All My Stuff's Gone - Dealing With Insurance Companies

Edith_Bagot-Dix

So I bought a house a couple of months ago. On Wednesday we had a break in and now most of my shit is gone. Xbox 360, Wii, two laptops, LCD TV and a stack of about 30 games for same (thieves apparently some what particular console fans as they left PS2 and PC games that were right next to the other ones). So I've been dealing with Microsoft (wanted to see if I can get in on that IP tracing stuff), the cops and, of course, the insurance company. It has been like two days now but I am already wary of these guys. The vibe I'm getting is that the claims guy doesn't believe I had any of this stuff. Anyone else out there had to deal with this sort of situation?

Sir Carcass

Kinda late now, but if you have insurance, it's always a good idea to keep pictures and serial numbers of all of your high dollar stuff in a safe place, like a fireproof safe. If you can't prove you had the stuff, you're basically going to have to get the claims adjuster to believe you did.

And as far as the IP tracing, most likely this stuff is going to end up on Ebay or in a pawn shop. But you might get lucky.

John Matrix

I'd agree with the above, but keep the info in two places. If they steal the safe, you're screwed.

matt has a problem

If you bought any of that stuff using a credit card, the CC company will have the proofs of purchase you need, too.

Dman

Get a police report if you don't have one yet, the insurance people will want to see that.

japan

I work in insurance, but I haven't worked in property insurance for a while.

They'll ask you for proof of ownership (which could be receipts, warranty documentation, credit card bills showing the purchases, delivery invoices, anything that backs up that you actually owned these items), see what you come up with, and ask questions about anything you can't prove or that seems inconsistent. Based on that they'll decide whether or not they believe you or not. Geeks tend to get a bit of a hard time at this stage because they tend to have disproportionate quantities of high-value electronics lying around, even if they're otherwise not that wealthy, which means greater scrutiny.

Generally insurance claims fall into three categories: honest, fraudulent inflation (i.e. the loss actually occurred, but the claim is for more than was lost), and outright fraud (the loss is a total fabrication). They'll pick over everything because of the number of people that believe that fraudulent inflation isn't a crime.

Kyougu

I'm gonna go home and take pics of all my stuff and take down their serial number. I got renters insurance the moment I got my apt, but never thought about what I would do if I had to actually file it.

Sir Carcass

Kyougu wrote: »

I'm gonna go home and take pics of all my stuff and take down their serial number. I got renters insurance the moment I got my apt, but never thought about what I would do if I had to actually file it.

The sad thing is, I gave the advice but I'm too lazy to follow it. I'm sure I'll regret it one day.

Dman

Sir Carcass wrote: »

Kyougu wrote: »

I'm gonna go home and take pics of all my stuff and take down their serial number. I got renters insurance the moment I got my apt, but never thought about what I would do if I had to actually file it.

The sad thing is, I gave the advice but I'm too lazy to follow it. I'm sure I'll regret it one day.

I could take photos...but they would go onto my hard drive...
Not really ideal after having your computer stolen.

Edit: I guess I could throw them online....so never mind.

Edith_Bagot-Dix

japan wrote: »

I work in insurance, but I haven't worked in property insurance for a while.

They'll ask you for proof of ownership (which could be receipts, warranty documentation, credit card bills showing the purchases, delivery invoices, anything that backs up that you actually owned these items), see what you come up with, and ask questions about anything you can't prove or that seems inconsistent. Based on that they'll decide whether or not they believe you or not. Geeks tend to get a bit of a hard time at this stage because they tend to have disproportionate quantities of high-value electronics lying around, even if they're otherwise not that wealthy, which means greater scrutiny.

Generally insurance claims fall into three categories: honest, fraudulent inflation (i.e. the loss actually occurred, but the claim is for more than was lost), and outright fraud (the loss is a total fabrication). They'll pick over everything because of the number of people that believe that fraudulent inflation isn't a crime.

Thanks for this. I did the police report and all that kind of thing. I have receipts for my laptops but not really anything else, which is good because the laptop was a gaming laptop and so cost more than the generic laptop at Best Buy. I am kind of worried about the pile of games, though, since buying 30 odd games would be like $2100 (they're $69.99 a pop up here). Of course they were a mixed bag - some had been gifts, some I bought at a discount when I worked in the industry (EA gives you a dozen free games a year, Vivendi let you buy them for like $10 a pop), and I only have a couple of remaining receipts from ones I bought recently.

On the other hand, I paid a few extra bucks when I got my policy in order to give my business to a long time friend of the family (neighbours of my folks who are staying with them at their place in Arizona in a few weeks). Of course that doesn't apply to the claims adjuster, but is that likely to count for anything?

Dman

Edith_Bagot-Dix wrote: »

japan wrote: »

I work in insurance, but I haven't worked in property insurance for a while.

They'll ask you for proof of ownership (which could be receipts, warranty documentation, credit card bills showing the purchases, delivery invoices, anything that backs up that you actually owned these items), see what you come up with, and ask questions about anything you can't prove or that seems inconsistent. Based on that they'll decide whether or not they believe you or not. Geeks tend to get a bit of a hard time at this stage because they tend to have disproportionate quantities of high-value electronics lying around, even if they're otherwise not that wealthy, which means greater scrutiny.

Generally insurance claims fall into three categories: honest, fraudulent inflation (i.e. the loss actually occurred, but the claim is for more than was lost), and outright fraud (the loss is a total fabrication). They'll pick over everything because of the number of people that believe that fraudulent inflation isn't a crime.

Thanks for this. I did the police report and all that kind of thing. I have receipts for my laptops but not really anything else, which is good because the laptop was a gaming laptop and so cost more than the generic laptop at Best Buy. I am kind of worried about the pile of games, though, since buying 30 odd games would be like $2100 (they're $69.99 a pop up here). Of course they were a mixed bag - some had been gifts, some I bought at a discount when I worked in the industry (EA gives you a dozen free games a year, Vivendi let you buy them for like $10 a pop), and I only have a couple of remaining receipts from ones I bought recently.

On the other hand, I paid a few extra bucks when I got my policy in order to give my business to a long time friend of the family (neighbours of my folks who are staying with them at their place in Arizona in a few weeks). Of course that doesn't apply to the claims adjuster, but is that likely to count for anything?

I doubt it.
Explain that you used to work for vivendi and EA and you had a lot of games, which were stolen. It's good that your had reciepts for your gaming laptop, I think that goes a long way into establishing your gaming creds and that a gamer would have a bunch of electronics & games.

Elin

I have no clue if Insurance would take it as proof ... but what about achievements from Live for your 360 games? It proves you played them at least.

And I'm also about to photobucket my serial numbers. I also tend to buy electronics with my best buy card and then pay it off pre interest, so they would have records of 90% of my stuff. I have a friend that went through this, she lost a lot of designer bags and such and they didn't believe her. She was taught that if you didn't have cash for a luxury item, then you shouldn't have it so she really had no proof. They eventually approved her claim though when she provided proof for a few other high price items. I guess if you can prove you have the lifestyle for the items they'll go a bit easier on you.

japan

Elin wrote: »

I have no clue if Insurance would take it as proof ... but what about achievements from Live for your 360 games? It proves you played them at least.

This isn't universal, but I personally would take it into consideration. When you're trying to figure out if someone is a fraudster it's about probing until you either hit plausible dead ends with suspicious frequency or the story you've been told starts to fall apart.

The purchase of most high value items actually generates quite a paper trail, and it's not usually that hard to figure out if someone really owned something or not. Say we're talking about a laptop: do you have the receipt? If not, why not? Where did you buy it from? Did you buy an extended warranty? Do they have any records of the purchase or warranty? Did you buy it online? Do you still have the order confirmation email? If not, why not (especially because effectively unlimited storage is available from most webmail providers these days)? Does your bank or credit card company have a record of the purchase (in the UK, these are retained for seven years)?

And so on and so forth.

Edith_Bagot-Dix

japan wrote: »

Elin wrote: »

I have no clue if Insurance would take it as proof ... but what about achievements from Live for your 360 games? It proves you played them at least.

This isn't universal, but I personally would take it into consideration. When you're trying to figure out if someone is a fraudster it's about probing until you either hit plausible dead ends with suspicious frequency or the story you've been told starts to fall apart.

The purchase of most high value items actually generates quite a paper trail, and it's not usually that hard to figure out if someone really owned something or not. Say we're talking about a laptop: do you have the receipt? If not, why not? Where did you buy it from? Did you buy an extended warranty? Do they have any records of the purchase or warranty? Did you buy it online? Do you still have the order confirmation email? If not, why not (especially because effectively unlimited storage is available from most webmail providers these days)? Does your bank or credit card company have a record of the purchase (in the UK, these are retained for seven years)?

And so on and so forth.

Interesting to know this stuff. I have the receipts for the laptops. I might have the receipts for the XBox, Wii and TV (bought them when I lived in Vancouver so the question is in those documents survived the move). The Xbox certainly has a paper trail with Microsoft though as it has red-ringed twice and I had an Xbox Live Gold account. The credit card thing is interesting, though, as I had no idea they might keep records that long (it may be different in Canada, but maybe not). All the big ticket things were purchased with my credit card except for the XBox (which I bought on my debit card in order to get my girlfriend's employee discount at the time). Probably the majority of the games were too.

Lail

Your bank should have a record of all your debit card purchases...I believe I can look back a few years with mine.

LaOs

Edith_Bagot-Dix wrote: »

japan wrote: »

Elin wrote: »

I have no clue if Insurance would take it as proof ... but what about achievements from Live for your 360 games? It proves you played them at least.

This isn't universal, but I personally would take it into consideration. When you're trying to figure out if someone is a fraudster it's about probing until you either hit plausible dead ends with suspicious frequency or the story you've been told starts to fall apart.

The purchase of most high value items actually generates quite a paper trail, and it's not usually that hard to figure out if someone really owned something or not. Say we're talking about a laptop: do you have the receipt? If not, why not? Where did you buy it from? Did you buy an extended warranty? Do they have any records of the purchase or warranty? Did you buy it online? Do you still have the order confirmation email? If not, why not (especially because effectively unlimited storage is available from most webmail providers these days)? Does your bank or credit card company have a record of the purchase (in the UK, these are retained for seven years)?

And so on and so forth.

Interesting to know this stuff. I have the receipts for the laptops. I might have the receipts for the XBox, Wii and TV (bought them when I lived in Vancouver so the question is in those documents survived the move). The Xbox certainly has a paper trail with Microsoft though as it has red-ringed twice and I had an Xbox Live Gold account. The credit card thing is interesting, though, as I had no idea they might keep records that long (it may be different in Canada, but maybe not). All the big ticket things were purchased with my credit card except for the XBox (which I bought on my debit card in order to get my girlfriend's employee discount at the time). Probably the majority of the games were too.

I'm pretty sure that, in Canada, it's law to keep personal information (account information and such) for seven years. Anywhere I worked where we had client information or results or things like that, we had to arrange to keep them for at least 7 years.

MichaelLC

One thing I do is to cut out the serial/UPC square off the box from any electronic/high-value item.

japan

MichaelLC wrote: »

One thing I do is to cut out the serial/UPC square off the box from any electronic/high-value item.

You're better off keeping invoices and/or delivery notes. They're generally tied specifically to you, whereas packaging can be bought on ebay or obtained from friends.

eternalbl

If you used a credit card for the TV or anything else you can hopefully take it to where you bought some of this stuff and get receipts reprinted. I had a coffeemaker crap out about a year after I bought it, but with no receipt I couldn't get any help. I went to the bay and with the CC they were able to print up that receipt.

The coffeemaker was a fairly expensive one, Shut up!!