egg card.....so frustrated

Thriftylady

I recently realised that I was paying payment protection premiums on my egg card, even though I never signed up for this insurance as its no good to me.

Contacted egg who have admitted that they have no proof I ever asked for it - no signed agreement, no letters ever issued to me, no emails. They say they have a note that I asked for it in a phonecall (I definitely didn't) but they claim to have no recording of this phonecall. Plus they have given me three different dates on which this phonecall supposedly took place, so it feels like they are picking dates out of thin air.

Now, I know this is partly my own fault as I just never noticed the entries on my statement, so its not like I'm asking them to refund all of the premiums. However, as they have admitted that they don't have any evidence of me requesting it, I suggested a compromise of a refund of half the premiums - after all, I'm in the wrong but so are they. But, not only would they not consider it, they are insisting that I carry on paying it for another month, as I need to give 30 days notice to cancel it, in line with their terms and conditions. So, basically, I need to adhere to the terms and conditions of an insurance policy that I never asked for in the first place. But they don't need to adhere to their legal obligation of keeping adequate records ?!!! Grrrrr......

Peter999_2

I had a very similar thing with egg about a year ago. I noticed that I had been paying the insurance for 6 months even though I never asked for it.

When I phoned them they took it off there and then with no arguing at all.

Do you think it might be worth phoning again and asking someone else?, in my case they didn't refer it to anyone, just immediately refunded it.

Thriftylady

I have had an ongoing discussion with them by email (seven, often contradictory, replies from them so far) and have now lodged a formal complaint with their customer relations unit. Not so much about refunding the premiums, as I realise I am on fairly shaky grounds there, but about their refusal to actually answer the questions I've asked them.

mrslawrence2003

Thriftylady wrote:

I have had an ongoing discussion with them by email (seven, often contradictory, replies from them so far) and have now lodged a formal complaint with their customer relations unit. Not so much about refunding the premiums, as I realise I am on fairly shaky grounds there, but about their refusal to actually answer the questions I've asked them.

call them! i understand they do not respond well to emails but if you call them they can't fob you off so easily.

Storm

Could it be worth contacting the FSA? Or at least telling Egg you're going to? The onus is surely on them to prove that you asked for the insurance! As for the dates of the supposed phonecall when they reckon you asked for it, note these down and any chance you still have old phone bills (itemised ones obviously?) cos if you can prove you didn't even call them, then there's no way they can pin it on you.

dudleyboy

"Hello, you're through to Dudley, that's 'DudleyBoy'. Can I take your name please?"

Grrrr indeed!! Having once worked in a call centre for a financial institution I know how these places operate (or at least used to but I doubt it's changed much). ALL of the emphasis is on targets and NOT customer service. All performance related pay, bonuses and rewards are based upon targets and NOT customer service. In fact, from what I can remember, there is no emphasis or reward whatsoever for customer service. It's all about the statistics and targets... and while you could say that about most workplaces... when you work in the "Customer Services" department you would expect some emphasis, if only a little.

You clock in, you clock out, you say the "legal bit" word-for-word and the supervisors monitor EVERYTHING you do every minute of the day (though not necessarily every call). They know what time you started work, they know how long you spent in the toilet at 10.48am, they know you got back from lunch 2 minutes late, and they know to the second how much time you've done that day. It's an Orwellian nightmare and no surprise that staff turnover is exceptionally high, and morale exceptionally low, in such an environment.

dudleyboy

For me, it was a stop-gap to pay the bills but the actual fact is that most of my debt was acquired while working there, largely because I wouldn't sink to the dubious and ethical lows that many others would, to meet their monthly targets. These questionable tactics included:

Transfering and dropping calls
From what I can remember, the ideal call length to acheive your "calls per hour ratio" target is 2 minutes, although monthly targets did vary. Usually when you phone a call centre you have something in mind that you want done. If it takes less than 2 minutes - great! If it takes a little longer, some people would put the customer on hold, and 'drop' them on someone else. You know this has happened to you when you're put on hold abruptly and the person you speak to, after holding, is different from before and they have no knowledge whatsoever as to who you are or why you are calling. This used to annoy me more than anything, not to mention the customer who would have to go through security confirmation all over again (because you'd have no idea whether they had or not)...

Hanging up on customers
This also helps you meet your "calls per hour ratio" target. Hanging up on customers the moment their call comes through to you, or before the 2 minute limit, means you can keep your ratio on track. If you've ever phoned a call centre, gone through all the menu system, heard the phone ring for ages (or listened to music), then for it to sound like someone has eventually picked up, only for the line to abruptly go dead, and you've no idea if you're still queuing or not... well, that's usually why... and it even happended to me this morning when i called a centre. Grrrr.

and, of course,

Payment protection
Because this is a greatly emphasised target, due to the revenue it brings in, and could be what your annual pay rise relies on. The tricks here are to confuse the customer in to taking it or to make them paranoid enough to not be able to live without it ("but what if...", "but what if...", "but what if...").

"And don't forget you can cancel it at any time should you decide you no longer require it".

The most unethical route is to add it on to their account even if they don't want it... which by the sounds of it, happened to you...

Now I'm not saying I spotted many colleagues doing all of the above, on the contrary, it was only a small minority who did... but when you see them getting an extra £800 on their pay slip for being the only ones able to reach their targets, or worse - being promoted to supervisor for being so "good" - I have to say it's tempting... especially when you're getting in to debt because of the low salary you're already on.

Of course it's wrong and should you get found out you will probably get fired (I remember a couple who did) but when the supervisors targets are based upon you getting your targets, you won't be surprised to discover that I saw some turning a blind eye...

So you either join them or you leave... and my integrity was worth more than that... so I left, as many do.

dudleyboy

It's tough working in a call centre.

No one ever calls up to say "thank you". After queuing, the first thing they do is moan about how long they've been queuing, ultimately extending the conversation and wasting 20 seconds of those 2 precious minutes or causing someone else to wait even longer, rather than just cutting to the chase and getting the problem sorted. Worst of all, it's getting the abuse from understandably cheesed off customers when all you can think to say is "well at least you don't have to work for these b*st*rds".

And remember, if you've been queuing for ages it's because they're short staffed, usually because some one's called a sickie at the thought of going into that dreadful place again... so please don't take it out on the ones who have actually bothered to show up for work that day.

As for "monitoring and recording calls" - they certainly do monitor... oh boy do they monitor... but they just don't have the storage space to keep them indefinitely. If a call is recorded and kept on file for longer than 4 weeks i'd be very surprised and i'm not sure the call logs are that well maintained either... so always ask for their name and make a note of the time, date and reason for calling. It will certainly help whoever you're talking to solve your problem.


As for your situation, give them a call and get them to take it off. Just remember not to be rude to the nice person who has turned up that day and is actually taking your call and trying to help... unless you recognise them as the person who put it on in the first place...

Good luck.

david_hellier

Issue them with a County Court Summons. Claim all the premiums paid, the cost of the Summons and the cost of your own time chasing them.

Thriftylady

dudleyboy wrote:

The most unethical route is to add it on to their account even if they don't want it... which by the sounds of it, happened to you...

I'm actually pretty sure that this is what happened me. My OH was caught out a year earlier with his egg card repayment protector - he was made redundant and it wouldn't pay out, so we both cancelled at the same time once we knew it was worthless. So to suggest that I rang them up a year later (based on one of the dates they have quoted me) and suddenly decided that I wanted it after all is unlikely to say the least.

And as for your call centre whistleblowing, what you have said doesn't surprise me one bit. I worked in a bank for years and the way the management ran the department I worked in was very morally dubious to say the least. e.g. When customers rang we used to have to pretend we had all their details in front of us and ask them security questions. In reality we had no info at all, not even their dates of birth, and we were just doing it to make it sound like we were adhering to data protection legislation. We also didn't have any copies of correspondence or even legal documents, they all went to 'offsite storage' which could pretty much be translated as 'they went in the bin'. As a result, I am very suspicious when dealing with other companies.....

dudleyboy

Thriftylady wrote:

When customers rang we used to have to pretend we had all their details in front of us and ask them security questions. In reality we had no info at all, not even their dates of birth, and we were just doing it to make it sound like we were adhering to data protection legislation.

Good grief - you worked somewhere worse than me!!