How to insure you lose out....

Insurance companies

You have to love them – September is bumper outgoing time in the BlackLOG household as we not only have to find funding for Mrs B’s autumn/winter ensemble* we also have car insurance, house insurance and travel insurance all demanding a cut from our ever depleting funds…..

* This would have had more impact if Mrs B had not discovered my secret stash of recent clothes purchases from Joules. I took the opportunity to buy a number of items on the web when I discovered a 15% off and free postage offer.

My cunning plan to introduce them slowly into my fashion repertoire over the next few months was doomed from the moment I elected to hide them in the large drawer where Mrs B stashes her collection of handbags (The ones she does not think I know about) … I should have guessed Mrs B would have had a rummage through the drawer sooner rather than later, no doubt while attempting to add another new purchase….

Doh! Turned out to be sooner, they were only in the draw for just over a day before Mrs B found them….

Which begs the question just how many handbags is she buying?

I’ve just been told to face it like a man, having been caught red handed I should not be trying to deflect.

So moving on....

Travel insurance
Seems to be behaving and for £77 we get a joint annual travel package that meets our requirements. No complaints about this, I guess we are in the “too old to do something stupid” category and “too young to need constant medical attention”. Although come to think about it I have not had my renewal notice so might be speaking too soon…

Car insurance
Now, being the good citizen that I am I decided to declare the damage that was done to ElleGee, which is a company car, when someone ran into him when he was parked at an old peoples’ home (it’s a long story) and then legged it (or to be more accurate wheeled it). Being a company car it went through my firm and since they have an excess of £10,000 (i.e only write-offs need apply) they had the pleasure of paying for it. So, in summary, no car insurance company, especially (let me underline and capitalise that) ESPECIALLY not our own insurance company (the car they cover was sitting safely in our garage at the time of the incident) had to pay out any money on the incident. Yet they happily load the premium for our insurance next year. Grrrrr

Guess who won’t be getting our business….?

For anyone who says why bother declaring a company car claim to a non-related Insurance Company – well, non-disclosure is a good enough reason for an Insurance Company not to pay out any future claims so it would be as well to go without Insurance altogether rather than pay out a premium that may not be worth the piece of paper it is printed on….Believe me, it is very tempting when you find out that the fine for not having car insurance is a lot less than the average cost of car insurance…what a fantastic bit of legislation that is….

Household insurance – this one really hurt
We have two household policies, one for contents and one for the building and we have (or rather had) 10 years+ No Claims Discount built up on both. Last year we had a broken pane in the roof of our conservatory** (not sure what happened, no missing tiles or anything obvious and before anyone says it, no McG did not attempt to take a vacation on the roof….) and with the cost for repair coming in at over £1,400 we decided to make a claim through our building insurance…

Fair enough that we lost the NCD for the building insurance but I was less than impressed to see our Contents NCD being trashed as well. If the two are linked why on earth are they listed separately on our policy? Despite their offer to reduce the renewal premium for being loyal customers I decide to take my business elsewhere. Not as cheap as it should have been as we can now only show 1 year’s NCD for contents - thanks for nothing – This worked out costing us an extra £200 on our policy.

** If we keep oranges in it we could go all posh and call it an Orangery….

Phone call of the week
I gave feedback to my work help line that I had difficulty understanding many of the operatives based in India

I received a phone call from some one from I think it was the “Resolver help line group”

I think, but can’t swear to it, as I could hardly understand him, that he was apologising to me not being able to understand his colleagues and did this resolve my issue?

I decided to end my agony and limply said “Yes”, resolving never to complain about our helpline ever again…..

Good service
I shall end the week on a high note

Amazon – who made it so easy to exchange our ripped tent under their no quibble one year guarantee. They even arranged for DHS to collect the damaged tent…

Cycle city – who came back to me to check that I knew that I had ordered just a cover for Mrs B’s new cycle helmet and not the actual helmet as well before sending out the order….For the record I did know I was ordering just the cover.

Joules of Amersham – Who replaced a couple of items that I had got in the wrong size, honouring the 15% discount that I had got on the web rather than making me wait for the items to be reposted.

Delicious - a Coffee shop in Bishops Stortford – While I was waiting for Mrs B I ordered 2 café lattes. Instead of plonking them both down in front of me at the same time, mine arrived and 20 minutes later the other one arrived when Mrs B finally made it. They obviously know my wife better than me…

A record of the week
"Taxman" by The Beatles - The lyrics are as close to as I could get to the money grabbing aspects of the insurance world

"Call me" by Blondie - Just make sure the conversation is legible

"Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls - I always though she was a lady....

"Tales from the Riverbank" by The Jam - Not a bad effort for some city boys.... 

Piggy’s by The Beatles – More apt lyrics for our insurance friends – I guess even the Beatles felt they were being ripped off at times

(I can’t get no) Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones – I just want an honest straight forward insurance company, is that too much to ask?

Photo finish
Not much to take this week so I've dug out some more of  our Norfolk weekend pictures....

Was this the inspiration for a Goo Goo Dolls song?

Probably not, I don't think they

ever made it to Norfolk

 Please don't tell me that this Cliff is called Richard

I like to think this Blog has some standards,

even if they are low ones.... 

Mrs B managed to borrow a camera

with a bigger lens than the Beast...

Talk about one upmanship...

Seal Pantomime

"It’s behind you"

"Oh no it’s not"

"Oh yes it is…."

Etc, Etc...

The Norfolk synchronised swimming team 

"Heads up ladies..."

Give us a kiss....How romantic

Sorry to break the news, this

turned out to be girl on girl action...

I didn't realise it was that sort of Blog

Mrs B and a friend

In case you didn't spot it on Mrs B's

arm, this was the friend.....

 Tales of the River bank - is that

Paul Weller just behind the tree...

  

Hope to catch you next week....