AVIVA Pension - atrocious customer service. Should I complain to an Ombudsman?

nb_bob

I have been trying to restart my payments into my Aviva pension since the beginning of February. I stopped payments in 2021 for various reason. I know; silly boy! Would an Ombudsman be interested in this? Here's the timeline of my predicament.

10th Feb 2023:
Initial contact with Aviva to re-instate payments into pension and change funds. Forms would be emailed.

21st Feb 2023:
Still not received forms. Called again and forms were resent and were received on the same day. Forms were filled in and posted.

6th March 2023:
Forms were delivered to Aviva via Recorded Delivery.

30th March 2023:
Called Aviva to enquire what’s happening as I had received no communication. I wanted to know when the payments into my pension would resume. Was told my enquiry would be ‘escalated’.

3rd April 2023:
Called again and was told to expect a reply by tomorrow, 4th April, which would be within 3 days of the enquiry on the 30th.

4th April 2023:
Still not received any communication. Sent in an official complaint via the Aviva website.

11th April 2023:
Called again and spoke to someone. She said the documents with the information about when my payments would restart would be emailed to me on the 17th of April.

17th April 2023:
The documents were not sent so I called again. The person I spoke to said I should not have been told the documents would be sent in a week as there is a standard 2 week leadtime for this. I was then told the documents would be emailed on the 2nd of May which meant the 2 week leadtime had reset when I phoned on the 17th! !!!!!!!!

18th April 2023:
Sent in an official complaint via the Aviva website.

18th April 2023:
Received an email from the Customer Care Team acknowledging my complaint. I should expect a reply within 4 weeks

18th April 2023:
Contacted Aviva via WhatsApp. Was told somebody would call me back by 5pm. Nobody called.

19th April 2023:
WhatsApped Aviva to inform them nobody called.

20th April 2023:
Someone called. Said they would escalate my enquiry and try and get the requested documents to me earlier. They also said the normal time period for reinstating payments was about 10 working days. Nothing has been sent yet.

Kim1965

I would say this is fairly typical of pension administrators. I have a similar scenario with TPs, its been longer than your  issue. 

nb_bob

Kim1965 said:

I would say this is fairly typical of pension administrators. I have a similar scenario with TPs, its been longer than your  issue. 

It's highly frustrating, isn't it. 'Powerless' is a word that sums it up. I've done everything to get them actioning my request but they've failed miserably.

Rich1976

Seems a bit archaic to have to post forms to restart contributions. Do they not allow you to restart online?

I was with Aviva and before that Norwich Union for a short period of time 20 years ago and their service was equally atrocious back then with forms getting lost in the post or taking ages to respond to

Marcon

nb_bob said:

I have been trying to restart my payments into my Aviva pension since the beginning of February. I stopped payments in 2021 for various reason. I know; silly boy! Would an Ombudsman be interested in this?

Depends if you can resolve it satisfactorily. Given the waiting time for a complaint to be considered, you'll just drag out your own sense of fury and frustration - and you won't normally be able to go to an Ombudsman until any complaints process has been exhausted (or, in the case of FOS, a company has failed to reply within 8 weeks of your making a formal complaint).


Here's the timeline of my predicament.

10th Feb 2023:
Initial contact with Aviva to re-instate payments into pension and change funds. Forms would be emailed.

21st Feb 2023:
Still not received forms. Called again and forms were resent and were received on the same day. Forms were filled in and posted.

6th March 2023:
Forms were delivered to Aviva via Recorded Delivery.

30th March 2023:
Called Aviva to enquire what’s happening as I had received no communication. I wanted to know when the payments into my pension would resume. Was told my enquiry would be ‘escalated’.

3rd April 2023:
Called again and was told to expect a reply by tomorrow, 4th April, which would be within 3 days of the enquiry on the 30th.

4th April 2023:
Still not received any communication. Sent in an official complaint via the Aviva website.

11th April 2023:
Called again and spoke to someone. She said the documents with the information about when my payments would restart would be emailed to me on the 17th of April.

17th April 2023:
The documents were not sent so I called again. The person I spoke to said I should not have been told the documents would be sent in a week as there is a standard 2 week leadtime for this. I was then told the documents would be emailed on the 2nd of May which meant the 2 week leadtime had reset when I phoned on the 17th! !!!!!!!!

18th April 2023:
Sent in an official complaint via the Aviva website.

18th April 2023:
Received an email from the Customer Care Team acknowledging my complaint. I should expect a reply within 4 weeks

18th April 2023:
Contacted Aviva via WhatsApp. Was told somebody would call me back by 5pm. Nobody called.

Why, when you'd just complained and been told to expect a reply within 4 weeks?

19th April 2023:
WhatsApped Aviva to inform them nobody called.

20th April 2023:
Someone called. Said they would escalate my enquiry and try and get the requested documents to me earlier. They also said the normal time period for reinstating payments was about 10 working days. Nothing has been sent yet.

This is only the third working day.

Please see above.

The words 'banging head on brick wall' spring to mind - but the problem is then exacerbated by the number of times you've tried to communicate, including 6 times in the 4 days 17-20 April. I can understand why you've done so, but each time you send yet another communication, it means someone has to deal with it, further delaying actually progressing and resolving the issue.

Is there anything to stop you proactively making payments e.g. by sending a cheque or initiating a bank transfer, rather than waiting for Aviva to collect a direct debit (which is what I presume you were waiting for them to do)?

dunstonh

Would an Ombudsman be interested in this? 

No. You do not yet qualify to use the ombudsman.

Seems a bit archaic to have to post forms to restart contributions. Do they not allow you to restart online?

Their modern contracts allow a lot to be done online but older contracts are still largely paper based or require the instruction to go to the right place.  With Aviva that is vital as a number of its legacy companies still operate out of their original office and do not have access to policy details of the other offices.

Aviva installed  a new phone system a couple of months ago and its failing big time.   Plus, with tax year changeover, a lot of resources are shuffled for the busiest time of the year.   Put the two together and you have their customer service falling off a cliff.  Which is a shame as they had improved it so much in recent years.  I dread it as I have to ring them tomorrow and I know the phone line is going to be another hour of the only tune they have on rotation at the moment as the voice recognition cannot understand English.

nb_bob

Rich1976 said:

Seems a bit archaic to have to post forms to restart contributions. Do they not allow you to restart online?

I was with Aviva and before that Norwich Union for a short period of time 20 years ago and their service was equally atrocious back then with forms getting lost in the post or taking ages to respond to

My online account is very limited in what it can do. I can look at the figures of each fund... and that's about it. If I remember correctly, my pension started out as a Sunlife (I'll have to check paperwork), then it was taken over by AXA, then Aviva. I don't think Aviva is interested in it. Zero online functionality. Zero customer service.

nb_bob

Marcon said:

nb_bob said:

I have been trying to restart my payments into my Aviva pension since the beginning of February. I stopped payments in 2021 for various reason. I know; silly boy! Would an Ombudsman be interested in this?

Depends if you can resolve it satisfactorily. Given the waiting time for a complaint to be considered, you'll just drag out your own sense of fury and frustration - and you won't normally be able to go to an Ombudsman until any complaints process has been exhausted (or, in the case of FOS, a company has failed to reply within 8 weeks of your making a formal complaint).


Here's the timeline of my predicament.

10th Feb 2023:
Initial contact with Aviva to re-instate payments into pension and change funds. Forms would be emailed.

21st Feb 2023:
Still not received forms. Called again and forms were resent and were received on the same day. Forms were filled in and posted.

6th March 2023:
Forms were delivered to Aviva via Recorded Delivery.

30th March 2023:
Called Aviva to enquire what’s happening as I had received no communication. I wanted to know when the payments into my pension would resume. Was told my enquiry would be ‘escalated’.

3rd April 2023:
Called again and was told to expect a reply by tomorrow, 4th April, which would be within 3 days of the enquiry on the 30th.

4th April 2023:
Still not received any communication. Sent in an official complaint via the Aviva website.

11th April 2023:
Called again and spoke to someone. She said the documents with the information about when my payments would restart would be emailed to me on the 17th of April.

17th April 2023:
The documents were not sent so I called again. The person I spoke to said I should not have been told the documents would be sent in a week as there is a standard 2 week leadtime for this. I was then told the documents would be emailed on the 2nd of May which meant the 2 week leadtime had reset when I phoned on the 17th! !!!!!!!!

18th April 2023:
Sent in an official complaint via the Aviva website.

18th April 2023:
Received an email from the Customer Care Team acknowledging my complaint. I should expect a reply within 4 weeks

18th April 2023:
Contacted Aviva via WhatsApp. Was told somebody would call me back by 5pm. Nobody called.

Why, when you'd just complained and been told to expect a reply within 4 weeks?

19th April 2023:
WhatsApped Aviva to inform them nobody called.

20th April 2023:
Someone called. Said they would escalate my enquiry and try and get the requested documents to me earlier. They also said the normal time period for reinstating payments was about 10 working days. Nothing has been sent yet.

This is only the third working day.

Please see above.

The words 'banging head on brick wall' spring to mind - but the problem is then exacerbated by the number of times you've tried to communicate, including 6 times in the 4 days 17-20 April. I can understand why you've done so, but each time you send yet another communication, it means someone has to deal with it, further delaying actually progressing and resolving the issue.

Is there anything to stop you proactively making payments e.g. by sending a cheque or initiating a bank transfer, rather than waiting for Aviva to collect a direct debit (which is what I presume you were waiting for them to do)?

It's a fair point but I've given them plenty of time to resolve my issues and they're well over the 'normal 10 day' turnaround time and, to be honest, 'communication bombardment' was my last hope of kicking in any real chance of what might be called 'normal customer service' on the basis that somebody might pick up on a lot of messages from a disgruntled customer and action my request. Nope.

You are correct about the Direct Debit. I was going to include a cheque when I sent back my Reinstatement Forms but there weren't any details on who to make the cheque payable to. They'd have only lost it or cashed it in and had the money for nearly 3 months and not invested in my chosen funds.

Marcon

nb_bob said:

Marcon said:

nb_bob said:

I have been trying to restart my payments into my Aviva pension since the beginning of February. I stopped payments in 2021 for various reason. I know; silly boy! Would an Ombudsman be interested in this?

Depends if you can resolve it satisfactorily. Given the waiting time for a complaint to be considered, you'll just drag out your own sense of fury and frustration - and you won't normally be able to go to an Ombudsman until any complaints process has been exhausted (or, in the case of FOS, a company has failed to reply within 8 weeks of your making a formal complaint).


Here's the timeline of my predicament.

10th Feb 2023:
Initial contact with Aviva to re-instate payments into pension and change funds. Forms would be emailed.

21st Feb 2023:
Still not received forms. Called again and forms were resent and were received on the same day. Forms were filled in and posted.

6th March 2023:
Forms were delivered to Aviva via Recorded Delivery.

30th March 2023:
Called Aviva to enquire what’s happening as I had received no communication. I wanted to know when the payments into my pension would resume. Was told my enquiry would be ‘escalated’.

3rd April 2023:
Called again and was told to expect a reply by tomorrow, 4th April, which would be within 3 days of the enquiry on the 30th.

4th April 2023:
Still not received any communication. Sent in an official complaint via the Aviva website.

11th April 2023:
Called again and spoke to someone. She said the documents with the information about when my payments would restart would be emailed to me on the 17th of April.

17th April 2023:
The documents were not sent so I called again. The person I spoke to said I should not have been told the documents would be sent in a week as there is a standard 2 week leadtime for this. I was then told the documents would be emailed on the 2nd of May which meant the 2 week leadtime had reset when I phoned on the 17th! !!!!!!!!

18th April 2023:
Sent in an official complaint via the Aviva website.

18th April 2023:
Received an email from the Customer Care Team acknowledging my complaint. I should expect a reply within 4 weeks

18th April 2023:
Contacted Aviva via WhatsApp. Was told somebody would call me back by 5pm. Nobody called.

Why, when you'd just complained and been told to expect a reply within 4 weeks?

19th April 2023:
WhatsApped Aviva to inform them nobody called.

20th April 2023:
Someone called. Said they would escalate my enquiry and try and get the requested documents to me earlier. They also said the normal time period for reinstating payments was about 10 working days. Nothing has been sent yet.

This is only the third working day.

Please see above.

The words 'banging head on brick wall' spring to mind - but the problem is then exacerbated by the number of times you've tried to communicate, including 6 times in the 4 days 17-20 April. I can understand why you've done so, but each time you send yet another communication, it means someone has to deal with it, further delaying actually progressing and resolving the issue.

Is there anything to stop you proactively making payments e.g. by sending a cheque or initiating a bank transfer, rather than waiting for Aviva to collect a direct debit (which is what I presume you were waiting for them to do)?

It's a fair point but I've given them plenty of time to resolve my issues and they're well over the 'normal 10 day' turnaround time and, to be honest, 'communication bombardment' was my last hope of kicking in any real chance of what might be called 'normal customer service' on the basis that somebody might pick up on a lot of messages from a disgruntled customer and action my request. Nope.

You are correct about the Direct Debit. I was going to include a cheque when I sent back my Reinstatement Forms but there weren't any details on who to make the cheque payable to. They'd have only lost it or cashed it in and had the money for nearly 3 months and not invested in my chosen funds.

Ring them and find out the payee, then send your cheque pronto with a reminder of your chosen funds/any reference number for your scheme. Once a provider receives a cheque they are required to present it quickly and if it isn't invested in your chosen funds from that point, and you lose out as a result, you are in a better position to ask them to make good any 'loss' than if you just wait in hope.

Prism

If a company doesn't seem able to take your business then why not go elsewhere with it. There are plenty of other platforms which you could have up and running in no time.

TheBanker

Prism said:

If a company doesn't seem able to take your business then why not go elsewhere with it. There are plenty of other platforms which you could have up and running in no time.

This - unless the pension has any special benefits that you want to keep, I'd open a new pension elsewhere that allows online management, and make my payments there. I'd then ask the new provider to transfer in the old Aviva pension. The transfer will probably take a bit of time but it happens in the background and there's no need to keep chasing it up.

Ultimately if you do this you won't have to deal with Aviva any more, and can service your account online, so probably a better outcome than waiting for a FOS complaint to be decided and receiving possibly £100 compensation for poor service.