Possible sharp practice by insurers during crisis

paulg413

I got my Elephant renewal today, as per usual it has increased greatly over the prior year. 
Armed with my comparison quote I rang Elephant to do the usual annual time wasting negotiation dance.
I got the very busy due to the crisis message that every company is using presently and then after 30 minutes on hold i was cut off and received a text message, 'sorry we couldn't answer your call today please DON'T call back unless you are due to renew in 2 days'
of course, elephant still have the bandwidth to generate renewal letters with unreasonable increases surely in the clear knowledge this will generate telephone calls 
reducing the the negotiating window to 2 days while still producing inflated renewals is a poor show

[Deleted User]

It doesn't seem like a practice which is particularly sharp.  Renewal letters have to be generated and are automated, so require nothing like the bandwidth to man the phones.

All you need to do is to use the time to get alternative quotes, then call to negotiate if that's your preferred strategy.  48 hours of solid negotiation should be more than enough for all parties.

paulg413

Your points are valid, my point was more about the company creating less work for itself by generating competitive renewal quotes and therefore generating less phones calls and freeing people to serve their customers better
when you think of the countless wasted hours from the renegotiation charade each year, the insurance industry needs to change

TSx

Someone has to ‘move first’ because the market is so price dominated - that said, the FCA are due to publish (or have published, I haven’t seen recent) proposals which may include making new customer and existing customer prices the same. Those who switch every year will probably see their annual price go up a bit, those who just renew every year should see it come down. 

[Deleted User]

This is why it's best not to have auto-renewal and don't agree to letting them keep your card details on file. They don't advertise it but you can just tell them you don't want auto-renewal when taking out the policy.