Hi all
Been lurking since I bought my A4 in September but might be able to help here.
I had the same problem with Elephant (same company as Admiral) when I tried to insure my last car - a Focus ST - for a remap. To cut a long story short, I included an engine chip when inputting the original quote on the internet to see the difference in premium. As I hadn't bought a Dreamscience remapping unit at the time I took out the standard policy.
Some time later I bought a unit and informed Elephant. They declined to cover me for the same reasons you have quoted. I put in a complaint by email stressing my loyalty as a customer and advising that I would cancel the policy if they would not cover the modification. The reply was as follows:
"Dear Mr Wideblue
Policy No: EL INT xxxxxxx
Thank you for your recent e-mail, received on 11/12/08. As a Complaint Executive for elephant.co.uk, I would like to reply to you.
I understand you are unhappy because of the explanation we have provided you after declining to cover the remapping of your vehicles engine. I note we have informed you we would provide you with cover for the addition of an engine chip to your vehicle, however you have stated this does not affect your vehicles performance differently to the remapping of your engine. I would like to offer you my sincere apologies for any frustration and confusion we have caused you.
I see from our files for your records you originally obtained a quote for your policy from our website. When you entered your information for this you advised us your vehicle had an engine chip. Shortly after you accepted your insurance policy we wrote to you to inform you we did not have any note of your modification on our records. You contacted us to tell us you did not have an engine chip and asked us for a quotation on covering your vehicle if you remapped your engine. Sarah Collins in our Customer Service Department e-mailed you and confirmed we do not cover the remapping of any vehicles engines under our policies with elephant.co.uk.
Engine remapping and engine performance chips vary in our Underwriting Departments modification criteria. Information on any particular engine chip is more accessible to us as you are able to provide us with a specific make and model, which we can investigate to analyse how this will affect the performance of your vehicle. Unfortunately, the remapping of your engine does not enable to gain this same information. We are also aware of a number of safety issues throughout our previous history of insuring remapped vehicles, which may affect our decision to cover you.
I have spoken with our Underwriting Department about Sarahs decsion to decline cover for this modification. They have informed me we are able to over you cover to remap your engine if you wish to proceed with this change. This would increase your premium by £101.86. If you would like to continue with this amendment please contact our Customer Service Department on 0871 882 22 33 Monday - Sunday between 8am and 8pm.
Thank you for taking the time and effort to write to us about your experience, your e-mail has provided essential feedback. At elephant.co.uk, we recognise the points raised by customers are important for us to improve our service. I am grateful for your comments, and I am sorry you feel our service did not meet the high standard we promise our customers.
At elephant.co.uk, we aim to work with our customers to resolve all complaints fairly. If you have any further concerns or questions, please give me the chance to address these. You can contact me on 0800 952 1199 or e-mail me at
quality@elephant.co.uk
It is our responsibility to let you know the Financial Ombudsman Service is ultimately available to you, should you need it, but I sincerely hope you will contact me if you remain unhappy. You can also ask me if you would like a copy of the guide Your Complaint and the Ombudsman.
The Financial Services Authority asks us to leave complaints open for eight weeks after the date we receive them. If I do not hear from you by 06/02/09 I will consider your complaint closed.
Yours sincerely
Katherine Jones
Complaint Executive"
So they can cover you if they want (unless things have changed in the last 18 months!), it's up to you whether you think it's worth the effort or it's easier to take your business elsewhere...
I am still an Elephant customer, by the way.
Hope this helps
Matt.