YOUR CONSUMER QUERIES:ON SATURDAY March 3rd, a reader by the name of Michael and his girlfriend Lisa decided to treat themselves to a meal in a restaurant in Galway city. When they arrived, they were told they would have to wait half an hour for a table, so they said they would have a drink in the bar. No problem there. At least there wasn't until the couple realised Lisa's handbag was missing.
“At €400, this was easily her most expensive possession, and inside was her purse, iPhone, iPod, jewellery and my only set of car keys. Straight away she knew it had been stolen. We notified staff and once they checked CCTV footage, they were able to confirm that a man was seen taking it,” writes Michael.
Understandably, he describes it as a horrible experience. “We rarely treat ourselves and the one time we do, this happens. However, the one positive we took was that my keys and her iPhone were insured. How wrong were we?”
The notified gardaí and the insurance companies and were told to fill out claim forms. “There was no problem with my keys but Pier Insurance, who were covering Lisa’s phone, were unbelievable. After receiving the claim, they then rang Lisa’s workplace quoting the crime reference number to the confused receptionist. They thought that the salon was the Garda station.”
Lisa then rang them to see what was happening, only to be told that her claim had been rejected. “The woman on the phone gave no reason but said all details would be in a letter that they were sending out.”
She demanded to speak to management and when she did the woman said that she would look at the claim personally. “Shortly after that came another call telling Lisa her claim had been rejected again, but without any reason. It seems they made the decision based upon a technicality – whether the bag was on the back or side of the chair. She was told we would have to provide CCTV footage but, in the meantime, we could make an appeal to the ombudsman.”
He says the whole ordeal has been very difficult. “She absolutely loved that bag, not to mention her iPhone. I just cannot understand how insurance companies can make decisions like this without any kind of explanation. If they don’t cover for a theft, what do they cover for?” asks Michael.
“The company was so rude and unsympathethic, it felt like we were banging our heads against the wall. The company promote that you will have piece of mind if your phone is covered, but it’s just not the case.”
We contacted the company and a spokesman initially said that as the bag was behind her chair and both out of sight and reach at the time of the theft, it was not covered, a fact which, he said was clearly outlined in the terms and conditions. While he expressed sympathy he said there was not a whole lot that could be done about it. However, he later relented and offered to give her a refurbished phone ex gratia.
Fee for updating details
A READER called Rose rang the AA, the company she has her car insurance with, in order to update her address and was less than pleased to be told there was an administrative fee of €10 attached to making the change.
“I told them that in that case I would not update my address as it’s in their interest to have my new address,” she writes.
“They said the fee was to cover administrative costs – updating the address and sending the updated policy to my new address.
“I again said no, I don’t want to pay, and they said they would waive it this once. I think this is an excessive fee to give them information that benefits the AA. How can they get away with this?”
Change of ‘Mr’ to ‘Ms’ proves costly on flight
RECENTLY, DANIELLE O'Riordan booked return flights to New York from Cork via Heathrow with a departure date of May 14th. She booked through touramerica.ieand will be flying with British Airways.
She made her booking late at night via the tour operator’s website “and somehow entered Mr instead of Ms, one very small but very important letter,” she writes.
“It was a genuine mistake and as soon as I realised I contacted my tour operator who did not receive my first email. They eventually got back to me after my second email and said that they would contact British Airways on my behalf,” she continues.
She received no reply for a week and emailed them again and was told that there would be a charge of €60 on top of her ticket price of €528. “Very disappointed at this stage, I decided to contact British Airways myself through their complaint facility on their website and received a reply within two days saying that although they realised that my mistake was probably genuine, due to high administration costs,
I would still have to accept the charge,” she says.
“While I realise that British Airways policy states in essence that they reserve the right to charge for ticket change regardless of the reason, I do feel that the fee of €60 is excessive.
“Could there not be a little leeway on the amount of the fee? As far as I can see, nowhere on their policy is €60 stated.
“As it is I will have to pay the fee, but I feel that in very few other places of business would there be such little leeway and lack of understanding when there is a case of such a genuine mistake.
“The purpose of my email is really just to highlight the issue.
I wouldn’t like anyone else to be caught in this way.”
It is annoying, certainly, but at least the airline let her make the change. We have heard of other airlines who are much more intransigent when it comes to such issues.
BMI taxes lower on same route
PEADAR MULLIGAN needed to book a single flight from London Heathrow to Dublin recently. He visited the Aer Lingus website where he noted that the taxes and charges were £52 (€63).
Then he went on to the BMI site and found that the taxes and charges were £26 (€31) with the whole lot being itemised. There was a fuel surcharge and insurance of £3.50 (€4.24), air passenger duty of £12 (€14.53) and a passenger service charge of £10.50 (€12.71). “These charges were for flights that departed within one hour. In addition, Aer Lingus had a handling fee for payment, which did not apply to BMI when paying by Visa Debit.
“Always good to shop around.”
