…and does it still include sensible bike cover i.e. do they pay out if you have to claim?

Ta!

I’ve not claimed for a bike off it, but claimed for my guttering when the snow pulled it off, and they paid up no problem.

good customer service as well. they answer the phone quickly.

They were still covering bikes up to £4k last week when I took mine out again, but there was chat about it being dropped, more talk here:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ms-homebike-insurance-possible-changes-afoot

[edit – agree, customer service has been very good whenever I have contacted them]

They were a bit slow actually paying out but I had no hassle getting my sofa paid for when one of the cats nicely bathed it in piss.

I had Bike stolen last Thursday, phoned M&S, my insurer Thursday PM.
They called back Friday to arrange an interview, set that up for Monday AM.
Had call on Monday am for an hour or so, then advised they would pass the claim to Wheelies Direct to deal with.

Wheelies called back on Monday afternoon, took a note of the build and advised that they would get back to me sometime today with a valuation etc

Bike stolen was an old Rockhopper S/S but it had 2004 Fox Talas Forks, mono minis, saint c/set, hope mavic discs etc.

This is the third time in 4 years I have had to claim, wrote off a Surly Karate Monkey in a crash, they replaced that via Halfords very quickly. Also lost my Garmin 705 and again got a payout for that very quickly with minimal hassle.

As the bike was stolen from a garage, I was worried about whether or not I required a ground anchor in order for the insurance to be valid, however this doesnt appear to be the case.

I am very happy with the service they provide.

They were a bit slow actually paying out but I had no hassle getting my sofa paid for when one of the cats nicely bathed it in piss.

you claimed because 1 of your cats pissed on the sofa? 😆

surely you chalk that up to experience?

Not when it’s a three month sofa that costs £1.2k to replace you don’t…

Bear in mind that it wasn’t just a few drops, it was proper soaked and a write off.

no sofa is a write off cos a cat pees on it.. dont you have to take some responsibility for your own actions/ your cats in this case?

surely pet damage does not count? If you have cats and buy a £1200 sofa then it’s your own fault. And surely you could just get it professionally cleaned for less than your excess?

Had to claim twice off M&S in 4/5 years. Quick settlement in both cases.

Depends whether you need to claim or not, had a claim last July, lots of bikes and gear stolen, they paid out eventually about £8500 after some discussions.

policy now up for renewal and they have endorsed the policy so value of bikes is limited to £1000, spoke to their underwriters and they won’t budge. I even offered to pay extra to put them as specified items but no go.

The real sting in the tail is that we are now struggling to get cover elsewhere as most insurers won’t touch you if you’ve had a claim in the last three years and if we stay with M&S the bikes are woefully under insured.

Underwriter I spoke to confirmed they are putting this endorsement on all policies at renewal after a bike theft.

totalshell – Member
no sofa is a write off cos a cat pees on it.. dont you have to take some responsibility for your own actions/ your cats in this case?

Postandyl – Member
surely pet damage does not count? If you have cats and buy a £1200 sofa then it’s your own fault. And surely you could just get it professionally cleaned for less than your excess?

I do understand where you’re coming from, however, from M&S’s (well AXA) point of view, it was a perfectly legitimate claim – I told them the truth about what happened, they told me that was covered and sent an assessor. The assessor said that the damage couldn’t be fixed for two reasons – first it’s impossible to get rid of the smell, second once it soaks through to the springs, it’ll rust them and they’ll break. Again, he’d seen it all before. Clear cut case for replacement according to him.

Insurance companies aren’t exactly reknown for paying out on claims they don’t need to. As for responsibility, I did take it by taking out insurance – the whole point of it is that it covers all the obvious things but also many of the unlikely/unexpected things (cats haven’t done anything similar before or since) that you can’t really know will happen.

Edit – pointless post clubber said what I wanted to.