Misleading advert

Emily_Joy

Please relocate if this is not the right Section of the Forum. 

Our house insurance is with Safeguard. Back in May I got an email saying that I can register on their online portal and manage the insurance/submit claim online. 
The trouble is the customet section of their "online portal" is not available neither from France, nor from Germany, nor from Australia. 
So in order to renew the policy I had to spend 20 minutes on the phone (while in Australia) listening to prerecorded message saying that "I can manage my policy online from anywhere at any time". *sigh*. 
I tried online chat and their friendly online agent explained that 1) yes, it is not possible to login from abroad; 2) they cannot help me to renew and I have to call. 
I just want to register a complain because of the inconvenience it all caused. 
Are there any regulations I should refer to when registering the complaint? 

flaneurs_lobster

Did you try a VPN? 

Ayr_Rage

It's the same with many UK companies, for security reasons they do not allow access from foreign IP addresses and that's the line they'll quote if you make a complaint.

You'll be banging your head against the wall trying to get them to change theirs minds about remote access.

There are no regulations that I know of that specifies they must allow access from outside of the UK.

However, in most cases using a VPN will get over that hurdle, many are free to use up to a certain data level, try that.

eskbanker

Emily_Joy said:

Please relocate if this is not the right Section of the Forum. 

Our house insurance is with Safeguard. Back in May I got an email saying that I can register on their online portal and manage the insurance/submit claim online. 
The trouble is the customet section of their "online portal" is not available neither from France, nor from Germany, nor from Australia. 
So in order to renew the policy I had to spend 20 minutes on the phone (while in Australia) listening to prerecorded message saying that "I can manage my policy online from anywhere at any time". *sigh*. 
I tried online chat and their friendly online agent explained that 1) yes, it is not possible to login from abroad; 2) they cannot help me to renew and I have to call. 
I just want to register a complain because of the inconvenience it all caused. 
Are there any regulations I should refer to when registering the complaint? 

Is there actually a misleading advert stating global access though?

Brie

Don't know what regs you might quote but I'd be saying that since it's a lie as you can't manage your policy "from anywhere at any time" that you expect to be paid for your time and the cost of the calls.  If I was trying to phone from overseas I know it would be costing me about £50 for a 20 minute call.  

MyRealNameToo

Emily_Joy said:

Please relocate if this is not the right Section of the Forum. 

Our house insurance is with Safeguard. Back in May I got an email saying that I can register on their online portal and manage the insurance/submit claim online. 
The trouble is the customet section of their "online portal" is not available neither from France, nor from Germany, nor from Australia. 
So in order to renew the policy I had to spend 20 minutes on the phone (while in Australia) listening to prerecorded message saying that "I can manage my policy online from anywhere at any time". *sigh*. 
I tried online chat and their friendly online agent explained that 1) yes, it is not possible to login from abroad; 2) they cannot help me to renew and I have to call. 
I just want to register a complain because of the inconvenience it all caused. 
Are there any regulations I should refer to when registering the complaint? 

There is the potential for regulatory issues if they sell to someone in the EU even if the insured risk is in the UK unless they have a licence to sell insurance in France or Germany etc. Since Brexit UK firms have lost their passporting rights and now have to setup a branch in the country if they want to do so. 

This is most likely why they are IP filtering to stop them from breaking their licensing rules. 

The answer is to get a VPN, its not a golden bullet as some will also block the IP addresses used by the most common VPN softwares but in principle it will make you appear as if you are still in the UK and circumvent their restrictions. 

There arent really any regulations to refer to, there are more that justify why they should be blocking overseas sales. 

Most insurers give notice of renewal about 28 days in advance, were you really gone for over a month that you couldn't have done it before or after the holiday? 

Was the policy not set to auto-renew such that it would have renewed anyway had you not made contact and thus removed your need to contact them?

powerful_Rogue

Brie said:

Don't know what regs you might quote but I'd be saying that since it's a lie as you can't manage your policy "from anywhere at any time" that you expect to be paid for your time and the cost of the calls.  If I was trying to phone from overseas I know it would be costing me about £50 for a 20 minute call.  

Depends on the network. O2 would be free.

Grumpy_chap

Why is the OP seeking to manage their home insurance policy from France, Germany and Australia?
Has the OP been away from home continuously since May?
If so, does the policy cover such long absences?
If not, why not do the policy admin when back at home?

powerful_Rogue said:

Depends on the network. O2 would be free.

What - even from Australia?

powerful_Rogue

Grumpy_chap said:

Why is the OP seeking to manage their home insurance policy from France, Germany and Australia?
Has the OP been away from home continuously since May?
If so, does the policy cover such long absences?
If not, why not do the policy admin when back at home?

powerful_Rogue said:

Depends on the network. O2 would be free.

What - even from Australia?

Yup, if you are with Virgin Media and O2.

Emily_Joy

flaneurs_lobster said:

Did you try a VPN? 

I tried proxy tunnel; my employer in the UK allows this. I managed to login but then got 502 bad gateway error trying to renew. 

Emily_Joy

Ayr_Rage said:

It's the same with many UK companies, for security reasons they do not allow access from foreign IP addresses and that's the line they'll quote if you make a complaint.

You'll be banging your head against the wall trying to get them to change theirs minds about remote access.

There are no regulations that I know of that specifies they must allow access from outside of the UK.

However, in most cases using a VPN will get over that hurdle, many are free to use up to a certain data level, try that.

I don't understand why a house insurance for a house in England cannot be sold to a British citizen and UK tax resident who happened to be abroad at the time when the renewal is due.