Norwich Union Direct (Norwich Union Direct)

Member Name: LondonEnergy

Product:	Norwich Union Direct
Date:	02/12/05 (417 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They paid up.......

Disadvantages: But took ages doing so

This is the worst corporate nightmare in my 45 years of existence.

This article is not so much about about Norwich Union Direct (NUD) but their corporate decision to use Dixons Insurance Group Services (DIGS)to carry out estimates/repairs on NU customers electronic equipment.

I took out home policy insurance with NUD some 6 years ago, recently I had experienced an unforseen circumstance where my computer needed replacement.

[NUD have a contract with Dixons to examine machines if they can be repaired or replaced depending on the extent of damage] so someone from xxxx@dsgi.plc.com was appointed to to examine it.

We agreed they could examine the machine after I came back from a 2 week contract in Munich.

After examination they said a report would be ready within 48 hours, but instead I had to wait 2 weeks (as you do) so after contacting them on an 0870 number hundreds of times to pull their finger out, they still couldn't be bothered! So in the end I had to pay for a leased unit while I waited and waited for a repair report. They came back to me and finally said *** 'they might need to check it again' *** - I felt like exploding at that moment!!

After waiting indefinately, I got back to NUD and they suggested to get another quote from a local store, so I did, and a PC World engineer said it was beyond economic repair.

After another week of waiting I got a strange call from DIGS saying it was repairable, I asked about the damage report which was LONG overdue, they said it was just a DVD drive that needed replacement, now this was getting funny even though I was being jerked around because my machine didn't even have a DVD drive! They obviously hadn't examined it properly or lost the report I thought?

At this time NUD agreed a replacement would be in order, I pointed that I didn't want anything to do with Dixons/ PC World as they have in the past sold 2nd hand computers disguised as new ones! I insisted for a decent company like Dabs, Insight or Misco to provide necessary replacement. They suggested I get the same brand with the same model! They obviously didn't realise that Intel don't produce the same chips on their assembly lines over a six year period DOH!

In the end they agreed they would pay a cheque for todays equivalent in the retailers name which was fine by me but took them 3 weeks to complete!

My advise is don't use an insurance company especially NUD for household insurance, it's better to use use your bank instead. Don't use Dixons for ANYTHING apart from toilet facilities (if they have any?)

After some intensive research I learnt that not only do Dixons own PC World but also a subsidiary called PC Service call where they provide inflated quotations to insurance firms that DO NOT have accounts with Dixons. Hmmmm! Maybe the OFT should look into this?

What do you reckon ?

Summary: If your time is not important then dont use Norwich Union Direct otherwise they are OK