An Insurer That’s GENUINELY ‘There for You’ When You Need Them to Be
Jordan Kelly • 14 October 2024

Kudos to NZI (An Insurer Actually Worth Having) & ICIB Brokerweb (A Broker Also Worth Having)

If you’ve been around since the days when people actually used to watch television . . . like, the days when there were three channels, with seven minutes of programming punctuated by (what felt like) nearly as many minutes of commercials . . .


If you can remember those days, then chances are you’ll remember all the insurance commercials making essentially the yawningly same brand promise:  'If your world suddenly goes tits up, you can trust us to be there to help you pick up the pieces.'


Those were most viewers’ quintessential "Yeah, right" moments. I mean, who hasn’t got an insurance horror story or two? (On which note, here’s a. whole. slew. on my recent experience with AA Insurance, with one more wrap-up to be added shortly. Stay tuned for that.)


BUT . . . what if I told you that there’s an insurer that has genuinely “been there” for me, twice in the space of just one year?


In the first of those two instances, they really and truly hauled my ass out of the crap. (Watch for, at some time in the future, my belated commentary on the most despicable set of antics visited upon me last year by a very nasty FMG. Another story, for some time in the not-too-distant future; it happened before the advent of The Customer & The Constituent, but I’ll get around to exposing them for the stunt they pulled.)


Anyway, my saving grace, white-knight-to-the-rescue, genuinely-there-when-you-need-them insurer was NZI. (I bet you thought I was never going to get around to telling you.)


Remember This?


To focus, however, on my second and most recent genuinely-there-for-me experience with NZI, my regular readers will remember that my vehicle was broken into on the Petone foreshore last month. NOT a nice experience. One of the worst parts of it was the fact that my handbag and wallet (along with other less crucial items) were stolen . . . but also, heartbreakingly, so was the compact but expensive, and indispensable, camera (along with the precious seven years of contents of its memory card), which was in my handbag.


Narrowing the focus further to just the camera for the moment (in order to provide a specific demonstration of how NZI turned somersaults to accommodate my needs), this is the camera I use for many of the stories I write and upload here for you, my regular and valued readers. It so happened that I had lined up a special story for you, for which I needed to take photos, just a few days after the vehicle break-in and handbag/wallet/camera etc theft.


When I mentioned this to my extraordinary Claims Specialist at ICIB Brokerweb, she then on-mentioned it to the NZI Claims Handler, who swung into immediate and urgent action to obtain approval for a replacement camera . . . which wasn’t the exact same camera as stolen, as that had since gone out of production. I also wanted to buy this new camera not from their regular “big box” supplier, but from a specialist photography outlet (because I had VERY mistakenly thought this specialty camera retailer might help this tech-challenged sheila with a quick guided tour of the key knobs and buttons etc. Boy, was THAT a misguided assumption; check out THAT horror story, which I'll upload in the next few days).


In An Industry Where Big & Bureacratic Is the Norm, NZI Proved A Refreshingly Nimble Operation


Now, with NZI, as a bloody big organisation in its own right, it’s worth noting that it is, in turn, a subsidiary of an even bigger monolith i.e. IAG. The point being that, invariably, these big institutions take some considerable time to move things through their processes – especially if your situation is even slightly outside their norm. Almost as invariably, they’ve got the bureaucratic and often disjointed (and also often very uncaring and combative) internal culture that goes with that whole picture (take AA Insurance, by way of a particularly classic example . . . if you missed the links to my running commentary on that clownfest, pop back up to the third paragraph).


I, however, have experienced the polar opposite of those pain-in-the-ass insurer culture norms when it has come to NZI.


I’m told by the incredibly communications-proficient Claims Manager at my brokerage, ICIB Brokerweb, Michelle Botha, that the degree of effort NZI’s Claims Handler exerted to see the approval-for-replacement of all my stolen items within just 48 hours - in a process that was totally painless for, and deeply considerate of, me – exceeded even her normal impressive experience with this insurer.


The machinations that these two walking examples of exemplary customer service must have bulldozed their way through on my behalf were, of course, invisible to me, the policy holder. But I know they certainly pulled out some stops. Just so I could bring a particular story to you, my dear readers, at that time. (I’ll say thank you to them both on your behalf.)


Not Just One, but Two Debts of Deep Gratitude


And, as I mentioned earlier in this article, this second very positive experience with NZI (to whom I now owe two deep debts of gratitude) comes less than a year after their having come to the party in an even bigger manner, over an even bigger issue, that stood to have even bigger implications if they hadn’t. Watch out for that article sometime soon.


So . . . thanks a million, NZI and, very specifically, your Claims Handler who understands the value of a low-bureaucracy, high-customer service modus operandi. And thanks to the culture surrounding her that must have allowed her to assist me in this particularly rapid, streamlined and caring manner.


And, thanks yet again, to the highly competent and customer-focused ICIB Brokerweb, who have played an invaluable and indispensable role in my world this past year. 

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by Jordan Kelly 27 February 2026
Readers following the coverage of my attempts to get to the bottom of what happened to my beloved little papillon, Harry, with whom I was extraordinarily closely bonded, will know that: (A) The rot in Massey University’s Companion Animal “Hospital” (CAH) runs deep. (B) Honesty and transparency is not their policy. Denial, dismissal, stonewalling, legal threats and intimidation are. (C) Animals aren’t safe there, with cruelty embedded in “care”, and your property (as your pet legally is) not considered your property at all, as far as Massey, its CAH staff and management are concerned. Your pet is theirs ; to do with as they please, according to their mindset and their modus operandi. And if that involves catastrophic levels of unauthorised, contraindicated, convenience sedation to facilitate their use of your pet in monetised student video collections (including on private cell phones, and to which you will be given no access), this too, according to Massey, is its own God-given right and “best practice” Standard Operating Procedure. (D) “Informed Consent” has a very different meaning in the Massey playbook to that which is generally deemed its accepted definition. (E) “Accountability” is a foreign concept and not one with which they have any intention of becoming acquainted. (F) Laws – including those governing animal welfare, property conversion and more – are not only optional, in Massey’s case, they simply don’t apply. In fact, they appear blissfully ignorant of them according to my (and Harry's) experience. You know all that. You’ve read about it here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here and in most of my other now 30+ articles covering the numerous different sub-atrocities within the overall atrocity that was the demise and disposal of my precious little Harry. Actually, "atrocious" doesn't come anywhere near to being an adequate adjective. Despite having been a professional writer since I was 16 and having upwards of 25 published books under my belt, I don't actually have an adjective that's adequate for the pure evil that was perpetrated upon Harry . . . and, by extension, me . There is not one word or one phrase that can sufficiently convey the depth and breadth of the sheer, unadulterated wickedness that festers without restraint within the walls of Massey University's Companion Animal "Hospital". What you, my readers (or those of you not on Massey's massive legal team payroll) didn’t yet know – because I didn’t yet know – is that record and evidence tampering (which, for any other New Zealand citizen would attract jail time of up to 10 years under the Crimes Act 1961 Section 258 (Altering document with intent to deceive) or Section 260 (Falsifying registers) , and/or a $10,000 fine under the Privacy Act Section 212(2)(b) - appears also to be included in the “we’re exempt” culture of Massey and its veterinary “hospital” staff. Note to Readers: The above laws aren't some hypothetical, bottom-drawer, dusty old legal tracts in archaic library textbooks. They're real, "living" laws that apply to every individual in our country. And today, they are being made to apply to Dr Stephanie Rigg and her "colleagues" who falsified Harry's records to create a cover-up of what they did to him . . . and to me. I will, duly, see Dr Rigg and her associates in Court. Dissecting the Cover-Up: Massey’s Metadata of Deception But back to what readers do know for a moment: You’ll know that I’ve been in the battle of battles for the past two months to extract Harry’s full records (or anything approaching them) from Massey’s Legal and Governance department. HOWEVER . . . there was one thing I hadn’t known how to decipher that they actually had finally drip-fed to me. It was File Name: Patient Change Log (Field-Level Audit) . I’ve been learning a lot about veterinary science, record-keeping, and law in general lately. Not because I wanted to. But because if you want to figure out how deep the rot really runs at Massey, you kind of have to. So I’ve learned a bit about how to decipher clinical metadata. Just e nough to realise that this Patient Change Log (Field-Level Audit) is exactly where the digital fingerprints of a cover-up are hiding. Despite the fact that this document has as much redacted as it shows (probably more), with ALL staff names and positions blacked out, for example -I still found four distinct “smoking gun” entries in these otherwise heavily-redacted metadata logs. BIG. FAT. SMOKING. GUNS. that amounted to one undeniable overall conclusion: This document isn’t a clinical record so much as it’s a literal crime scene . There were already so many dodgy inconsistencies in the few items I'd managed to pull out of Massey to that point (as I've documented in various of my preceding articles). But this document is where, undeniably, the bodies are buried. You just need to know which clod of dirt to look under. Hidden in Plain Sight . . . In A Little Thing Called the Metadata (That the Average Pet Owner Wouldn't Even Know Existed ) There are four hidden but key findings demonstrating that the entire timeline of Harry’s “experience” in that hellhole were was orchestrated, and the sudden "neurological event/decline" exit strategy planned for him were a total fabrication. And that fabrication had a start time. (For this start time we will initially revert our focus back to Massey's previously-supplied "Clinical Summary" (in all its dodginess) . . . We will then lead from the immediately below into the afore-mentioned "Patient Change Log (Field-Level Audit)". Bear with me. I promise not to let this get boring). Well, one of two start times. Either: (1) The 8.38am disconnection of his (with, by-then, the TWO 750% overdoses of the renally contraindicated convenience sedative with which the "crying dog"-sensitive ICU staff had plied him overnight) now life-essential IV fluids (8.5 hours into the prescribed 24-hour protocol that they charged me for). And/or: (2) When the day shift ICU "vet" arrived at 9am and decided a THIRD 750% overdose would be a strategic way do deal with a clearly already massively overdosed little 3.8kg, 15-year-old, dehydrated dog. Now WHY would any vet take such a decision? 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R emember, though, I held the ultimate evidence in my arms at 6pm on December 1 . . . and, some 45 minutes later, I let them take it (safely, for them) away from me, just like Harry's (the literal body of evidence) life had just been taken from him. Little Numerals that Tell A BIG Story The plan for Harry's manufactured exit is not so much written into the records, as it is revealed by the tampering with the logs. They lay bare the lead vet’s apparent plan that his life would come to an abrupt end by the pre-scheduled time of (well, they couldn't quite get consistency in the logs regarding the exact minute, but by the absolute latest time of) 17:00 hours i.e. 5pm . . . assumedly, the end of the day shift on December 1. Just in time to mark him "Deceased" and seal off the records of this catastrophically overdosed patient, before the next shift came on, saw his records, and someone started asking the immediately necessary, and certainly appropriate, questions. And those questions would (0R SHOULD ) have included , but would certainly not have been limited to: How long has this dog been in this state? Why hasn't any rescue and remediation protocol been undertaken? Why was he given yet ANOTHER administration of 50mg of Gabapentin at 09:00 hours after the preceding two during night shift? Why is he disconnected from his IV fluids? Who approved that and why? (And if they knew he'd starred in a multi-video student film festival that morning): Was he taken out of his cage and handled in this state? When did he last drink? Was he given any food before he entered this near-comatose state? Does the owner know of the overdoses and the state he's in? Have you filled in an incident report? Have any emergency specialists been called in for advice? and, no doubt, many more questions. OR . . . maybe not. 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FOR LATEST INVESTIGATION FINDINGS: GO HERE . My Precious Little Boy Died Needlessly, In Intense Physical, Mental & Emotional Agony . . . After Massive Overdosing, Intense Cruelty & Intentionally False Diagnosis by Massey 'Vet' (So Called) to Enable His 'Disposal' After Lab Rat-Style Experimentation
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While my focus is on the 750% overdosing of my precious little dog, Harry, with an unauthorised, contraindicated convenience sedative, his conversion from patient to live specimen, and the subsequent destruction of evidence (HIM), Massey’s focus is on deploying a taxpayer-funded legal hit squad to 'profile' me.
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An Expert Contributed Commentary (FOR LATEST INVESTIGATION FINDINGS, GO HERE .)
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