I am a Customer Relations Manager for Norwich Union

[andyford2000]

Hi Becca,

just been pointed in your direction and was wondering if you could give me your thoughts on this.

Hi

I have mortgage with Stroud and Swindon and I believe Amicus Legal Ltd handled the legal expenses side of things.

I lost my job 2 years ago, might add it was unfair dismissal. I selected a solicitor to handle my case based close to home. anyway the case took a while to get to court. on reviewing my household insurance it turned out that I have legal expense cover, which covered me for this kind of thing.

i had a couple of weeks to go before my court date, so I contacted them to see if they would be prepared to cover my legal costs. I was told that I would infact have to sack my solicitor who was acting for me and use one of the solicitors on their panel. I explained that I wouldnt be able to do that as the closeness of the court date. they asked me how much it was probably going to cost for my solicitor. I informaed them that it was going to cost in the region of about £10,000.00. They said that if i was to use one of there solicitors they would cover the cost and it shouldnt be more than £2000.00 in any case. I wasnt sure how they could say that as they didnt know the complexity of the case. Anyway to cut a long story short as they say. I carried on using my legal team and was sent a cheque for £2000.00 towards the costs, meaning I had to pay the other £8,000.00.

what I suppose I really need to know is, are these people total cowboys and should they infact of coved the whole cost.

If this is so, do I have some kind of case to recover the rest of my money, if so, how do I go about it.

Helllllllllpppppppp please

	What are your rights at work Follow this link to read the review of the Guide to your Rights at work, published by Lawpack

	Household Insurance Click link to open in new window.

[beccus]

Hi
From what i understand of legal expenses insurance (although this is only from what I was told in relation to our own cover) then you should be given the right to use your own solicitor when it comes to proceedings but the insurers will do their best (with their solicitors) to stop it going to court.

As I say, this is how i understand it to work, but without being able to look into the case I couldn't say more, i hope this helps.
Becca

[tandom]

Originally Posted by Rooster-UK

Hi Tandom.

I've been reading this thread, with interest.
I note that you are a bit wary. I can understand that.
Be assured that Norwich Union is here as a guest of CAG to try to provide another service facility for the users.

Although it is all above board, obviously you shouldn't post your details in the open forum. That is why Becca has given you an email address to send it to. Notice that it is a Norwich Union email address. That can only be a bona fide N/Union employee.
If you send the details that Becca asks for, to that email address, then nobody on the forum will see it.

Regards, Rooster.

I repeat that as I do not have a claim, I see no reason to provide my policy details.

My question which has only been partly answered was whether a company like Norwich Union, hot on customer service, had any concerns about putting their policy holders into the hands of a company with dubious business practices over which they had no control and whether I could appoint my own solicitor if I wished to make a claim.

Norwich Union first advised that they dealt with many legal expenses insurance companies before confirming that DAS were indeed the underwriters for their policies (therefore this is out of their control). They also advised that if I issued proceedings I could appoint my own solicitor and DAS would pay. They have not advised whether they had any concerns about putting their policy holders into the hands of companies with dubious business practices.

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[beccus]

Apologies tandom, i did not notice that part of your question. Obviously dubious business practices is something we do not take lighlty, I will need to get these claims investigated higher up.

Becca

[beccus]

Just a brief reminder that as of 5 pm today I shall be out of the office and off of the internet *gibber*.
Please keep your questions coming though...

Becca

[Darce]

Originally Posted by tandom

I have not yet made any claim and I am concerned that you are requesting my policy number and seeking to identify me when postings on this site are supposed to be on an anonymous basis.

Your company, which purports to be hot on customer service, contracts with customers to provide a service, namely legal expenses insurance, which is not supplied by yourselves and which you have no control over. There is some evidence that the company actually providing the service has been involved in dubious business practices. You appear to be unable to address legitimate concerns over Norwich Union's association with this company on this site.

I am of the impression that your joining this site nothing more that a PR exercise intending to assure the public of your company's commitment to customer service and I would be interested to know how many customers complaints have actually been resolved by your intervention.

I am not convinced that Norwich Union are adverse to doing business with companies of dubious business practice. There are no ethics where money is concerned. DAS was probably the cheapest quote. Incidentally, only approximately £2 of the £16 cost of legal expenses insurance goes to the legal expenses insurer the rest goes to the household insurer.

I was informed of the dubious business practices of Hill House Hammond which was owned by Norwich Union and had dealings will DAS. They were a broker for other insurance companies policies as well as their own policy Haven Insurance. They would advise policy holders of a cheaper insurance companies policy at the end of the year's cover but if documentation was delayed and an accident happened between covers they would transfer the policy holder to Haven at the same cheap price. There is a concept that premiums should be based on risk but this was not the case with Haven which resulted in higher than normal amount of claims which had been intentionally put there therefore higher premiums had to be paid by the policy holder. Hill House Hammond was of the opinion that it did not matter whether it was the share holders or the policy holders who paid for these claims therefore it always fell to the policy holders. Norwich Union was made aware of this practice but did not act.

It may now be the time for the government to step in and regulate insurance companies who appear to be unable to regulate themselves. The FOS is nothing more than a dog without teeth.

	The Financial Ombudsman Service For the most part, don't bother. The Ombudsman is an industry arranged service which is under-resourced, takes too long, lacks clear transparency. You have no idea what evidence the FOS has received from the bank or how your complain has really been handled. The FOS is the preferred complaints route for the banking industry. The county court is to be preferred by consumers for its speed, openness, the quality of its awards and also because it will award 8% interest on top of any damages won by you. The Ombudsman should normally be used to solving little technical difficulties or customer service problems which you have expereinced with your bank.

[Brumie]

Originally Posted by beccus

Hi
My name is Becca Sibley and I am a Customer Relations Manager for Norwich Union, I have joined this site in the hope of being able to extend our Customer Service onto the internet

Hi Becca,
Can you advise on the best course of action to take regarding the following problem:-

We have a static caravan that has been affected by the recent flooding.

The assessor has contacted us to advise that is has been written off and requires replacing, the caravan is covered by the VANGUARD new for old policy protected by Index linking (or so we were led to believe!)

The van is a fairly high spec Willerby that is no longer in production, having taken professional advise and inspecting various vans ourselves and consulting the glass's guide the equivalent replacement is the Willerby Aspen MK5.

The Insurers are informing us that the maximum payout is the Index linked sum insured, This sum is £10k short of the quotations we have obtained to replace the van with like for like new for old on the same pitch at the same site.

I do understand the clause about sum insured, but as the policy is "protected" by Index linking I would assume that the sum insured,(calculated by the insurers) is the actual cost of replacing the caravan, due to the fact they have to work out all the cost involved and set the premium accordingly, otherwise the premium for replacing our caravan on a new for old basis is merely a guess, and I should have done all the assessing myself and have it underwritten myself and not pay the insurers for the service they purported to provide.

Are we as consumers expected to obtain quotations to carry out all repairs in every eventuality every time we take out an insurance policy?? Or do we use the services of a reputable insurance provider!

There are a number of other insurers on the site and they have covered all the costs involved replacing Identical vans. We have found out that our premium £450 is way above the premium paid to the other insurance that have settled the claims new for old like for like.

So having paid over the odds for over a decade we are left with a shortfall of £10k, hope you can advise.

Brumie.

(Counting the bricks on my house as we speak, just in case.........)

[smarts]

Originally Posted by tandom

I am a Norwich Union policy holder and I am impressed with the company's commitment to customer service in that you have joined this site. However, I note that the legal expenses insurance on your policies is provided by DAS Legal Expenses and after considering other threads on the insurance site, I do find it somewhat surprising that a company so hot on customer service would place their policy holders in the hands of a company where apparent concern exists in respect of their dubious business practices. My policy/contract is with Norwich Union and not DAS and I would be extremely grateful for your confirmation that if in future I have cause to make claim on the legal expenses part of the policy, you would be prepared to arrange for a different company to deal with this on my behalf, or alternatively,my own solicitor.

I have never posted before but am now unable to resist

The Consumer Action Group has done amazing things. It has placed power back in the hands of ordinary people and forced big companies like Norwich Union the largest insurance company in the United Kingdom to listen to the voice of ordinary people, no mean feat. The placing of an customer service advisor on this site is a calculated PR exercise designed to convince the ordinary people that Norwich Union is committed to customer satisfaction.

Norwich Union provides most of the business for the legal expenses insurance companies and for that they have high expectations. If the legal expenses insurers accepts a claim from a policy holder of another insurance company and the third party is insured with Norwich Union they advise the legal expenses insurer that they will withdraw their business if the handler proceeds against the Norwich Union policy holder. If the handler continues, asserting their loyalty to their client, Norwich Union will use the business relationship to make unsubstantiated allegations to managers about the conduct of the handler. The legal expenses insurer cannot risk the loss of the Norwich Union business and will then seek to convince the client that their claim will not succeed or else they will pay the claim themselves to prevent any complaint to the FOS.

The reason for Norwich Union doing business with companies of dubious business practices? Tandom must now make his/her own assumptions on the reasons behind the relationship.

	The Financial Ombudsman Service For the most part, don't bother. The Ombudsman is an industry arranged service which is under-resourced, takes too long, lacks clear transparency. You have no idea what evidence the FOS has received from the bank or how your complain has really been handled. The FOS is the preferred complaints route for the banking industry. The county court is to be preferred by consumers for its speed, openness, the quality of its awards and also because it will award 8% interest on top of any damages won by you. The Ombudsman should normally be used to solving little technical difficulties or customer service problems which you have expereinced with your bank.

[beccus]

Originally Posted by Brumie

Hi Becca,
Can you advise on the best course of action to take regarding the following problem:-

We have a static caravan that has been affected by the recent flooding.

The assessor has contacted us to advise that is has been written off and requires replacing, the caravan is covered by the VANGUARD new for old policy protected by Index linking (or so we were led to believe!)

The van is a fairly high spec Willerby that is no longer in production, having taken professional advise and inspecting various vans ourselves and consulting the glass's guide the equivalent replacement is the Willerby Aspen MK5.

The Insurers are informing us that the maximum payout is the Index linked sum insured, This sum is £10k short of the quotations we have obtained to replace the van with like for like new for old on the same pitch at the same site.

I do understand the clause about sum insured, but as the policy is "protected" by Index linking I would assume that the sum insured,(calculated by the insurers) is the actual cost of replacing the caravan, due to the fact they have to work out all the cost involved and set the premium accordingly, otherwise the premium for replacing our caravan on a new for old basis is merely a guess, and I should have done all the assessing myself and have it underwritten myself and not pay the insurers for the service they purported to provide.

Are we as consumers expected to obtain quotations to carry out all repairs in every eventuality every time we take out an insurance policy?? Or do we use the services of a reputable insurance provider!

There are a number of other insurers on the site and they have covered all the costs involved replacing Identical vans. We have found out that our premium £450 is way above the premium paid to the other insurance that have settled the claims new for old like for like.

So having paid over the odds for over a decade we are left with a shortfall of £10k, hope you can advise.

Brumie.

(Counting the bricks on my house as we speak, just in case.........)

Hi
Thanks for your comment, apologies I haven't got back to you sooner but I will get this looked into for you this week.

Are you happy to send me some more details to my email address: rebecca.sibley@norwich-union.co.uk and I will be able to look specifically at your policy and the claim with my colleagues in claims.

Thanks
Becca

[Brumie]

Originally Posted by beccus

Hi

Originally Posted by beccus

Thanks for your comment, apologies I haven't got back to you sooner but I will get this looked into for you this week.

Are you happy to send me some more details to my email address: rebecca.sibley@norwich-union.co.uk and I will be able to look specifically at your policy and the claim with my colleagues in claims.

Thanks
Becca

Hi Becca,

Thanks for your response, I am more than happy to supply you with any info you require, the only additional information as far as I can see, would be the policy number & address along with the names of the broker & assessor along with a copy of his letter to us, Please advise as to any further info you require.
As they say timing is everything..... I am off to Greece for a fortnight as of this evening, so I'll forward the details upon my return, in the meantime could you post a reply with the current info, and I’ll read it from Greece.
Best regards,
Brumie.

[beccus]

Originally Posted by Brumie

Hi Becca,

Thanks for your response, I am more than happy to supply you with any info you require, the only additional information as far as I can see, would be the policy number & address along with the names of the broker & assessor along with a copy of his letter to us, Please advise as to any further info you require.
As they say timing is everything..... I am off to Greece for a fortnight as of this evening, so I'll forward the details upon my return, in the meantime could you post a reply with the current info, and I’ll read it from Greece.
Best regards,
Brumie.

Hi brumie

I think the only additional info I will need will be policy number, but will investigate further in the next couple of days (in meetings all afternoon).

Have a fab time in Greece!!

Becca

[beccus]

Hi Brumie,
I've just had a chat with one of my colleagues in the claims team and we will be able to investigate this for you, it may be that the difference takes into account the age of the van (but i can't be 100% sure without looking at specifics), it may also be possible for you to negotiate the figure - again this is just a thought.

When you get back we'll talk further and we can get someone in the claims team to look into this properly and explain what is going on and to see what we can do.

Becca

[tandom]

Originally Posted by beccus

Apologies tandom, i did not notice that part of your question. Obviously dubious business practices is something we do not take lighlty, I will need to get these claims investigated higher up.

Becca

Will you be making any response to the observations of Smarts?

[beccus]

Hi Tandom,
I'm looking into this as we speak, talking to people and finding the right answers to the points raised.

To answer one point though, CAG is a wonderful forum and without it I wouldn't be able to be here listening to the things that are being said and helping the people that need it but don't know where to start... We are trying to shift customer focus and are working hard to make you heard.

Becca

[patrickq1]

the answer to useing loss adjusters is you appoint your own loss adjuster and not the insurance L A they are working for the insurance you are at liberty to appoint your own builder and loss adjuster,this is your home and your way of thinking may differ from a appointed loss adjuster.my advice SACK THE BUILDER and appoint your own...

[dosh]

HI Becca,
I sent you an email regarding my Car insurance but I haven't heard anything from you.

Ianyway i have had a bad experience with norwich union direct. I was being hit by a third party, I decided not make a claim at that point as the third party was also trying to claim from me. The claim was not resolved for a very long time, so i lost my no claims bonus even though they was no payment made to the third party. My premium went up from about 700 to over 1400. I had no letter to say what the outcome of the claim is, I decided to run after them, recently i was told the case has been closed because they did not get any response from either of us for over 12 months.
I was told by the Personal injurt team that i should get my No claims bonus back and all i have to do is call customer service and tell them.

I was on the phone for over 2 hours being transfered from one department to another going round in circles, 1 cust rep told me that the case was settled as 50-50, which is a lie and that they had already paid the claimant which i means i cant get my no claims bonus back. I called the personal injury team again and they said that its not a 50-50 claim, that i should get my no claims back. I called cust services again and told them what i was told by the personal injury team. Unbelievably the customer services guy in india asked me to give him the number for the personal injury team because he did not have it. he now phoned them to confirm and he finally reinstated my no claims bonus.

i dont know why all norwich union departments are not using the same system or sharing the same data.

The most annoying part is this, i should get some refund back due to my no claims bonus being reinstated.

my last premium during the accident with 3yrs no claims was about 750 which was 69 a month
the following year with i yr no claims went up to over 1400 which is about 140 a month
Now that i have my no claims bonus back which is now 4 years, my account was readjusted to be £90 a month,

I have paid 140 for about 7 months now, which means i have over paid my premium but you guys still want to collect £90 a month extra from me

The worse thing is that a quote on your website gives me less than £50 a month.

I trried to explain this to the Customer service guy in India but they dont understand

	Car Insurance

[beccus]

Hello dosh,
I'm sorry that i have not got back to you, I am investigating this and will chase up the team asap for you.
becca

edit: dosh just spoken to the team that need to investigate this and I'm sorry nothing has been done, we will be in touch asap.

[dosh]

Thanks I have sorted most of it out myself, The problem is my refund, at the moment it looks like i am better off getting a new quote from Norwich union on your website which is less than £50 a month, or another insurance company which is even cheaper and fight for some refund on the other policy, but that will be as a last resort if nothing is sorted.

[beccus]

There are a lot of issues in this thread, let me try and address those that relate to us and try and clarify from our end.

Firstly it is important that I state now NU does not condone 'dubious business practices'. There areinstances in the past in which we stopped using suppliers whose performance was not up to standard. I'm confident that we'll do so again in the future if necessary. We have a large supplier management team within NU, and part of their job is to monitor the performance of these suppliers.They take customer feedback about our suppliers very seriously and they do act on it.Where a pattern of poor performance does appear our first course of action is towork with our suppliers to identify causes and put these right. If this fails to resolve the problem then as already mentioned we will end the relationship.

In terms of DAS legal expenses, they are one of several companies we use to provide legal expenses cover for our policyholders.DAS are a significant player in this market. If their performance is bad we want and need to know why and how. You will appreciate that it is difficult to act unless information is both specific and detailed. I am also unaware of any significant pattern of complaints or poor performance against DAS at this time.

It's a hard for me to make comment on a number of the other allegations that have been made since they are wide ranging in nature.Clearly I'm unlikely to agree with comments such as 'there are no ethics where money is concerned', or that 'Norwich Union will use the business relationship to make unsubstantiated allegations to managers'. This is absolutely not my experience and there are certainly no policies or procedures in place instructing staff to behave in this way. I think any attempt to instill such practices would quickly become public knowledge as well as cause a strong reaction among staff.

I'm also not in any way pretending that everything is a bed of roses in terms of the service that customer receive either from NU or our suppliers. Of course both NU and our suppliers let our customers down occasionally and it's a source of deep embarrassment to me and the people I work with when this happens.It's also the case that sometimes our responses to customer complaints is not what it should be. This is one of the reasons why NU has started to take part in on-line conversations on this and other forums. We want customers to know that we do care, and we want to spot service failure wherever it exists so that we can fix it. Rome wasn't built in a day - but we are getting much better at this and most of our customers say that they are happy with the service we provide to them. Most customers is not good enough though and our aim is for all our customers to say that they've been treated fairly by us.

I'm not surprised that there is some cynicism about my role in on-line conversations. The challenge for me and my colleagues is to prove that we are sincere in what we're trying to do. I guess the proof will come from how we respond to the comments that people post about us, and the tone of what these comments might say. I am fully committed to doing my bit to help our customers and I have many colleagues who feel the same.

I hope that this has answered all the key points that have been made. If there are further specific problems then please do let me know about them so that I can become involved.

Becca

[Trojan1401]

Becca,

It's good to know that NU are taking a pro-active view with regard to consumer forums and that your presence on this forum and others is with the blessing of the powers that be.

I deal with NU on a regular basis in a professional capacity with motor fleet and since the commercial claims hub in Birmingham was introduced there are very few instances where a client has had cause to complain. Usually it ends up being the clients fault for delays etc but as the saying goes, the customer is always right.

Personal lines handling is different mainly due to the volume of calls claims that you receive and there will always be the "horror" story that happens from time to time. I'm sure though that you will no doubt assist with those who contact you via this forum.

I just thought I would put a positive comment in respect of NU as there are a few negatives. Mind you, there may not be that many commercial fleets left with NU if your commercial guys keep trying to harden up the market - which we could do with though !!!!