under the terms and conditions of my policy. This is where my questions and grounds for appeal start to arise. The policy I purchased from the store is called Whatever Happens. Now although I understand that this would have its exclusions, I would see it as appropriate for the engineer to have gathered some information from me around how this laptop had become damaged. This did not happen, So the engineer’s evaluation must be based not on what actually happened to cause the damage, but the amount of damage incurred , and therefore my policy cover is not based upon the circumstance or the whatever happened approach, but more the amount of damage that comes about from an accident .It appears that in the process of evaluating any claim if the engineer doubts the claim rather than investigating the circumstances for him/herself and possibly clear up that doubt , the engineer, as a matter of routine simply declines the claim.

The letter which arrived with the laptop from the engineer, made two clear recommendations to include; making an appeal to Mr Garry Parrymount at DSGI Head office in Hemel Hempstead and to be sure the laptop remains in the same condition in the interest of a third party assessing the damage on behalf of DSGI.

I wrote my appeal and posted such by special delivery to Mr Parrymount dated and posted on 2/3/10, this letter is enclosed. After around 3 weeks of waiting a reply to my letter I started making some calls to the support teams over the phone.

The advisors could not offer me any support even to confirm my letter and been received and was at least being dealt with. After numerous calls trying to find some answers I was promptly told the case could only be dealt with my Mr Parrymount and I would have to continue to wait as the team were around 2 weeks behind in dealing with the claims. Most of the advisors did not even endeavour to look into my personal account with DSGI they could not of been any less helpful.

On a more positive note I went into a local curry’s store near to my address, working in retail myself I wanted to avoid this as I understand that most of the support propositions are dealt with externally however at this point I had been left with no other option. I went into the Bath Union Street store and a very helpful colleague’s namely Sarah Louise made every effort to make contact with heads of department in an effort to bring my claim to an end but equally found it very difficult to speak with Garry. This was the very first time my confidence with the support product began to grow, when Sarah was no longer able to deal with my enquiries she passed them to her Manager Duncan, Duncan returned my calls promptly and advised the claim was being dealt with and that all the internal correspondence required to conclude my claim had been complied a week prior to the call and it should take no longer than 3 further weeks. There was little more that he could do however I was grateful to at least know that something was happening and that it required no further input from myself.

The point to raise here is that it was stipulated in the purchase of my agreement that if DSGi were not able to repair my laptop within 21 days I could enforce a replacement. I find it difficult to believe that I could potentially have been made to wait as long as 3 months for my claim to be settled quite simply because an engineer had deemed the damage to excessive and the appeals teams being behind with dealing with their workload. The cost of £8.99 per month I am paying for the product is surely worthy of a higher service level than this, especially in that you continue to collect these direct debits from my account after my claim was refused. I will not be cancelling this as this could be seen as my intent to cancel the cover.

The next correspondence I received from DSGi was from the office of Mr Garry Parryment this was incredibly short and to the point further clarifying that under section 9 of the terms and conditions which states; “The cost of repairing or replacing the product which fails because anyone neglects abuses or Misuse the product.

Therefore further to my point above, I can only conclude your second decision has been based upon the damage assessed by your first engineer, without a further inspection from an independent third party as I had anticipated and which you indicated in your letter to me mentioned above. This would have given opportunity to gather further information and conclude the claim impartially. I have been very honest with my claim and give a true account of the accident, mishap. I have no doubt that your decision to decline my claim based on misuse would have little standing in any small claims court especially in that you have made very little effort to expand on such in your correspondence to myself. I see it as being very difficult to differentiate between misuse and mishap being accidental damage which in my opinion is why you have opted to pursue with this very unjustified approach of a declining my claim on a policy entitled whatever happens.

I therefore require a full copy of the engineer's report in question, together with a full, written explanation from yourselves as to why you have so far failed to repair/replace my laptop.

 

 

I trust after reading my letter of complaint in appeal you will take this opportunity to amend your second decision please be advised this letter is being sent to consumers advice, I feel it necessary to make you aware that if I do not hear from you in writing within a period of 14 days, that I will have no alternative but to seek redress through the Small Claims Court.

Thanks in advcance for any replies.

Arcadian.

[loopinlouie]

Just thinking do you have house insurance if they dont pay out. Idropped my laptop down the stairs some years ago and it was replaced even though it was my fault for it accidently dropping.

 

Could then demand the cost of the whatever happens policy be repaid to you, just an idea. xx

[arcadian]

Hi loopinlouie,

 

Firstly thankyou for taking the time to reply to my post. I don't currently have any home insurance its not something have have looked into.

 

I in fact have more than 1 policy with DSGi namley my laptop which I am appealing and my televison. Once may claim is bought to a close I may well consider this option. I was always under the belief that dealing with the electrical retailers directly would make things quicker for me come a time where I need to make a claim, it seems I may have been a little nieve.

 

There have been a number of significant events in the skies over the last month so I have bulit a small system to get me by maybe I will endavour to reclaim this cost if DSGi insist of persuing my claim to the courts.

 

Thanks again for your advice.

 

Arcadian.

[loopinlouie]

I know where your comming from, I dont myself have house insurance at the moment now, but it came in handy when did.

 

If they still deny your claim, you could possibly get the computer assessed independently, as in they could refute the missuse claim possibly, and if repairable maybe go for costs. Iam no expert, but the title whatever happens, indicates anything you would think.

 

Makes you wonder what is the point of these policies, good luck

[dx100uk]

what policy have you got with them?

 

dx