Shai’s pet insurer made repeated mistakes when he applied for a policy, which meant his cat didn't have insurance cover for some time.
What happened
Shai wanted to take out pet insurance for his cat. He submitted an application on his chosen insurer’s website, which then showed him a confirmation page saying the policy was set up. But a week later he hadn’t received any policy documents or further information.
He emailed the insurer and exchanged emails with the firm over several days. Shai was asked to confirm a few different pieces of information. Eventually, the insurer said that something had gone wrong with the application because there was no live policy attached to his details.
When Shai complained, he was invited to make another application over the phone. That way, the insurer told him, whatever went wrong the first time wouldn’t happen again.
He went ahead and did this, but the adviser on the line wrote down his payment details incorrectly. A week later, when the insurer tried to take Shai’s first payment, it failed. Shai got a letter explaining that his policy had been suspended for non-payment and would remain suspended until he fixed the issue.
At this point, having lost faith in his original choice of insurer, Shai took out a policy with another provider. When he complained about how everything was handled, the insurance company apologised and offered him £100 in compensation.
Shai didn’t think this was enough for the stress he’d been caused, so he came to us.
What we said
We thought it should have been fairly easy for Shai to set up an insurance policy for his cat.
The unexplained failure of his first application had led to several unnecessary emails with the insurer over a two-week period.
We accepted it came as a shock to Shai to learn that his cat had been uninsured. And it was frustrating that he’d had to go through a second application. The impact of all this was made worse when the insurer suspended the policy because it had taken Shai’s payment details incorrectly.
There were repeated mistakes which led to wasted time, having to contact the insurer by email and phone. We accepted this had caused Shai upset, frustration and extra effort to get an insurance policy for his pet. So, we decided the insurer should increase its compensation offer to £200.