Has Anybody Ever Worked For Swinton Insurance

dacouch

Swintons current sales modus operandi appears to be giving the extra covers free of charge for the first three months, thereafter the consumers starts paying unless they have cancelled them.

The sales and cs staff are very very keen to add these on so assume they are targeted and / or receive commission. I've heard quite a few reports of customers adamantly declining the free covers and them being added on.

want-it-all

dacouch wrote: »

The sales and cs staff are very very keen to add these on so assume they are targeted and / or receive commission. I've heard quite a few reports of customers adamantly declining the free covers and them being added on.

5-6 times (I used Swinton for 6 years for car insurance) I've been called and offered personal accident cover for £7.99 per month, free for the first 3 months. Every single time I've outright refused in no uncertain terms, only for a direct debit instruction to pop up on my online banking a couple of weeks later. It always shows up as 'SINGLE NO.2 ACCOUNT', which probably rings a few bells for some.

I called up for a renewal quote in November (the straw that broke the camel's back, the price was 4x higher than I'd been quoted elsewhere) and was approached on breakdown cover. I refused, as I always do, and found another sneaky pending DD on my bank account recently. It's only the fact that I've always managed to cancel the DDs before they've been paid that's prevented me from complaining (that, and a little bit of sympathy for the sales staff, who probably have highly pressurised jobs).

Anon1966

Well i'm a current employee, I will warn you the pressure to sell the add on (free month's free) products is currently ridiculously high, the targets were increased in October, and are being increased again in March.

Alot of previously solid performers are starting to struggle, so unless you are a sales superstar I wouldn't apply.

If your targets are not met, Swinton place you on a performance management program which can ultimately lead to dismissal. Which may explain (but not excuse) some of the questionable activities noted above.

Takingitfurther

Swinton insurance is non advised, but the pressures to sell are still there! Swinton is extremely unethical in the way that it treats its customers. They will argue they stick to the rules laid down by the fSA, but only just!

3 months free, breakdown, personal accident cover and home emergency cover is essentially thrust upon a customer who purchases any of their car or home insurance policies. The way it is pitched makes the customer think its part of the policy and that it will be automatically canceled after three months. After the three months they charge you on average £28.47 for all three! !

When you buy your car insurance they tell you it's a £50 cancelation fee plus INSURER charges. They don't give you a breakdown of the insurer charges, why do you think that may be?

When you find a quote online and take it forward to purchase by calling up, they insist on going through the details to ensure everything is correct " because we wouldn't want to set up a policy that was invalid". The sales agent checks everything and boy if literally anything changes you will pay!!! Got two cars in your household instead of 1 car, and if you fail to mention this very important piece of information Then it will cost you £50. You wanna protect your no claims bonus? That will cost you between £0-£60 depending on what the sales agent needs in order to hit his targets! No matter how minor the change it WILL cost you. Some changes you make may even reduce your premium, but the sales agent will never tell you this, in fact they are more likely to charge you more!

The sales advisors are targeted on how much money they claw from the customer! Its called UN-EMP, the target for each policy to make interms of income for the company is £37 , this may not seem a lot but when a customer comes through on the phones the policy is already loosing around £-45, so over £100 of UN-EMP !is required! Missing this target results in missing your bonus targets.!

ohreally

Was it necessary to resurect a near 2 year old thread to spout that drivel?

agrinnall

I would report it as representing the company without approval, but I think it will serve as a warning to readers to steer clear of jobs at Swinton so I'm leaving it.

sinikal1

Just an observation but a quick trawl through the net shows thousands of unanswered and ignored complaints from disgruntled Swinton customers (company hiding behind ambiguous terms and conditions to charge penalties, sorry - administrative, processing and cancellation fees at every opportunity, being constantly harrased to purchase unwanted add-ons, lying staff, complaints being ignored and important letters/documents seeming to go "missing" when Swinton decide they have, etc.) over the years. After the board of Directors of the Swinton Group arm fined £7.4M last year for mis-selling were sacked by parent company Covea, MMA or whichever company wants to admit overall responsibility, the new board guaranteed renewed customer focus, transparency and a return to friendly, professional service to renew customers faith in the company. What happened? With customer complaints being investigated by every regulatory body and Swinton sailing very close to the wind legally in most aspects of their T&C's, the incredible increase in the company's employees responding or replying to a negative post in an overly positive manner wreaks of a campaign akin to the Nazi's propaganda machine of 70 years ago. Do you get a bit extra in your wage packet? Is it a definite company policy to fool the general public that a leopard can change it's spots? The gushing reports that churn out at every opportunity (MANY companies do it, it's just becoming VERY obvious with Swinton over the past year), will you please INFORM YOUR BOSSES IT'S BEEN SPOTTED. You never know, you may get an extra tenner in your wages next month for letting them recalculate, redress and reassess this key policy with a blue sky view on one (among many) punters observations on what seems to be happening in recent months. You mustn't make it too obvious or it loses the impetus it's trying to generate. I mean, three poor youngsters were almost at meltdown after working in the company for less than a year but after their total honesty at their humiliating circumstances under Managers under pressure to hit targets from Senior Managers under pressure to hit targets under pressure from the new, customer friendly board whom do not want to hit targets at the expense of losing customers, the amount of Swinton employees giving a five star rating for the fantastic environment they worked in became sycophantic.
Strangely, I have no axe to grind with Swinton. In my youth I sold coffee machines to businesses that were leased at anything from 24 to 48 months on the front of the contract but the small print in the terms and conditions, hidden deep and small, meant the signatory was signing for 9 years.....and the T&C's DON'T LIE, do they?! (I'm soft, I left the firm.......I don't like misrepresentation).
What I find insulting is that people feel they have the right to make juvenile comments on consumers being "told" what they're getting into, any repercussions are their fault so, therefore, take it up with the regulatory body who just so happens to be financed, the majority of times, by the very company the consumer will be complaining against. Listen, Son, I'm glad you've found your niche in life, I hope you succeed at what you've chosen to do as a career, but if EVER you get hoodwinked by a company who decides they're better than you, more powerful than you or simply decide to inflict their terms and conditions to your detriment, I'll be lol, lmao AND lmfao!

sinikal1

Oh, and as a newbie whom you implore people to be nice to, I feel completely justified in responding to huntyboy (who joined in Feb 2014 in order to state his diatribe from a company rather than personal perspective on an extremely old thread) so willingly open myself up to the wrath of the forums.

cjgoodsell

huntyboy wrote: »

Oh and for all the people on here compaining about our policys,
Your told all the information over the phone, we can not advise amd rely on trickery and gorilla sales techniques, it is us that gives the information and lists there prices it is you as customers who decides to purchase from swinton. Its so annoying when I see complaints about our charges, when customers are told these charges from the get go, also the charges are there as changes in policys I.e the addition of vehicles, or the change of vehicles, effects the risks of a customer claiming and there for means premiums may be raised, it is not swinton deciding this but the insurers themselves as we are only brokers, not only that but service charges are there because it costs money I.e paying me, the cost of sending letters, ringing insurers, thats why charges are there, we are charged 14 pounds everytime we take an inbound call and give a customer a quote. Small price to pay, and again u as the customers are told this. It happens all the time you buy insurance knowing all the terms and conditions , but then when something happens that requires you to be charged your the first to complain....... our company is compliant and monitered by the fca got a problem stop wining about take it go the fca lol

Speaking as an EX-Employee you must be brainwashed in the new way of thinking!

I left under the "re-vamp" didnt believe in the brand anymore hadnt done since at least 2011! I hear going back to the old way! Anyway i have loads of stories alot of them bad the odd one that is good! But i wont put them in the forum!

dacouch

huntyboy wrote: »

Oh and for all the people on here compaining about our policys,
Your told all the information over the phone, we can not advise amd rely on trickery and gorilla sales techniques, it is us that gives the information and lists there prices it is you as customers who decides to purchase from swinton. Its so annoying when I see complaints about our charges, when customers are told these charges from the get go, also the charges are there as changes in policys I.e the addition of vehicles, or the change of vehicles, effects the risks of a customer claiming and there for means premiums may be raised, it is not swinton deciding this but the insurers themselves as we are only brokers, not only that but service charges are there because it costs money I.e paying me, the cost of sending letters, ringing insurers, thats why charges are there, we are charged 14 pounds everytime we take an inbound call and give a customer a quote. Small price to pay, and again u as the customers are told this. It happens all the time you buy insurance knowing all the terms and conditions , but then when something happens that requires you to be charged your the first to complain....... our company is compliant and monitered by the fca got a problem stop wining about take it go the fca lol

I wonder why Swintons are non advised sales

a) It means the customer has very little if any come back on Swintons
b) Their staff have little basic understanding of Insurance so are are unable to give advice
c) Their staff are there solely to sell
d) All of the above