Little Insurance Rant

[raceboy]

Nnow in the big scheme of things this is somewhat trivial but it really started to wind me up last night
Phoneing around for bike insurance (hopefully picking it up on Sunday, it's going to be a busy weekend) and was basically just working through the Yellow Pages, and Bike Trader, anyway I was making a note of the companies I'd rung along with their quotes, I then phone one company and the call centre muppet asks me if they had quoted for me in the past, "No" says I, only to be told by muppet that I had indeed had a quote off them 15 minutes ago
Now this company was a completely different name with a completely different phone number, on some calls the call centre bod even quoted a different name to the one in their advert which helped as I could instantly dismiss them if I'd already phoned the other company, in one case the same company had 5 different alias's and was told each one would give exactly the same quote
Anyway eventually found a straight talking company and got a very competative quote, and I can even wait until Sunday to call them and start my cover, and by this time I was getting sick of it all so I'm going for them
So why do the insurance companies do it

[icamm]

Bizarre. Can't say I've ever had that myself. I guess that after the first one I would have asked them what other names they are trading under. That way I wouldn't be wasting their time or mine.

[cotty]

I can only offer a sugestion but there were a lot of buyouts in the motor insurance industry and a company could have taken over 3-4 other companies. It maybe that they kept the names of each company to save confusion with their customers.

[raceboy]

I did end up asking if they were part of any other company before going through all the details after it had happened twice
In some of the cases the names are very similar, for instance one is named after a place where a historic battle occured, and another is the date of an historic battle So I think it is just a marketing ploy so they have a chance of getting you business even if you only look at every other page

[dave_s13]

Its a growing trend in the building industry to set up sattelite companies just for one project, ie. developer builds a new shopping centre so they set up 'Mr Bigs shops ltd'; if it all goes tits up the comapny declares bankrupcy writes of its debts and the parent Co. comes out alive.

I think it may be along the same lines as that or its a ploy to get as many different ads in the Yellow pages (and other publications) as possible.

Or I could be talking shite

>> Edited by dave_s13 on Thursday 20th February 14:15

[moreymach]

Look in Yellow pages and you'll see around a dozen adds for Norwich Union !! all different style and diferent names but in the small print reference to CGNU as the underwriters.. total con to give the impression that you've got several different quotes from different insurers.. Direct Line arnt any better with Tesco and Privilege.. Lloyds TSB and Prudential = Churchill... The insurance industry is rotten FROM the core...

[loaf]

moreymach said: The insurance industry is rotten FROM the core...

What the HELL justifies that statement? Lloyds & Tesco, to use two examples, have decided (sensibly) that they do not have the in-house expertise or the resources necessary to provide their customers with a service - in this case general insurance - so they've outsourced it. What exactly is wrong with that?

Another example - Churchill struck a deal to market the Pru general portfolio under the Pru brand (for 15 years) as Pru made a policy decision to get out of that market and concentrate on their core business - life insurance and pensions. Why is that rotten? WHY? It happens in EVERY other industry from IT to bog cleaners to defence to Mc-bloody-Donalds - why single out insurance?

By all means create constructive debate - but don't talk bolocks.

[moreymach]

I run a brokerage and the last 15 years working within the insurance industry I think qualifies me quite well to make that statement. Within that time the standards of service have fallen as the industry has deskilled itself in an attempt to cut costs. Insurers try to create a venear of respectability through slick advertising but beneath that you will find an industry that has more in common a back street motor trader than a professional financial organisation. This 'we care' aura is generally shattered the first time somone actually needs to call upon them. The (to my mind) slighty sneaky marketing styles talked about in this thread are just one example. An incident this morning was on my mind when I made the earlier post, we hold a liability risk with a major insurance company and recived renewals on behalf of our client late and with a 30% increase in premium on last year. I contact the insurer and after much bickering they agree to renew at a 5% increase with the proviso that 'we cant go any lower than that because that the rate we would quote for new business..' ie. 'well of course we shaft our existing clients and only quote competitive rates if we have too'. Claims are dealt with on turn down what we can and minimise the rest basis and if the client isnt happy so what if we've saved a grand or 2. GISC regulation hasnt helped one iota and I fear the FSA will fare no better.
I imagine that you may work within the IT side of the industry and can see how you may feel protective toward it as I would have done at one time, not any more mate, talk to anyone whos been at it for few years and you'll get the same same story from them

[loaf]

moreymach said:
I run a brokerage and the last 15 years working within the insurance industry I think qualifies me quite well to make that statement. Within that time the standards of service have fallen as the industry has deskilled itself in an attempt to cut costs. Insurers try to create a venear of respectability through slick advertising but beneath that you will find an industry that has more in common a back street motor trader than a professional financial organisation. This 'we care' aura is generally shattered the first time somone actually needs to call upon them. The (to my mind) slighty sneaky marketing styles talked about in this thread are just one example. An incident this morning was on my mind when I made the earlier post, we hold a liability risk with a major insurance company and recived renewals on behalf of our client late and with a 30% increase in premium on last year. I contact the insurer and after much bickering they agree to renew at a 5% increase with the proviso that 'we cant go any lower than that because that the rate we would quote for new business..' ie. 'well of course we shaft our existing clients and only quote competitive rates if we have too'. Claims are dealt with on turn down what we can and minimise the rest basis and if the client isnt happy so what if we've saved a grand or 2. GISC regulation hasnt helped one iota and I fear the FSA will fare no better.
I imagine that you may work within the IT side of the industry and can see how you may feel protective toward it as I would have done at one time, not any more mate, talk to anyone whos been at it for few years and you'll get the same same story from them

Yes I do work in IT and I am somewhat protective of the industry - but I used to work in the underwriting side, Mrs Loaf still does, so I'm not completely oblivious to the goings-on. I would also add that a lot of complaints about insurance arise because people have misconceptions about what is or isn't covered - usually because they haven't read the paperwork.

Sorry to hear that you have to deal with what sound like scum, but there's bad apples in every barrel. As to one company offering more than one brand, how is that sneaky? It's outsourcing the supply of services, pure and simple. When you walk into Sainsbury's and buy their own label tinned carrots, do you feel hard done by when you find out that both theirs & Tesco's own label carrots are both produced by Hazlewoods? Not fcuking likely, you just tuck into your dinner and forget about it. What companies like Pru and LloydsTSB and Tesco are doing with their insurance provision is no different to what you do as a broker in terms of acting as a middleman.

[minimax]

So why do the insurance companies do it

from my experience it seems to be that one company will advertise on one page "young driver insurance specialists" and on another "women driver specialists" and so on, thus fooling unsuspecting j.bloggs into thinking they're dealing with a specialist when really it's just a broker. It's still bloody annoying though

[raceboy]

loaf said:.As to one company offering more than one brand, how is that sneaky?

The point is the adverts do not obviously link the companies together, if they had one branch for young drivers, one for sportscars, one for bikes, fair enough but these were posing as seperate companies and it was simply a waste of my time phoning company B to be told it was actually company A who I had phoned earlier.
Anyway it all became a pointless exercise as the sale of the bike fell through at the 11th hour anyway