Probably the least helpful insurance company in the world...

dacouch · 11 February 2009 at 1:30PM

Customer "Experience" Team that is such a Norwich Union thing to come up with.

You must be a very busy lady!

I love NU but they do have a habit of letting themselves down sometimes and you then need to go to a senior person to get it resolved but as its NU and they are actually a decent company with good cover they do sort it out.

I always go out of my way to thank the staff if they have been helpful and the thing that makes me laugh is if you thank them they then ask you if you would like to participate in the customer service survey. Its strange how they only ask you to participate if you enthusicastically say thank you etc not if your indifferent. The problem with this is when NU get there results back from customer service survey it unsurprisingly is all good...

If only we could have an NU discussion board on here, I have some amusing NU stories as no doubt so will their direct customers and other brokers.

Like I said NU are a good company so don't be afraid to buy from them but they do have their slips ups mainly through the off shoring of their claims. If you do have a problem just speak to someone senior or you can now go through their customer experience team which will no doubt change its name again when their is a new buzz word

Atermis · 11 February 2009 at 2:09PM

the 'agents' also pick the funniest names.

ive had a tinkerbell, a cinderella. stanley who was the thickest indian accent ever.

the best one i had was a 'smith mckenzie' who obviously picked 2 names of the surname list by accident.

they are awkward to deal with from my prospective.

Quentin · 11 February 2009 at 2:23PM

dacouch wrote: »

If only we could have an NU discussion board on here, I have some amusing NU stories as no doubt so will their direct customers and other brokers.

Isn't this thread - entitled "Probably the least helpful insurance company in the world... " - as good a place as any to discuss NU?

dacouch · 11 February 2009 at 2:39PM

Only problem with posting on open thread is could get grief from NU over them.

I assume you have dealings with NU Quentin judging by your previous mosts, you must have some amusing stories about nu

Quentin · 11 February 2009 at 2:49PM

Who they going to give grief to?

They cannot do anything when their customers/staff post the truth.

eg. Here's a thread they clearly would prefer to be "in house"!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=624063

dacouch · 11 February 2009 at 3:19PM

Thats an amusing thread, NU have never been best at selecting companies for their contracts, the previous builders they used were of a similar standard, I assume thats why they changed! The funny thing is their approved builders are normally far more expensive than using a decent local builder.

One of my fav stories was as a broker one of our clients had an accident in this country but with a foreign driver who was over here on holiday with his car. It was quite a complex claim and we had to go through the delightful claims call centre where there is a bit of a language barrier (Me thinks you know what I mean). The person we spoke to advised me that the claim was being handled by a Mr Johnny Foreigner who was based at the head office. The person spent ages looking for a Mr Johnny Foreigner in their extension list and then came back and said she could not help us as she could not find his extension. We rang NU head office and got through to the right department (Its an injoke at NU to name the department that deals with foreign drivers Johnny Foreigner) and explained the story to them and they advised us they get it all the time as the call centre staff cannot grasp that Johnny Foreigner is not actually a real person...

dacouch · 11 February 2009 at 3:26PM

I also like when the NU ceo goes in the trade press and announces the premiums must go up and as the market leader in whatever field he is talking about (Normally fleets or pi) they will try and guide the prices up by underwriting risks for a profit and not at a loss and how bad it is that other companies undercut each other at renewal to gain business at a loss. So what do NU do? they carry on as normal through certain channels (That suit them the best) writing business at a loss and undercutting at renewal etc etc.

Their moral decision to try and scrape driving other cars was also amusing, they made a big fan fare of how it should be removed as it caused more problems than it solved and they would take a stance that would result in its removal within a couple of years. The pomposity of this made me laugh and how they made it out to be that they were doing this for the customers benefit! What did they do? realise that they could not force the rest of the market to remove it and it would ultimately cost them money so they quietly dropped it.

They have a habit of announcing things and then quietly dropping them

I could go on and on and on

kellek · 17 June 2009 at 10:26AM

In Jan 09 I automatically renewed my vehicle insurance with Norwich Union (now AVIVA). Due to an admin error ON THEIR part (which they have admitted to), they were not collecting the payment by direct debit.
After repeatedly contacting them they are now finally taking out payment from June 09, but are also collecting payments which THEY previously missed. They are doing this without writing to me to let me know which under their wrtiiten terms of agreement they should inform me in writing 8 days before they change the payment amounts or the date of the transactions. When contacting them again they will only state that even though it was their fault they did not collect payments they want the money that they are owed and will take (unauthorised, as I have not agreed to make double payment) payments from my account Is anyone else having this problem with AVIVA?

dacouch · 17 June 2009 at 11:02AM

They are not going about this in a great way if they have not informed you in writing of their intention to collect the missed instalments. This is obviously best practice for everyone involved.

However you should bear in mind that Insurers (As do most companies where you pay a your debt by instalments) expect you to put aside the amount of each instalment in your account each month and don't spend it. Then if there is a problem such as you have experienced they can collect the missed instalments. Technically they can collect all of the missed instalments in one go and would expect the money to be in your account to cover it. If NU / Aviva are collecting double payments instead of all of the balance in one go then they are being more helpful than most Insurers. Although as stated above it would be best for them and you if they had written or contected you to explain this

Quentin · 17 June 2009 at 11:50AM

Don't want to defend them, but they did originally tell you when they would take the money. The fact that they haven't done so makes little difference to this as they aren't actually taking money they aren't entitled to, and aren't taking money without first informing you (albeit some time later than they said they would).

You have had the use of the money, when it should have been theirs!

Probably the least helpful insurance company in the world...

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