25

Ok I've had enough

by Whaleoil on May 22, 2010

I said the gloves were off. I said that it would come. I never back down on my promises. This is the start and it isn’t going to end anytime soon.

Barry was in a squad of seven non-firefighters who completed the annual Firefighters Sky Tower Challenge, all in the name of raising money for the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation

The group, made up of Barry, Leukaemia and Blood Foundation chief executive Prue Etcheverry, Sky City chief information officer Mike Clarke, Auckland Airport chief information officer Tony Gollin, Fidelity Life chief executive Milton Jennings and Dave Howard – a man who won a competition on Trade Me for the chance to compete in the challenge, was the third squad to race up the building.

That is so nice for Fidelity Life‘s Chief Executive to do that, oh how sweet. Of course he is all smiles and waves for the charity but in the background, the company that he runs has made my life a living hell. This of course will all play out in court, and it will all play out very publicly because, well because I can and will.

With just three days till I have to sell the house my will to resist biting has gone, might patience, and some would say I have been very patient is at an end. From this day forward through Social Media, through Television and through any medium I can use I will tell my story along with anyone else’s stories of how insurance companies like Fidelity Life, but Fidelity Life in particular like to take a risk but don’t like to honour contracts, pay out on those risks and generally fuck with peoples lives.

This post is now an open invitation for anyone who has ever had a problem with Fidelity Life, their claims people, the doctors in their pay like Anthony Asteraidis, Prof Des Gorman and Ralf Schnabel to let me know your story and I will bring it to the public’s attention.

I will blog on how they wear you down, how they make shit up as they go along and how they obfuscate in order to get you to bend to their will. I will explain how the whole insurance industry use a select few doctors to get what they want and keep their patients medicated in the mistaken belief that they are cured.

Very soon when you google Fidelity Life it will not be their website at the top of the search, it will be mine and the special category I am going to create just for them. The hurt is immense and this hurt has to go because my life is hell. The ONLY way I know to deal with it is via my blog and my writing.

There isn’t much I am good at but this kind of thing I am very, very good at. I will just have to do what I am good at.

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  • steve

    Hit them head on. Wearing you down is just a time wasting game to make you submit and give up.

    Irelavant to your situation, I have a similar thing with ACC. They are responsible for wasting 1 year of my life.
    I think it is about time Govt Ministers did something about the Insurance Industry. At the moment Ministers say ‘it would be inapropriate to comment while you have a claim’ (Pansey Wong)

    Make the skullduggery public

  • megashitstirrer

    They are complete cunts WO.

    I like the Aussie reasonableness system where the responsibility is on the industry to ensure the customer is 100% clear on what is covered in a policy.

  • thor42

    I’m very sorry to hear that you’ve been mucked around by these guys, WO. Mucked around from pillar to post, as it were.

    Hang in there, ay. I hope that SB can give you her support (I’m sure she will). Would it be useful to think of having a holiday? Just an idea – maybe duck off to the Coromandel or Taupo for a while.

    All the best from me -
    - thor42

  • ummmm

    Oh dear, you sound fucked. You won’t enjoy going to Court against the insurance guys anywhere near as much as you enjoy your District Court stuff. Trust me, you will bleed from the arse, and they High Court process will take you places darker than you have ever been. You should really give a bit more thought to whether you might be a bit fragile for litigation. You will end up being Fidelity Life’s Louise Nicholas, f#cked over twice.

  • bigkev

    takin on a insurance company, good luck with that and the arse bleed

  • cadwallader

    Take them on! Issue proceedings, maintain a blow-by-blow record of your progress and Fidelity’s obfuscations. They’ll fold if you are loud enough. The court of public opinion is open 24 hours of each and every day.

    It is wrong to imagine the Australian process is any better than here in NZ…it is not! The same obligations apply to companies here as in Australia. My advice is that you need to really drive the litigation but also to keep up the momentum you require in the public domain.

    As for Steve suggesting that a government minister ought do something about the insurance industry is sad and woeful. Why do state worshippers believe governments can fix anything?

  • spanishbride

    We have nothing left to lose. They have cost us EVERYTHING.Taking them on can only cause them problems , not us because as I said, we have nothing left to lose.
    We tried believing in the system and being reasonable. We expected that a contract that says you get A if B happens would be honoured. When it wasn’t we got a 20 page report from the top Doctor in NZ in his field explaining why their Doctors opinion (based on a 30 minute meeting with WO was wrong ) Unlike Fidelity Lifes Doctors ,our Doctors have seen WO regularly for 6 years and actually know the state of his health.Fidelity Lifes response to the 20 page report was to say that it was insufficient for them to make a judgment and that WO would have to come in again for another 30 minute meeting with one of their Doctors. At that point we realised that they had no intention of honouring the contract and that it would never be reinstated.

  • spanishbride

    The company in my opinion got sick of meeting their financial obligations for our policy. WO is not seen as a customer who paid good money for this policy ( over $360 a month ) but as an expense that is reducing company profits. Cutting him off improves the bottom line and is a risk worth taking as most customers with depression will be too busy gong to hell in a handbasket, curled in a corner and suicidal to challenge them. They KNOW full well that they are NOT honouring the contract.The thing is that they also know that the average Joe does not have the resources to get justice.

  • spanishbride

    If it wasn’t for my parents we would be living in a caravan park right now. I am not exaggerating, it is the honest truth. I would like to publicly right now acknowledge them for keeping a roof over our heads and food on the table. They have supported us and by doing so helped keep our marriage together. The pressure has been so immense that even the very loyal and loving Spanishbride has wanted to run for the hills and never come back on more than one occasion. Thank you Mum and Dad. We couldn’t have made it through without you.

  • steve

    So cad­wal­lader, what are the Govt Ministers there for then? Self appraisle and spend our tax dollars?
    I certainly know where not to buy Insurance and I certainly know who will need a whistle come next election.
    “The court of pub­lic opin­ion is open 24 hours of each and every day” This applies to Govt and Justice as well as Insurance. Does Milton Jennings have a comment? I’m sure he is aware of this blog.
    Whale Oil Beef Hooked!

  • cadwallader

    I refer to my earlier post. Go for it. One caution: You must ensure your hands are spotlessly clean in this matter. I am not at all suggesting that you have faults on your side, but you must ensure the company has nothing to toss back at you.

    Steve, when I figure out the use of government ministers it will indeed be revelatory!

    • http://whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz Whaleoil

      My life is an open book, plus their stupid pi has been rumbled twice following me. I have nothing to hide, unlike them

  • ummmm

    SB: “Taking them on can only cause them prob­lems, not us because as I said, we have noth­ing left to lose.”

    That is a very quaint and naive view of the consequences of litigation.

    Actually you have a number of thing to lose: sanity, dignity, your belief that litigation will cause a problem for the insurance co, costs, charging orders, your status as non-bankrupts, your marriage….

    Then if the judge doesn’t go your way, Whale will become another Vince Siemer with an endless vendetta against the judiciary.

    You are heading down a well worn path to making your past misery look like a holiday camp. Fact.

    • http://whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz Whaleoil

      Right, so give up, let the big guy win. Let bully win. Newsflash I’m not playing to win, I’m playing to not lose, there is a huge difference.

  • spanishbride

    Ummmm you are the one who is naive.
    We lost our sanity and our dignity a long time ago.For the past 6 years people have tried to bankrupt us.If it happens it happens, we really don’t care anymore. When your back is to the wall there is no where else left to go and nothing is more dangerous than someone with nothing left to lose.As for our marriage I am already facing the prospect of Wo going to jail and to court thanks to the name suppression charges.If we lose in court we lose and that will be that. Wo will continue to focus on getting well. Our life will not be consumed with seeking justice. We will do everything we can and will then move on.

  • ummmm

    “Let bully win” is one way to look at it, but I would say you can do more to them through your blog and supporters than you will in Court. As for playing not to lose… everyone loses in litigation, ask David Tua/Kevin Barry or Vince Siemer/Michael Stiassny.

    Do your google stuff, but filing proceedings will just give them the chance to take over any last bits of your life that they don’t already own.

    The first thing the insurance company will do is get an order for security of costs meaning you will have to put up about $20K just to cover you through the initial discovery phase. The judge will grant this if it appears there is a possibility you are unable to pay the insurance company’s legal costs if you lose. You can’t pay, so the judge will have good grounds to make such an order. If you fight the insurance company’s application for security and lose the judge will order you to also pay the insurance company’s costs on the ‘security for costs’ hearing, probably about $5K. Then, unless you pay the $20K security for costs and the $5K hearing costs you case can be struck out with further costs awarded against you.

    After discovery you can expect to pay a further $50K security for costs. Oh and I am sure you know about the $1700 filing fees and the $2,500 per/day of “court costs” you have to pay the Court before the hearing.

    On the positive side, the costs you have to pay to the insurance company will cover only about half there legal bill, meaning it will cost them about $15K to get the proceedings struck out.

    And that’s assuming you have a strong case.

    Anyway, all that aside, sock it to em.

  • ummmm

    SB: “They KNOW full well that they are NOT hon­our­ing the contract.”

    Perhaps, but they have paid you out $500K on the contract so far. The Courts won’t be that sympathetic, trust me, much sadder cases have failed muster in the High Court.

  • fisher44

    Prof Gorman is deputy chair of the Welfare Working Group which is, apparently, advising on Govt on ways to introduce insurance-based concepts into our welfare system, including assessments of sickness and disability. Paula Rebstock is the chair.

  • spanishbride

    Ummm who are you? Front up! Where did you get that $500,000 figure from? Are you our insurance agent? Do you work for Fidelity Life? The court won’t be sympathetic you say. In your books if they pay out on a legitimate claim for 5 years and then get tired of doing so despite the clear medical evidence that the person is still ill,then the court will say…oh well they honoured it for 5 years that’s good enough?

  • steve

    SB you beat me to it.

    I see ‘ummmm’ as having much more interest in this than interest in a Blog.
    It is the ‘threat’ without actually making a threat. Either that or ‘ummmm’ is a sadistic shitstirrer.

    “The first thing the insur­ance com­pany will do is get an order for secu­rity of costs mean­ing you will have to put up about $20K just to cover you through the ini­tial dis­cov­ery phase. The judge will grant this if it appears there is a pos­si­bil­ity you are unable to pay the insur­ance company’s legal costs if you lose. You can’t pay, so the judge will have good grounds to make such an order. If you fight the insur­ance company’s appli­ca­tion for secu­rity and lose the judge will order you to also pay the insur­ance company’s costs on the ‘secu­rity for costs’ hear­ing, prob­a­bly about $5K. Then, unless you pay the $20K secu­rity for costs and the $5K hear­ing costs you case can be struck out with fur­ther costs awarded against you,”

    I see that as a ‘You can not beat us’ hint

  • cadwallader

    I have no idea what your claim is about nor any sums paid/payable so my thoughts are untainted. Sue them! Publicize your case. (You’re in a good place to do so.)

    If Fidelity tries to slow the process go public! When you are experiencing progress in the court, stay away from the public. The two fori are separate and exclusive so use them both interchangeably, DO NOT sign any confidentiality agreements. I think the place to start is for you to publish your entire policy on this blog without delay with a brief outline of your claim.

  • spanishbride

    Fidelity

    I is for incentives. Customers being paid out on a claim are liabilities. The person handling their case are given incentives to get them off the books.

    We went through SIX different case managers because each one in turn failed to get us off the books and to collect their bonus. Each had their own unique methods.
    One was very interesting in her approach. She understood she said. She had been there herself she said.She had been able to go back to work she said after she had been given electro shock therapy.It was just the thing she said as it sorted her out quick smart. Lithium she said, Now that was the business also.
    ( she was not a doctor, just a case manager )When we asked why the payments without warning had been cut in half and then reinstated and backdated 3 months later she said that it was a standard tune up ( her words ) to see if WO was faking.The fact that he didn’t out of desperation find a job during that time and in fact his depression worsened confirmed that he was actually ill.
    The stress caused to his family and the fact that it set his progress back 12 months was of no concern to her.

  • nazislater

    Its no consolation to you, but I am glad I gave him a hiding more tha 40 years ago when he was growing up in Bucklands Beach. LOL.

    OMG he has grown up to look just like his mother.

  • http://whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz Whaleoil

    Gave who a hiding 40 years ago?

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