We know that you don’t get that warm fuzzy feeling that you get when you buy something like a drone, when you purchase insurance. We believe that what you are actually purchasing from us is our claims service. Our latest blog post is written by Chris Rawson, Managing Director of Radar Film Ltd, who describes the unfortunate situation in which he had to make a claim…
“This is the story of how Coverdrone bailed out my business in its infancy. It’s the story of how ‘all risk’ cover really did save the butt of Radar Film.
OK so this is what happened. I had just completed my PfCO and very nervously purchased my shiny new DJI Inspire 2. Wondering if it was all a bit of a mistake and I should get a proper job again, I safely perched my modest collection of batteries on the side, well away from harm. I liked to store them away from the drone itself in case of some sort of malfunction or leak whist I was away.
We’d been doing some stuff at home, and I had left my hosepipe attached to the tap in the garage. Nonetheless the trigger system was safely attached to the hose at the other end and all was well (dry) with the world. We went out of the day. We came back. I went to the garage…
I don’t know if any of you have seen the enviro-disaster movie 2012, starring Jake Gyllenhall et al? There is a scene in that film whereby a 200-meter Tsunami engulfs Manhattan in an apocalyptic scene worthy of the Old Testament. That’s a bit like how my garage looked when I returned. After donning scuba gear and fighting my way past the bulkheads, I bravely entered the garage and swam past the bodies of various drowned submariners. The little bit of the hosepipe that goes between the reel and the wall had come loose and had been ejaculating fresh water into the garage for lord knows how long. Not content with a gentle squirt, the errant appendage had been spraying like a cartoon fire hose, pointing upwards and dousing the whole place, washing away an oblong shaped pattern of plaster on the ceiling of the garage. Most crucially for me though, it had also sprayed all over my batteries on the window sill. My first action was to call the environment agency to let them know that the flood was over. My second call was to Coverdrone, to test the concept of ‘all risk’ cover to its maximum potential.
After 14 years in the Police, many of those as a detective and some of those investigating insurance fraud, I can tell you that my heart sank a little. I was that guy. I was like the drug dealer who claimed that burglars had cut a perfect hole in his garage door, found his Rolex in a locked safe and left unseen without looking for anything else. I was the guy whose dog had eaten his homework. I wouldn’t have believed me. And all this around 1 month after taking the insurance out and before I’d done any paid work with the drone. Gulp.
They took down the details of the claim. No doubt in the process I set some sort of record for weirdest claim; ‘spontaneous hosepipe ejaculation’. Unsurprisingly, a loss adjuster was assigned to my case. After a professional and helpful encounter with said investigator all the paperwork was submitted for the claim. The most surprising part of was that I was asked to show him the broken batteries. I don’t know why that surprised me, but I guess as a DC I would have been more interested in the vanishingly small likelihood of a miniature biblical flood reaching my windowsill. I guess in the world of business they were considering the possibility that I was an unsophisticated crook looking to increase my battery collection. That said, the guy did sensibly decline my offer to plug the wet Lipo batteries in, in the garden, to demonstrate that they really were unserviceable. They were clearly still wet and well and truly dead. The phantom 4 ones were emitting the sort of green foam I’d last seen coming from the mouths of ‘recreational’ drug users who were enduring yet another seizure in the brave pursuit of showing how safe drugs really are.
The end of the story, as you know is that I got my new batteries and have since flown without incident all over the UK and abroad, making content for the likes of M&S, SSE, Birdseye, ITN and various others. The moral of the story is that all risk cover really was worth it for me. It is also that Coverdrone really were helpful in this most unlikely of situations. Thanks team. Sorry about that.”
If you have any questions in regards to our expert claims service, please contact a member of our claims team.