Insurance shocker

[bfisher]

So its that time to renew.. i had my quote from Bennetts & was prepared to accept it (£180 or there abouts with only 1 year NCB since its a separate policy); all good until i mentioned that i wanted to add some 'modifications'.. confessed to the headlamp (HID), confessed to the air filter (just happen to forgot the Lennies duct disclosure as that might get a little difficult to classify), all good.. then i mention that i will be replacing the stock shocks that are in a bad state of repair with Wilbers & then the problem started.. that was considered outside the underwriters comfort zone & they wanted to slap me with another £100 extra with a different provider.. i attempted to keep cool & collected, explaining there wasn't any performance enhancement elements other than for the better & that the Wilbers are more or less a replacement for the worn OEM shocks.... Anyhow, that's where the conversation ended & i want to my other provider (Carole Nash) & now opted to have both bikes on a single cover which to be honest turned out more cost effective this year (didn't last year) so all is good & story ends well : )

So the purpose of this post.. to have a rant as to why the insurance broker / industry didn't understand that an replacement shock should not result in 30% markup on the original quote (not that i got to speak to the broker, rather i fear it was lost in translation between Bennets & the under-writer).

[JamesL]

Well, rant utterly justified I think - no doubt they slapped on a surcharge simply because they thought they could. Or it's a message that they just don't want the business.

I have a nasty feeling that in today's risk-averse insurance world if it's not plain vanilla they just don't want to know. And it's also rather worrying that what constitutes a modification seems open to such wide interpretation. Is there a standard anywhere?

[nacnud]

When in doubt ask for an Engineers report form, i think it was called that,
I tried to insure a Triton correctly and ended up talking to muppets that had no idea ! - you want to insure a Triumph-No a Triton -oh you mean a Norton- No it is half triumph half Norton so its a Triton- oh that must be the new kawashaki ? All my bikes are insured by Carol and they know EVERYTHING