Direct Line Car Insurance NOT going down

BOWFER

Sandtree said:

BOWFER said:

Contrast this with privilege who let me change my daughter's car and numberplate online with no need for human involvement at all.

Which is ironic given 1) Direct Line is the same company as Privilege and 2) at least up until a few years ago both websites ran on the identical system as DL inherited Privilege when RBS bought Natwest in 2000 and initially not really being part of its strategic plan so just moved it across onto a shared instance of their platform. 

Honestly, the difference is incredible.
Piece of proverbial on Privilege website, PITA on the direct line website
Don't give the illusion changes can be made online when they evidently cannot.

Sandtree

BOWFER said:

Don't give the illusion changes can be made online when they evidently cannot.

Companies, not just insurers, have been doing that for decades... claim you are doing something online but really it just sends an email or workflow item to the customer service to really do it manually in the background in a day or two's time.  This is why many first of all introduced self service for nil cost changes (eg change of name) 

So many companies are still running on very old technology and replatforming is both expensive and very slow, in part due to the regulated nature, and so half jobs are often done to do the best that can be as quickly as possible to at least partially meet customer demand.

BOWFER

Sandtree said:

BOWFER said:

Don't give the illusion changes can be made online when they evidently cannot.

Companies, not just insurers, have been doing that for decades... claim you are doing something online but really it just sends an email or workflow item to the customer service to really do it manually in the background in a day or two's time.  This is why many first of all introduced self service for nil cost changes (eg change of name) 

So many companies are still running on very old technology and replatforming is both expensive and very slow, in part due to the regulated nature, and so half jobs are often done to do the best that can be as quickly as possible to at least partially meet customer demand.

Well it's enough for them to lose my renewal in a month, even if they're cheapest.
If it's correct they 'inherited' Privilege, they need to learn from them.
Really, these days, simple online changes are an absolute minimum I expect.

[Deleted User]

Sandtree said:

Deleted_User said:

It’s all a con!

Why's it a con? Plenty of companies sell products under many different brands aimed at different segments, price points etc. Given the brand is only 18 months old they are probably writing at a loss to gain market share, a common trick for new entrants. 

You know that you can buy a car from Skoda or Bugatti and there will be a subtle price difference and yet they are both owned by VW... is that therefore also a con?

Of course it’s a con. It’s the same product run by the same people in the same call center!
it’s not like cars with different styling and materials.