Aviva Zero Motor Insurance.

dosh37

My car insurance is due to expire in early October.

The premium had increased since last year so I used Money supermarket for some quotes.

Aviva Zero was about the cheapest so I filled in the online details and paid.

I subsequently discovered that, because I had entered my landline number in the contact details, when I tried to login, the one-time authentication code was sent to my email address.

I didn't like that idea so I tried to change my contact details.

Clicking 'Edit' next to the phone number just took me to a blank page.

Thinking it might be a Firefox browser issue, I tried MS Edge. Same problem.

So then I tried to find a customer service 'live chat' window.

There isn't one. All that's available is a completely useless AI driven chatbot.

When I looked at some forums online, I discovered that Aviva Zero has an appalling Customer Service reputation: It is almost impossible to speak to a real person.

I eventually found a customer service phone number by logging into the 'My Aviva' website.

(I happen to have a pension account with them).

I had to listen to a load of irrelevant pre-recorded messages and enter all sorts of information using my landline DECT keypad. As expected I ended up with the 'we are unusually busy, blah blah' message followed by several minutes of annoying 'musak'. Eventually the system offered a call-back process.

About 15 minutes later I received the call-back.

After I explained the problem I was told I wasn't able to change my phone number using the website because the policy was not active until October. Duh!

It was hard to hear what the guy was saying because of his foreign accent and the gabble of loud voices in the background - obviously an open office call center.

I eventually managed to get him to change the number.

By this stage I was getting pretty annoyed and had enough. If it's that difficult to change a phone number, what will it be like if I need to make a claim?

I decided to cancel the policy altogether. Instead I accepted the original renewal quote from my existing insurer. It may be a bit more expensive but at least they provide decent Customer Service.

Anyone else had experience of Aviva Zero Customer Service?

Mark_d

I was with Churchill for the last 10 years until I finally sold my car.  Service was great and I could negotiate a good price each year.

Getting quotes/using comparison sites is always a good thing.  But when you change provider, there's always a change that they'll be worse.  So I'd always check reviews before switching

Badboi

Been with aviva zero for 2 years now, not a bad word to say for them, dealt with my accident quickly and professionally, renewal was less than the previous years too.  

MyRealNameToo

dosh37 said:
Anyone else had experience of Aviva Zero Customer Service?

No personal experience but overwhelmingly the comments on here are positive. 

Home insurance has been with Aviva, not their Zero subbrand, for years. 

Aviva Online gets a bit more mixed response but thats mainly people who bought on price but then doing like that you can't call them outside of claims but thats mainly misbuying than anything to level at a brand that is clearly online only. 

dosh37

MyRealNameToo said:

dosh37 said:
Anyone else had experience of Aviva Zero Customer Service?

No personal experience but overwhelmingly the comments on here are positive. 

Home insurance has been with Aviva, not their Zero subbrand, for years. 

Aviva Online gets a bit more mixed response but thats mainly people who bought on price but then doing like that you can't call them outside of claims but thats mainly misbuying than anything to level at a brand that is clearly online only. 

Well this is a comment I found on another forum:-

For anyone coming to this post later, be aware that 'Aviva Zero' is NOT the same as just 'Aviva': The reason it is cheap is because you cannot ever speak to a human, you can only use webchat in a tiny little window like you might expect from a fourth rate web store. It's a shocking product, their repairer network really isn't that good and if you want to use your own repairer, then it doesn't matter if you have a zero excess policy (as I do), or that the other party has admitted full liability (as they did): They will charge you a £500 excess, and if you haven't paid for their legal cover they won't reclaim it for you from the other party, so you're left to your own devices to try and claim it back off the other insurer (I'm sure that's not unique to them, but it's a racket that restricts consumer choice nonetheless which I am sure has the whiff of some sort of mis-selling scandal all over it somewhere down the line).

It's actually worse than that because what the OP refers to as 'webchat' does not connect you to a human, it's a useless AI driven chatbot. It was unable to tell me how to carry out a simple change such as my phone number or contact details.

It was also unable to tell me how to cancel my policy online before it became active. 

By law, there is a minimum 14-day cooling-off period during which you can cancel a policy for any reason. I could find nowhere on the website that allows you to do that for a policy that is not yet active. They do not provide a Customer Service phone number on the website so how is that supposed to work?

MyRealNameToo

dosh37 said:

MyRealNameToo said:

dosh37 said:
Anyone else had experience of Aviva Zero Customer Service?

No personal experience but overwhelmingly the comments on here are positive. 

Home insurance has been with Aviva, not their Zero subbrand, for years. 

Aviva Online gets a bit more mixed response but thats mainly people who bought on price but then doing like that you can't call them outside of claims but thats mainly misbuying than anything to level at a brand that is clearly online only. 

Well this is a comment I found on another forum:-

For anyone coming to this post later, be aware that 'Aviva Zero' is NOT the same as just 'Aviva': The reason it is cheap is because you cannot ever speak to a human, you can only use webchat in a tiny little window like you might expect from a fourth rate web store. It's a shocking product, their repairer network really isn't that good and if you want to use your own repairer, then it doesn't matter if you have a zero excess policy (as I do), or that the other party has admitted full liability (as they did): They will charge you a £500 excess, and if you haven't paid for their legal cover they won't reclaim it for you from the other party, so you're left to your own devices to try and claim it back off the other insurer (I'm sure that's not unique to them, but it's a racket that restricts consumer choice nonetheless which I am sure has the whiff of some sort of mis-selling scandal all over it somewhere down the line).

It's actually worse than that because what the OP refers to as 'webchat' does not connect you to a human, it's a useless AI driven chatbot. It was unable to tell me how to carry out a simple change such as my phone number or contact details.

It was also unable to tell me how to cancel my policy online before it became active. 

By law, there is a minimum 14-day cooling-off period during which you can cancel a policy for any reason. I could find nowhere on the website that allows you to do that for a policy that is not yet active. They do not provide a Customer Service phone number on the website so how is that supposed to work?

So as usual this is an issue of someone buying a policy because its cheap without actually reading the terms...

Paying an excess is irrespective of fault, whilst some may waive it as a gesture of goodwill you shouldn't assume you will get goodwill. Having an additional excess for choosing your own garage is getting increasingly common just as there almost always is for a young driver or a newly qualified driver. 

Legal Expenses cover is for recovering your uninsured losses, an excess is an uninsured loss. They were offered the service, they declined to pay for the service but are now complaining they didnt get the service they didnt pay for. 

If someone posted on the travel forum that they had booked a hotel, the agent had offered to arrange the flights for them too but they'd declined but they're now at the airport and the airline won't let them on people would be pointing out the poster was the author of their own misfortune not quoting the post as evidence that the travel agent or airline is poor. 

You really need to think when you read peoples complaints about insurance because most of them are just highlighting their own ignorance and/or poor choices. Mass market consumer insurance is bought not sold, it's their fault for declining to take LE cover. 

SaverRate

dosh37 said:

MyRealNameToo said:

dosh37 said:
Anyone else had experience of Aviva Zero Customer Service?

No personal experience but overwhelmingly the comments on here are positive. 

Home insurance has been with Aviva, not their Zero subbrand, for years. 

Aviva Online gets a bit more mixed response but thats mainly people who bought on price but then doing like that you can't call them outside of claims but thats mainly misbuying than anything to level at a brand that is clearly online only. 

Well this is a comment I found on another forum:-

For anyone coming to this post later, be aware that 'Aviva Zero' is NOT the same as just 'Aviva': The reason it is cheap is because you cannot ever speak to a human, you can only use webchat in a tiny little window like you might expect from a fourth rate web store. It's a shocking product, their repairer network really isn't that good and if you want to use your own repairer, then it doesn't matter if you have a zero excess policy (as I do), or that the other party has admitted full liability (as they did): They will charge you a £500 excess, and if you haven't paid for their legal cover they won't reclaim it for you from the other party, so you're left to your own devices to try and claim it back off the other insurer (I'm sure that's not unique to them, but it's a racket that restricts consumer choice nonetheless which I am sure has the whiff of some sort of mis-selling scandal all over it somewhere down the line).

It's actually worse than that because what the OP refers to as 'webchat' does not connect you to a human, it's a useless AI driven chatbot. It was unable to tell me how to carry out a simple change such as my phone number or contact details.

It was also unable to tell me how to cancel my policy online before it became active. 

By law, there is a minimum 14-day cooling-off period during which you can cancel a policy for any reason. I could find nowhere on the website that allows you to do that for a policy that is not yet active. They do not provide a Customer Service phone number on the website so how is that supposed to work?

It clearly states on the documentation that there is a £500 excess if you use your own repairer. 

Personally I have taken out 3 different policies with them on cover currently and have used them in the past too. Never had an issue. Before they had live chat you sent a web enquiry email to them. Always found them quick and efficient with policy changes. 

and yes if you need to make a change before the policy starts you have to contact them. 

Many insurance company are going 'online only' these days. I personally have found Aviva Zero to be one of the better ones. 

cw8825

had  a policy with them, was happy with the price and online only
had no claims but claims will be dealt with by normal aviva
had no issues changing car or accessing any information