SBS Insurance Reviews 2,343

SBS - HALIFAX CLAIM UPDATE 1.

SBS reference number is: 864647

SBS were polite and professional whenever they could speak to me — but the DSAR from Halifax shows SBS were blocked by Halifax from contacting me at all.

That meant SBS couldn’t gather information, couldn’t check specifications, and couldn’t advise me properly.

That’s not SBS’s fault, but they should have stood firm and refused to proceed without direct customer contact.

The DSAR also shows SBS did not perform a true valuation.

They matched my Dell G15 5521 Special Edition — the only Special Edition gaming laptop Dell has ever made — to a basic Dell G15 5530 with none of the SE‑class engineering - They told Halifax it's faster by 3% at best on the CPU side, but missed out the 240Hz 3ms IPS panel now only found on Asus Scars.

No mention of the 12 zone RGB now only found on 7-12k Titans, that's why matches have to be spot on and why SBS is out of their league, no offense to them. Honest, they are just not experts in this field, but it sure saves insurers money if customers are clueless!

No 12‑zone RGB, no Alienware FX lighting controller, weaker cooling, lower wattage, and a completely different performance tier. This was not a like‑for‑like assessment.

SBS’s incorrect match produced a default £1,100 BER figure. Halifax then uplifted this to £3,000 using a limit that does not exist anywhere in my policy. The correct replacement, based on the actual specifications, was an £11,400 ASUS ROG SCAR 18.

“You ignored professional benchmark data showing the Dell 5521 SE’s 99th‑percentile gaming performance, and you failed to recognise that the SE uses a rare inverted‑motherboard cooling architecture only found in £9,000–£15,000 over‑engineered laptops. This proves you misclassified the device’s engineering tier and performance class. A like‑for‑like replacement must match the thermal envelope, motherboard architecture, and 99th‑percentile performance — which only the 2025 Scar 18 5090 does.”

DELL even told the world they made a massive loss on the 5521 SE, which is why they are so rare on the secondhand market.

The worst offence and something other SBS clients must watch in the future.

None of the critical correspondence from 14 April — including my SKU request, retailer request, engineering‑tier challenge, panel‑class challenge, thermal‑envelope challenge, RGB chassis requirement, performance‑class challenge, or the valuation‑methodology challenge — appears anywhere in the DSAR. SBS also omitted all internal discussions relating to the uplift from £999 to £2,700, and all internal notes regarding the service tag and the intact box tag. These omissions constitute a failure to provide personal data used in decision‑making, which is a breach of UK GDPR Article 15.

**FOR CLARITY, THE DELL SERVICE TAG WAS C33KYR3.
THE LAPTOP TAG HAD RUBBED OFF, BUT THE ORIGINAL DELL BOX (WHICH SBS CONFIRMED THEY RECEIVED) HAD THE INTACT SERVICE TAG CLEARLY VISIBLE.
THIS TAG DOES NOT APPEAR ANYWHERE IN THE DSAR, AND SBS DID NOT REFERENCE OR USE IT DURING VALUATION.
OTHER SBS CLIENTS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT CRITICAL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION MAY NOT BE USED EVEN WHEN PROVIDED.**

**EITHER SBS DID NOT SEND THE SERVICE TAG TO HALIFAX, OR HALIFAX RECEIVED IT AND FAILED TO DISCLOSE IT IN THE DSAR.
BOTH OUTCOMES ARE PROCEDURAL BREACHES.**

AND THIS MUST NOW BE ANSWERED BY SBS -but they wont dare on here, but matters not as it will be forwarded and esclated to FOS soon!

SBS are fulfilment contractors — not valuers, not engineers, and not loss adjusters. For high‑value electronics, customers should insist on a licensed loss adjuster, because fulfilment partners are not equipped to assess rare or specialist devices.

SBS were very polite, then went silent, refused to communicate — but the process was fundamentally broken, and the Halifax insurance DSAR proves it.
1 star.

Vicki Telford was my contact, and I found her to be amazing. My skills on a keyboard are not good, and as I am not far off 80 years of age, I have no desire to improve them! She was so knowledgeable and extremely helpful from start to finish. A credit to your company, and also a good sense of humour. My sincere thanks for guiding me through the process.

This was a nice, calm process. Fatima was very professional and was a great help to me.

"I had such a great experience thanks to Shelley from SBS—she was brilliant, friendly, and incredibly helpful the whole way through. She took the time to answer all my questions, kept everything moving smoothly, and made the entire claim process so simple and hassle-free; I honestly couldn’t have asked for better support."Thank you very much ☺️

872581. Katie Cox and the team have been brilliant. I acciddntly damaged my ring and put a claim in. Katie contacted me and solved my problem. With emails keeping me updated. I have now received my ring back

We used SBS insurance as our tv got accidentally broken. I must say it was stress and hassle free! I was on the phone with Paige for 12 minutes and in that time we’d exchanged emails with photo evidence and she had concluded our tv needed replacing. Within the hour after the call, I received our voucher to go buy our new tv. All round the whole process was brilliant.

Excellent service - from start to finish. Responsive, knowledgeable and super efficient. Thank you Rachel Drayton-Chana and the team!

Paige called me this morning to discuss a claim I had made and she was absolutely brilliant.
Caring, conscientious, did absolutely everything she said she would.
All concluded without delay or concern on my behalf.
She also followed up very promptly on a couple of post Conversation queries I had.
Terrific old fashioned outstanding service.

My first contact with SBS was a phone call that I wasn't expecting as I had not seen an earlier email from my insurers. Suspecting a scam, I refused to talk and hung up. After checking them out, I called back and spoke to Pav, who couldn't have been more helpful and didn't mind at all that I had hung up on him a few minutes before. An assessor was arranged and within a few days my claim was approved and a contractor arranged to carry out the repair. Pav, at SBS, made the process very easy and quick.

Very very good service brilliant customer care 100% would recommend this service very quickly sorted out no issues no need to improve very happy

Very efficient and swift with the estimate and time frame for replacing the carpets. Pav was very helpful and knowledgeable in the clearing of the old carpets and moving the furniture.

Superb service from start to finish. SBS were appointed by our insurer following an accident in the home which caused damaged to a high-end TV. I was contacted within 4hrs of reporting and had an offer of settlement within 2-3 hours of providing all of the required evidence. I opted for a cash settlement to enable me to spend some vouchers I had for a particular retailer and therefore 'upgrade' my new model with the funds landing in my account within 3 days. Superb service. Staff are super friendly and knowledgeable.

The process with SBS was a pleasure. I was lucky enough to be greeted by Amy, who reached out to me very quickly once my insurance company had passed me over to SBS. She was an absolute pleasure to speak to and dealt with all of my queries quickly and professionally. Amy really gave me the sense that she was working with my insurance company with my best interest at heart.

Amy, you were a delight, thank you again! I hope I don't have to make any more claims but if i do, I hope you're the one on the end of the phone!

Excellent concise information given from initial contact. Responded in a timely manner and followed up as well. Processed the claim swiftly and easy to follow instructions given. Michael Richardson was fantastic in the support he gave

SBS service was fantastic! Melanie was very nice and professional, and kept me updated on every step of the claim. It was stress free process unlike some other insurance companies.

From start to finish, Amy handled my claim with professionalism and efficiency. Her pragmatic approach to problem-solving made what could have been a stressful experience feel straightforward and well-managed. She was prompt, clear in her communication, and clearly knows her stuff. It’s rare to deal with someone in the claims industry who is both knowledgeable and genuinely helpful — Amy is exactly that. Highly recommend SBS Claims. Thank you Amy!

A very good quality service pav was very informative and helpful.
Thank you for your support today.
Kind regards Guy and Della. Laight
I D
874155

Smooth and efficient process from start to finish. Everyone I spoke to, especially Michael, was extremely patient and helpful. It made what is a stressful and alien process for me very simple.

Katie was kind and sympathetic to the unfortunate and sad circumstances causing me to make the claim. She and Conor were professional and gave clear instructions and advice, making the whole process far less arduous and stressful than I’d expected it to be. If only all companies could be so understanding and efficient! Thank you most sincerely

Great experience dealing with Michael at SBS who resolved my claim quickly. Great comms from Michael contacting me several times to progress my claim in a quick and efficient manner. Thanks, Rich