Warning over insurance

[Parker2007]

I lost my brand new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 on the 18th October. If I am honest, I have not ever known such a farce. I am now on day 11 of my phone being missing and still waiting.

I understand my phone is practically brand new and at the time of the phone going missing I did not have a SIM card in it. So I knew this would be an issue, but not to the extent it has become. I have been a customer of EE way before it was EE (over 20 years), never missed a bill, had the same number all this time, and have never used my insurance for a loss before - only ever for damaged handsets.

I had to repeatedly keep calling up the first few days for updates as I was told my claim would be sorted within 24 hours, then 48 hours, then a few days. The stress of losing the phone really affected my wellbeing, and I am registered on their system as a vulnerable customer. I was ringing every day after putting my claim in. Around Wednesday or Thursday I had a phone call to book an interview call with someone from insurance, which would not be for another 4 days - ending up at 10am on a Sunday, a full week after I lost the phone. This made me mad as I spoke to someone in an EE store and they stated they had never heard of anything like this before and it should not be happening. When I rang EE on 21st October to start a formal complaint (which took them nearly a week just to acknowledge), they claimed it is common to have these phone calls.

Sunday arrived and I had the phone call. It took around 43 minutes. I had to explain how I lost the phone, which is fair enough, but I then got questioned on things such as my other phone, when I bought it, how much it was, and whether it was with EE - a phone that is not even on their insurance. It was gruelling. I had to give the names of the places I went that evening, what times, how big my bag was, and was even questioned about an old SIM card I had with them years ago. At the end of the call, he said he could not approve it yet as they needed documents, and that the email requesting those documents could not be sent out until Monday. I was begging for the process to be over because the stress was really getting to me. He said he believed my phone had been taken and that I needed to report it for a reference number. I also had to hand over the phone numbers for the bar, my friend who I rang the next morning (as her partner is door staff and I asked if anything had been handed in), and my cousin who was out with me.

The next morning (Monday 26th October) I received the email asking for my cousin's number, my contents insurance policy, my Find My Mobile screenshot, screenshots of call logs to EE and my friend, and a reference number. I sent all of it over within an hour. After that, I heard nothing until today (Thursday), when my cousin let me know they had actually called her on Monday afternoon and questioned her for 45 minutes too.

Now I am not being funny, but this has become utterly ridiculous. Anyone would think this is a major investigation - me and my cousin have been grilled for around 45 minutes each over a missing phone. Despite over 20 years of loyalty, I have been treated like a suspect. I am paying 16 pounds a month (which is about to go up in December) just to be put through this.

Today (Thursday) I rang EE to find out what is going on and escalate my complaint, only for the guy on the phone to tell me it was actually accepted and signed off last night at 6:30pm and that I should have gotten an email last night - which I have not. He then asked if they had the right email on their system, literally moments after he had just sent a security PIN to that exact email address to verify my account, which I had to remind him of. When I told him I was not happy with how this has been handled, he actually said to me, "Well hopefully in future you will not lose another device," which was completely unnecessary and rude, especially to a customer flagged as vulnerable. He then put me on hold for 7 minutes trying to get through to insurance, only to come back, tell me they are too busy, and give me their number to ring them myself later.

Absolutely shocking from start to finish. I have been treated atrociously despite being a loyal customer for over two decades. If I had not just renewed, I would have gone elsewhere immediately, and I will definitely be leaving once this contract is over.

[Peter_W]

Thank you for taking the time to share the details of your experience here, @Parker2007 

I'm concerned to hear about how this has left you feeling, and it's definitely never what we would want or expect. 

Insurance is managed by a specialist team outside of our regular customer service team, and any complaints need to be addressed to them directly so we can be sure things are managed correctly. 

You can find more information on how to reach out to us about this here:

How do I buy, upgrade, cancel or make a complaint about my insurance? | Insurance Help | EE

Peter