PENSIONER Bryan Williamson was furious he’d paid over £300 for Currys’ laptop cover but couldn’t get an exact replacement when it broke.
He had paid £5.50 a month since 2016 on the insurance policy which guaranteed free repairs or vouchers for a replacement.
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But the 73-year-old from Essex was shocked when the £299 voucher he received from the tech giant was £300 less than the price of the same, or similar quality, laptop.
Currys told him that the policy only covers the price of how much he paid for the item originally.
Bryan said the policy was “useless”, and wished he had never paid it.
The issues began in the run-up to Christmas last year, when the mouse touchpad on Bryan’s laptop stopped working.
His disabled wife, Maggie, 54, relies on the 1 terabyte laptop.
It has a CD writer on it, which she uses for her Employment Support Allowance assessments.
She copies the evidence onto CDs and sends it to the DWP six or seven times a year to keep getting her benefit – which is worth £235.20 a fortnight.
Bryan took the laptop to the store immediately to get it repaired for free.
Currys took it away to be fixed – but phoned three days later to say it couldn’t be mended.
Instead, Bryan was told he would receive vouchers in the post so he could get a replacement.
The vouchers were worth £299 – the value of the laptop when he bought it six years ago.
When he went to his local Currys store, he was told that there was no equivalent model costing £299 anymore – £599 was the cheapest they had.
Bryan asked for the laptop back and said he would simply buy a new mouse.
But Currys said it had already destroyed it – leaving Bryan furious.
He now faced paying £300 extra for the same laptop, which he couldn’t afford.
He and Maggie were also worried about losing out on ESA payments if they didn’t fork out hundreds of pounds more for a laptop with a CD writer function on it.
“Anybody would struggle to pay an extra £300 these days – all I get is my pension and my wife gets disability allowance.
“The CD writer is used seven times a year – and we really need it.
“The policy was useless.
“We feel very let down, we expected Currys to fix it, as it’s only a broken mouse.
“I just feel it’s unfair, it’s not right.”
Determined to get a replacement, Bryan came to The Sun for help.
Currys gave him £300 worth of vouchers to make up the difference needed to buy the same laptop.
A spokesperson said: “We have contacted Mr Williamson regarding the issue with his laptop and acknowledged that our service level dropped below what is expected in this instance.
“We have apologized to Mr Williamson and are pleased the issue is now resolved”.
How to challenge your insurer
If you’re not happy with the outcome of a claim, then write to your insurance company.
Include evidence of your policy documents to back-up your complaint, and outline how you would like the problem to be resolved.
If you’re not happy with the outcome, make a formal complaint.
Complaints have to be dealt with by eight weeks – if you don’t get anywhere fast, escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
It can award up to £150,000 against an insurance company.
Your insurance rights if something goes wrong
Sometimes, buying cover for products like gadgets just isn’t worth it.
That’s because you have certain consumer rights when you buy an item anyway, regardless if you have cover or not.
For example, you are entitled to get a refund on an item if it’s faulty within six months after you made the purchase under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Sometimes, retailers extend the manufacturer’s warranty longer than two years – sometimes you can get five years of total coverage for free, according to Money Helper.
Consumer champion Martyn James has warned some plans are not worth the money.
“The problem with many forms of single use insurance – or warranties, as they are often known – is that many of them are rubbish and some rarely pay out without a battle,” he said.
“It’s often much cheaper to check online and find a better policy – you can even get multi-gadget agreements that will cover five gadgets for much cheaper that individual cover.”
If you do buy a policy, then take the paperwork home before you sign it, Moneycomms personal finance expert Andrew Hagger said.
“Always check the small print at the time you take it out – don’t wait until you come to make a claim only to find out it’s not the all singing all dancing deal you thought it was,” he added.