Are The Insurance Company Shitting Me?

[MadManMike]

Right,

Valuation of stolen bike has come back and they've agreed with my £900 estimate.

Instead of letting me get something to the value of that, ie parts and frame, they have told me either:

DMR Sidekick from Evans or £900 in vouchers for Halfords. What, I need a JVC stereo do I? f**king idiots.

The DMR Sidekick is £100 less, and plastered in gears - I don't need, or want any of it. The bike itself isn't like my old one, I wanted a custom bike - I wanted vouchers for a decent shop like CRC or something. Not Hellfrauds.

What a bloody insult.

[future orange 660]

id consider myself 900 pounds better off than having your bike nicked.

[CurtisRider]

Firstly be bloody happy you are getting something! My insurance company wouldn't pay up when my bike got stolen...

Anyway, i'm pretty sure they are supposed to stump up cash? have they given you any reason for not giving cash?

[AdamR28]

They only offer you bikes from certain suppliers because they have a deal with them... instead of forking out £900, they only end up spending £700 (or whatever) to send you a £900 bike.

So... explain to them that the bike you had stolen was too specialist for Halfords/Wheelies Direct/Whoever to supply, that you custom built it from many suppliers - in most cases they give in and send you a cheque

Insurance is so gay...

[MadManMike]

id consider myself 900 pounds better off than having your bike nicked.

Eh? I don't get it...

Anyway, for reference, here's the bike:

http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=71421

[Tom Booth]

Are you aware that halfords ca order a vast amount of bikes in?

[clarkytrials]

At least they pay out by the looks of thing my ant going to and I had to bikes robed

[MadManMike]

Firstly be bloody happy you are getting something! My insurance company wouldn't pay up when my bike got stolen...

Anyway, i'm pretty sure they are supposed to stump up cash? have they given you any reason for not giving cash?

I am glad, but they are just stupid - Why offer me Halfords vouchers, or a bike that's not really like mine? I just don't get it.

I will be phoning them to find out if they can sort it out properly.

[future orange 660]

if you ask for a cheque. they give you 80% or something.

or what they would have paid halfords, to take the margin into account.

either way. you are lucky for it to be covered whilst in the shed. mine almost wasnt.

[MadManMike]

Are you aware that halfords ca order a vast amount of bikes in?

I thought they may be able to, but as mine was custom made I don't really fancy rattling through a list of parts for them to order for me - the people in my local Halfords are less than helpful and I just know it'll go wrong. I told them where I got all the bits from, why did they not just give me vouchers for those places?

"Hi I've just had my Golf GTI stolen" "Here, have some vouchers for your local Ford garage"

[MadManMike]

Probably sounds really ungrateful, I'm not, I just wish the so called "experts" actually knew what they were on about.

I mean Halfords isn't you first contact for specialist bikes is it - I associate them with £99 Apollos

[Lawnmowerman]

Can you not go direct to halfords main office or find a secent bikehut? I think there's one that's amazing near the south coast somewhere.

[Tomm]

You may be able to tell the insurance company that you don't want either of those options, and they may give you a cheque. That's what happened to me when I told them that Halfords weren't a Leeson dealer

On the other hand, you CAN get lots of stuff through Halfords, so that's worth looking at. Also, that DMR from Evans looks pretty nice. Probably a fair bit nicer than what was nicked to be honest...

[GlynnP]

Normally they are pretty cool if you tell them it was custom and their suppliers cant provide what you need.

They tried to replace my top spec echo team with an onza and i was having none of it so they sent me the cheque i had only put it on the insurance for £1000 because parents didnt want much more.

They sent me a cheque for £1000 as they valued it as more which was good because they should have only given me £900 because i had an £100 excess.

Hope they are as good to you as they were to me just dont give up keep on to them untill you get what you want.

[MadManMike]

Also, that DMR from Evans looks pretty nice. Probably a fair bit nicer than what was nicked to be honest...

Yeah, spec wise it's better but it's a different bike - that Evans one is more like a mountain bike than a dirt bike.

[Tomm]

I'm not sure about that - it's no XC machine, I'm pretty sure it's just supposed to be a trails/street bike.

I do know what you mean though - it's a bit boring buying an off-the-shelf bike.

[Token]

Just out of interest Mike, is it the house insurance thats gona pay out or a seperate bike insurance you had?

[MadManMike]

Right folks,

Gonna ask them tomorrow if they are prepared to go for this:

Because it's only £699 I'm also going to ask that they let me get a pair of Avid Juicy 5's.

This brings it up to about £880.

All available from Evans, where they suggested the other DMR so there shouldn't be a problem.

Opinions?

Just out of interest Mike, is it the house insurance thats gona pay out or a seperate bike insurance you had?

Housey Housey

As it was a locked shed they have no choice but to pay out. If I'd left it lying in the back garden it may have been a different story...

[hI-OOPS-CAPS]

seems a prime example of the 'knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing'

the companies will do their best to stop cash payouts

[Lawnmowerman]

Why dont you see if Evans will build you a custom dmr?

[TomR]

This happened ot my mate and he said that he didnt buy it all from one place as not all the parts are commonly available so they wrote a cheque to him for the value. DEfinitely contest it, its the same as car payouts, they hit you with a shit figure as most people accept it but they will go higher.

[St_trials]

My best mate was offered £1600 of halfords vouchers when his Azonic and his brothers Orange got stolen, but he got another company to suggest a value of all parts rrp from photos and descriptions, and they took it to the insurers to show that the bikes weren't replaceable except by specialists. Got £1500 cash instead. I'll ask him about the company that assesed the spec lists for you.

-Charlie-

[MadManMike]

I'm just gonna go with the Rhythm and a set of Avid Juicy 5's... it's the kind of setup I've been after anyway so it's all good... I only lose £20 (Which lets face it, is nothing compared to what I'd have lost if I'd tried to sell the Trailstar!)

Thanks for all the advice though guys

[MadManMike]

What would you guys do?

I mean I'm happy to go with the DMR Rhythm, get a set of Avid Juicy 5's and keep the other brakes as spares / to add to the parts for the Mrs. bike.

Good plan?

[RobinJI]

If they do refuse the deal with evans then just take the 900 in halfords vouchers, get halfords to get in a rythem and some avids or whatever other 200 quids worth of upgrades. If you're local store's shite chances are theres gunna be a half decent one not too far away. I know where I work (halfords in taunton) we're more than happy to deal with anything other than an apollo or shockwave! If you were more local I'd say I'd sort it out for you, but kinda far away. Halfords can order pretty much anything you want, so dont be put off by shit staff, just go bitch at em and tell them exactly what you want them to order, then they cant really refuse.