Shannons Insurance Issue

[bdazla]

Just thought I would let people know what has happened to me today as I know I am not going to be the only one in this situation.

My car is currently insured with Shannons who has been very good in the past to deal with. I have had to use them twice and only have praise for their efforts. Today I called them to enquire about the possibility of getting a new car insured as I am thinking about buying another car.

I was informed that I could not get insurance through them for the new car and that my existing car would "most likely" not be covered from theft from my home as it is not garaged full time. I have always told them that my car is parked in the driveway and not the garage. Shannons has records at their end showing I have called at least 5 times where I was asked the question "Is my car garaged". Which of course the answer was always "No". The insurance certificates has "The vehicle is usually garaged" written on it as this is what the sales people at Shannons thought would be best. Turns out that I have been paying insurance for theft but "most likely" would not be covered.

For those of you that are insured with Shannons, you might want to have a look at your certificate and/or give them a buzz to see if you are still covered. It seems that their staff were fairly relaxed about certain criteria and may have entered it in incorrectly to allow their clients to be insured falsely without the clients knowledge. I have been lucky enough to catch the fault before having to make such a claim and therefore can do something about it.

[MiKa]

Cheers for the heads up.. Im with shannons too.. I looked over my paperwork a few weeks ago and all seemed fine, think ill re-read it..

[Guest]

Shonky insurance companies?? Never

[bdazla]

UPDATE:

I have been talking to the manager at Shannons and the Insurance ombudsman to find a resolution to the problem. The ombudsman has said that I would still be able to make a claim in the event of theft from my home. The manager keeps telling me that I would "most likely" be denied the claim and cannot guarantee the integrity of my insurance. The ombudsman has asked for a written letter from Shannons on the status of my insurance to have in writing a yes or no answer on whether I can claim theft from my house.

It seems that as I have now decided to take this issue to the ombudsman, Shannons has decided to cancel my insurance. It doesn't seem to be very fair that I pay premiums for insurance to find out that I have not been covered and will not be covered for theft from my home as a result of poor decisions from Shannons staff.

I have started to lodge formal complaints and am waiting to hear back from the regional manager from Shannons in regards to this issue. I am so glad I found all this out before anything really bad happened. I will keep you all informed and in the meantime, check that you're covered too.

Edited 03/11/08 07:07 AM by bdazla

[Guest]

I was shafted by RAC years ago when my Fairmont was stolen from the local shopping centre... Was insured for $28k agreed value but when I put my claim in was told they would only fork out $11k

Got in contact with the ombudsman & ended up getting $25k after excess so definitely a good thing to do. Most people just take it lying down which is why the carnts do it so often

[bloosted]

yep I tried to insure my car with shannons and they said no because it wasn't garaged,its under a carport with remote gates out the front but that wasn't good enough

[bdazla]

I actually have video surveillance around my house. There is a camera on the car in the driveway. I can watch the car on the any of the TV’s. LOL. Even if someone did steal the car from there, I would have video of them doing it and be able to find them from that (hopefully). Not as good as a garage, gates or whatever else but still better than nothing. Still pretty annoyed they cancelled my insurance because they stuffed up at their end not once but at least 4 times. Stooges.

Upside is though, turns out I can get insurance cheaper through other companies. I will move my house and contents insurance from them as well.

[Iconic Bionic]

Too often we believe that video surveillance is the greatest security measure but it has significant limitations. Video of any crime is useless unless we can put a name to the person committing the crime. So having CCTV of your car and not being able to identify an ofender is next to useless. Such footage captures crimes all day long, but this equates to nothing if the crook cant be located and put before the courts.

Who underwrites Shannons?

I had a car crashed into once and the NRMA was only offering a few grand for it so I had it independenlt assessed which demmed it was worth more. It was discovered that the NRMA assesor wanted to buy the car for his son. Put this to the NRMA and they happily paid the higher value.

I.B.

[bdazla]

Yeah that is true. Still better than nothing though.

Shannons are "Australia Alliance Insurance Companies" which is also known as "Australian Pensioners Insurance" according to my home loan documents.

Too often we believe that video surveillance is the greatest security measure but it has significant limitations. Video of any crime is useless unless we can put a name to the person committing the crime. So having CCTV of your car and not being able to identify an ofender is next to useless. Such footage captures crimes all day long, but this equates to nothing if the crook cant be located and put before the courts.

Who underwrites Shannons?

I had a car crashed into once and the NRMA was only offering a few grand for it so I had it independenlt assessed which demmed it was worth more. It was discovered that the NRMA assesor wanted to buy the car for his son. Put this to the NRMA and they happily paid the higher value.

I.B.

[bdazla]

I was just told on AFF that Shannons has been bought out by Suncorp. Maybe this problem has all come about because Shannons is going to be another normal insurance company and not so much of an enthusiasts insurance company anymore.