Dear LPG,

I found myself in a bit of a quandary the other day.

I was visiting a friend, now that we can do that again, and when I got there her cooker had broken down.  Between us, we called her white goods insurance company and they said that they would get someone to phone back as soon as possible with details about when they would be able to get their repair man to visit.  It bothered me a bit when they told us that they have never heard of the brand of her cooker before.  I am not sure about you but I would have expected a specialist to at least be familiar with that detail; we found the brand on the internet quickly enough.

We were talking while waiting for the expected call back and it came about an hour later but though it was the insurance company in question, the person who called started asking about my friend’s television which was just about at the end of its five-year guarantee period.  The telephone advisor suggesting that she add cover for that to the insurances she was already paying for even though she had no knowledge of the repair that we originally called about. 

The repair call did come after I visited and the repair did occur, but I would love to know how these people have so much information about what we have, when we bought it and how long it is insured for whether you already have something insured with them or not.

It was not a scam call.  The insurance company exists, but I would really like to know how they get that sort of information. Does anyone know?

NS, Deptford.