Aviva not transfering my money to my account on maturity of my endowment

Bookdragon2055

I'm at a total loss where to go. My endowment matured on 20th July 2023 and the necessary paperwork was sent ahead of this to Aviva (they received it on 10th July). I rang Aviva a few days after the maturity date to check that everything was OK and was told that yes they had everything they needed and the money would be transferred to my account withing 3-5 working days.  Ten days later I rang them as no money had been transferred, they then said they needed a physical copy of my bank statement, I sent this by tracked delivery. I rang three days after they had received it to be told they had now authorised payment (payment hadn't actually been made) on 1st August but it would take 3-5 working days as they only use BACS.  I have raised a complaint but I can not speak to anyone in the complaints department and I am waiting on them to write to me following their investigation.  Meanwhile I still haven't got my money and having spoken to Aviva again today, they still haven't processed the payment and I still haven't been able to speak to anyone in complaints. The team I have spoken to have escalated it with the Processing/payment Team but can do no more.  I feel as though Aviva has stolen my money as it is now more than 3 weeks since my policy matured. Communication is only by Snail mail, Complaints team will not speak directly with me, they refuse to use CHAPS which will get the funds into my account the same day to stop the delay meanwhile they are gaining interest on my money and I am having to manage without it.  My understanding is that I can't go to the Ombudsman until Aviva's complaint system has been completed or 8 weeks from the time the complaint was raised, is this right? It seems incredibly unfairly balanced as if I had failed to pay an instalment for this length of time I would have had serious penalties.  Is there anything else I can do to get hold of my money or am I just going to have to be held to ransom by Aviva?

Keep_pedalling

Bookdragon2055 said:

I'm at a total loss where to go. My endowment matured on 20th July 2023 and the necessary paperwork was sent ahead of this to Aviva (they received it on 10th July). I rang Aviva a few days after the maturity date to check that everything was OK and was told that yes they had everything they needed and the money would be transferred to my account withing 3-5 working days. 

 Ten days later I rang them as no money had been transferred, they then said they needed a physical copy of my bank statement, I sent this by tracked delivery. I rang three days after they had received it to be told they had now authorised payment (payment hadn't actually been made) on 1st August but it would take 3-5 working days as they only use BACS.  

I have raised a complaint but I can not speak to anyone in the complaints department and I am waiting on them to write to me following their investigation.  Meanwhile I still haven't got my money and having spoken to Aviva again today, they still haven't processed the payment and I still haven't been able to speak to anyone in complaints. The team I have spoken to have escalated it with the Processing/payment Team but can do no more.  

I feel as though Aviva has stolen my money as it is now more than 3 weeks since my policy matured. Communication is only by Snail mail, Complaints team will not speak directly with me, they refuse to use CHAPS which will get the funds into my account the same day to stop the delay meanwhile they are gaining interest on my money and I am having to manage without it.  My understanding is that I can't go to the Ombudsman until Aviva's complaint system has been completed or 8 weeks from the time the complaint was raised, is this right? It seems incredibly unfairly balanced as if I had failed to pay an instalment for this length of time I would have had serious penalties.  Is there anything else I can do to get hold of my money or am I just going to have to be held to ransom by Aviva?

I can’t answer your question, but I have put your wall of text into a more reader friendly form. Posting without paragraphs puts people off reading your posts reducing the chance of getting answers.

penners324

Go to the Financial press. This is Money or something similar. Thos the sort of thing they get resolved.

I'd also be complaining loudly on Twitter and other social media.

Pure incompetence from Aviva

Strummer22

penners324 said:

Go to the Financial press. This is Money or something similar. Thos the sort of thing they get resolved.

I'd also be complaining loudly on Twitter and other social media.

Pure incompetence from Aviva

Agreed. A good solid public shaming should sort it out. 

dunstonh

  I feel as though Aviva has stolen my money as it is now more than 3 weeks since my policy matured.

Three weeks is still within the acceptable time period of an old fashioned life policy at maturity.       Unfortunately, these types of plans do not work the same way modern ones do.

 meanwhile they are gaining interest on my money 

No they are not.

My understanding is that I can't go to the Ombudsman until Aviva's complaint system has been completed or 8 weeks from the time the complaint was raised, is this right? 

And the ombudsman would not rule in your favour at the moment either as its still within the period deemed acceptable.     As it stands and assuming they get you the money within the acceptable period, you will probably find a small goodwill gesture from Aviva.

 It seems incredibly unfairly balanced as if I had failed to pay an instalment for this length of time I would have had serious penalties.

No you wouldn't.  Again, you are still within the acceptable period for a late payment to be made good without any consequences.

 Is there anything else I can do to get hold of my money or am I just going to have to be held to ransom by Aviva?

Maybe calm down a bit and remember that you are dealing with an insurance company with a decades old product that was not built or serviced to modern standards.     Yes, we all want good service but its still worth noting that had a modern investment had been sold on the day of maturity, it still would have taken just over a week to get to your account assuming your account had already been validated (the bank statement exercise).     At the moment, they are under two weeks off that but they had to ask you to send a statement in.   Postal times and going in their work queue for someone to look at it etc are not actually that unreasonable.      

Strummer22

dunstonh said:

Maybe calm down a bit and remember that you are dealing with an insurance company with a decades old product that was not built or serviced to modern standards.    

Why has Aviva repeatedly promised the money would be sent (and not kept their promise)? If they were honest that it would take a few weeks OP would undoubtedly have been disappointed but wouldn't be tearing their hair out at least!

dunstonh

Why has Aviva repeatedly promised the money would be sent (and not kept their promise)?

That is a frustration you frequently find with insurers.   The front line staff don't see many of the hold ups behind the scenes and think that the transaction needed will be going through as expected.

 If they were honest that it would take a few weeks OP would undoubtedly have been disappointed but wouldn't be tearing their hair out at least!

Its not about honesty.  Its about competency.

silvercar

dunstonh said:

Why has Aviva repeatedly promised the money would be sent (and not kept their promise)?

That is a frustration you frequently find with insurers.   The front line staff don't see many of the hold ups behind the scenes and think that the transaction needed will be going through as expected.

 If they were honest that it would take a few weeks OP would undoubtedly have been disappointed but wouldn't be tearing their hair out at least!

Its not about honesty.  Its about competency.

I disagree here. If they promise within days and don't deliver it is a matter of honesty. If they said it's an old policy and they never bothered to update their systems to be able to process maturing policies any quicker that would be honest. If they said they were incompetent and would take weeks, that would be honest. What they have said is they can do it in days and then fail to deliver. So why did they think they could and why say it?

MWT

silvercar said:

I disagree here. If they promise within days and don't deliver it is a matter of honesty. If they said it's an old policy and they never bothered to update their systems to be able to process maturing policies any quicker that would be honest. If they said they were incompetent and would take weeks, that would be honest. What they have said is they can do it in days and then fail to deliver. So why did they think they could and why say it?

We should always consider the source of the information when interpreting anything as a promise or a matter of honesty.

The CS staff in this case are, I am sure, giving their honest interpretation of what they believe will happen.

That doesn't make it a promise, or dishonest if it turns out to be untrue.

CSI_Yorkshire

MWT said:

silvercar said:

I disagree here. If they promise within days and don't deliver it is a matter of honesty. If they said it's an old policy and they never bothered to update their systems to be able to process maturing policies any quicker that would be honest. If they said they were incompetent and would take weeks, that would be honest. What they have said is they can do it in days and then fail to deliver. So why did they think they could and why say it?

We should always consider the source of the information when interpreting anything as a promise or a matter of honesty.

The CS staff in this case are, I am sure, giving their honest interpretation of what they believe will happen.

That doesn't make it a promise, or dishonest if it turns out to be untrue.

Absolutely.  It's quite easy for "my system tells me that payments are normally made in 3-5 days" to become "you will have it in 3-5 days".

dunstonh

I disagree here. If they promise within days and don't deliver it is a matter of honesty.

I see it differently then.  The call centre staff honestly believe what they are saying.   Its just that they don't really know what is going on.  Hence a competency issue rather than an honesty issue.

If they said it's an old policy and they never bothered to update their systems to be able to process maturing policies any quicker that would be honest.

It would be unrealistic to expect a call centre script to say that.

Just for clarification, I am not excusing them. I am just explaining what the situation is like.