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- 4Ruling
Case 1 of 19 · Level 1
Mobile phone insurance
The phone that went overboard
The file · about 5 minutes
The complaint
The customer claimed on their mobile phone insurance, saying the phone went overboard while they were out at sea. The insurer turned the claim down. The customer disagrees and says the insurer has treated them unfairly.
The firm's answer
The insurer says it has evidence that the loss did not happen as the customer describes. It believes the claim was fraudulent, and it will not pay.
Evidence in the file
Exhibit A · The claim
A phone lost overboard while the customer was out at sea.
Exhibit B · The insurer's letter
The claim is declined. The insurer says its evidence does not support the loss as reported.
The network provider's usage records
The insurer asked the network for the phone's usage. The records show the phone in use after the date the customer says it went into the sea.
Photos from the day at sea
Not in the file. No photos from that day are part of this case.
A fuller account from the customer
Not in the file. The customer disputes the decision and calls it unfair, but no fuller account of the loss is part of this case.
Uphold the complaint, or side with the firm?
The ruling
Given by the ombudsman
Not upheld
Why
The ombudsman found it reasonable for an insurer to check how a phone was used when looking at a claim, and trusted the network's system. On the balance of probabilities, the loss reported had not happened, and the claim was a way to get a new phone the policy did not cover. The insurer could fairly decline it.
What the firm had to do
Nothing. The insurer's decision stood.
What an adjudicator takes from this. Adjudicators decide what is more likely than not. A record from an independent system usually outweighs an account nobody can check.
Rewritten in our own words from a case the ombudsman published.
Read the guide: The FOS rejected your complaint. Here's what comes next.
What is fair and reasonable is a judgement. The ombudsman gives one; people who read the same file often give another, and this game is about how people weigh the same facts, not about being right. Built from cases the Financial Ombudsman Service and other bodies have published, and from Docketory's own files, rewritten in our own words with every name removed. Docketory is not connected with any of them, and this game is not advice on your own case.
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