Booked a trip to travel down through the Alps on the Glacier & Bernina express trains in early June 2020. Due to Countries closing borders as a result of COVID-19 our airline cancelled our flights & refunded us. Similarly all but one of our hotels/ accommodation either Refunded us in full or did not charge us. This left us with one non refundable booking but on speaking with the hotelier he kindly offered to refund 50% of our costs. Our travel claim was the remaining 50% amounting to just under £80.00.Our policy was bought with no excess and so having obtained my partial refund from the hotel thereby minimising my losses I filed a claim in early June 2020, the claim form advising all claims would be processed with 5 working days. Understandably during a global pandemic the number of claims sky rocketed and the Insurer’s telephone message led me to understand that this was increased to 15 working days. In reality it was more like 30 working days when despite having sent all my documents & evidence with my claim, some were requested again in a blanket coverall letter with no account taken for what I had already submitted. The next fiasco was the Insurer insisting I first of all claim under S75 Consumer Credit Act from my Credit card provider. It was clear to me when completing such a claim that it was not pertinent & doomed to fail! Nevertheless Sainsburys insisted this avenue had to be explored! At this time Credit Card Companies we’re also dealing with a large amount of claims resulting from the pandemic & we had no choice to await their decision. At the end of September my card provider confirmed S75 was not relevant and I pressed for payment from the Insurer. 2 weeks later, without any written notification, an amount of money appeared in my wife’s account which was less that our excess free claim rather than what was claimed & due but by this time my wife & I had almost lost the will to live.
My only previous claim with any travel insurance was over 10 years ago & that was a simple matter. It is clear that Sainsburys Travel Insurance puts up as many fences as possible to frustrate any claims being made & even if you are successful it pays less than is due.
We will never buy from them again! Simply appalling service
Reviewed on: 28th October 2020
