Forum menu
Right my brothers Crosscheck was stolen, insurance passed him on to Wheelies who said the following
Value of bike £1700, less the £300 excess so you can have a voucher for £1400 (so £1400 to spend on a bike with Wheelies)
or
A Surly Crosscheck complete for £1400 but you have to pay the £300 excess (so £1100)
or a cash settlement of £1075
for reasons we wont disclose he doesn't want to deal with Wheelies so wanted a cash settlement, Axa have told him to deal with Wheelies and the above option are how it is. My argument is if the value of the bloody thing is £1700 then after the excess is paid Axa should be giving him £1400. It appears they are penalizing him for not restricting his shopping to Wheelies. Surely that's not right? I understand Wheelies giving the option as they want the business and the first two options benefit them greatly as visible value and the cost to wheelies wont matter if you are happy to deal with them.
help?
What does the insurance policy say?
That's how they work, and what policy says.
I to wanted my cake and eat it by buying in sales using insurance money.... In the end I got a replacement for my bike for the cost of my excess as insurance is there for, not a posher/cheaper bike.
Take the £1400 and find the £300 excess.
hold out for full cash settlement, When my bike was stolen I wanted a like for like including all the changes/upgrades I made. When they couldn't or wouldn't provide this I went back to insurer to inform them Wheelies weren't settling claim. I recieved full payout less excess
When I had some bikes nicked Axa (who were underwriting the M&S insurance I had at the time) paid out the full amount less excess by cheque - I told them that I would not deal with Wheelies and expected the value minus the excess
^^ Same here.
Same here. Wheelie couldn't supply what I had so had cash transferred directly to my bank account.
What's the 'value' based upon ? Do bikes work differently to cars then ? Just because a new Mondeo is £22,000 doesnt mean my old Mondeo is worth £22,000 ?
I'm pretty sure it's new for old on bikes, as they paid out £2500 for my wife's bike that was stolen, as that is what it was worth now.
She had just buffed it up to put on eBay when it got stolen, pretty sure it would have only fetched around £700.
That's quite impressive then and i guess you can see why sometimes they try and wiggle out of things...
Seems a little 'unfair' on them in some contexts, but you'd assume they've factored it into their numbers of course.
From the ombudsman link above...
Policyholders should be allowed to choose where they purchase a replacement and they are entitled to a cash settlement if they cannot find an acceptable alternative. In such circumstances, we would not regard it as reasonable for the insurer to make a deduction from the cash settlement to represent any discount it would have got if the policyholder had bought a replacement from one of the insurer's nominated suppliers.
Your brother is a wise man, refusing to deal with Wheelies - they're all sweetness and light when they're doing your claim but they don't wanna know if there's a warranty issue down the line (IME).
My claim with with Wheelies went pretty smoothly, my garage got done and nicked 7 bikes, value about £6500, insurance would only cover upto £3K (thats another story!) I could take the cash but if I went through wheelies I could get upto £3800. I had a warranty issue with a wheel on one of the bikes I received which was sorted promptly.
I had a large claim via Royal Sun Alliance. Wheelies could not supply two of the bikes and I received a cash settlement. I also replaced four bikes for Wheelies, along with accessories. It was pretty smooth.
When crash replaced my Propel, I dealt directly with RSA and secured. 20% discount on the next model up because mine was not available. I get the discount as we are sponsored by Giant. They were happy with this arrangement.
That’s quite impressive then and i guess you can see why sometimes they try and wiggle out of things…
Its not a standard thing, some policies are “new for old” and some aren’t
Its not a standard thing, some policies are “new for old” and some aren’t
And it’s because there’s not the same market in used bikes as there is in used cars. If my insurer offered me £xxx less than I paid for my Intense, on the basis that it’s a year old, I wouldn’t be able to get anything in the same used condition and possibly also wouldn’t be able to get a similar quality brand new bike.
OP just push back, Coroporates are generally ****s and are used to getting away with pushing people around.
Don't be one of those people.
What’s the ‘value’ based upon ? Do bikes work differently to cars then ? Just because a new Mondeo is £22,000 doesn't mean my old Mondeo is worth £22,000 ?
A lot of insurers offer "new for old" as mentioned above as there isn't a Parkers/Glass' guide to used bike prices.
Also a lot of car policies offer new for old if the car is less than a certain age, so if you have a newish car they'll replace it with a new one.
It's not unfair, it's just what insurance does, my life insurance would leave my OH considerably better off than if I was alive which is worrying!
My claim with with Wheelies went pretty smoothly, my garage got done and nicked 7 bikes, value about £6500, insurance would only cover upto £3K (thats another story!) I could take the cash but if I went through wheelies I could get upto £3800. I had a warranty issue with a wheel on one of the bikes I received which was sorted promptly.
I had similar, though got the insurance company to back down on the £3k limit, they insisted they went back to the recordings of the call only to find that I really had asked multiple times to ensure that the policy did cover all my bikes even though only one of the bikes exceeded the minimum “named item” value. They initially tried to claim it wasn’t fair to expect their sales people to understand all the details of the policies they were selling. Combination of the recorded call and a threat to raise with Ombudsman stopped that.
Also won over the difference between “Wheelies supplied” and “cash settlement” values. Wheelies were actually quite good, sent them the specific details of the bikes (only one was remotely “off the shelf”), had a quick chat with them and sorted. Chap I spoke to agreed that they wouldn’t be able to find a custom built steel road bike with first generation dura-ace for the £300 it owed me (was early eighties frame and not custom built for me), hence wanting what it owed me (fully receipted).
I stuck out for the full price on all the things that Wheelies couldn't supply which was a lot. For the rest, it was better for me to buy from them than the open market anyway and they also were prepared to modify the order if the value stayed the same.
In fairness I've always held out and told the insurer I want cash rather than use vouchers or a supplier and I've never had any problems once we got past the bit where I had to be firm but fair. My brother has not had to do this before(the lucky sod) so thought thats just how it was. I wanted some backup stories to give him so thanks for all the replies. My biggest gripe was the 3 options that wheelies offer that are underhand ways of getting you to deal with them (its even worse now that they are halfords owned). He's spoken to the insurer and they will be calling him back tomorrow so all should be well.
Also the Complete CrossCheck offered isn't comparable to the stolen one as It doesnt have STIs so they would have to have added the cost of that upgrade on anyway so the second option is useless