Coles home insurance

A breach in the pipe inside my laundry wall cracked, resulting in water gushing out when the tap was turned on. As it leaked inside the wall behind the laundry cabinet, it was not noticed for some time. It resulted in mould developing in the wall. When I noticed it I contacted Coles and they had a builders assessment done and after the inspection they quoted a repair price. Soon after this they told me that I wasn't covered, as the clause in the water damage policy stated that I am not covered for a" slow leak over time, even if It went unnoticed." After countless phone calls and emails, they refused to honour my claim, even though it wasn't a slow leak over time, it was water gushing out of a crack, when the tap was turned on.

The Coles claims are handled by IAG Insurance. I had a home burglary. At first the attention to re-secure the house was very good and the tradespeople were very helpful. Receiving payment for stolen items was like pulling teeth. It is still not settled after 14 months. They are tricky beyond belief, including by having a slow response time to each email, by separating each individual item stolen into its own case with multiple staff handling it, by accepting liability but not paying, by lying about the contract I signed, by refusing to answer questions and by asking for the same information over and over. To add insult to injury, they doubled my premium for the following year.

Incredibly incompetent in handling claims and held my premium refund for 1 month when policy was cancelled.

This is not a real insurance company in my eyes , they happily take the fee but they don’t honour there policy, the claim and customer service department that they claim is helpful is nothing short of a nightmare with agents who say ridiculous things like offer you $1200 to settle a $15,000 flooring claim, they have no idea how to conduct insurance and should be avoided at all costs in the end I went from settlement of around 17k after forwarding my bank details that they requested and told payment would be forthcoming to receiving an email stating that my claim is denied, the assessor’s they use are clearly nit picking on anything related to the claim or not , I had one of there expert’s submit a report that was based entirely on the wrong side of the property. In the end after 4 months of back and forwards with this company and over 12 hours on the phone trying to make sense of all these agents and there inexperience and lack of knowledge they know that you will most likely not proceed with legal action as the amount would not warrant the cost ,they treat their customers with contempt and as many hundreds of former policy holders will confirm they do not pay out. I will never buy anything associated with coles and will continue to warn others about the dodgy business practices associated with this cringe worthy and pathetic company.