An insurance rant - Non bike

[Polarbear]

I know, insurance is a scam whatever you insure.

My dog insurance went from £300 a year to £450 despite no claims and my dog isn't even old, 5 last birthday. Tesco pet insurance in case anyone's interested.

I phoned them up, said to the girl I wasn't happy and she said, 'I'm authorised to give yo a discount of £80 pounds. That was straight off without her even talking to someone. It went up to £100 after I moaned a bit. I'm sure I could have got it cheaper if I whined like a little girl but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Why do the f*ckers do it. GRRRRRR....

Oh well, rant over.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Ste]

It's absolutely atrocious that you got a discount of £100.

Why do the f*ckers do it? GRRRRRR....

[Polarbear]

[fw750x]

It,s the Same with any Insurance , Maybe 40% Dont bother asking and just pay the Renewal

[stinkwheel]

Insurance companies aren't in the business of paying out money. Always remember that. The people who pay the premiums aren't the customers in this business model, they are the product.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[duhawkz]

The insurance for my dog went up by 100 quid on renewal despite not claiming.

I stopped paying it.

I'm sure large corporate vets and insurance companies are basically a legal racket.
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"The guy is a worthless cunt and I honestly believe I would be a slightly happier person if he died." - Chris-Red

[stinkwheel]

Also the veterinary profession has really upped its game recently, driven by both advances in what can be done and increases in owner expectation.

When I started 25 years ago in a rural mixed practice, a bitch spay was done with myself and a trained but unqualified lay nurse. We used a basic pre-med, a cheap barbiturate anaesthetic and halothane to keep them asleep. The surgery was essentially the same but the suture was catgut on a bulk reel and nylon on a reel for the skin stitches. Drapes were cloth and washed then steralised after each operation. They had recently upgraded to using an autoclave from boiling up instruments. I wore my normal clothes and no gloves. The theater consisted of a variety of ex NHS equipment dating back to the 1950s. If they were lucky -and if my boss wasn't watching- they got an anti-inflammatory jab to go home with. We checked them on day 2 and took the stitches out on day 10.

Fast forwards to today. They are catheterised, put on IV fluids during the op, hooked up to a multi-parameter monitoring system. The pre med is a multi-part opiate based one. They are induced with a steroid based anaesthetic and isoflurane gas. They are given two additional analgesics during the operation and often we use a local anaesthetic splash block on some parts. Sutures are synthetic absorbables with swaged on needles, drapes are single use synthetic. The surgeon is gloved and gowned with disposables. Two qualified vet nurses are present, one to monitor the anaesthetic, the second to assist the surgeon. Once into recovery an additional qualified vet nurse observes and monitors them until they are fully awake. They then go home with a course of analgesics, recovery food and with a surgical shirt. They have two ro three follow up appointments.

The latter is for sure the right way to be doing it. It costs at least twice as much. Double the staff for one thing and they are highly skilled rather than lay staff. That's before you take into account the changes in setup, upgraded equipment such as surgical lighting and tables and the admin aspects of a fully audited HACCP sterilisation, monitoring and drug use process for the surgical areas, instrument sterilisation and frankly, dealing with increasingly demanding owners.

So yeah, prices have gone up. 25 years ago your dog had a cataract? I gave you advice on how to deal with a blind dog. Now they go to a specialist for lens replacement. You cat got run over and smashed its pelvis? We took x-rays and made a choice between pain killers and box rest in the hope it would heal or euthanasia. Now they go to an orthopaedic specialist who CT scans it and 3D models custom plates and pins to repair it.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[A100man]

[stinkwheel]

[mentalboy]

[Feasty]

I've got 2 dogs, a Sprocker who will be 11 and a Boodle who'll be 8 this year. Current insurance for both is £146 a month - nearly £1,800 a year!

It'd be cheaper to get rid and buy new dogs every year than keep these 2 going, it's just criminal. The insurance companies have got us over a barrel, I can't change to a different provider as they always have the small print stating no previous conditions are covered. And these 2 have plenty of previous conditions.
One of my dogs has an allergy to grass/tree pollen FFS and itches like mad if nothing is done about it. Through the vets she gets specifically made up injections to manage it, the investigation and injections cost more than the yearly pay-outs. But of course every time we claim, up go the monthly payments!

Recently our older Sprocker has been getting more and more lumps and bumps all over her. So far she's been checked out a couple of times and they come back benign.
I'd love to just cancel the insurance on both of them, put the payments into a savings account and just let nature take its course, whilst obviously making sure they weren't in pain. But I've got a wife and daughter who are absolute pains about every little thing they see/feel on the dogs. They think everything needs a vet visit and investigation, and I've given up arguing my case as apparently "I just don't care and have no feelings..."
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Previous: Aprilia Habana Retro 50cc (beauty), Yamaha SR125 (fell apart), Honda XR125 (nippy little commuter), Honda SLR650 (Geewhizz), Yamaha Diversion 900S (Smoooooth) written off courtesy of a stupid escaped horse.
(7 year gap), BMW F650 (Relaxing ride). Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 (Big and bold). Yamaha FZS600 (got me in trouble too quick!).
Current: Yamaha TDM 900 (Comfy, light but big, power when needed).

[duhawkz]

While I'm sure some of the price rises are due to increase cost and better proceedures, along with economic factors such such as inflation and wages rises, I heard from serval sources about how large corporates for their practices to use preferred suppliers for things like meds rather than shopping round for the best price.

The vets I use are owned by a large group unfortunately they seem to be one of the better ones in the area, before the group took over they used a local pet crematorium, it costs about 200 quid depending on the size of the dog for a cremation.

Now since they were taken over they now use their own crem, it cost nearly £600 for a cremation.

Last time I got flea and worm for 2 large dogs and 1 small dog front the vets it cost nearly 200 quid, £50 for an appointment to see the dogs and £50 each for the tablets, the same tables online with a prescription would have been around £20.

How do you justify that?
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"The guy is a worthless cunt and I honestly believe I would be a slightly happier person if he died." - Chris-Red