After recently being burgled and lots of stuff being taken the insurance have finally come through (M&S insurance has certainly not been hassle free, I reckon between myself and my partner we must have spent 24 hours solid on the phone over the 9 weeks its taken to get the claim settled, including being accused of lying a few times 🙁 )

Anyhow, for the bikes we are being forced to use wheelies or take a 40% reduction in the claim (and this appears to be non-negotiable, now as we have fought like hell to get it changed and had to send back cheques for the reduced amount they gave us to spend in the LBS).

So as it was my SO’s bike that was nicked she is looking for a replacement, and we are struggling to find what to get/try, at the moment a Giant Anthem XW looks OK, can anyone suggest anything else (except Ibis or Santa Cruzs as wheelies won’t do these).

Anyhow, for the bikes we are being forced to use wheelies or take a 40% reduction in the claim (and this appears to be non-negotiable, now as we have fought like hell to get it changed and had to send back cheques for the reduced amount they gave us to spend in the LBS).

This is wrong. It should not be a 40% reduction if its your choice to go for cash ( I was told 10% by M&S)- and if wheelies can’t provide you with an equivalent bike then you should get the full amount. If its a custom build then you should get he full amount.

Well after spending hours on the phone, including having to get them to listen to previous recording conversations as they claimed that I said things that I hadn’t (and when they listened to them; they decided that I might have been telling the truth, so let me off) I can confirm they they can offer you the amount of cash they would have to pay from there suppliers for the *equivalent* (it doesn’t have to be the same, check your policy wording since aka took over) item, not the items RRP. This seems to be around 35-40% less than the RRP of an item.

M&S aka AKA via Crawfords will not negotiate this; I know I have tried, as has my partner who is a Senior Associate in a law firm specialising in insurance law.

We could go down the small claims route or keep arguing; however at 60-90 minutes a go on the phone 4 times a week, you kinda lose the will to live, especially when you have to get them to listen to old recordings, and fit it in around a job.

My advice if you are dealing with Crawfords, write *EVERYTHING* down as they will claim you have said things who haven’t in order to reduce your claim.

Bummer, and my contents insurance is up for renewal. Sounds like M&S won’t be on the list this year. Good luck getting it sorted.

richc – all you have to do is show that the bikes wheelies are offering is not an equivalent, I certainly did not have this issue when I claimed – I was told wheelies would find me an equivalent bike, if they couldn’t I get the full value in cash or if I wanted cash despite what wheelies offered then I got 90%.

I ended up with a very good deal so I was happy.

When my so wrote off her road bike (bespoke 853 etc etc) m&s tried to get her to get a replacement through wheelies. She phoned them up and explained what she wanted and they admitted that they couldn’t supply anything. Eventually she got a cheque from m&s for the full value of the claim.

how long ago was this? as AXA have only been under writing them for a year or so, hence the tightening of the regulations.

The problem we have is wheelies can find an ‘equivalent’ as it wasn’t a custom built frame, hence we are stuck, as would be anyone without a custom frame.

Suprised about this, I was given the full value of my bike as their supplier was unable to get me a new one. But I think they have changed underwriters since then so rules may have changed.

Not as surprised as we were, we lost a lot of antique jewellery as well, and at first they were trying to force my GF to go to F Hindes to replace it all…… However they did eventually back down on this, so we can go to goldsmiths as well ……… (this battle is still ongoing)

Hmmmm

I can’t remember the date but basically I negotiated with wheelies. it didn’t have to have been a custom frame – just a custom build.

In the end wheelies said take your pick of bikes in our range up to £1000 and that satisfied me – but as no off the peg bike matched the spec I could have had the cash if I wanted.

I used M&S recently. I used Wheelies and got a Specialized Epic Evo 2011. They also said that I was not allowed Cash. But then Again if your bike was stolen you ‘should’ replace it with a bike to the same value. I don’t see an issue. Wheelies seemed to have a large enough range.

edit – I realise that you had a lot of other stuff go missing. Well my experience still holds true in the bike department. Anyway – the Epic is, well…. Epic.

Richc

We recently had a similar dispute with M&S over jewellery using their “Gem Card”. We had to accept a cash settlement 20% less than the value of the item if buying anything from a shop other than those linked to the Gem Card (mostly chains such as F Hinds, Goldsmiths, Beaverbrooks, H Samuels etc) and only had 12 months to replace the jewellery which my wife had collected over 20 odd years.

Apparently their original valuation of our loss took the discounts they get via this Gem Card arrangement with the retailers into account. I have to admit the original valuation was more than we had expected (especially given the somewhat vague descriptions we had of the more unusual items) so it may be so. We still have a lot to spend, which may result in jewellery being a popular Xmas gift to our family this year to get it spent before 12 months is up!

We also had a few conversations in which I explained that their suggested replacements were nothing like the stolen item, but in each case they then agreed on my explanation and alternative. Fortunately the bikes were the only thing of value the thieving scum left behind so I’ve no experience with Wheelies other than a replacement pump, tube, and puncture repair kit which were dealt with pretty easily.

Well I’d be a bit annoyed if my turner went and I had to replace it with a Spesh tbh. I only pay the inflated premiums as it seemed to be very good cover

Firestarter – your opinion.
I wouldnt touch a turner (5 spot) if you gave it to me. – my opinion.

But lets keep this on subject.

Yes but you see my point you have a bike that you build from frame up and took time and money to get how you want it and its replaced with some standard run of the mill build

Out of interest, when claiming for custom built bikes, how do you prove the value? I’ve simply kept all the receipts for the parts, but wondered if there are other methods in use. By their nature I assume you can’t always prove the value of a custom built bike. I’m insured with M&S and this is always something that has concerned me, as all my bikes are custom built.

firestasrter – in those circumstances you can get a cash equivalent. I was offered this – but in the end was happy with a free pick from wheelies range.

Seems entirely on topic to be honest. It’s a crucial part of the cover..like for like. If my Singular Pegasus or carbon Blur were nicked, I’d want to replace with the same, not an off-the-peg bike from one of the regular brands, no matter how good they are. Would have bought one of them in the first place if that’s what I wanted.

Out of interest, when claiming for custom built bikes, how do you prove the value?

Plenty of photos + links to the relevant parts at somewhere like CRC or Wiggle should do it

firestasrter – in those circumstances you can get a cash equivalent. I was offered this – but in the end was happy with a free pick from wheelies range.

But a 40%reduction in claim value is some hit to take 🙁

I was told 10% reduction – and only if it was my choice to take cash. If they cannot supply an equivalent then you don’t get the deduction.

Having said that I have always thought the M&S scheme is very generous and wondered how long before they attempted to reduce it

Hmm this has me somewhat worried as all my bikes are custom. Might be time to find a new insurer.

That wouldn’t be so bad tj I’d hate to actually have to test them out.

Me too toys all mine as built from frame up

Hmmm… When I broke our TV (dropped a tape measure into the middle of the screen whilst putting the wall bracket up 😳 ) M&S offered me a replacement which we didn’t want. They then offered the cash equivalent with no noticable reduction. Odd.

Just been on Wheelie’s site and if my bikes got nicked I think I could replace them from their stock, but I don’t have anything too custom or exotic.

but is it actually a 40% cut in the claim or 40% deduction in a stupid RRP figure that doesn’t relate to how much you can buy kit for or relate to the discount wheeles/crawfords/insurer actually get?

I found Crawfords service very poor, in fact so poor i simply delayed and waited (burglary in Nov, settlement in Feb) until they flagged it up and started chasing me for a conclusion – i believe they probably have performance related customer service periods to settle within and anything after this gets noted on their records with the insurance company

i had three bikes taken, a standard orange five and two self build HT’s and decided that i wanted two bikes out of the assessed sum and i got a part cash settlement (for the two frames – a lynskey and turner) and new replacement parts from wheelies for the build) – thinking back on it they were terrible – i had to pass on all my proof of receipts etc to Wheelies myself for the assessment (which was up to Crawfords to do and wasted 2 weeks in the process), and then Crawfords still didn’t believe that i’d built the HT’s up until i provided them with record photographs as well

have you tried speaking to your insurer on your experiences with Crawfords or asked for an alternative loss adjuster to deal with the claim?

Even if things have been tightned up, I cannot imagine there are many policies that ensure bikes up to 4K as part of the contents cover. The stand alone bike policies are way expensive in comparison to M&S.

Hmm this has me somewhat worried as all my bikes are custom. Might be time to find a new insurer.

Difficult to find for the cover M&S give for unspecified items
If you’re worried, I’d be tempted to self insure the 40% gap [or some of it]
Just stick £n a month or so away in a savings account

I totally agree with IanV. Any insurance company will try to reduce their exposure wen it comes to paying a claim, it’s not surprising. I can’t find anything that even comes close to the M&S policy. I’ve looked into bike specific policies and the terms they dictate are just stupid. i.e. they have to be always locked to an imovable object with an approved lock regardless of where they are, including on your own property! Which is just not practical. They’re also expensive. Until M&S tighten up their terms significantly I’m going to take my chances and be ready to break into the piggy bank if I need to top up any payout!

just spoke to m&s home insurance about custom builds as a new customer – if you have every receipt for every part they will settle in full upto £4000, if its over that you needed to specify before and may not a valid policy…

they would try and replace like for like through wheelies, which is normal, failing that i was just told no penalty for the cash settlement should wheelies not have your specific needs, they would pay the amound on all of your receipts

so basically exactly the same as when i rang 3 years ago to start the policy….perhaps as you are insuring through third party perhaps they have certain limits etc….

Sounds reassuring

definately! im sure they could replace mine like for like to be honest even though its custom so to speak…..

just make sure you have receipts for everything, i cant see how they cannot do so, as the policy says this anyways as long as your bits are under 4k it SHOULD be covered as standard, as thats what the policy stipulates!

i even think i spoke to the same guy from last time i rang 3 years ago 😆 nothing has changed as far as im concerned

I have no receipts – mine was all cheap secondhand. They did not ask me for any proof. I do have photos of all the bikes including details however

Just to clarify – its still £4k per bike – yes??

I have a couple of custom builds, new frames with used parts hence not all the parts have reciepts. But the shop selling the frames agreed to do a written quote for the full builds.
Might be useful to get a LBS to do a quote for your records, most probably would for a small fee – you could even send them the spec to cut & paste onto their letter headed paper & then stamp & sign.

Im with Zurich and had my custom bike down as a specific item. When it got pinched I just gave them a breakdown of the build/pics and a few printed email confirmations from CRC and they paid up in full within a few days, they were really good tbh.

The bike that was stolen was custom a build; and I have receipts and photos.

As for getting cash if wheelies can’t get it; as I said wheelies might agree but good luck with crawfords I have spent hours and hours (over 20 hours at least) on the phone trying to negotiate with them, and have as I said had to get the to relisten to conversations to prove that I said to them in earlier conversations.

I might switch to Zurich if they are any good, as M&S sound great right upto the point you actually have to claim,

meta 6?

second problem we have is getting test rides, as it seems completely wrong for a bikeshop to get a bike in for you to demo and then buy it off wheelies.

I mentioned this to them when they informed me they didn’t have any test bikes, and they said most LBS don’t mind………………….

I didn’t have to provide any receipts to Wheelies. I sent them a excel spread sheet and they essentially took my word for it. 4k later I have a 3k bike and many extras. I don’t have 1 complaint with M&S or wheelies.

I guess I should clarify, wheelies have been OK (bar some silly mistakes), the problems I have are with M&S insurance.

I worked in insurance replacements for a few yrs, cycles, fishing and golf equipt mainly…This is well off… if they can’t replace with a suitable replacement then a cheque has to be offered at the amount claimed (if deemed accurate) if a replacement is available via Wheelies but you insist on sourcing via your LBS then M&S can pay out what wheelies would have charged them…max would be 20% less….no way wheelies can offer 40% off and stay solvent unless bike industry margins have improved a lot in the last 9yrs 😆