Is this really Pearl's policy ?

mr.mandrake

dunstonh wrote:

I can tell you for a fact that some of Pearl's plans do not require claims forms.

Some of Pearl's plans? I'm not talking in general here... I'm talking about 3 specific policies. Pearl actually gave us the policy numbers before it was in receipt of a death certificate - can you believe that? Pearl cancelled my late father's pension payments on the 'strength' of a telephone call from someone who wasn't even able to quote the policy numbers. This doesn't shock you?

I can also tell you that most of the pensions were set up to pay in advance as that was the default option. Arrears was possible but it had to be requested.

Most of the pensions? Again, I'm not talking in general here... I need to know for sure how my late father's pensions were paid.

I have 4 ex Pearl staff working with me and I am very experienced in dealing with Pearl with the hundreds of clients and millions of pounds we have moved out of Pearl over the last 3 years.

I'm glad to hear it, keep up the good work.

I dont know how many times its been said already but Pearls telephone call centre is mostly manned by short contract staff of low ability and knowledge. What you get told at first level isnt always what happens when it gets to the correct department. They may have said they will send you a form thinking they were saying the right thing. However, if the policy is of the type that just requires notification through death certificate (because no lump sum is payable, then a claim form may not be required.

I was VERY specific when speaking to Pearl, As you can imagine, when I discovered that Pearl did not even have a record of who reported my father's death, I was VERY careful to insist that I was talking to someone qualified to assure me that we need not pay Pearl ANYTHING until we were in receipt of a statement of account ... (much time spent on hold as I was bounced around Pearl's head office.) And the advice I received was VERY specific. 'Don't do anything until you receive a claim form.' That was 3 months ago...

You are making this difficult for yourself.

What's difficult about doing nothing?

jem16

mr.mandrake wrote:

Are you telling me that you know that there is no claim form needed for any of my late father's three pension policies? How do you know this, can you also advise as to whether Pearl made monthly payments to my father in arrears or in advance?

No I don't know and no-one on here will know either with that logic.

Did your late husband have pension policies with Pearl, did his pension company require a death certificate before they ceased making monthly payments. Did the company demand the return of payments already made prior to your late husband's death. Did the company lie to you?

I tried to give you some experience of dealing with companies as a result of a bereavement. Some were good and some were not but all required the death certificate. It was easier to facilitate this rather than be stubborn even if I didn't like it. I also had to wait over 2 weeks to get the death certificate as he died in Italy.

There seems little point in continuing this thread as you don't really appear to want help - you just want to complain about Pearl.

mr.mandrake

jem16 wrote:

No I don't know and no-one on here will know either with that logic.

Well, I'm not asking anyone to guess.

I tried to give you some experience of dealing with companies as a result of a bereavement. Some were good and some were not but all required the death certificate. It was easier to facilitate this rather than be stubborn even if I didn't like it. I also had to wait over 2 weeks to get the death certificate as he died in Italy.

Thank you for taking the time to share your own experiences. It does highlight the fact that the companies you dealt with appear to be a lot more competent than Pearl.

There seems little point in continuing this thread as you don't really appear to want help - you just want to complain about Pearl.

I do want to complain about Pearl's policy... I think everyone should be aware of Pearl's policy to discontinue a customer's pension payments on the strength of a telephone call from anyone with knowledge of a policy holder's Name, Address and Date of Birth.

I am shocked that a Pearl employee would provide a customer's policy numbers to anyone with knowledge of a policy holder's Name, Address and Date of Birth.

I was disgusted that Pearl did not even note the name of the person who informed the company of my late father's death, but not before being more disgusted that the employee initially insisted that it was my mother who had telephoned... even claimed to be 'looking at it on his screen'.

I am surprised that Pearl demanded that payments be returned to the company without first assuring itself of the exact sum it felt it had over-paid, where it had deposited the money and if anyone other than my late father even had access to the funds.

I am frustrated that Pearl has taken 3 months to furnish us with a claim form... or contact us at all, considering I was VERY careful to insist that I was talking to someone qualified to assure me that we need not pay Pearl ANYTHING until we were in receipt of a statement of account ... (much time spent on hold as I was bounced around Pearl's head office.) And the advice I received was VERY specific. 'Don't do anything until you receive a claim form.'

I find it very telling that the majority of the 'advice' being offered here is along the lines that everyone should just expect this sort of shoddy incompetence from a company with Pearl's reputation. That after all, why should anyone expect any different. That I should ignore anything that a Pearl employee tells me because no one at Pearl is qualified to tell me anything. That I should just ignore Pearl's promise of a claim form and just send a copy of my father's death certificate to 'whom it may concern' at Pearl's head office on the off-chance that doing so will solve Pearl's problem. It won't, because Pearl's problem is no longer one of simply requiring sight of a death certificate. The company is now in a position of having to do some real work to service my father's pension policies to both Pearl's and my family's mutual satisfaction.

And the company's present position is all of its own making.

I was never Pearl's customer... although Pearl's incompetence has caused me to contact my own pension company and ask it to confirm that Pearl's procedures were not its own and not considered the pension 'industry's' standard modus operandi... it did so, in writing and by first class post - within 2 days.

I shall happily be sending Pearl a copy of that letter - when someone does finaly wake up to the fact that it is Pearl and not my late father's bereaved family who find's itself out of pocket.

Paul_Herring

mr.mandrake wrote:

Sorry you feel your committee's advice is falling on deaf ears.

Well it demonstrably is. Apart from a 'form' which you so clearly crave, what is stopping you from proving to Pearl that the person concerned is dead?

Until that happens, to anyone other than a call centre monkey, you are someone claiming to be a relative of someone who has a policy with them, who isn't yet dead.

To quote another poster:

dunstonh wrote:

Either that are you are just trying to be difficult for no reason other than to be difficult and taking pleasure in doing so.

This is exactly what you're doing. You've pointed out that Pearl have substandard call centre monkeys, and probably substandard secretarial staff. That point is well noted.

Yet you continue to drag this on by refusing to supply the one piece of paperwork that would solve this particular part of the problem. By refusing this, you're dragging this on and on and on.

To my mind, you're as stubborn as the machinery that is Pearl at the moment - you're as bad as each other.

Until you send that certificate off, please stop complaining about the advice you've been given, and the substandard service being (not) provided by Pearl. Beyond the fact that you originally said they don't get it until you get yours, what's stopping you sending it?

It's like some sort of childish argument!

Forget the 'deal' you made with them, send of the certificate and then come back to complain that they didn't do anything with it when they don't.