musicGuard Reviews 

Competitive price, good cover, I've used them for a few years now.

The calling number shown on my mobile was NOT the number you are asked to call to discuss the insurance! so was naturally wary of who I was talking to.

How did I know it was a Musicguard operative asking me to confirm who I was etc but they had no way of proving who they were!

Excellent service after we managed to confirm each others identity

Rob

Musicguard have pulled through with the goods. I have needed laptop repairs twice due to accidents and they have been pretty quick. Just make sure anything over £700 is noted on their system. Even though I called them up to tell them I had a laptop they didn't put it onto their system and the first time they had to go through old tape recordings to find out when I said it over the phone. At the end of the day the person making the call was a human being with empathy so that's good in my books. Just took longer the first time. Best to put these things in writing and back the email up!

Very helpful and great cover at a good price

Excellent phone application.
Very communicative rep.
Good value insurance.

You are not open after 1700 I would like to have at less one night open till 2000 hour's

I had a claim and once I had the correct paperwork sorted they confirmed I would get the full claim within 2 hours. Great service.

Very helpful staff, always happy to help. They answered questions I had straight away.

I've been with Musicguard for a number of years. Premiums have always felt reasonable, and being able to insure my gear both in gig and in transit is hugely valuable.

Efficient service. Reasonably priced

I've used Musicguard for many years, made only one claim and it was dealt with efficiently and professionally. There are other dedicated musical instrument insurers but I'm happy to stick with Musicguard - fair pricing, great customer service and a comprehensive additional package, where needed, as part of the insurance quote.

Music guard has acted very Professionally when dealing with my claim to buy back some of my equipment that was lost to the Shurgard storage unit fire on Purley way Croydon. We the customers are still.looking for Shurgard to compensate all that was lost in their so called secured unit
Due to the Stress that was caused by the Shurgard storage unit managers whom refused to help and support the 1200 people whom were burnt out and lost everything in the fire without no compensation coming from this weak company handling of how to deal with its customers.

Thankfully I've not had to claim over the years but the cover seems good and have always received good service when I've needed to contact the company... no long call queues either!

Very helpful and prompt, well done

Not received policy, yet told it had been emailed.

Havn't claimed off them so far but very helpful on the phone and prices seem very reasonable.

Very helpful and thorough during the process of renewing my policy.

Where do i begin. It is safe to say that whilst Music-guard and their affiliate companies show a good game with snazzy hip websites offering easy insurance for musicians and creatives, the real proof of how good they are is when it all goes wrong. My first big issue with them having had £10000 worth of gear stolen from my van is simple...communication!
Absolutely shocking in every way shape and form. Their policy is:

"we will reply to you in 3-5 working days”

That means to send and get a reply to say ..3 emails, could take 3 weeks....3 WEEKS!!!! in this day and age! and worse they don't even have a polite reply system to inform you they received your email in the first place, so you're left just hanging...wondering ...waiting!!!

So to paint the picture ...the equipment insured is my lively hood my living and my bills depend on it, so I had extra cover in my vehicle. I also was duped by the sales tags that in bold imply that you need not LIST any single item unless its value is over £10000 here's the actual wording :

‘NOT COVERED -Any individual item over £10,000 unless we have agreed cover, and this is shown on your schedule”

...so for most people they won't name individual items worth below 10K because there isn't a requirement, right?
It says so right there they won't cover any item over 10k unless named the implication of that statement is grossly misleading - does it say anything about an item worth say £3500?? Nope not until you really read the policy document small print which then tells you that unnamed items are classed as "Miscellaneous" and the max cover for a single Misc item is only £750. I remember actually asking if i needed to list my Mac Laptop and was told " Not really you have Misc cover up to £3400" No mention of any prohibitive limit when they wanted me to buy the policy.

The Wording should read “‘NOT COVERED -Any individual item over £10,000 unless we have agreed cover, and this is shown on your schedule or miscellaneous items with a value of over £750 unless listed”

So how did my claim work out? well i followed the exact guidelines on their snazzy website from the get go. I sent an entire folder of receipts and proof and photos exactly as asked for , proof of ID and address, all of it ….5 days i had to wait for a response., a response in which they send me a list of more documents required , most of which they had already. So i provide all that info again …and wait another load of time for a response, not knowing if my email had even arrived or just ended up in the spam bin!!

More information required more questions like asking for a police report..Well the police do not visit car theft incidents they talk over the phone to give you a Crime ref number and thats that …CSI do not visit the scene - but MG expect a report from the police which doesn’t exist, that involved 2 more emails to sort out….yep you guessed it 3-5 Days to respond!!!

Then the whole issue of how items are kept in your vehicle ….Jesus wept my gear was in a proper flight case double locked and tethered to the structure of the van hidden in the back , my windows are LIMO level blacked out and the case had my coat over the top of it…but guess what they started to wriggle saying that items must be in a locked “Compartment” like the boot and out of sight…well there isn’t a boot in a van thats why its in a locked flight case!! Thats why my windows are total blackout in the back .Yep another two weeks waiting for them to suck their gums not reply to emails …then asking for more proof. I had to recreate the circumstance of the case in my van and film it to prove it was impossible to see it and that every reasonable effort had been made to secure it. Another week goes by then a phone call from the claim handler…sorry we wont cover that in house!!

At this point we are some 6 weeks in and I can’t do my job. I make a formal complaint and end up speaking to a smart supervisor who loved the sound of his own voice and just spoke over me the whole time, telling me “His customers don’t want an auto reply to email” YES THEY DO BUDDY I AM YOUR CUSTOMER!!! and that “the police do provide vehicle theft reports” …Not in Avon and Somerset they don’t!! He was just defensive and dismissive of my whole situation.

He didn’t even know the policy he was quoting from and i suspect had not read any of the evidence i had sent in. More information and proof required, only in the end for the supervisor to ring me and say “Sorry we cant cover that it has to go to the underwriters”

This time I argued my case over the phone with him and questioned his arguments and policy knowledge and it turned out he began to agree with my side - low and behold the following day they agreed my claim in part.

It was like they followed a rule book of say NO and see if the customer puts up a fight or not!!!
The book is called
“ The Insurers Guide to not paying out!”

I felt like i was a common criminal trying to de fraud the insurer, and as much as I wanted to shout i kept calm and polite as that generally gets results, but i was angry.

They had an answer to everything in an attempt to get out of the claim twisting a turning and delaying, even after they agreed the claim in part ( my laptop not listed so not covered ) they came up with bizarre quotes for the replacement equipment, nowhere near RRP. They wouldn’t let me see a copy of the quotation they claimed to have from their supplier…for my equipment…and whilst i get the fact they may well have a discount deal I wanted to see that and i was refused and to this day they wont send me the quote they say they had, so i had to accept the prices they came up with. Is it unreasonable to ask for that quote? for my equipment?

“ We can force you to get the equipment from our preferred supplier”

So I then asked their preferred supplier directly for the same quotation and surprise surprise the prices didn’t come close to each other and the supplier claimed they don’t provide any discount to Music Guard.

Yes another month gone by! In total 3 months to actually get a payment from them which for a fairly standard claim was ridiculous.

All in all a terrible customer experience my advice is read the policy in detail before you spend your money or make a claim! I hate to think what a big claim with Thistle would be like, one thing for sure i wont be going there.

To this point nobody has actually asked me how i did my job during the 3 months i had no gear , or offered to provide hire equipment, i had to beg and borrow from friends but ultimately i am out of pocket. I will file this complaint with FOS in detail and i am going to submit a SAR for the quote they claimed to have from the preferred supplier.