Insurance Rip Off Merchants

gik

rs65 wrote: »

You can take a broker quote to the FOS - but not just because you don't like the price. The OP's issue is that they had a quote which was valid for 24 hours but the broker changed it.

Can you provide proof of that? Has it ever actually happened?

vaio

I *think* if you go to the FOS site and do a search for "insurance broker" you'll find lots of cases involving them.

rudekid48

All Brokers selling general insurance are regulated and so any complaint against them can be escalated to the FOS but *only* after the Broker's complaints procedure has been followed.


Having said that, in this case it would be a waste of time, the regulator has no juris diction when it comes to pricing for Brokers or Insurers as the prices offered are a commercial decision. There are no rules in place to dictate what a Broker / Insurer *must* quote. If the policy had been purchased and then the Broker had tried to change the price (without a valid reason) then that would be a different matter...

vaio

But, as RS65 mentioned, it's not a direct pricing issue, the OPs grump is that a quote with 24 hour validity wasn't honoured during the validity period.

As the OP was playing around with details there might be an argument that a subsequent quote invalidates the earlier one but I don't think that would hold water if the OP complains.

rudekid48

vaio wrote: »

But, as RS65 mentioned, it's not a direct pricing issue, the OPs grump is that a quote with 24 hour validity wasn't honoured during the validity period.

As the OP was playing around with details there might be an argument that a subsequent quote invalidates the earlier one but I don't think that would hold water if the OP complains.

It doesn't matter, the OP is not a customer of the Broker so has no grounds to take a complaint to the FOS.

rudekid48

Here's a recent example from the FOS...


http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/viewPDF.aspx?FileID=34711


The circumstances aren't the same but the principle is - someone was offered a price on-line which was then withdrawn. In this case the broker decided not to offer cover prior to purchase but changing the price *prior to purchase* would get the same response..

vaio

rudekid48 wrote: »

It doesn't matter, the OP is not a customer of the Broker so has no grounds to take a complaint to the FOS.

The FOS rules on who can complain includes current and past customers and current and past potential customers.

http://fshandbook.info/FS/html/handbook/DISP/2/7

kevin51

Hi,


Enormous amount of conversation going on here.
But you'll all be happy to hear that I got my £30 cash back.
Rang them, had an argument and they said they will refund.
They found the same quote an hour earlier with the original price,
not to confuse anybody the only quote they gave me which was originally for £602 an hour earlier and I got an official apology.
One more thing to the gentleman who's thinks this sort of stuff
is ok, and that it was retail. If it was retail then they should
stipulate it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


It's an insurance racket, lets turn the table lads


thanks




Kevin

dacouch

kevin51 wrote: »

Hi,


Enormous amount of conversation going on here.
But you'll all be happy to hear that I got my £30 cash back.
Rang them, had an argument and they said they will refund.
They found the same quote an hour earlier with the original price,
not to confuse anybody the only quote they gave me which was originally for £602 an hour earlier and I got an official apology.
One more thing to the gentleman who's thinks this sort of stuff
is ok, and that it was retail. If it was retail then they should
stipulate it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


It's an insurance racket, lets turn the table lads


thanks




Kevin

Thanks for the update.

Something that was drummed into me when doing training on handling complaints is that you can turn an unhappy customer into a very happy and loyal customer if you handle their problem well and resolve it to their satisfaction. This is because a customer that can see that if something does go wrong the company will try their best to sort it out is a happy customer and likely to stay with the company

rs65

rudekid48 wrote: »

It doesn't matter, the OP is not a customer of the Broker so has no grounds to take a complaint to the FOS.

I realise this is resolved now, but he had become a customer.