Having not heard from the Contracts Manager at Safeguard I am starting to feel really annoyed and stressed. Its one month to Christmas Eve and I am feeling anxious that we won’t have the bathroom completed by Christmas. It’s not the decoration side of things I am worried about but the fact that we have only got a bath and sink for washing in. This makes life hard with trying to coordinate three of us having to get up and bathed in a morning. Trying to wash our hair over the side of the bath is uncomfortable as well as inconvenient but we are just about managing since its only short term. My mother however has mobility issues and will not be able to use the bath. In addition her partner is 6ft 4” tall and my smaller than averaged size bath is too small for him to get into. In order for them to be able to wash properly and keep themselves clean for the week that they are here we really need showering facilities. There’s also the fact to consider that the three of us having a bath everyday is far more expensive than us having a shower each day. I ring the Asprea with a view to telling them that the delays with Safeguard really are not good enough. The person I usually deal with is not in the office. I ask if someone else can help and am put through to someone. I tell them about what has happened and tell them of my anxieties about getting things done in time for Christmas. They apologise and say that if I can hold the line they will try and get hold of the Contracts Manager at Safeguard and then put me through to them. I know this is racking up my phone bill but agree to hold.
It takes some time but eventually they have the Contracts Manager on the line to speak to me.
It is immediately apparent from his rather belligerent and unhelpful tone that he is annoyed at having to speak to me. I ask him about the possibility of skimming and painting the walls in the lounge rather than papering them. Off hand he tells me that it would be far more expensive. I ask how much more expensive. He can’t tell me. I point out that surely he must be able to work out a comparative cost to be able to deduce that skimming and painting will be a “far more expensive” option. He tells me that he doesn’t know how much it will cost to skim the room as he doesn’t know what the room looks like and what condition the walls are in. I tell him I understand that and that it is a fair comment. I tell him that I recently had the walls and ceilings in my dining room skimmed at a cost of £500. I acknowledge that my dining room is slightly smaller than my lounge but given that he has the dimensions of my lounge in his case notes from the Surveyors report, I ask him whether, assuming my walls are in good condition, he thinks the sum of £500 would be far removed from the cost of skimming the walls and ceilings in my lounge. He agrees that the figure of £500 sounds about the right sort of level but insists he would have to visit the property to be able to give a proper quote.
Talk turns to the tiling. I tell him that the tiles on the wall are no longer available to buy and the existing ones have not been carefully removed and saved as agreed. He tells me that the insurance company will only pay 30% of the cost of replacing the tiles that are not damaged. I tell him that I am not happy about this. I have checked my policy document and can’t see anything that tells me undamaged tiles won’t be covered. I ask him what the allowance is for buying the tiles. He tells me that it is £20 a square metre +VAT. I tell him that I don’t think that £20 a square metre will buy me tiles similar to the ones that I currently have. He tells me that I shouldn’t be looking for tiles that cost as much as £20 a square metre as the allowance has to cover the cost of carrying out the tiling as well as buying the tiles. I am starting to feel really annoyed now. I’ve gone from thinking all the tiling would be covered under the policy, to being told by the loss adjuster that the insurance company will only pay 50% of the cost of replacing undamaged tiles, to now being told by the Contractor that they will only cover 30% of the cost. On top of this, instead of having good quality tiles as I have now, I’m expected to have the cheapest tiles it’s possible to buy. I begin to wonder if there is some sort of strategy in place to force policyholders into accepting as small a pay out as possible rather than paying out to put their homes back to the same sort of state they were in before. As the Contracts Manager is not able to provide me with the information I need in order to move forward, I tell him that I will contact the insurance company to discuss the issues that have arisen and will get back to him.
I hang up the phone and am shaking and upset. I feel that I can’t take any more of this stress. It’s clear now that the bathroom is not going to get sorted in time for Christmas and my mother’s trip will be ruined.
After I have calmed down, I write to Barclays Customer Complaints department.
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