Annoying insurance niggle

[timwilky]

I have a critical illness policy with Scottish Provident for which I pay £55 a month. Until July when it went it went up to £116 a month. I have to admit I had not noticed until today and got on the phone to them.

Apparently they have had a mid term review of my policy and decided to double it.

Why did you not ask my consent?
We do not have your address

Well why did you ask for it as part of the "security" questions.
That is your old address, not your new one

I haven't moved
Yes you have

No I have lived here for 25 years, the policy is only 10 years old

Well why have you returned our mail
I haven't

Well someone has, can you please write to us with proof of your new address.
I haven't moved, there is no new address, your system is wrong.


Well we cannot tell you why we have doubled your premium until we have proof of your address.
Look, you have my address. I have never told you I have moved, so stop assuming I have moved and issue the letter now.

We cannot, we need your address.



Is this bloke dumb or what. I want to know why they have doubled my policy premium, taken it without my consent. He wants to write to me and wont accept the address they already have is correct.

Agghh!!!!

[Bri w]

er how will writing to him with your address help when you would be ... a bright spark is he?

Would he accept an email

[the_lone_wolf]

one of those phone jockys following a script again me thinks.

[timwilky]

Originally Posted by Owenski

one of those phone jockys following a script again me thinks.

Co incidence I had that yesterday

My virgin media ultra reliable internet wasn't

when you reboot the modem it assigns the attached device an RFC 1918 class c (192.x.x.x) address and then when it has booted it clears the address and fails to assign a full internet ip address. My diagnosis is something wrong with their DHCP server.

first call, 3 for a fault, 2 for internet etc.

Hello sir this is fred with the Indian accent. after 20 minutes of script reading that I am not understanding, we cannot support unix system. IT ISN'T MY SYSTEM AT FAULT, IT IS YOUR NETWORK he decides that the problem is with my system and transfers me to their charge system to get help with my system.

Phone down and another indian voice. Can you please transfer me to a UK based call support centre please. No call back!

3rd attempt definately an English voice, at least this time I might be able to understand him. He at least listens before telling me to reboot. It does what I said it is doing, so at least he tells me to do something useful and disconnect from the cable network and reboot. This time I get the RFC 1918 address but it never clears as the modem has not connected to the VM system. Yes sir, that definitely confirms there is nothing wrong with your system and that the failure to assign an address is on our network. HALLY BLOODY LULIAH. I connect back to the cable network whilst he makes other calls.

5 minutes later, yes sir we have just been told there is a fault in your area. If it hasn't cleared in the next 4 hours please call us back.

Now if I could get an ISP other than virgin I would be off like a robbers dog. why o why do customer services get outsourced to people who provide such bad service that thier customers go elsewhere.


I feel like having a right good rant at someone this week.

Originally Posted by timwilky

justifiably frustated stuff.

Now if I could get an ISP other than virgin I would be off like a robbers dog. why o why do customer services get outsourced to people who provide such bad service that thier customers go elsewhere.

I'd wager its because they're obliged to provide a customer service helpline department but in reality they dont have any interested in actually serving their customers any help. Make it head bangingly frustrating to call said CSHD and no one will bother.

my 2p worth.

I'll PM you timwilky - I can help you with this. I used to work for the Financial Ombudsman Service

C'mon tim, you only had to phone three times and you have proved it's them at fault and not you, that's a bloody result is that.

If you want a UK representative from VM, the only way to get it seems to be to call in office hours - everyone based in this country knocks off at 6 and the script monkeys pick it up after that.

Also, having read up and watched an episode on watchdog on this subject i wouldnt trust critcal illness cover at all.
Very very over priced, wont pay out on as many things as you think, many policies mis sold, if you are self employed it complicates things.
It says cancer, but a woman with abbey nationals (on watchdog) policy had breast cancer and because she recovered, they didnt pay out.

Not worth the paper its written on imo