My terrible ongoing experience with CHURCHILL HOME INSURANCE

Hello all i thought id share my CHURCHILL HOME CONTENTS INSURANCE experience with you!

On 31st May 2011 i returned home from a weeks holiday to find out id been broken into,
I called the police stright away and they arrived about 4 hours later (3.30am)
The following day i rang my insurance (CHURCHILL)) to report this and ask for a claims form,
I was told they dont send a claims form they do a telephone interview so i said id have to make
a full list of missing items after the finger print people had been as id been told not to touch
anything untill they had been,
Later in the day i went through a telephone interview with CHURCHILL and after that i was told
i would be contacted by a loss adjuster they would be appointing.

On 3rd June i was contacted by the loss adjuster with an appointment for 7th June.
On 7th June i had my appointment with a stoney faced unsympathetic loss adjuster and i gave him
the details of what had happened and any recipts/instruction books/photos i had for missing items
i showed him the window which had been forced to gain access,

Two weeks later (june 21st) i recived a lovely letter from CHURCHILL to tell me they had refered my claim to
another loss adjusting company and the 1st loss adjuster would have nothing more to do with my claim
"Furthermore we reserve any rights we may have to avoid your policy" the letter went on to say!
(avoid your policy means not pay out)

I called CHURCHILL to complain about the tone of their letter and after waiting 35 mins to actually talk to
someone i was assured it was a standerd letter with standerd wording..to which i replied they should change
it as its not nice and makes you panic and wonder if you filled in your insurance application correctly when
taking insurance out (i checked and i had)

Three weeks further on (july 12th) having heard nothing from anyone i again called CHURCHILL and this time after
only 25 mins!i was put through to somebody! they checked on their computer and asked could they call me back within
an hour!,

The following day i was contacted by CHURCHILL who said that although 3 weeks previous i had been written to to tell
me my claim had been refered to another loss adjusting company that "somehow" they (CHURCHILL) had forgotten to
inform this new loss adjusting company that they were being involved in my claim ! They said they would be sending me
a cheque for £30 as compensation for this error! i told them firmly but politly i didnt care about the £30 i just wanted
my claim sorting out! and they could give the £30 to a cancer charity to which they replied they would send the cheque to
me and if i wanted to donate it then it was up to me! I was again told the NEW loss adjuster would be in touch asap with me
and i was contacted 2 days later and another date to see this new loss adjuster was made,
This new date was 20th july ( SIX WEEKS AFTER MY 1ST LOSS ADJUSTER MEETING)

On 20th July i had my meeting with the new loss adjuster which was basically the same as the 1st loss adjuster but a different
company! i was asked if i had any recipts/photos/instruction manuals for missing items to which i replied id given these to
the 1st loss adjuster! (it turns out they were never found again as the 1st loss adjuster had missplaced/lost them all !!)

3 weeks later (aug 10th) i recived a letter from the loss adjuster to say he was going through various checks
(trying to find a way to not pay my claim) and he enclosed a form for me to sign enabling him to gain access to my police crime
report which i signed and sent back.

A week later (16th aug) i recived another letter from the loss adjuster saying he had compleated his checks and thay were all ok
and he had applied for the police crime report "which could take up to 12 weeks to recive" and if my crime report didnt say
"forced entry" my claim would be voided! in other words if id left a door unlocked or window open (id already shown them the
damaged window before it had been repaired) this is what they were pinning their hopes on!

6 weeks later (26th sept) i recived a letter from the loss adjuster saying he had recived my police crime report but he was
going on holiday for a week so would read it when he got back !! (17 weeks after my breakin !!) and they cant be bothered
to make it a priority!

12 days later 8th october i recived a letter from the loss adjuster to say he had read my crime report and as id told him
it did say forced entry! he had written his report and e/mailed it to CHURCHILL and CHURCHILL had got back intouch with him
and wanted him to ask me why on my police crime report it mentioned 3 items of jewellery where as on my insurance claim i
was claiming for 11 items of jewellery!

I called CHURCHILL re this and was told after 30 mins of listening to some music that my insurance case manager (this is the
person who sent me the nice letter earlier on and forgot to inform the new loss adjusting company they were dealing with my claim)
had gone on holiday and could i adress any issues via the loss adjuster.

I managed to get in touch with the loss adjuster and told him the reason my crime report had a different amount of jewellery items
on compaired to my loss list was because when the police arrived at 3.30am in the morning they never went through or asked
for a full list of what had gone missing,My jewellery box was on my bed empty and when i touched on two items of jewellery the
officer told me it didnt matter as he wasnt taking a list and i would recive a letter from the police in a few days with a form
to fill in telling them everything taken in the breakin and to send it back to them.
This was done the week following my breakin.

This was 1 week ago and no news yet but i will uptate this acordingly,
by the way im in my 40s and this is my 1st claim in case anyone was wondering!

PS i didnt get the cheque for £30 either !

sorry its so long but its detailed !