My Experience With Whatever They Are Called (Norwich Union)

Member Name: jupiter28

Product:	Norwich Union
Date:	23/06/09 (217 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They contacted me....

Disadvantages: Inefficient, disjointed operation, foreign-based call centre

The place I currently work has mandated that all non-employees must park in the NCP car park across the road, so not only forcing us for the privilege of working at the said establishment, but also giving us the joy of parking in a public car park. I had an incident with a Norwich Union driver and this is about my experience in dealing with Norwich Union on the matter.


Day 1 - day of the accident, a white van towing a burger trailer moves up the driver side of my vehicle whilst my vehicle is parked stationary in the public car park. I get back to my car after work thinking (WTF) has happened to my car upon seeing the damage. The security guard is already on the case and the white van man, after some further discussion, eventually realises what he has done and is extremely apologetic and provides all the details required for me to make the claim against his insurance

Day 2 - I get hold of my insurance company and report the incident to get the ball rolling and I arrange for my car to be repaired at a non-approved repair centre.

Day 4 - I get a call from the 3rd party insurance company (Aviva/Norwich Union) accepting liability and stating they will pay for the repairs as well as a hire car charges. At this point I was so pleased that I had not been done over by someone without insurance or claiming that I was liable that I forgot to ask them to put this in writing or for contact details if I needed to get in touch. All I had was a call from Chris on a Norwich Union number that had a recorded message when you called back. No problem I thought, I'll ring the claims number and request this. Easy or so I thought.

Day 6 - I finally managed to find the time to ring Norwich Union back on the claims number on their website. After explaining the whole situation to the person that answered the call (it was a call centre based in India) which was difficult in itself. Imagine trying to explain that you are a 3rd party trying to claim against one of their drivers - they don't take too kindly to that. So after explaining all of this, I was told I had to ring another number, but never mind, they are so helpful that they can transfer me. Great, I have to hold again! After holding a little while and going through the details again I spoke to another person from what appeared to be the same call centre and stated that I needed confirmation of acceptance of liability on the matter. Yes, they can send that to me, even better they can email it to me. Great, these folks couldn't be of more help, or so I thought.......

Day 7 - no email has arrived, never mind, give it another day after all who knows how the system works

Day 8 - still no email so I rang back the second number I had been given. The usual rigmorole of who I am, what the situation is, what do I want, only for the Indian-based call centre to tell me that they had no record of accepting liability but never mind I need to ring another department that is dealing with the matter.

My thoughts: Oh ok, yet another number to ring, I was starting to get worried, no record and all I am getting is people who want to be helpful, but actually have no clue about what I am asking....

So, I did what I would usually do is request to speak to the manager. After about 5 minutes of debate where the call-centre based guy did not want to transfer me I got put through to someone who was supposedly senior. He claimed there was no record or liability. So at this point I proceeded to explain that I had a call from a certain name and number on Day 4. The manager claimed this number did not exist within Norwich Union, to which I responded that there was a recorded message at the end saying I had a courtesy call from Norwich Union. For heaven's sake. So no joy from the manager, he gave me another number to call, which he stated was the department that deal with a claim like this. After getting the number, I just hung up.

My thoughts: I don't need this, the car is booked in for repairs, the hire car is arranged and now the insurance company are reneging on the deal and I'm supposed to be working!!!!!! All I want is a bloody letter that states Norwich Union's position on liability!

After ringing the 3rd number, a recorded message said this number was not in use and referred me back to the 2nd number. So I duly rang back the 2nd number and told them the whole situation (it was becoming a farce and I was the only one experiencing it) and how I was being bounced between numbers. Rest assured, this fellow had given me the correct number.

My thoughts: sure you think it is the correct number (like all the others who thought they were correct numbers) and once I've hung up, I am not your problem. Then people wonder why I am so cynical?

So, I rang the 4th number given to me, to speak to a lady in what appeared to be the same call centre, explained the situation and what I wanted and she said those immortal words, you need to ring another number. OMG, my blood was boiling and she started reciting the number and I finished it off for her. She still hadn't got it, she was referring me back to a number I had already tried, in fact it was telephone number 2. I went nuts. so she said she would hold with me until the call was passed through and explain my situation, as she was confident it was the right number/department and couldn't understand why it didn't work. So she held for 10 minutes and couldn't get through at which point I stated I would go back to my insurance company, even though Norwich Union came direct to me.

At this point I was seriously considering re-engaging my insurance company to process my claim, but before I did, I rang the accident repair centre to see if they had had contact from Norwich Union and she had, so she kindly gave me the number she had been given. I rang that number and explained where I had got the number from and the English lady on the phone said she didn't deal with accidents so I was extremely annoyed about this (unsurprisingly) and then I explained that I had been given 4 numbers to call by various people in NU and I wasn't making any progress. So she said she would put me through to complaints and they would get to the bottom of the matter. I wasn't so sure.

But, yes indeed I did speak to a complaints handler and even though this wasn't a complaint from me, they dealt with it efficiently and the lady I spoke to took the claim details I had and sent me an email stating they had accepted liability. FINALLY! What was supposed to take 10 minutes maximum had taken me about 2-3 hours over the course of a few days.

Day 11 - Car is in for repair and I now have a hire car, paid for by Norwich Union - result.

Day 12 - I got a call from someone claiming to be from Claims Direct (or something) following up my incident on behalf of Norwich Union. After asking me an initial question of whether I had any other damages, which I thought strange in itself rather than asking who I am, I stated that any communications should be in writing before I would act upon it. I'm not in the habit of agreeing or compromising my situation on the phone from some random caller. The caller said that was fine and then hung up. Didn't even ask or check my address or registration or even name, so if they are genuine they will have my details, then I will get a formal letter about this. If not I haven't passed on any sensitive details which I'm thankful for.

Whether I am a policyholder or not, I think this state of affairs is quite shocking. I find it extremely inefficient at how the call centre is managed and am disappointed in general at the disjointed operation of this whole situation. I suppose I could have made a complaint but I just wanted my car repaired and this inconvenience and hassle over. What really gets me is that you as an individual coming up against a company will not be considered seriously. I felt I was accused of lying by Norwich Union just because their part of the claim record did not state they were liable.

After this experience, there is no doubt about whether I will use Norwich Union or Aviva and I'll think twice before I give them a call for a competitive quote. No doubt, there are countless other people who have had a positive experience with Norwich Union and I might be in the minority. I think the Insurance companies should now consider following a lot of the UK banks (Natwest comes to mind) and bring back the call centres to the UK. This situation will now cause me to avoid Norwich Union where I can.

I know Norwich Union are in the process of re-branding, but I wonder if the change of name to Aviva is really to rid them of the bad image that Norwich Union may be associated with....giving 1 star is still too much.

Thank you for reading. This review will be posted on other sites by me.

© jupiter28 2009

Summary: Is this why they changed their name?