Insurance

[[GSV]Trig]

Not quite sure where to put this so its going in here, any mods feel free to move it...

I've had a chap come in with a knackered PC, hes going to claim for a new one on his house insurance, but before they take the PC away he wanted to make a copy of his data as he's heard of people giving their machines to the insurance company and then not getting it back and loosing all of there data, obviously as his machine is dead he cant burn it off onto disk etc, so, he bought the machine to me and I removed the hard drive and made a copy of everything on it.

Now his insurance are refusing to repair/replace the machine as its been "tampered" with.

What are the legalities of this, can his insurance company do this, what can he use as a defense etc etc..

[autopilot]

How do they know it has been tampered with? I would appeal, seems very unfair to me. And what would have happened if he had built the PC or had someone else build it for him?

[[GSV]Trig]

It was a PC from Dixons of elsewhere and had security stickers on it.

[Carlh]

If it was a pre built machine from dixons, pc world normally they have tamper stickers on the side and if these have been tampered with then they wont pay out.

I guess they do this to stop people who dont know what there doing playing inside the case and messing up the components obviously in this case this hasnt happended therefore best bet is to give them a call and advise that the hard drive was taken out for data recovery and see what they say.

Also get the chap who asked you to have a look at the pc to see if he has any of the documentation regarding the warranty on the pc

[autopilot]

If it's Dixons insurance then they will cover you if it has been looked at by someone who 'knows what they are doing'. I worked for Dixons a few years ago and that was the case then, but they might have changed since then. They used to say that you could add upgrades yourself and it would not invalidate your coverplan, although if they find the upgrade caused the fault they might not cover you..

I would put a complaint in, directly to DSG's head office, explaining that a non-Dixons PC expert had looked at it.