CIA Insurance, you ****s.

[northwind]

A while back I took out a comprehensive policy with CIA Insurance. Now, as you know my bike's pretty heavily modified- to the point where roughly half of the bike's worth is in aftermarket bits. The very first thing I said to the broker was that the parts absolutely had to be covered... He assured me they were several times, and all seemed well. The insurers had me fill in a huge listing of every modified part and send in pictures, and the quote was massively higher than any unmodified quote- nearly 50% as much again- so that all seemed to tie in.

Now, i've been having problems getting the documentation- I've only had a cover note and the RAC documents until yesterday. And there it is in the small print "In the event of a claim we will only pay to return the vehicle to standard manufacturer's specification".

So for the last 3 months I've had basically half the cover I've paid for... Now, that's not a problem since (as luck would have it) I'm General Insurance Standards Council advice and complaint qualified, so I can tear them apart if they try and argue the call- something very close to a full refund should be on its way back soon. (they've broken the old GISC code on half a dozen points) But I've also cancelled my RAC cover and lost my year's no claims there since the policy included breakdown, and of course if anything had happened to my bike in the last 3 months I'd have been in a real mess...

Watch this space... But just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else has a CIA-brokered policy and has made the mistake of trusting anything the scumbags tell you on the phone.

[Viney]

Trust no one!

NW, wouldnt what you took out ammount to a Guaranteed/Agreed value policy? my mate has one of those on his chop for about 10 grand. Is it the same thing?

Sounds like yet another insurance company con...bless em

[Flamin_Squirrel]

Damn CIA, wish I hadn't gone with them.

When I took my policy out, they said that I didn't need to send them any paper work - they would assume everything I said is true and would only check if I made a claim. This was great because I hadn't got my proof of no claims from my previous insurer through yet.

When CIA sent the documents through, they wanted every bit of paper work under the sun, dispite saying they wouldn't. They wanted copies of my licence, alphadot certificate, even my cbt certificate... and of corse, proof of no claims :evil:

[454697819]

i was initially v impressed with cia
however changing from the sv to the 604 caused all sorts of problems!!

6 yes 6 wrong cover notes later, and a v long fax to them with pictures V5 etc etc they decided it was a ccm 604 but a C26!!
still they were happy so i left it at that!

Alex

[northwind]

NW, wouldnt what you took out ammount to a Guaranteed/Agreed value policy? my mate has one of those on his chop for about 10 grand. Is it the same thing?

Not quite... I looked at that but CIA advised that they offer a replacement value service for mods, which would suit me just as well since my bike was built on the cheap :) Agreed Value is much more hassle since you need engineer's reports usually, and I wasn't able to move the bike at the time. Might go that route this time though for simplicity's sake.

They just got back to me and informed me that they can offer me a refund of roughly half of the total policy... After 61 days of not having been covered to the promised level. They rather foolishly admitted in email that they've never sent me some of my documents yet still claim that my only right to cancel due to factual inaccuracy would be within 14 days of inception of policy. They're not very bright. They also insisted that before accepting a cancellation they need the Certificate of Insurance back, despite having admitted yesterday that they've not sent me one.

So I've sent them a politely worded demand with a bit of carefully selected sabre-rattling using some obsure terminology used by the Financial Services Authority, along with an enlightening example of the Financial Ombudsman Service's typical handling of a mis-selling case, and pulled them up on a few other regulation breaches (DPA and FSA mainly). I hope they take the hints, it'll make things much easier for them in the long run :)

[jon]

So I've sent them a politely worded demand with a bit of carefully selected sabre-rattling using some obsure terminology used by the Financial Services Authority, along with an enlightening example of the Financial Ombudsman Service's typical handling of a mis-selling case, and pulled them up on a few other regulation breaches (DPA and FSA mainly). I hope they take the hints, it'll make things much easier for them in the long run :)

My thoughts exactly. To the word. It's spooky really.

\:D/

[nickj]

I remember a few years back i was with CIA and accepted a policy and at the time i had had a bike accident a year or so before. They quoted and then when i sent all the details through i had got the date of accident wrong by about a week and they wanted about £100 more!!!

Politely told them where to go and they agreed to half it, as they were still cheaper then elsewhere i still went with it but i never again even asked them to quote on anything and wouldn't touch them. Even remember the "sales tactics" which were along the lines of i'll only quote you this if you don't ring around anymore and just take it coz it's cheaper.

[Wiltshire7]

when will the insurance industry be forced to changed? so many complaints and cons, yet we dont have a choice but to use them.

i wonder if anything will ever change with insurance, i think just about everyone wants it to.

any ideas?

[Flamin_Squirrel]

when will the insurance industry be forced to changed? so many complaints and cons, yet we dont have a choice but to use them.

i wonder if anything will ever change with insurance, i think just about everyone wants it to.

any ideas?

The problem is, for every decent person who gets screwed by insurance companies, there is another person that is defrauding them. It sucks, but on the other hand with all the liars they have to deal with it's not surprising they've no faith in people.

[northwind]

The problem is, for every decent person who gets screwed by insurance companies, there is another person that is defrauding them. It sucks, but on the other hand with all the liars they have to deal with it's not surprising they've no faith in people.

Well said mate.