Pricey Tripped Up,
I’m a 68-year-old solo traveler who was on a tour of Sicily in June 2022, once I fell getting off a bus, breaking a number of ribs, vertebrae and a pelvic bone. I had bought the RoundTrip Selection plan from Seven Corners Journey Insurance coverage, so I known as, anticipating they might assist coordinate my medical care with Italian-speaking docs. However they informed me to hunt assist alone, save the receipts and file a declare once I acquired house. Our tour information was an angel, arranging drivers to take me backwards and forwards to the hospital and even deciphering by speakerphone with docs. Days later I acquired a health care provider to fill out a kind (which I needed to Google Translate for him) saying I might journey house, so long as I used to be in a reclining place. My household chipped in to purchase a business-class seat for the return flight, a day-and-night journey from Palermo to Munich to New York to Jacksonville. Seven Corners lastly paid $5,772 for my payments and missed journey, however refused to reimburse me for many of my business-class fare. Far worse, I consider they failed to offer me the help they promised, basically leaving me to fend for myself and leaving me unable to speak with hospital workers. I’ve registered complaints with the Higher Enterprise Bureau and the state insurance coverage businesses of Florida and Indiana (the place Seven Corners relies), however I’ve gotten nowhere. Are you able to assist? Helaine, St. Augustine, Fla.
Pricey Helaine,
What a terrifying ordeal. And likewise a worthwhile reminder to solo vacationers that though seeing the world by yourself is perhaps exhilarating, it may also be perilous. Fall unwell or get damage in a spot the place you don’t communicate the language (or don’t perceive the well being care system) and who will probably be there that can assist you?
Seven Corners says it’ll, in response to its web site, boasting of “a 24/7 multilingual workforce obtainable to assist with journey emergencies,” together with assist discovering medical care and second opinions in addition to “interpreter referrals” and medical evacuations. The web site recounts the reassuring story of Makenzie, a 22-year-old who fell unwell close to the French-Belgian border. Seven Corners workers are portrayed as springing into motion, talking to her docs, arranging for a member of the family to fly in, and finally reserving Makenzie “a lay-down seat to make sure most consolation” on her return to California.
You clearly didn’t get the Makenzie therapy.
To seek out out why, I combed by your coverage and the opposite paperwork you despatched me, talking at size and exchanging emails with Greg Jung, Seven Corners’ govt vice chairman, and even asking a Instances colleague, Ilaria Parogni, to translate that kind your Sicilian doctor crammed out from Italian doctor-scribble to plain English.
