Endowment Company Taking AGES to surrender

snapyou

I have an endowment with Phoenix which was performing very badly so decided to cut my losses ,surrender it and put into my Halifax mortgage.
I sent all the relevant information(as they informed me) to Phoenix on the 4th November but when i phoned a month to say it still had not been paid into my mortgage I was told that they needed a further piece of info from the Halifax.I did this and they received it on the 5th December.In their info and on the phone I was told it would take 10 working days to be processed and for the money to be put into my mortgage.
I have phoned on several occasions(last time was yesterday) since saying that it STILL had not been paid in only to be told every time that it will be within my account in "the next few days". This is now a MONTH later.
Anyone have any advice or who I should complain to?
The service from Phoenix has been awful:no one seems to know what they're doing and on one occassion,I was told that the delay was because,"the office is in bit of a mess at the moment" !!!

Thanks in advance

21castlehill

If my surrender is anything to go by you will probably get your money in arround another 90 days time, mine was almost 5 months by the time all the nonsense stopped.

dunstonh

Anyone have any advice or who I should complain to?

You complain to Phoenix. 30-45 days is what you would expect from them. After that and you should pressure them.

You shouldnt expect good service from a closed life company. They are not run for your benefit.

snapyou

I have just been on the phone to Phoenix AGAIN and told that "it looks like your payment got stuck" ! and that now i was to receive £12,340 instead of £12,973 because "the terminal bonus went down on the 1st of January".
This despite been told on numerous occasions in December that payment would "definatley" be made before the end of the year.
I have been in touch with the financial ombudsman and raised an official complaint with Phoenix.

On one occasion,I was told that the delay was because"the office was in a mess and everything was higgledy-piggledy" !!!!
Have I got a good case to receive the higher payment ?

Who else can i complain to about this company?
Oh,now I've been told that payment will be within 5 days!
What experience have other people had of Phoenix on here?

snapyou

dunstonh wrote: »

You shouldnt expect good service from a closed life company. They are not run for your benefit.

What is a closed life company?

dunstonh

What is a closed life company?

One that is no longer open for new business.

Phoenix are a mix and match of old failing insurance companies which have been bought purely to run down. The owners (venture capitalist) earn from the charges.

Most of the time you will find IFAs switching people out of Phoenix plans into modern alternatives with the exception of those that have high exit charges or a minority which contain guarantees worth keeping.

Who else can i complain to about this company?

No-one. You have to go through the internal complaints proceedure before you can go to the FOS.

snapyou

glastowinebar wrote: »

Well I surrendered mine with Standard Life in December. I would not be exaggerating by saying I was on the phone to a SL operative no more than a minute (went through automated security checks first) and it was done. The money was in my account in 7 days

It seems that's the way it SHOULD be done.

I really don't know how Phoenix are getting away with this poor service.
If I don't receive satisfaction I'm going to my MP

David_Aston

Hello snapyou
Did you ever get your surrender value with Phoenix sorted? I have just posted elswhere on these forums, about them not taking my monthly premiums since we changed bank accounts. And only three payments due before the final payout!!!

snapyou

Hi David,
Yes,i did FINALLY get the surrender value i was after a LONG series of complaints.

David_Aston

Hello Snapyou
Pleased you got your surrender value, eventually!
Is it unreasonable of me to expect my maturity payout on the due date, I wonder? At least they have started taking the premiums again. With my luck, now they have started again, it is going to be hell to stop them after the final three payments are taken!

EdInvestor

dunstonh wrote: »

One that is no longer open for new business.

A closed life company is also known as a "zombie fund".
You can see why.