Hi guys (and girls),

I recently had my PC catch fire (yes, as in flames, smoke and charred bits :() and after several weeks, my insurance company have finally decided that yes, I am actually covered.

The problem is, I think I'm being screwed over in terms of replacement parts etc. I'm certain of it in a couple of cases, but would really appreciate any feedback from you guys about it, particularly the parts I've flagged as being unsure of.

My original system was as follows:

AMD AM2 X2 4400+ cpu
Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 mainboard
Sparkle 7900GT graphics card
2Gb Kingston DDR-800 RAM
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2
2x Sony DRU-710 DVD-RW
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream (black)
750W Thermaltake ToughPower PSU
1x 160Gb Seagate SATA hdd (8mb cache)
2x 250Gb (one Maxtor, one Hitachi) SATA hdd (16mb cache)
Windows XP Pro

What they're trying to replace it with is:

AMD AM2 Athlon 64 X2 4400+
MSI K9N-SLI-PLATINUM M/board
XpertVision GF 7900GS
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 2GB (2x XMS2 1GB) PC-6400 (800MHz) DDR2 RAM
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
2x Sony DL Multiformat 18x DVD±RW Drive
Antec TX640B Performance TX ATX MiniTower - Black
750W "SilverStone" ST75ZF Power Supply
Seagate 160GB SATA II 3Gb/s HDD - 7200rpm, 8MB Cache
Seagate 250GB SATA II 3Gb/s NCQ HDD - 7200rpm, 16MB Cache
MS Windows Vista Home Premium

Now, my insurance policy is new for old replacement, but to my mind, the graphics card and the case are definitely inferior to what I previously had, and I'm not convinced the motherboard or OS are either.

I've played around with Vista at work, and am not the greatest fan of it (I'm using Ultimate, and still think it sucks).

What I'm hoping for is for someone/someones to have a look at this and see whether there's anything I've missed, whether I'm right about the comparitive performance/quality of the hardware, or whether I'm just full of crap.

Thanks for your help guys, I really appreciate it.

Cheers,
Gesthemene.

P.S. The other thing I'm concerned about is the supplier they've chosen. They used to be a reseller of ours (for mobile phones, not IT hardware) and they were closed due to dodgy business practices. Anybody know if there's anything I can do about this?

*shrug* you could try for a cash settlement and then buy whatever you want

and just remember, the old parts that caught fire...
try to RA them. I've seen it done before, and sometimes it gets through, depending on the damage...

How old was your system before you cooked it? Maybe availability of parts is why they have chosen the different parts. Every one knows today’s latest computer is tomorrows paperweight.

Sparkle 7900GT graphics card
XpertVision GF 7900GS

I'm pretty sure there is about a $200 difference between these two.

Had been upgraded fairly recently (say, less than 6 months ago).

Regardless, with new for old replacement, I should be getting *better* than previous, given Moore's law :P

Instead, they're trying to palm off crappy low-mid range hardware. I've been in contact with them some more this morning rasing the following issues:

1. Location of supplier. If it goes pearshaped, I want someone I can take it to, without having to ship it to Sydney etc.
2. Inferior quality Gfx, Chassis, OS and mobo
3. Reputation of supplier.

They turned around and offered my another quote which was the same but different. Still inferior quality parts, but from a better supplier.. great.. now it's not *totally* s***, just mostly :)

Still trying to push for a cash settlement, but I don't like my chances. :(

Thanks for the replies :) Anyone have any opinion on the MSI motherboard?

Yeah, cause insurance is all about screwing people over, right?

All you need to do is provide proof that the products they are giving you are inferior to the ones you had, ie have the differences on hand, they might not know what they mean but you have to show that they are different. If the other products are stil available you should be able to get them.

Off the top of your head, how much is the system to replace?

You could get a quote done by someone like CA using their system builder and provide that to them. Alot of the difference may just be done by ignorance on their part, not deliberate.

I would not wount Vista home as a replacement for XP Pro. The features available in the Pro version are significantly different to the home version. Domain membership for a starters.

I would be pushing for Vista Pro or XP Pro.

Why does it matter about the OS? Unless your install CD was inside the PC when it was on fire.

Quoted replacement price for the box was $3750 plus change.

OS is important since OEM licensing prohibits reinstallation on a different system. Also, you're right about the domain membership part.. I'm currently running a domain at home with a RADIUS server for wireless access, WSUS and Exchange.. I would be somewhat unhappy if all of a sudden, my choices were a) no access, or b) illegal software (not that I've ever done that.. *looks shifty*)

I've raised the issue with them over inferior quality, but they don't seem to be listening.. it's starting to bug me a little.

**to insurance company**

Guys, it's simple. You have the damage assessment and the repair quote. You've confirmed that it's within reason for the damage, you agree that the damage is as stated.

Stop dicking me around and just send me a cheque. You've had 2 chances to get it right and you've stuffed it both times.


/rant

Anyway, on the positive side, I guess I was spot on for the whole "I'm being screwed over" part.

because he wants to be properly licensed. He wouldn't be if he used the OEM license from his previous exploded PC. I'd find a local PC shop, get them to quote exactly what you want and send that to your insurance company.

Have you proven the inferior quality?

You've got lots of options with dispute resolution, and you're in a seat of power if the company subscribes to the Australian Code of Practice.

Who is the insurer?

Yup. If nothing else, physical differences such as amount of RAM, number of pipelines etc are fairly hard to argue :)

As for the insurer, it's NRMA

NRMA are covered by the Code of Practice, so you have many avenues of dispute resolution within the company. External Dispute Resolution costs them 850$ and gets sent to some consumer rights friendly commitee to hear the case and make the ruling. It doesn't cost you anything at all. and the committe is over filled with consumer rights activist hippies.

I take it you've been reading your PDS http://www.nrma.com.au/pub/nrma/policy/media/pdf/home-policy.pdf

Most of the insurers will give in once you make a clear case on why they're wrong, but if they don't, atleast you've got options.

Yup. Was studying post-grad law before I realised I hated law and preferred IT :P

From what I can see so far, I'm covered, they're just being pricks about it because they can :)

if they're after hard evidence as to why something is inferior, grab the specs off the nvidia site and look at things like clock speeds, memory speeds, etc, cuz a 7900GS isn't a GT.

as for the case, i personallywould prefer an antec over a thermaltake anyways

the other thing is yeah, windows. XP Pro is still available, so tell them that is what's required, and by providing windows vista, they are replacing it with a product that does not do what your original software does

Sparkle 7900GT graphics card
XpertVision GF 7900GS

Yep, they're f***ing you good and hard there.

Also, are they giving you one less hard drive, or did you make a mistake on your list? The ram, case and soundcard look like upgrades to me though.

Quoted replacement price for the box was $3750 plus change.

Get the cash settlement and go to CA and get a core 2.

Whoops, that was a typo on my part. Hard drives are one thing that they're not trying to screw me on :)

As for the RAM and soundcard, yeah.. they're halfway decent upgrades.. having looked at the case, the Antec one appears to be a fairly stock standard black box.. the Tsunami Dream I had was a bit more of a showpiece and about half again the price.

I'm waiting to hear back from them this morning :) Should be interesting to see what they have to say.

Most claims don't really see too much human involvement and its a bit of an automated process unless the claimant isn't happy :) Someone will type your claim specs in to a database (which alot of the time are wrong lol) and IT mobs pull that information down and then state what price they can build the system for. Cheapest vendor then wins the job and gets the fun of dealing with the client. Usually the IT mobs just have a database that they match the specs given to them from the claim to what they buy the gear from the disty's for. Because alot of the stuff in claims is also 'end of life', you see heaps of errors just like with your vid card, so vendors will put in a cheap alternative to just try and win the claim. Sorta like buying a sale.

As soon as you contact the insurance mob and state you aren't getting like for like, they will usually either update the claim with the correct items, or just get the IT vendor to contact you and you just tell them what you want.

last edited by Lunch at 09:56:36 06/Mar/07