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Dakota Kid

USA
30 Posts

Posted - 02/23/2004 :  10:44:08  Show Profile
Hello again, believe or not this is not a question on a mobile home.

I have a new loss this is what I have at this point. I am wanting to see how you guys and girls would conclude this claim. I have a rural car dealership that had his website crash. The whole website has to be rebuilt. The local phone company hosts the website. Their system went down and the website was lost. The dealer claims is sales have dropped off the past two months by 35%. The owner requested the phone company to pay for his loss which includes man hours to rebuild the website and to enter all the inventory. The phone company sent him the big denial. I am in my early stages of investigation. I am wondering if anyone thinks there is coverage or not?

CCarr

Canada
1200 Posts

Posted - 02/23/2004 :  11:01:10  Show Profile
Dakota, need, from what should be available to you:

(1) exact policy wording form(s)
(2) any endorsements regarding media coverage, or data processing coverage, or any other endorsement that pertains to computer operations
(3) details of the time element coverages
(4) details on "cause" of loss to the dealership. The minimal detail you provided indicates the loss occurred off premises from the insured location. Need to know more about the cause of the loss and the location of the "loss".

With sufficient detail on the above items, I'm sure 4 or 5 different answers will follow.
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Dakota Kid

USA
30 Posts

Posted - 02/23/2004 :  11:10:16  Show Profile
Hey, you guys give me a second to post some of the information you requested. I don't have all the information you requested. I don't have the endorsments of the policy. I will type as much as I have.
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Dakota Kid

USA
30 Posts

Posted - 02/23/2004 :  11:21:49  Show Profile
CCarr, your thinking is where mines going as well. The loss did happen off premises. The website has been down now for just over 2 months. Nobody knew it was down until a customer called the dealership and told them they have been rerouted to a different dealership. The insured did some checking and called the phone company which did there checking and found the website was in fact down. The phone company claims they do not know what caused the website to crash. The dealer knows that it is going to be really hard to show that the website caused of the 35% decrease in sales. He stated he would really be happy with recovering his man hours to set everything back up. I guess I just don't see where we have a loss of business. The outage happened at the phone company and not at the dealership. I am trying to get a dec sheet from the company. They just requested me obtain a non-waiver and recorded statements and to obtain contracts and investigate a little. I know this is not much help but, your thoughts on this claim or if you have handle a claim similar would be great.

Edited by - Dakota Kid on 02/23/2004 11:22:31
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CCarr

Canada
1200 Posts

Posted - 02/23/2004 :  11:52:31  Show Profile
So Dakota, you have a defined "task assignment". Apparently under that scenario, there is no need for you to be aware of coverages; and I acknowledge the presentation of this scenario by you, within that parameter.

Still though, I can't get past "cause", to know whether I should squat or wind my watch.

There does seem to be two possible loss elements, and that "possible" has a real small "p".

First, is possible property damage to insured property, i.e. set everything back up, to use your words. All that has to be related to the coverage, and the issue of a "loss", and of that "loss" occurring off the insured premises.

Second, a possible time element loss, i.e. the alleged 35% decrease in sales while the website was down. This aspect, dependent on specific coverage wording, but will likely follow and be dependent on any determination of coverage for loss to insured property.

Obtaining the contract between the dealer (insured) and the phone company (web host), is putting the cart before the horse. It is an entirely redundant exercise if there is no coverage for loss to the insured property in this scenario.

Need more on cause.

If you get past that, it would be an interesting exploration as to how the insured claims to not have known about the "crash" for over 2 months. That would suggest, that a car dealer trying to flog his inventory via a website, never attempted to update or change the offered inventory in over 60 days. If so, that suggests quite a few things, if there is ever a need to consider any time element loss in detail.
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Dakota Kid

USA
30 Posts

Posted - 02/23/2004 :  12:31:29  Show Profile
Thanks CCarr, I will post more as I get more on this loss. I think the insured knows and more then likely does not care to try to show is 35% loss to much work. I really think he would like about 2500 hundred for man hours to reset up the website.
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JimF

USA
1014 Posts

Posted - 02/23/2004 :  12:42:10  Show Profile
Under the ISO BOP policy form (including the BOP Special form), there is no coverage for this loss as described, including loss of income.

Edited by - JimF on 02/23/2004 12:53:35
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KileAnderson

USA
875 Posts

Posted - 02/23/2004 :  19:48:33  Show Profile
I really fail to see how the website was of significant value to the procurement of business if the business didn't even know it was down for 2 months. I believe if you ask some car dearlerships they will tell you that January and February are some of the slowest months in the auto industry. Everyone is recovering from Christmas and waiting for their tax refunds so no one has any money to spend. It sounds to me like the car dealer was trying to make up the gap in his revenue stream by pinning it on the phone company and they said no, try your insurance carrier.
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