Royal London & Royal Liver stakeholder pensions

Bossyboots

EdInvestor wrote:

Why do you say that?

I have had policies with them all my life. My mum started one for me when I was born and I have started them myself over the years.

In that time, their customer service has gone downhill to almost the point of non-existence and they seem unable to resolve even simple problems (of which I had none when we had a regular collector) or understand some very basic facts.

On my last run in with them, I was refunded my premiums for the period of time in which they failed to deal with my complaint using their complaints procedure. Their error on that occasion, which was so simple to rectify, meant that at one point they would have received my premiums three times for one month.

The manner of the customer services staff leaves a lot to be desired although we recently had a visit from someone from RL who said that when they first took over one of the other companies they had a lot of problems with staff but that everything is much better now. Unfortunately it is too late for them to get anymore business from us, I wouldn't trust them again.

If I hadn't seen the marked deterioration in service myself, I might not have felt it so keenly.

They also tried to pressgang my mum into taking out a funeral plan with them, even though it didn't meet with her requirements and kept telephoning her about it until I told them they were not to call her anymore.

EdInvestor

I see. I can understand that as they have changed over from being a traditional door-to-door sales and collection "man from the Pru" type operation, which no-one can afford to run anymore.

Normal admin and customer services at life companies is appalling, so they're probably no worse than the competition. The main reason for this I think is that the staff are just not used to joe public, who doesn't understand all the frightful jargon attached to life and pensions products, because they are used to dealing with IFAs or other industry people.

So we're just a nuisance - and ignorant to boot.

Does that sound familiar?

Bossyboots

EdInvestor wrote:

I see. I can understand that as they have changed over from being a traditional door-to-door sales and collection "man from the Pru" type operation, which no-one can afford to run anymore.

Normal admin and customer services at life companies is appalling, so they're probably no worse than the competition. The main reason for this I think is that the staff are just not used to joe public, who doesn't understand all the frightful jargon attached to life and pensions products, because they are used to dealing with IFAs or other industry people.

So we're just a nuisance - and ignorant to boot.

Does that sound familiar?

Indeed it does.

Unfortunately for them, they made a huge mistake in their assumption of my ignorance and apparent inability to realise that they were planning to take my premiums three times.

Nuisance - have to concede that one, I have the file of correspondence to prove it.

EdInvestor

Nuisance - have to concede that one, I have the file of correspondence to prove it.

Good for you, it's always worth sticking at it.

One of the positive aspects of the endowment crisis (compared with other misselling problems in the past) is that this time the FSA decided to make people complain individually rather than just order firms to do a review and pay redress.

The result has been that although it has involved a lot of hassle, many people have gained quite a lot of education in how banks and insurance companies operate and how the selling and distribution system works.

This knowledge tends to increase their ability to deal with the system and should mean there's less likelihood they will be missold in the future, as they are more able to spot the warning signs.

NAR

mariegriffiths wrote:

Royal Liver have closed for new members, a sign of demutualisation?

No it is because they do not want to develop a lifestyle investment option, which is now a requirement for new members. Therefore the Stakeholder scheme is now closed to new members,