Dog insurance - AIBU to be upset by this?

[letsjog]

I have posted on here before about loosing our beautiful girl in Feb in a road traffic accident.
After a horrendous few weeks I finally decided to file a claim through her insurance as there was a death benefit on the policy - with the current prices we decided we will keep it aside and add a bit to it here and there for when we are ready to welcome another 4 legged friend into our family when we feel ready, it will go a long way to help us be able to afford a pup in the current market.

The insurance company just got back to us and have asked for pictures of the lead and collar she had on when the accident happened, pictures of the area/scene of the accident (a place I thought I would never visit again) and contact details of any witnesses alongside a description of what exactly happened.
They already have the documents signed by the vet who confirmed she was cremated.

I'm really upset about the idea of seeing her collar again and taking it out of storage to photograph it and even more so at having to return to the scene of the accident. At this point I'm questioning wether I should even continue with the claim because the above will bring so much upset and additionally I think they will try and prove to us that maybe what happened was our fault and reject it regardless.

Is it normal to feel this way? I've already had a good cry or two about this and I'm not sure how I will come around to providing the evidence they are requesting.

how awful - poor you

I don't know the circumstances of the accident but the questions from the insurance company sound fairly typical I'm afraid.

That's not to say the upset you are feeling is in any way abnormal. I would also be feeling utterly devastated and not sure if I could go back to the scene of the accident. Do you have a partner or someone else who could go and do that bit for you?

sending much much sympathy

I’m so sorry to hear about your lovely girl. Losing a pet is always hard, but even harder when it’s sudden and traumatic.

We lost a puppy to cancer not too long ago. He was not even a year old and he went from fine to being put to sleep in a very short space of time. I couldn’t even talk to the insurance about the claim so I can completely understand how hard meeting these requests from the insurer would be. Fortunately my partner did it all and the insurance people were lovely. Could someone else maybe do all the things needed? Is there a time limit on claiming, could you maybe leave it a bit longer until you feel a bit stronger? I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with this.

I meant to say, I think your feelings are totally normal. I will never get over losing our beautiful boy so young and in the way it happened. I feel like a different person to what I was in all honesty. I’ve found it incredibly hard to deal with and to see the way it has affected my children. I keep his collar, brush and favourite chew toy in a cupboard and have a bloody good cry when I see them. For a while we walked our other dogs on different routes to what we had taken him as the memories were too upsetting. All normal when you love your dog so much.

How awful, I am so sorry for the loss of your girl

Is it a claim above and beyond the usual death benefit? Our insurance just paid out after confirmation with the vet that our dog had been pts.

I completely understand how you feel you can’t do the extra photographing of such hurtful items and places.

Thankyou everyone.

@Saucery it's actually right on the max amount it covers. It states that it covers in the event of death up to x amount or up to value of the dog when purchased whichever is less basically. God I feel so awful talking about it in monetary terms I'd pay it ten times over to have her back.
That breed is now multiple times more expensive than it was the 5 years ago we got her.

She was our first joint dog and back then we didn't know much about what to look for / breeders and so on so in hindsight we realised we didn't buy her from a great place and we'd never make that mistake again. As a result however we don't have much in terms of a receipt, in fact we had to ask for one at the time as the breeder wasn't even offering one and he kind of threw something very basic together, we didn't even know what it's supposed to look like. They are questioning that as well.

I feel like I've been an awful owner.

Bless you. I hope you don’t mind but I’ve just read your other thread about your lovely girl. I saw a photo of her, she’s was a real beauty. 💕
The love you have for her shone through in your posts, never feel you were anything but a loving owner. Her death was obviously very sad but she clearly had a lovely life with you all. She was adored, if only all dogs were so lucky. Be kind to yourself, sometimes awful things happen, they don’t make sense and they’re not fair. You gave your girl the best life while she was here. 💕

That’s odd then, that they essentially want an Incident Report on what happened. Collar and lead and photos is quite horrible, really, I cannot see why they need that if vet has stated what happened.
Of course you’re not looking at it in financial compensation terms, I didn’t mean to imply that in any way. Our dog was over the age threshold for paying back the money we paid for her, so we just got costs to cover cremation etc. I just wondered if it was a clause that covered ‘accidental death’ iyswim, but it doesn’t seem to be.

I think it’s normal to be upset about the questions etc but they are an insurance company and I understand why they want the information . People are trying to falsely claim on insurance all the time now and dog death claims are no exception .

I'm so sorry about your beautiful dog. I read your thread at the time I can't believe there asking you these things, pictures of your babies collar, it seems ridiculous and insensitive and o can't fathom why. I hope you don't think I'm been insensitive, may I ask which insurance company this is?

I'm so sorry you're having to provide that info. I posted on your last thread as I lost our boy in similar circumstances. I wasn't asked for that info, but I didn't claim the amount we paid for him so maybe that's why they are being specific. I wouldn't even be able to provide the info as our vet binned everything as the harness was broken and had to be cut off and collar was binned at same time by them. I can't bring myself to go anywhere near the area of the accident, so the thought of going there to take pictures makes me feel ill, I can't blame you for feeling like you do

This is why I don't bother with insurance - I put the money (£30pm) in a separate bank account instead.
I can't be doing with arguing with a company at a time of extreme stress - whether that's illness or death

@Hugexfilesfan I'm not sure if I should be naming them, apologies.

@Missingjigsawpuzzle so sorry about your boy.

@unforgotten23 that sounds like something we might consider in the future.

I still can't do it. I don't know why. The woman on the phone clearly heard my voice crack a few times when I had to call them to discuss as they initially rejected the claim saying they don't cover costs of cremation (which I was aware of) I had to explain that from what I've gathered there is a "death benefit" on the insurance and that was what we were trying to claim. I started crying when I had to say that there was no treatment at the vets as she was gone instantly. She said they need an RTA and when I asked what that was she paused and said that perhaps she can send me a full list over email.

A part of me wants to drop it and not have to go back there, another wants to persevere and not be deterred by all these hoops and get the service I was paying for but it feels so materialistic.

When our puppy got hit by a car and died, we buried her in the garden. Didn’t involve the vets.

The insurance company asked for proof and I invited them round and said I would dig her up for them.
They paid out after that.

Whoever they are they sound totally shit. I was upset enough when my insurers had me on hold to report my girl’s death with a cheery “If you would like to talk to a qualified vet nurse about your pet’s health problem......” - kind of hope their recording picked up my “bit late for that, she’s fucking dead!”

I don’t think I’d be able to go back to the scene where it happened. I’d probably seethe at the obstacles they obviously hope will cut down claims in these circumstances, tell everyone I knew who was considering pet insurance to give them the swerve and write to their Head Office when I was calm enough to state the facts about them making a distressing time even worse by expecting me to go and take photos of the scene. I mean, do they want a damn diagram ffs?

@Saucery I feel like they will try to maybe say it was our fault somehow and try to avoid paying?
I might be wrong but I'm not sure why any of this information is relevant considering the vets have clearly confirmed she's gone as she's been cremated....

Have you been through the policy in detail? Is there an exclusion for (and forgive me for saying this, I don’t know how to put it, just trying to see how they could have intentionally set a clause to weasel out of paying) ‘owner error’?

Hi everyone

Just thought I'd give an update, I forced myself to go through with it all as I knew 1000 would make a big difference.
I went back to the site and took pictures as requested whilst having a meltdown in the bloody woodland it happened in.
Went back home and forced myself to get her collar and lead out of storage to photograph those as requested as well.
I just got an email saying my claim has been accepted and after the excess and an age deduction we are getting a grand total of 160.00

I went through all of that for absolutely nothing. That's what my little girl was worth in the end.
I feel like I've just been kicked in the teeth and I can't even tell DH about it yet as I don't want to be disturbing him at work.
If I would have known that I would have never bothered.
They didn't even address the question in my email asking for the reasons for all this information being requested as it was so upsetting to go back to.

What a shit day.

Omg this is so awful! I'm so sorry! Who are the insurers?

How does the £160 compare to the value you were expecting? Do you have an idea of how much they have deducted from the potential payout?

Im so sorry about your loss and this extra trauma you have to go through ❤

Sorry to hear this but were you not aware of the excess and age deduction?

I'm curious to know who your insurers were too.

Was this in addition to the vet's fees for cremation?

Unfortunately I wasn't aware of the age deduction. I guess I should've read the fine print but I was barely able to bring myself to go forward with the claim in the first place.
She was 5. They deducted 75% as "age deduction".

They don't cover cremation fees which we were made aware of, we paid 200 for that so in the end the insurance did not even make up that amount. Not like it really matters.

I just wish I didn't go through going back to where she died and disturbing her memory box for the sake of 160 it feels insulting to her memory.

We were going to put the money towards savings for another dog down the line when we are ready to welcome one into the family again.

That's so awful OP. I can so understand how you feel. Who were the insurers?

It was Perfectpet

I’m sorry they have treated you like this and you had to force yourself to confront the reminders because they insisted. What a horrible company, I hope people read and take note of their practices.

One thing we did when our girl died suddenly was start a notebook of all the good times (and the naughty times, for balance!). It did help erase the memories of that last awful day. Might be helpful, I don’t know, we’re all different so feel free to ignore suggestion.