I receive a reply from Nadine at Asprea regarding the queries I raised about the cost allocation of £54 +VAT per square metre for the tiles and the quote for my contribution to the cost of replacing the undamaged tiling. I struggle to understand what she means by:
“This is what we have allowed as part of the claims costs. Again I have allowed in the costs for the removing and refitting the basin, WC and heated towel rail. The contribution is correct if you do not chose anything more expensive that what we have allowed per square meter.”
In addition to this, she tells me that anything regarding the matching items section of my policy should be referred back to my insurance company. She tells me that she is unable to comment further and that if I require any further assistance I should contact Mark at Aviva.
I am still none the wiser as to whether or not the allowance of £54 + VAT includes labour or not. Why is it too difficult to just say "no, its doesn't include the labour cost", or "yes, it does include the labour cost?" And is she saying that I will have to pay for half the cost of removing and refitting the suite or I won't? I may be imagining it but it feels very much as though she really doesn’t want to have anything further to do with this. Wistfully I think to myself that I wish I didn’t have to have anything to do with it either. I have spent a huge amount of time and energy on this claim and well over 3 months since it happened I am still not able to get basic information that I need in order to make decisions on what to do.
Still, I need these issues clarifying so I email Nadine to ask her to confirm whether the figure of £54 + VAT is inclusive of the labour charge for removing and replacing the tiling. I ask her that if so, how much of it is the labour charge so I can work out the maximum figure to look for when looking at tiles. I tell her that this information does not form part of my complaint- it is needed in order to move the claim forward. From what she said yesterday it would be Asprea that would deal with this type of query rather than Aviva. I tell her that if she feels that providing this information is outside of her personal job role then by all means she can pass it to my personal claims advisor to deal with. I don't mind who deals with it- I just need the information!
I also ask her if she can please tell me who to contact at Aviva to discuss the effectiveness of staff members dealing with complaints? Even people who work in "the Chief Executive's Office" must have their performance managed and I can't imagine for a second that Mark has met required service standards in respect of the letter I emailed to him a week ago.
I receive a speedy reply from Nadine advising that the figure allowed for the tiles is for the tiles only. Labour is already added in the scope separately but forms part of the whole settlement allowance. More technobabble phraseology but I think I'm safe to interpret this as meaning that the allowance for the cost of buying the tiles is the full £54 + VAT (£64.80). She doesn’t mention whether or not I will be charged a proportion of the costs for removing and refitting the bathroom suite despite me having asked this twice now.
I thank her for the reply and ask her how many square metres of tiling I have as I want to work out exactly what the cost of labour will be. I want to do this to check that the cost is reasonable. Once I know the total number of square metres of tiling there is and can ascertain the % of tiling that will be classed as covered by the policy I will be able to calculate the cost of buying my share of the tiles and then deduct it from the total figure of £651.36 +VAT that Nadine quoted. Provided there are no other costs included, this should tell me what the labour cost is.
I receive an email from the Customer Relations Manager, Senior Management Complaints Team at Aviva. He asks me who the member of staff is that I want to complain about and what the problem is. He assures me that they take all complaints very seriously and my concerns will be investigated fully. He asks me what I want to happen now in order for the complaint to be resolved.
I forward a copy of the updated schedule of events together with copies of my letters of the 24/11/10, 18/10/10 and 13/1/11.
The email that I send points out that the fact that I had cause to complain on the 24th November should surely have been an indicator that things were going wrong and needed to be sorted out. I tell him that if anything, things have been worse than they were to start with. Mark replied to my complaint on the 12th January 2011. I sent a letter to him by email on the 13th of January 2011 explaining that he had not covered all the issues involved and asking him to respond. Now, a week later, I haven't even had an acknowledgement from him that he is investigating further. I'm still sitting here with a bathroom that’s been pulled to bits with no one caring whether it gets fixed or not.
I tell him that I know that the schedule of events is lengthy but ask that he take the time to read it properly as not one word of it is made up or embellished. It is a true and accurate account of what has happened. I cannot imagine that he will be anything other than horrified by the time he gets to the end of it. In terms of what I want to happen now in order to resolve things, I tell him that it is really very simple. Before the leak happened I had a very nice bathroom. I was very happy with it. I want to have a very nice bathroom again and be happy with it. This is the reason I have insurance - so that I am covered if something bad happens. I am an honest person. I don't want something I'm not entitled to, but equally I find it distasteful that every step of the way I am meeting attempts to fob me off with as small a payout as can be gotten away with. I want phone calls to be answered when I make them. I want letters and emails to be replied to in a speedy and accurate manner that recognises that this claim has gone on for long enough now without any progress being made. I want to deal with someone who knows what they are doing and who can answer my questions when I ask them, and most of all, I want to stop having to spend so much time on this that everything else in my life has become secondary.
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