Aviva Pensions Customer Service

dosh37

I have tried to contact Aviva Customer Service by phone twice in the last few months regarding fund valuation.

Both times I ended up in a long queue so ended up using the email facility on their website instead.

Instead of receiving a response to my questions, I just end up receiving 'complaint acknowledgement' letters through the post.

Then I hear nothing further.

I get the impression their process for answering emails provides a easy option to treat it as a complaint rather than spend time answering specific questions about the policy.

squirrelpie

You don't really give enough information about timing to be able to help much. They have quite a long while to respond to a complaint - from memory I think it is eight weeks. If they go beyond that without sending any further response then write to their regulator and complain to them.

Jonty6262

I have found Aviva both extremely slow and more worryingly, inept. 

Albermarle

dosh37 said:

I have tried to contact Aviva Customer Service by phone twice in the last few months regarding fund valuation.

Both times I ended up in a long queue so ended up using the email facility on their website instead.

Instead of receiving a response to my questions, I just end up receiving 'complaint acknowledgement' letters through the post.

Then I hear nothing further.

I get the impression their process for answering emails provides a easy option to treat it as a complaint rather than spend time answering specific questions about the policy.

If it just a simple query about find valuations, why not just check via their website ? Assuming you have a password etc.

dosh37

Albermarle said:

dosh37 said:

I have tried to contact Aviva Customer Service by phone twice in the last few months regarding fund valuation.

Both times I ended up in a long queue so ended up using the email facility on their website instead.

Instead of receiving a response to my questions, I just end up receiving 'complaint acknowledgement' letters through the post.

Then I hear nothing further.

I get the impression their process for answering emails provides a easy option to treat it as a complaint rather than spend time answering specific questions about the policy.

If it just a simple query about find valuations, why not just check via their website ? Assuming you have a password etc.

One of my questions was this:-

In Jan 2022 I received a 'Your retirement option' letter. It included a figure for the estimated value of my pension fund valued at my expected retirement date in July.

Just 2 months later I received a 'Retirement notification' letter. It also included a figure for the estimated value of my pension fund valued at the same date. The value had dropped by around 7% in the last 2 months.

When I looked at the performance charts for the two funds my pension is invested in, they both indicate an increase in value over the last few months.

So I wanted to know how they calculate the figures they quoted.

If the value of the pension has dropped by the amount they suggest then I may have to defer my retirement date.

The main point I was making is that instead of answering my specific question, they appear to be treating it as a complaint that remains unanswered.

Marcon

dosh37 said:

Albermarle said:

dosh37 said:

I have tried to contact Aviva Customer Service by phone twice in the last few months regarding fund valuation.

Both times I ended up in a long queue so ended up using the email facility on their website instead.

Instead of receiving a response to my questions, I just end up receiving 'complaint acknowledgement' letters through the post.

Then I hear nothing further.

I get the impression their process for answering emails provides a easy option to treat it as a complaint rather than spend time answering specific questions about the policy.

If it just a simple query about find valuations, why not just check via their website ? Assuming you have a password etc.

One of my questions was this:-

In Jan 2022 I received a 'Your retirement option' letter. It included a figure for the estimated value of my pension fund valued at my expected retirement date in July.

Just 2 months later I received a 'Retirement notification' letter. It also included a figure for the estimated value of my pension fund valued at the same date. The value had dropped by around 7% in the last 2 months.

When I looked at the performance charts for the two funds my pension is invested in, they both indicate an increase in value over the last few months.

So I wanted to know how they calculate the figures they quoted.

If the value of the pension has dropped by the amount they suggest then I may have to defer my retirement date.

The main point I was making is that instead of answering my specific question, they appear to be treating it as a complaint that remains unanswered.

Then ring them and be prepared for a wait. Looking at one of your previous posts, you did pick an especially bad time and didn't seem to have found the relevant number: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6336593/aviva-customer-service-website#latest

Perhaps make sure you've got the appropriate contact number and pick what might be a reasonably quiet time of day...?

Albermarle

dosh37 said:

Albermarle said:

dosh37 said:

I have tried to contact Aviva Customer Service by phone twice in the last few months regarding fund valuation.

Both times I ended up in a long queue so ended up using the email facility on their website instead.

Instead of receiving a response to my questions, I just end up receiving 'complaint acknowledgement' letters through the post.

Then I hear nothing further.

I get the impression their process for answering emails provides a easy option to treat it as a complaint rather than spend time answering specific questions about the policy.

If it just a simple query about find valuations, why not just check via their website ? Assuming you have a password etc.

One of my questions was this:-

In Jan 2022 I received a 'Your retirement option' letter. It included a figure for the estimated value of my pension fund valued at my expected retirement date in July.

Just 2 months later I received a 'Retirement notification' letter. It also included a figure for the estimated value of my pension fund valued at the same date. The value had dropped by around 7% in the last 2 months.

When I looked at the performance charts for the two funds my pension is invested in, they both indicate an increase in value over the last few months.

So I wanted to know how they calculate the figures they quoted.

If the value of the pension has dropped by the amount they suggest then I may have to defer my retirement date.

The main point I was making is that instead of answering my specific question, they appear to be treating it as a complaint that remains unanswered.

Markets have been falling in 2022 for both shares and bonds. A 7% drop in your fund from January to March is not a surprise.
Most likely, depending on exactly it is invested, it will have gone down a bit more since then. 

When I looked at the performance charts for the two funds my pension is invested in, they both indicate an increase in value over the last few months.

I am guessing you have looked at the fund factsheets. They are often out of date, or only updated every quarter. Given the market conditions, Ukraine, inflation, high oil and gas prices etc, it is rather unlikely they will have gone up in the last few months . Most pension funds are down 8 to 15% year to date.

If the value of the pension has dropped by the amount they suggest then I may have to defer my retirement date.

Most likely you will have seen good growth in the funds over the last 10 to 12 years, so this 7 to 10% drop has to be seen in this context. A 7 % drop is not very big in terms of investments, so if this affects your retirement plans, then it would indicate that you maybe have not yet quite accumulated a big enough pot to retire yet.

The main point I was making is that instead of answering my specific question, they appear to be treating it as a complaint that remains unanswered.
Yes this seems very unsatisfactory, but hopefully some of your questions have been answered above now.

dosh37

Actually I have been retired for some years. The 'retirement date' I was referring to is the date that you give the Pension company i.e. the date after which they expect you to begin drawing on the fund. If the pension pot has decreased in value I could delay until it recovers. That way I get more Tax Free income.

dunstonh

Which Aviva pension department is it?

Bristol (ex AXA Sun Life)
Salisbury (ex Friends Prov)
Norwich (ex NU)
Glasgow (Aviva platform)
Sheffield or others (depending on version)

Aviva can range from being one the fastest with some things to one of the slowest with others depending on the contract type and location.

Albermarle

dosh37 said:

Actually I have been retired for some years. The 'retirement date' I was referring to is the date that you give the Pension company i.e. the date after which they expect you to begin drawing on the fund. If the pension pot has decreased in value I could delay until it recovers. That way I get more Tax Free income.

OK that makes sense. We are all hoping that our investments make some kind of recovery soon, although some pundits think they could go down further/take a very long time to recover. Nobody knows really.
Otherwise if you can check the real time performance of the two funds, then I am pretty sure you will see they have gone down this year, and this is reflected in the overall pension value going down.

dosh37

Today (6th June) I received a response letter from Aviva (dated 30th May).

The letter basically says that the estimated fund values given in both the 'retirement options' and 'retirement notification' letters are based upon standard growth rates provided by the FCA.They do not factor in the performance of the actual funds that a particular pension pot is invested in.

There are three FCA standard growth rates (Low rate, Mid rate and High rate). Aviva apparently use the higher of the three figures to make things look more optimistic.

In my view these 'your pension could be worth' figures are not a very useful guide when trying to decide whether to begin drawing my pension in July or to defer it for another year.

They could have easily given me this information in response to my original secure message rather than treating it as a complaint.

I expect the customer service employees who deal with secure messages and don't know the answer simply pass it on to the complaints dept.