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Anyone ever had a (successful) claim with Secursus?

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Walrus
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Now all that stuff about VAT, selling a new item at a profit etc, is that in their fine print. I mean this insurance thing deals with watches they are hip to the Rolex scene. Perhaps that should refuse to accept to accept money from anyone shipping a new Rolex as it’s pretty much a given that item is being sold at a profit. I’ve had a thing against insurances in general as I paid home insurance for 15 years with no issue put on the 15th year I put in one claim, which they covered and were very decent about, then proceeded to drop me. There is a major disconnect between buying insurance and actually having to use it. Insurance is great until you actually have to use it, then you find out how brutal the industry can be. Still I am in the process of looking for insurance for my watch collection, not that it’s full of high value items but a few I’d have difficulty replacing. Anyway can’t say anything negative about this securus as I’ve never used it but a lot of what I’m reading would make me weary of using them if I shipped something. So much documentation required and loopholes I realize companies need to protect themselves from fraud but damn seems worse than getting a passport
 
Borosilikat
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Shabbaz Shabbaz
Good question! 😀
Hello,

So I have actually been avoiding the OF as well as watches generally for a while now since this whole thing with Secursus and the watch that was lost upset me probably more than it should have.

Onto what happened:

The watch was found by Fedex in undeliverable goods and returned to me after 3 months.

That's the headline here, Secursus didn't pay because they didn't need to.

Now onto my personal opinion of Secursus, their service and their employees.

Secursus has been one of the most annoying, obnoxious, obtuse and downright dishonest companies I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

They were asking me irrelevant questions from the very start such as what customs value was declared on the watch.
They were quoting their T&C from the start to try and get me to give up the claim.
They treated me, the guy that shipped the watch to me and the seller of the watch with undue suspicion from the start.

Now onto something that is both a plus and minus for Secursus, after 2 1/2 months of dealing with them, once I had threatened them with contacting French insurance regulators for them and Dutch ones for their underwriter they FINALLY did something to help me instead of just asking irrelevant questions, namely they revealed that they have a contact at Fedex who can help find the watch!

Finally they contacted their contact and I assume that due to his work the watch was found.

It took them almost three months to contact this guy and they only did it once I had threatened them with regulatory involvement and a lawsuit!

Why didn't they just contact this guy right from the start ?
Because it's easier and takes less time to simply ask BS questions until the customer gives up the claim!

So Secursus does help you and maybe they even pay claims (who knows what would have happened had their guy not the found watch?) but they only do it after every possiblity of them getting out of the claim is exhausted AND you have threatened them with legal action!!!!!

Also I want to mention that Secursus does not have a telephone number to contact and the only way to communicate with them regarding your claim is through a very awkward to use chat interface that seems more designed for instant messaging with your buddies than dealing with an insurance company.

I just want to mention since Secursus probably knows who I am from this post and to protect myself from any attempts at censorship or legal action that this entire post is only my personal opinion.

I speak only for myself, this post is only my subjective opinion and is written with not only facts but also emotions connected to it.
This post is not an objective valuation of Secursus, Secursus' employees or Secursus' serivces.
 
eugeneandresson
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Borosilikat Borosilikat
They were asking me irrelevant questions from the very start such as what customs value was declared on the watch.

That’s not irrelevant. It’s one of the major points of compliance on you, the person insuring their goods, according to their T&C. Just saying…

Congrats on getting it back.
 
SpikiSpikester
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Borosilikat Borosilikat
They were asking me irrelevant questions from the very start such as what customs value was declared on the watch.
They were quoting their T&C from the start to try and get me to give up the claim.
They treated me, the guy that shipped the watch to me and the seller of the watch with undue suspicion from the start.

Now onto something that is both a plus and minus for Secursus, after 2 1/2 months of dealing with them, once I had threatened them with contacting French insurance regulators for them and Dutch ones for their underwriter they FINALLY did something to help me instead of just asking irrelevant questions, namely they revealed that they have a contact at Fedex who can help find the watch!

In the interests of balance, just a reminder that the last thread we had on Secursus turned out to be part of a high value scam on them and was eventually deleted from the forum.

While looking into that, it appeared that they were exposed to a number of similar fraudulent claims. In the circumstances, I can see why they might have wanted to ask a lot of questions.

We all hate being bombarded with annoying questions by insurers, but everyone has different interests when money is at stake. The good thing is you got your watch, even if you hated dealing with the pain of an insurance claim.
 
Archer
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SpikiSpikester SpikiSpikester
We all hate being bombarded with annoying questions by insurers, but everyone has different interests when money is at stake.

Agreed, and their interest appears to to be not paying out any money. Insurance companies are all subject to fraudulent claims, so I don't think Secursus is in any way unique in that regard.
 
Dan S
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Archer Archer
Agreed, and their interest appears to to be not paying out any money. Insurance companies are all subject to fraudulent claims, so I don't think Secursus is in any way unique in that regard.

Every insurance company can either choose to push the limits of their terms and conditions, and force lawsuits against them, or choose to pay claims with minimal fuss and make loyal customers for life. In my life I have generally been lucky enough to work with companies that choose the latter approach.
 
Tony C.
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Borosilikat Borosilikat
Also I want to mention that Secursus does not have a telephone number to contact and the only way to communicate with them regarding your claim is through a very awkward to use chat interface that seems more designed for instant messaging with your buddies than dealing with an insurance company.

While this is obviously not the primary issue being discussed, such choices infuriate me. I will not give my business to companies which refuse to engage with their customers over the phone.
 
Archer
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eugeneandresson eugeneandresson
That’s not irrelevant. It’s one of the major points of compliance on you, the person insuring their goods, according to their T&C. Just saying…

Congrats on getting it back.

Way back early on, when the T&C's were changing by the minute at Secursus, the issue of "not declaring value anywhere on the package" was part of them. But of course you have to declare a value for customs purposes, so the guy who started this thing confirmed that it could be on the package as required, and that he wasn't asking people to commit fraud in order to be insured.

Curious why this is still relevant when making a claim?
 
Walrus
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It would be cool to hear from someone who had a successful claim to see how it played out.
 
Borosilikat
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eugeneandresson eugeneandresson
That’s not irrelevant. It’s one of the major points of compliance on you, the person insuring their goods, according to their T&C. Just saying…

Congrats on getting it back.
The customs value is factually irrelevant, Secursus is NOT US customs.
The only thing that matters is the value of the item and what you insured it for, lying to customs is between you and customs NOT you and your insurer.
 
eugeneandresson
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Archer Archer
Way back early on, when the T&C's were changing by the minute at Secursus, the issue of "not declaring value anywhere on the package" was part of them. But of course you have to declare a value for customs purposes, so the guy who started this thing confirmed that it could be on the package as required, and that he wasn't asking people to commit fraud in order to be insured.

Curious why this is still relevant when making a claim?

I don’t think it ever was ‘don’t declare a value anywhere on the package’ more like ‘the value of what’s in the package must not be deduced from the package’.

I can only assume they do that to try and reduce the risk of ‘long fingers’…

So perhaps in this case the value of the claim was 20k, and they wanted to ensure that the guy doing the claim declared something like 40k 😉
 
Borosilikat
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Archer Archer
Way back early on, when the T&C's were changing by the minute at Secursus, the issue of "not declaring value anywhere on the package" was part of them. But of course you have to declare a value for customs purposes, so the guy who started this thing confirmed that it could be on the package as required, and that he wasn't asking people to commit fraud in order to be insured.

Curious why this is still relevant when making a claim?
It's not relevant, Secursus just wants you to say something stupid like "The value of the package is $1" to trick you into invalidating your claim.

It's a question they like to ask and it's best to just sidestep it or ignore it entirely and change the subject since it's totally irrelevant.

Tony C. Tony C.
While this is obviously not the primary issue being discussed, such choices infuriate me. I will not give my business to companies which refuse to engage with their customers over the phone.
It really made everything more painful and makes the company lack a human face.

Dan S Dan S
Every insurance company can either choose to push the limits of their terms and conditions, and force lawsuits against them, or choose to pay claims with minimal fuss and make loyal customers for life. In my life I have generally been lucky enough to work with companies that choose the latter approach.
I really agree with you here, you make a lot more money by being nice to your customers and paying a legitimate claim quickly than trying to get out of legitimate claims and alienate customers.
 
eugeneandresson
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Borosilikat Borosilikat
The customs value is factually irrelevant, Secursus is NOT US customs.
The only thing that matters is the value of the item and what you insured it for, lying to customs is between you and customs NOT you and your insurer.

Yes, but it’s one of the first conditions in the T&C that you should read and comply with should you wish to fulfill the T&C to make your claim valid, so my point stands : it’s not an irrelevant question on their behalf. Just as it’s as relevant for them to request the pictures you should have taken as part of their second T&C point.
 
Borosilikat
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eugeneandresson eugeneandresson
I don’t think it ever was ‘don’t declare a value anywhere on the package’ more like ‘the value of what’s in the package must not be deduced from the package’.

I can only assume they do that to try and reduce the risk of ‘long fingers’…

So perhaps in this case the value of the claim was 20k, and they wanted to ensure that the guy doing the claim declared something like 40k 😉
As far as I understand it what they want is for you to write the customs value in the little pouch on the package but not have it be readable to anyone at a glance without opening the pouch so as to avoid some Fedex/DHL/whatever employee from stealing your valuable item.
 
Borosilikat
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eugeneandresson eugeneandresson
Yes, but it’s one of the first conditions in the T&C that you should read and comply with should you wish to fulfill the T&C to make your claim valid, so my point stands : it’s not an irrelevant question on their behalf.
Where does it say that in the T&C ?
 
eugeneandresson
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Borosilikat Borosilikat
As far as I understand it what they want is for you to write the customs value in the little pouch on the package but not have it be readable to anyone at a glance without opening the pouch so as to avoid some Fedex/DHL/whatever employee from stealing your valuable item.

I actually don’t think that’s what they want at all, as that, like declaring value of $1, invites the opening and inquisitiveness about what’s in the package…they actually want your package to inconspicuously sail through all postal channels without drawing any interest or attention.
 
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