Lightning Protection


 

 
My husband bought a surge protector for some of his equipment up on the land. When he came home he said, “Guess how much lightning protection coverage there is?”

I looked at the box and noticed that it said “lightening” rather than “lightning” so was suspicious. Sure enough, inside it clearly states that lightning strikes are considered an act of God and are not covered. I carefully read the fine print and nowhere does it say what “lightening” protection is.

We’re not surprised that the surge protector can’t handle lightning. Smaller devices like this one are simply not designed to handle direct lightning strokes. But we are surprised the company would indulge in such obvious false advertising. Have you ever bought something that was misrepresented?

On a similar note, they installed our lightning protection system for the house this week:
 

 

 

 
Even that might not protect us if we had a direct strike, so Andy checked with our insurance company to be sure our policy covers lightning. Being one of the highest points on that ridge does make us vulnerable.

What about you? How do you feel about insurance?

Thanks to Rummuser, Evan, Nick, Dixie, Cathy and Kate for commenting on last week’s post.
This entry was posted in Living Fully, Taking Risks. Bookmark the permalink.

14 Responses to Lightning Protection

  1. Nick says:

    We’re obliged to have building insurance as a condition of our mortgage, though we would take it out anyway for obvious reasons. In general I try to avoid insurance as mostly it’s either unnecessary or an expensive rip-off. We have home contents insurance and car insurance and that’s about it.

    As for products that are misrepresented – where do I start? With insurance? With “healthy” food? With holidays? With property ads? The list is endless.

  2. Nick says:

    Oh, and travel insurance of course, for any countries where medical costs are astronomical.

  3. Rummuser says:

    Other than the mandatory automobile insurance, and one personal accident policy that comes with my credit card, I don’t have any insurance.

  4. tammy says:

    i had to have insurance when i took out the mortgage on my little cottage. “took out” lol. like i took it out to dinner.
    instead i feel like i’m being taken to the cleaners. ah well.
    my ‘homeowner’s insurance’ didn’t even cover all the damages that the tornado did earlier this spring. though i pay the amount every month… never late. and i have full coverage. the ‘adjuster’ either didn’t know what things cost here (he was from south dakota… brought in because of the widespread damage here and in joplin)… or …
    i just don’t know! i thought that’s why you have insurance.
    each year it goes up… to “cover” everything. and yet it didn’t.
    so in answer to your question… i don’t like insurance.
    and that was after a $1000 deductible! they made out like a
    bandit on me.

  5. Evan says:

    I think it is a good idea for me – even though in the big picture it has to not be worth the money (if people got back what they put in the insurers wouldn’t be in business)

  6. Evan says:

    My experience of insurance companies is that they are as avaricious and ruthless as legally possible.

  7. Cathy in NZ says:

    Lightening might be on load! One board many plugs!

    Here tenants of rented properties need to have contents insurance in case of fire or such things. But many fail to understand that when something drastic happens and believe that everything is covered by the landlords insurance…I pay mine monthly by automatic deduction.

    Since the Christchurch earthquakes all insurance went up! But that is just a fact of life in a tiny populated country such as NZ…

    yes lots of things are miss-presented, even misspelt or in the case your appliance “quick look and eye/brain doesn’t see the strange word” – one thing that bugs me is “pictures” especially of food but when you get said food from board menu – it has shrunk considerably especially the extra fillings!

  8. >I looked at the box and noticed that it said “lightening” rather than “lightning”
    – Classic.

    >Sure enough, inside it clearly states that lightning strikes are considered an act of God and are not covered.
    – So if lightning strikes are not covered, should that not be left out from the front of the package? Or at least sport an asterisk with the “fine print” at the front bottom itself instead of being tucked away somewhere on the reverse?

    To repeat to myself: Classic.

    >I carefully read the fine print and nowhere does it say what
    “lightening” protection is.
    – Being of Indian origin, having lived in China and knowing that these two countries are pretty much the “factories” of the world AND knowing the, um, penchant of both countries for such linguistic foibles , I would wager that the surge protector or the package (or both) came from India or China.

    I wish you and Andy all the light and lightened loads, and NO lightning strikes. 🙂

    Kate

  9. Jean says:

    Nick,
    We’ve had good luck with our insurance company, but we’ve also heard a lot of horror stories about the industry. Our renter’s insurance down here isn’t just for our own contents, it also covers liability if something happens in our apartment that damages other people’s property. We’re a sue-happy country so it’s best to try to protect oneself.

    Rummuser,
    What about health insurance? We pay for that as well as for long-term care. The latter is very expensive and we hope it’s money down the drain, that we never need it. Our policy is supposed to cover in-home care as well as nursing homes. We’re doing that to try to protect Kaitlin.

    tammy,
    I’m sorry that you were one of the horror stories. There should be a way of contesting their decisions.

    Our insurance for the land wasn’t nearly enough to restore everything–building up there just costs too much. But hopefully it will be enough to get our little cabin finished and to restore the watering system so Andy can plant more of his fruit trees. Not the most sensible hobby in the world, but so what. We’re much too old to be sensible about everything. 🙂

    Evan,
    The idea of insurance is to spread the risk. But I have to admit, my idea of insurance used to be that we’re buying peace of mind. That it works as long as we never had to file a claim. In our case I was wrong. It helped with the house and also a couple of years ago when we had to get our car repaired because of serious hail damage.

    Cathy,
    I don’t think we have to have renter’s insurance, but I do think it’s a good idea for the liability part.

    Yes, I know what you mean about pretty pictures for food. Andy continually says he’s taken in by a pretty face. Not a human face, just the exaggerated pictures on the packages.

    I can well imagine your insurance went up. Not enough of a pool to spread the risk.

    Kate,
    Yes, Andy assumed it was just a misspelling, but since it clearly said (inside the box) that lightning wasn’t covered, I thought maybe they were being clever and trying to use the misspelling to mislead. Not that it matters, or that we were fooled by the claim.

    Thanks for the good wishes!

  10. Rummuser says:

    I am too old for health insurance and what is available excludes the obvious major expense item, my hip joints. So, I bear all medical expenses incurred on my father as well as me. Ranjan has medical insurance cover.

  11. Cathy in NZ says:

    There is health insurance here if you want to go private or have much of your public/GP expenses refunded – but there are also public hospitals but for some procedures there are “waiting lists” which depend of course which hospital board/region you fall under…and how urgent it is!

    When you are appointment at say a clinic or outpatients you are usually informed you could be at the clinic for upto 3 hours! Last time, I went the main waiting area was jam packed with chairs/benches and people! My chauffeur had bought her craft work and each time, I returned to her – she would be working/nattering to someone else 🙂 She said she was’t bored, so many nice people to chatter with and she inspired one lady to take up knitting again…especially as that lady was also a chauffeur and it would be good to fill in time “waiting” 🙂

  12. Cathy in NZ says:

    Jean: it’s not a renter’s insurance – it is a regular “household contents” insurance that everyone should have – thieves, breakages, other reasons.

  13. Jean says:

    Rummuser,
    As I understand it your health care costs a lot less than ours here in the U.S. Here uninsured people are charged a lot more than insurance companies for the same procedures. It’s really sick. Some people are traveling to other countries to save money.

    Cathy,
    Most of my health providers don’t make me wait too long, but in the past I’ve had some that would keep me waiting for hours. I always bring things to work on just in case.

    Our policy is definitely called renter’s insurance and it includes liability as well as our property.

  14. dcrelief says:

    My attitude about insurance was well ingrained from my parents. If you have it and don’t use it, it’s a blessing of sorts. If you don’t have it and you need it, it’s a headache.

    I am grateful I’m able to pay for it. So many people don’t have that capability.

    “Lightening protection coverage,” if only I could get that for hair coloring!! Take care Jean!!

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