Misleading advert

Emily_Joy

eskbanker said:

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?

As far as I understand "anywhere" doesn't mean "anywhere in the UK". 

Emily_Joy

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?

The OP was trying to renew while in Australia, because current insurance expires while she is in Australia. Mr Joy is currently in Germany (and will be back after the renewal date) so I asked him if he can check. I also tried France (via proxy tunnel) and it didn't help - I cannot login. 
Importantly, one can access the website. It is just the account area one cannot access. 
Renewal quote, that Mrs and Mr Joy were happy with, arrived when I was away already. 

flaneurs_lobster

I can see the OP's point but it's really about semantics, do the words quoted in the marketing blurb mean that there should be true full access 24/7 from anywhere or does the use of the term "online" mean that such access is possible if you can establish a full-fat secure session on your device, which the OP was unable to do. 

Okell

[Edit:  Ignore]]

I'm not sure how you've been misled.

Are you arguing that if you'd known you couldn't access it overseas you would have renewed before you left the UK, or what?

Emily_Joy said:

... 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...

So did that email say you could renew online "anywhere" because you haven't mentioned it there?

Your first mention of "anywhere" is when you telephoned them from Australia:

Emily_Joy said:

... 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*...

Emily_Joy said:

eskbanker said:

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?

As far as I understand "anywhere" doesn't mean "anywhere in the UK". 

I'm not sure I would have understood that based on what you've told us about the renewal email.

And even then I'm not sure I would have understood "anywhere" to mean "anywhere in the world."

Emily_Joy

Okell said:

I'm not sure how you've been misled. Are you arguing that if you'd known you couldn't access it overseas you would have renewed before you left the UK, or what?

I am arguing that I was calling them precisely because I could not manage it online, while the prerecorded message was saying that I can. 

Emily_Joy

MyRealNameToo said:

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?

Well, most UK banks would offer current accounts only to residents, but if you already have an account, you can login to online banking actually from nearly anywhere in the world and almost 24/7, subject to scheduled maintenance.  

eskbanker

Emily_Joy said:

eskbanker said:

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?

As far as I understand "anywhere" doesn't mean "anywhere in the UK". 

Yes, not an unreasonable assumption, but the point was about whether their mention of 'anywhere' actually featured in an advert (i.e. potentially within the scope of the Advertising Standards Authority) or simply in a recorded message?

MyRealNameToo

Emily_Joy said:

MyRealNameToo said:

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?

Well, most UK banks would offer current accounts only to residents, but if you already have an account, you can login to online banking actually from nearly anywhere in the world and almost 24/7, subject to scheduled maintenance.  

Yes, but the laws around servicing and selling are different. Renewing a policy is legally the sale of a new policy as neither party is legally obliged to offer/accept the renewal. 

Banks can have issues with you applying for a new account whilst overseas, even if you are normally resident in the UK. This is the closer equivalent to renewing an insurance policy. 

Okell

Emily_Joy said:

Okell said:

I'm not sure how you've been misled. Are you arguing that if you'd known you couldn't access it overseas you would have renewed before you left the UK, or what?

I am arguing that I was calling them precisely because I could not manage it online, while the prerecorded message was saying that I can. 

What the pre-recorded message said when you phoned from Australia is irrelevant as you had already left the UK at that point.

What is important is what the renewal email in May said.

Did it say you could renew online from "anywhere"?

Or did it just say you could renew online and you assumed that that meant you didn't need to be in the UK?

And were you still in the UK at that time?

user1977

For what it's worth, their conditions here include:

"Website access and account usage

Our Website is designed to be used by people residing in the United Kingdom only. We do not represent that content available on or through our Website is appropriate for use in other locations."

Has anyone checked whether their website would be available via a VPN spoofing a UK IP address?