Most of the high street brands use outside Insurers/intermediaries to provide and administer their Insurance schemes.

Some of the brands are better at helping their customers than others. My experience is that some of the major supermarket brands hold a very tight grip on the Insurers they use and if they get constant negative customer feedback, they would not hesitate in changing suppliers.

My personal view is that Insurance is going through a very difficult time at the moment and that some of the service standards have slipped. Even some of the bigger direct brands, have started to offshore parts of their operations and have contracted out work. So there is no guarantee going direct to an Insurers will ensure a better in house service.

Thanks for the advice. I've now tried the Royal Sun Alliance complaint route, but it was amazing how they came out with the same words and phrases I'd heard from Lloyds. I've now progressed complaints with the Ombudsman.

I still think it is really poor that a company like Lloyds will sell a policy and then subcontract to a company whose reputation you have no knowledge or - e.g. Fortis, Aliianz Insurance, RSA or Ageas Insurance in my case.

Needless to say, I've cancelled all my insurance policies taken out via Lloyds and gone to a company who guarantees they will front any claim / complaint.

Your complaint needs to go to Royal Sun Alliance who are a very reputable company in the insurance business. Lloyds have only put their name against it and brokered the insurance as so many other large companies do as it gets their brand onto something that they can sell as their own product under another large (product specific) company and this allows both companies to enter into markets and sales that they might not ordinarily get access too.

If RSA have declined the claim then they will have their own reasons which Lloyds will not be party to. If you feel that the claim has been declined incorrectly and the process dealt with badly by the insurrer then the appropriate complaint needs to go to RSA directly as per their complaints process and they will need to resolve or dismiss the complaint themselves. They have up to 8 weeks to do this and only then can you move things forward to the ombudsman. Unless you have fully exhausted the complaints process then the ombudsman will only redirect you to do this first and you start at the beginning of the 8 week process again.

While I fully see your point that it was Lloyds that sold you the product they will argue that while they promote and "broker" the product under their brand it is actually underwritten and controlled by the insurer. To give a realistic comparison to this - I sell home insurance and all other types of insurance to my clients under my company name, I broker and promote their products and I will alway send out my own branded letters etc (the letter will always say who the insurer is though) but the policy will always belong to and be the responsibility of the issuing and underwriting company....although if any of my clients did call me regarding an issue with any provider (and they have done several times) I would always liaise with them to resolve the issue one way or another.

Get back in contact with Royal Sun Alliance and liaise with them as to how you can resolve the claim, if you then feel you need to complain then do so to RSA and not to Lloyds.

Good Luck

Having bought home insurance from Lloyds TSB because of their name / reputation, I was amazed that their Customer Care team told me today that they have no influence over the companies that actually provide the cover, and if I have an issue with a claim I cannot escalate to Lloyds, even though I bought the products from them.

Apparently had the products actually been fulfilled by Lloyds things would be different - but that was never mentioned when I took out the policies.

Having had Royal Sun Alliance turn down what I believe was a perfectly valid claim, having read and reread the conditions of the policy, I now have the hassle of going to the Ombudsman as my only way of escalating the issue as the Lloyds Customer Care team won't touch it - and wont even let me complain that this is their approach.

Needless to say I'm cancelling all the other services / products I have with Lloyds as a result of their lack of Customer Care.