Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Six Months To Process Insurance Claim

At the begining of August 2007 I filed an insurance claim for my old wine fridge. After a flurry of e-mail exchanges, I completed Axa's rather cryptic claim form and gave them copies of the documents supporting the claim. I was told within a few days that Axa would not appoint a loss assesor (which was no surprise as the amount involved was only HK$9,180 and I had an engineer's report to evidence the death of the old wine fridge).

A full six months later, I finally get told that the cheque is in the post. There was no explanation or apology for the unacceptably long delay. As this is the first time in my life I have made an insurance claim for anything other medical bills (which normally get settled within a couple of months), I was more than a little but surprised at the delay. Quite frankly, a delay of six months in settling an undisputed claim is ridiculous and have written to Axa (or slightly more accurately the agent) making my views known.

The message I take from this is that, while insurance is important, I cannot depend on the insurance companies to make payments promptly and should look to my own resources first.

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