Churchill Car Auto Renewal Price Hike - Successfully Negotiated Massive Reduction

XRS200

Willing2Learn said:

I am also able to assess poor corporate morality and business practices that disregard the needs of the consumer (and customer).

So who did you buy your cover from this year?

Willing2Learn

Again you are not talking about an auto renewal of an identical policy and cover, for the same named driver etc... with no changes to previous year.....

How is that so difficult to understand?
And when did I ever say an 18 year old should be charged the same as a 45 year old? 

Again, this thread is about auto renewals.... 
Not phone renewals.
Not online renewals.
Not any other type of non-automated renewal.
Only automated auto-renewals.

sheramber

If you don’t like how the company work why do you buy from them?

Willing2Learn

XRS200 said:

Willing2Learn said:

I am also able to assess poor corporate morality and business practices that disregard the needs of the consumer (and customer).

So who did you buy your cover from this year?

sheramber said:

If you don’t like how the company work why do you buy from them?

This is what I said in my opening post (as thread starter):
"Although this post relates to Churchill, this auto-renewal ripoff is a practice replicated by many others in the industry.  Churchill are a good company and no different from any other provider."

As you can both see, I never said I did not like Churchill.
They have a product that precisely fits my requirements.
As I stated, other providers have the same business model with regard to auto-renewals.
Therefore, I chose to buy a product from Churchill.

This thread is not about Churchill.
Nor is it about me.
It's about making sure consumers know that the auto-renewal process, (ie a renewal rwithout any changes to cover or product), may well cause them to pay up to 50% more than the best price they could get from the same provider by simply phoning them....

This thread is about consumer protection, (one of the core values of MSE).

This thread is about saving people money.
Money that can be spent on nice things for their children.
Or on food.
Or on clothes.
Or maybe to go toward a family holiday.

This country is in a cost-of-living crisis.
Every penny saved by a consumer is extremely important.

This forum is part of the MoneySavingExpert platform for a reason.
To save people money.
And to guide and protect consumers from spending too much for a product or service.

Willing2Learn

UPDATE:

The complaints section of Churchill phoned me today.
(They really are an extremely efficient and professional company.  Churchill are a provider I would recommend).

The firstly wanted me to confirm the nature of the complaint.

I restated to the Churchill representative that my complaint is that the Churchill auto-renew system wanted to insure me with the exact same cover as the year before (without any changes to the product), at a premium that is 50% more than the price I could get by phoning them.
I again reasserted my opinion that this system was immoral and effectively takes significant funds from thousands of people across the country, who are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.
I did also mention that this appears to be an auto-renew quotation system used across a significant percentage of the sector, and is not specific to only Churchill.

The representative replied that as a result of my telephone conversation last week, I now have cover for approx £2700 instead of the approx £4200 originally offered by the auto-renew system.
The Churchill agent also said that the auto-renew premium was effectively only a quotation, and that customers are always free to ring up, to see if the premium could be lowered.
The agent was effectively closing the complaint with this argument.

I said that I would need to escalate the process as I do not consider the outcome to be satisfactory for 3 reasons:
1) The auto-renew system is meant to be a system that means zero contact between provider and customer, on the basis that there are no changes in either the product or the cover.  To charge a premium up to 50% extra for a "no contact" service is immoral and robs customers across the country of their hard-earned money.
2) Because I had to phone Churchill from Egypt to correct what I consider a 50% overcharge due to an immoral business practice, I am seeking reimbursement of my £75 call charges.
3) I am requesting a change to the auto-renew process used by Churchill, so that customers get offered a fair price in the first instance.  (I again restated my belief that 50% extra via auto-renew is immoral and also mentioned that I would probably have accepted 10%).
I asked that I get a response from senior management as to why they consider this policy to be fair, when it means that many customers would simply not notice and will be paying significantly more than they should, simply because many will not check.
Again I reflected on the cost of living crisis here.
And fairness too.
I asked for this policy to be amended.
I said that this is not just about me.  This is also about ordinary people across the country.


The above fully summarises the conversation between myself and the representative from Churchill complaints department.
I will update again, once I get a response.