Insurer owes me £2,700 for holidays cancelled by cancer diagnosis

Early last year I booked two holidays: one to Athens in September and a trip to Florence in October. They cost £3,565 in total and I took out travel insurance with Good to Go after seeing an advert on TV.

In July I started to feel exhausted and had a severe flare-up of eczema. Extensive tests revealed that I had prostate cancer. I was very ill and my skin was having an extreme reaction to the cancer, so I cancelled the Athens holiday. While I hoped I might be able to go to Florence in October, I was still too unwell and cancelled that trip in September.

Over the next few months I was going through treatment, but I sent all my documents to Good to Go in December, including a letter from my doctor confirming my cancer diagnosis.

Weeks later it asked for copies of my credit card statements, which it hadn’t asked for initially. It took ten weeks for it to say that the information from my GP wasn’t detailed enough and that it wanted a full account of my health over the past two years. My doctor said that the only relevant fact was my cancer diagnosis, but nevertheless, the GP surgery provided all the details, which cost £60. I also had to pay for three lots of recorded delivery, costing £70.

Thankfully the hotel in Athens refunded £514 and Good to Go has refunded half of my two deposits, amounting to £313, but it has been six months since I sent my claim and I am still out of pocket by £2,738. I am recovering from surgery and feel very angry about the way I have been treated by my insurer.

Martin, Kent

Troubleshooter says

Of all the possible reasons a travel insurer should pay a claim for a cancelled holiday, being diagnosed with cancer is definitely on the list.

Insurers will often ask for detailed information about your health because they want to know when the symptoms started and make sure that you disclosed any medical conditions when you took out the policy.

Your symptoms didn’t start until after you bought your policy and you had sent everything your insurer asked for, so I could see no reason why it hadn’t yet paid your claim.

I spoke to the Ancile Insurance Group, Good to Go’s parent company, and it finally got back to you, but said it would only pay about half of the cost of your holidays — taking the total amount you got back from the insurer to £1,533. You were disappointed, especially because it gave no explanation about why it won’t pay the full amount. The financial regulator expects companies to communicate clearly with their customers and provide information on the progress of any insurance claim. Companies shouldn’t unreasonably reject a claim either.

I asked Ancile why it hadn’t given you an explanation and, while it wouldn’t talk to me about your issue, it contacted you again to explain that it was because you had cancelled your holidays less than 62 days before they started. You didn’t know about this restriction and when I checked the policy I couldn’t see it mentioned in the 28-page document. I asked Ancile why that wasn’t written in the policy and whether it thought its terms were clear enough, but it wouldn’t comment.

James Daley from the consumer group Fairer Finance said that under new consumer duty rules introduced last year, companies need to make sure that customers understand the terms of their products. I told Ancile that you had a reasonable expectation that it would pay your claim in full and asked if it would, but it wouldn’t answer my question.

While you now have £2,047 of your money back, including the £514 from the hotel, I was appalled by your insurer’s treatment of you and have suggested that you take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. It might tell the firm to pay the remaining £1,518.

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B&Q gift card fiasco has left our boys without a birthday present

My partner and I decided to buy a playhouse for our two boys and we found one we liked on B&Q’s website for £265. In January our family got us a B&Q gift card for the boys’ birthday but we have been struggling to buy the playhouse. It was only when we got to the website’s checkout that we were told that the gift card can’t be used because the item is sold by a third-party seller. This is despite the terms and conditions on the gift card saying it can be used for “any purchase” on the website.

I called B&Q and it told me to check the terms online because they were different. It seems unreasonable to expect people to check the terms on the website on the off chance they contradict the ones on the gift card.

I raised a complaint and, after I chased, I was eventually told to go to my nearest store to get the money on the gift card refunded. So I packed up our one-year-old in the car and drove over, only to be told that it couldn’t refund me. I then emailed B&Q’s chief executive and was told to visit a store again.

None of the other playhouses on the website are sold directly from B&Q so I can’t use this gift as intended. I just want to use the gift card under the terms agreed when it was bought.Name and address supplied

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Troubleshooter says

It’s not easy trying to wrap your head around a retailer’s long list of T&Cs so I empathise with your frustration at being told that the terms written on the gift card were wrong. B&Q told me that you had an older version of a gift card and that its terms had changed since that was created.

A spokesperson commented: “We want all of our customers to have a great experience when shopping with us, and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

B&Q was willing to cancel the card and give you a refund but your wife had used some of the money to buy other items, so it wasn’t able to do this. It was unwise to use the gift card if you were disputing its terms, but you said you thought you were fighting a losing battle with B&Q until I got involved. Unfortunately, this means you will have to use the remaining amount on the card for other B&Q purchases.

Yet because the company had sent you round the houses, it agreed to give you a £50 gift card as a goodwill gesture. You asked B&Q to send the money to your bank account instead and, while it’s not its policy to do this, it made an exception in your case. You have put the cash towards your boys’ long-awaited birthday present and say they are enjoying their new hideout.

If you have a money problem that you would like Katherine Denham to investigate, email [email protected]. Please include a phone number.

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