Weh! It appears to have been stolen last night while we were in the house through an open window. It was in it's little blue empeg bag (irreplaceable!) and also had my pretty new Canon Ixus v3 digital camera in the front pocket. I am absolutely gutted. I have home insurance, but I've yet to see if they will pay out on a silly theft where someone left a window open. Anyone got any experience with UK insurance claims like this?

Also, does Rio Cambridge have a database of serial numbers? I have checked my invoice and manual and I can't for the life of me find it anywhere. Anyone remember where I wrote it down? The only place I can find a reference is my order number which is 99169001 but that doesn't look like an empeg serial.

Of course, let this be a caveat to the "always take it out of your car" proponents. If you take it out of your car, don't leave it near an open window overnight! :P

-nic

The serial number is also on the original cardboard shipping carton (box) that the unit came in, if you still have that.

Dunno about the UK, but theft through an open window while somebody was at home shouldn't be any harder to collect on than most claims. An open window while NOT at home might be harder (?).

But not that insurers *ever* pay willingly.

Cheers

Thanks Mark, I think that might be at my parents home (my convenient storage place for all manner of packaging for my electronics habit!)

I've just looked at a thread I posted a while ago which had a console dump.

condump

That seems to output the serial to the, uh, serial port

empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 30103054)

I'll dash off an email to [email protected] in a bit,

-nic

Anyone know for sure if the sonicblue address still works? Rob?

The new email address to support (Rob Schofield) is [email protected]

/Michael

Greetings!

I am sorry about your loss. It just goes to show that no protection is truly foll-proof. There was a player for sale in the UK over here is you are looking to replace yours.

I will have to wait and see about buying a new one. It is at the mercy of the insurance company right now. :/

Does anyone have any pictures of the blue empeg carry-cases at all? I've had a look around but I can't find any pics. It would help if I could print one out for the police (who, bless 'em, seemed quite confused when I couldn't answer "is it a cd player or a tape player?" very easily).

Most UK insurance company's will not pay out if you were out of the house and left a window open, or even unlocked.

Thankfully, I was in the house!

I am sorry about your loss. It just goes to show that no protection is truly foll-proof.

heh, first time i read that i thought it said "fully troll-proof" and wondered what you were talking about.

foll

n 1: a thief specialized in stealing empegs, and empeg related gear: "One should always remove the empeg from the car to prevent theft, but this recent experience just goes to show that no protection is truly foll-proof."

Okok, my insurance has proven to be foll-proof, according to this new definition - so they've agreed to action my claim. Huzzah!

The bad part is that they've outsourced replacing it with an electronics company... this ought to be fun. Apparently they will try and replace the mp3 player with one of "similar spec".

Nice try!

I'll letcha all know how this goes, thanks for all your help.

Apparently they will try and replace the mp3 player with one of "similar spec".

.......You just know you're going to end up getting a NEO

Are they available on the domestic UK market? I was rather hoping they weren't

Just point them at the ForSale forum here.

Cheers

Are they available on the domestic UK market? I was rather hoping they weren't

It was available from Traxdata, then they went bust, so I don't know. They'll probably offer you an iPod or something, which you can refuse. If you can prove it's value then you *can* ask for cash instead - you don't have to do what they say.

My uncle dropped his ancient 286 amber screen lugabout and claimed on his accidental damage insurance - they said he could have anything as long as it was under £1k and it came from dabs.com - he didn't complain there!

Gareth

As Gareth said, you're in luck as the NEO (mStation) is essentially "unavailable". Unfortunately there are stockists who are obviously importing - JUST SAY NO!

Sim

I've been through this... twice no less... with my insurance agency. Once for an empeg and once for an empeg sled. I just had to give them the receipt and they gave me the $$ for the empeg since they aren't available anymore. They try and horn you into a "similar replacement" since it will save them money by going through a third party replacement company, but don't let them. Just ask for the money up front to replace it. I told them "well, you can either look on ebay or empeg.comms.net, or just give me the $ and let me do it."

That is valuable advice - they have mentioned an iPod (and I lust after one so much!) but the replacement cost of the empeg seems to be quite high - higher than my purchase price! I bought a 40 gig empeg for 350 quid all-in but looking at the for-sale forum people are talking about a lot more than that for units. What is the "going rate" for a 40 gig empeg? If it's not too unreasonable I might get the insurance company to shell for an iPod and buy an empeg anyway

Searching completed auctions on eBay you get these recent auctions. A 30Gb went for US$771... An even better deal with a tuner and extra sled and power supplies went for US$800

Sorry, I've been away for a few days, do you still need the photos, do you just need the bag, or the Empeg snapped as well?
My blue bag is in my motorhome, stored a couple of miles from here, but if you still need them I'll pop up in the morning -send me a PM