They call you and put you on hold.

r2015

Just had a call from an insurance company wanting me to purchase my car insurance from them after I had enquired online and they quoted more than my renewal premium.


We could do better she said, please hold while I get someone to check your details.


You're kidding right!


They phone you and put you on hold.


After 1 minute of hold music I hung up.

daytona0

So they put you on hold so that they could check for a better price, and you hung up? Talk about wasting their time!

I've always put customers on hold when I worked in the call centre, even on outbound calls! They generally waited patiently, especially since they weren't paying for the call. 99% of the time there was a perfectly legitimate reason for popping them on hold. There was a 1% group though, and this usually involved the absolutely downright rude gits who had no manners (just to throw in a stereotype but generally Scottish people can come across as rude, I certainly had the most trouble with either Scots or southern people generally but that is just generalising and I have spoken to some lovely scottish people/southerners)... I distinctly remember one woman whom was being offered a complimentary (Free) service by me but she was still being rude as hell (our company had zero responsibility for her issues)! She was asking me stupid questions, patronising me and acting like a spoiled brat. She came out with the line "please hurry up because my time is money" and started to break down the costs of her time on the phone call (50 quid every 5 minutes I believe it was) despite me being fast and helpful. She ended up going on hold for 3 minutes for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Absolutely no reason! Some people need to learn that MY time is also important, even if I'm just a call center agent!


So yea, if you are hanging up prematurely then you might fall into the 1%, but it is much more likely that they just needed to get the relevant information for you so that they could help you to get cheaper insurance. Your loss for hanging up though, they probably couldn't care less in all fairness.

r2015

but it is much more likely that they just needed to get the relevant information for you so that they could help you to get cheaper insurance.

They should have had it ready before they called.

Their quote online was £200 more than what I could get going through a comparison site and they did this last year as well and still couldn't get the quote lower than their online quote.

geerex

r2015 wrote: »

They should have had it ready before they called.

Their quote online was £200 more than what I could get going through a comparison site and they did this last year as well and still couldn't get the quote lower than their online quote.

You're acting like a child. While, perhaps, they should have told you the reason for the hold, it may have been in your best interests to comply.
Now, you'll never know. Patience is a virtue, stop acting like an entitled brat, its pathetic.

xHannahx

r2015 wrote: »

They should have had it ready before they called.

Their quote online was £200 more than what I could get going through a comparison site and they did this last year as well and still couldn't get the quote lower than their online quote.

They may have needed further information from you before generating a better price. Once they've got that info they then may take a moment for the info, or even need to gain a manager approval for an even better price if they really want your custom. Managers are normally mandated to approve a much bigger discount than the front line agent.
I hope she was getting an excellent price approved by her manager and you hung up and missed out.
The call centre agent has potentially put a fair bit of effort negotiating you a better deal, and you're too impatient to wait for them to come back.

r2015

You're acting like a child. While, perhaps, they should have told you the reason for the hold, it may have been in your best interests to comply.
Now, you'll never know. Patience is a virtue, stop acting like an entitled brat, its pathetic.

They called me, I never asked them to call me.
They should have been prepared.
As I said, they would never have been able to beat what I have been quoted so why am I acting like a child?

daytona0

r2015 wrote: »

They called me, I never asked them to call me.
They should have been prepared.
As I said, they would never have been able to beat what I have been quoted so why am I acting like a child?

You are acting like a child because you posted it as a rant. What you did is rude, but then again we understand your reasoning. We just don't share your outrage about being put on hold during an outbound call (warm lead, not even a cold call!) which is costing you 0 pounds and which could potentially end up cheaper for you (did you find out whether they could do it cheaper here? No? no you didn't....). I do find your "they would never have been able to beat what I have been quoted" comment funny though! Wish I could predict the future as well, might end up a millionaire by the end of next week!

marlot

I'm with the OP. He or she already put a fair amount of time into answering the insurance questions online.

If the company wanted to be competitive they had their chance.

shaun_from_Africa

daytona0 wrote: »

You are acting like a child because you posted it as a rant. What you did is rude, but then again we understand your reasoning

Why is it rude?
The company concerned phoned up the OP following their initial insurance quotation so they would have had all of the details required to enable them to give another quotation.
If they were able to offer a lower renewal price then why didn't they do this when the first contact was made?


As far as I'm concerned, what they did was no different to knocking on someone's door then when the householder answered, telling them to wait a few minutes while they ignored them and checked figures on their phone.

warehouse

You want my business? Act like a professional company and don't put me on hold.

It ain't difficult.

dodger1

r2015 wrote: »

They called me, I never asked them to call me.
They should have been prepared.
As I said, they would never have been able to beat what I have been quoted so why am I acting like a child?

Advice for the future, when filling in the details online give a false phone number. When you decide which company to go with just change the details with that company, Doing this I've never had a phone call from any of the companies.

I agree with you about the content of the call though, when phoning you they already have your details and should know the lowest price they will go to.