Has anyone had problems dealing with Esure and/or Imperial consultants about a home insurance claim?

[ActualAl]

Three weeks ago I had a mains pipe burst in my house and water come through the ceiling and walls and flood the downstairs. Esure are my home insurers and they sent out a plumber to repair the leak and then they told me, due to the extent of the damage a surveyor would visit to assess resettlement amount.
Two days later the surveyor came, took photos and notes of damage and told me he would phone later that day with a settlement figure. I asked if that could also be emailed to me so I have the figures in writing. He said that was possible but would take a few days because it has to be sent through head office to be checked. I agreed to this as I was going on holiday the next day and knew I wouldn't be doing any work in the house for that week.
When I returned from holiday I still had not received an email so called Imperial to enquire. As of today, three weeks on I still have not received the settlement figure or any email from either Esure or Imperial.
I have called Imperial every few days for an update and each time have been told that it would be sorted the next day.
The reasons I have been given so far are

1. There was an email glitch and the report could not be read at head office.
2. The surveyor was on holiday and could not resend the report.
3. The surveyor has lost the report and it will have to be redone and as he has a very busy schedule this may take a day or two.
4. The offices are going to be closed for Easter weekend so nothing can be done till after that (this was a reasonable reason, though I feel that the issue should have be addressed long before this weekend)

I asked Esure to take this on for me as my insurers and the company I am paying and they have told me they have been in touch with Imperial and have been given similar reasons. Yesterday though the advisor at Esure gave me a new reason for the delay, that Imperial had said there had been a problem deciding if my ceiling was covered due to lack of evidence of damage. This cannot be true as the surveyor took photos and notes of the damage and was clear in saying this was covered and I also sent photographs taken the morning of the leak. They also said the report was now in but needs to be verified which will take up to 3 days. This I don't understand as the surveyor told me on his visit he could give me a figure that same day. I am becoming increasingly upset by this delay and the reasons given and am not sure how to go forward now. Does anyone have any advice or experience of how to proceed now? I think I will send an email to both companies customer care teams to express disappointment but will probably wait till after the settlement comes through. Esure does not supply tradesmen to do the work so I need to arrange that too and they have told me I can get quotes anytime but as I'm not sure what settlement figure I am getting and what I will cover I cannot go ahead with that either. Sorry this is so long, thanks!

Absolutely par for the course.

Ime, the layers of insurance bureaucracy are almost unbelievable. eg minor change in insurance covered building work had to go; builder surveyor loss adjuster claims management companyinsurance broker--insurer.

So on the one hand, it helps to try not to be too upset by lengthing time frames, and not get too irate.
On the other, stay persistently on their backs. Confirm at the end of each phone call what the next step is, who's doing it, and when they will get back to you. And when they don't, ring/email them.

Getting contact details for the next level of management helps.

Sounds like you need to get your own quotes asap, otherwise you won't know whether to accept or dispute whatever figure they offer you. Remember, it's an offer , the sum the insurance company comes up with.Often a bit mean, sometimes bizarrely generous. If you don't think it covers what needs doing, you need quotes as evidence , in order to negotiate with them.

Good luck

Thanks. I've been keeping a log of who I've spoken to and when and what was said.
I'll look into getting some quotes too, it would be good to know if the insurance settlement amount sounds decent.
I'm trying not to take anything personally, I know it will get sorted...eventually!

Update. Esure customer care phoned me on Thursday to enquire how my case was going. They are now monitoring the situation and have been in touch with the surveying company to move my case along.
So far so good and I am now a lot more hopeful about a quick resolution.