I am a Customer Relations Manager for Norwich Union

[Brumie]

Originally Posted by beccus

Brumie,
I'm sorry about the delay replying I've been in a different office all afternoon. I emailed you.

Becca

Thanks for your help so far Becca,

Your chief execs office has passed me on to Towergates chief exec as it is the preliminary stages, He is awaiting a full report from the loss adjuster.........I guess these things take time, its only been 7 weeks!, having just spoke with him, he has indicated that "if there is a shortfall it should only be a couple of thousand" whilst this is better than the current £10K shortfall it still comes up short of the new for old aspect of the policy. I'll get back to you when the "reports" are in. In the meantime can you advise as to where I can get a copy of the last 10 years Indexed linked sums for our policy?

Regards
Brumie.

[beccus]

the best thing I can suggest is getting them from the "admin" area for your policy, in the meantime i'll email my colleague and see what he would suggest.

Becca

[GoldyR]

Hi Rebecca,

Gr8 to see you on here! I have recently joined Norwich Union as a Trading Team Manager, having just moved from one of our competitors as a Personal Lines Team Leader, managing a v busy complaints team! My new role is very different, & it is taking some time to adjust. I miss the direct customer contact, as I have a real passion for helping customers, & developing my staff into individuals with the same vision. I have been reading Darren's diary avidly & am really really excited about the enthusiastic customer focused individuals Norwich Union have working with them...no wonder we are the leading insurer in the UK. Keep up the good work

[cazzaswfc]

Nice to read your post Goldy, seems the NU presence is growing on this forum, some of us doing this off our own back to offer advice etc, great to also see what beccus ( and Darren ) have done here as well, I don't know of any other companys that are posting on message boards!

I work at NUD in sheffield ( retention centre) I love my job and get a real buzz out of sending customers away happy, (with my job role I now I only tend to talk to customers when they are unhappy, sometimes I do miss taking calls and helping people)

Beccus, I'll email you next week, I'd love to be ( or provide) a point of contact for queries regarding renewals for nud etc)

Caroline

[beccus]

thanks guys! Its nice to have contact with people internally
keep up the good work and feel free to contact me

Becca

[patrickq1]

come on girls less backslapping lol and more customer relaitions or have you cleared up your backlog...why dont you write a note on here what to do in the event of any mis haps ie insurance floods ect it may be a big help to some who are unclear
patrickq1

[beccus]

patrickq1 - good idea, i'll put some ideas together

[Hodges]

With the latest news that NU is now well behind with its planned reorganisation and reattribution of the CULAC and CGNU With Profits Funds, I'm surprised to find that no dialogue between affected Policyholders appears to be happening online.
The reattribution is really not the issue. But that NU considers the Funds to be in huge surplus when it has paid peanuts in bonuses since it took them over certainly is!
I have raised this issue with the company on several occasions and have yet to receive a convincing response. I have written to Nick Dumbreck of Watson Wyatt, the Actuary overseeing the reorganisation and reattribution, with a full background to the unsatisfactory theory that the Funds' working capital is in surplus of the tune of £4m+ whilst the smoothing process has been so unfairly and unreasonably applied since NU acquired these Funds.
And yet still I find that the issue has not been followed-up online since earlier this year.
Strange? There are issues that are holding-up this raid on our funds - it's not as clear-cut as NU at first expected. Policyholders should use the extra time to challenge the issue.

[Brumie]

Hi Becca,

Firstly, I have a very simple question to ask you: could you honestly recommend the Vanguard new for old policy as fit for its purpose?

I am escalating the complaint to yourselves for the following reasons:

We have received an incredibly unsatisfactory response (and to be honest the service/execution is at best sub-standard) to our complaint regarding the colossal shortfall of the sum insured under the vanguard new for old policy we started back in 1998. As always, the onus is on the little bloke to try and be heard, so I will once again attempt to get our caravan replaced under the new for old policy.

As if this is not a stressful time alone, we have been subjected to incredible unnecessary further stress that is affecting the health of Mrs C.

Namely, a letter from the Director of the loss adjusters SPH, dated 14th September 2007and also figures provided by the operations director of Towergate Bakers dated 1st October 2007.

Quote: “I/we agree to accept the sum of Eight Thousand Five Hundred Pounds for discharge of all my/our claims under your policy number 60VAN28xxxxxx for damage which occurred on or before 22nd July 2007”.

This sum is £20,452 from the sum insured, which is itself £10,048 from the cost of replacing our caravan!

We have received a final response from the operations director of Towergate Bakers informing us that he is unable to uphold our complaint of the shortfall on our insurance policy. As part of the final response he has kindly supplied us with figures for the policy 1998 – 2007, showing increases in premiums and sum insured year on year, he supplied them in “screen print” format, ensuring they have come direct off the system.

We have great cause for concern when pages 8 & 9 show the exact same index date 23/09/2005 but are for different sums insured and different internal reference, supposedly for different years of our policy.

During telephone conversations with the operations director of Towergate, we were led to believe Quote: “the shortfall if in fact there is a shortfall should only be in the region of a few thousand pounds”. The shortfall is £10,000 which represents more than our life savings. We would be forced to borrow money in order to make up the difference that our premiums should have covered, we paid a premium of £473 last year where as Drews only charged around £280 for similar cover and they have already replaced the vans with new for old like for like. This weekend takes it to 11 weeks since the flood

As you are aware we took out a Vanguard new for old policy in 1998, the cost of the cover required worked out to be £22,000 this was to cover the cost of a similar new caravan and the cost of removal and installation in 1998.

We have continued to pay the premiums for nearly a decade under the firm belief that our caravan is fully insured and would be replaced with a new “like for like” caravan and the associated costs covered in the event of a total loss. This has turned out to be far from the truth.

Whilst the premiums have increased by approximately 65%, the cost of replacing the caravan has increased by approximately 77%, but the sum insured has approximately increased by only 30%

So for the last nine years, this has meant that we have paid way over the odds in premiums for the policy that we were led to believe was new for old cover. That in fact had an average shortfall of over 100% compared to the cost of replacing the caravan & associated costs, not just once but for every single year for nine years! The sum insured has averaged an increase of £906 pa where as the cost of replacing the caravan has increased by an average of £1888 pa.

We are not looking to make a profit from Norwich union just to be treated fairly, we should not be concerned with figures when we have new for old cover, all we want is a like for like van on the same site.

This has become a distressing situation that has affected our health and wellbeing, more so than if we had not even bothered with the supposed safety of insurance in the first place.

With the preceding information in mind, I re-submit my original question: could you honestly recommend the Vanguard new for old policy as fit for its purpose?

I await your response with eager anticipation.

Brumie.

P.S.
Copies of all the documents etc can be provided upon request.

[indebtstudent]

Please see my thread here. I am pretty disgusted but promise to be nice to people who actually want to help me (the guy I spoke to on the phone clearly did not give a sh**).

RAC extortionate charge...

[beccus]

To both of you,
I need to investigate these, I'm not ignoring you but am not in the office for all of today and do not want to give you half answers.

Becca

[Brumie]

Hi Becca,
Could you reassure me you are continuing to pursue my complaint, sorry to be so self centered, but from your last posting, I presumed you would get back to both Indebtstudent and myself last Friday as you were out of the office on Thursday. It is now Wednesday, four full working days later so I assume that a response from yourself, or another customer relations manager is imminent, could you please advise. Again sorry to be self-centered but when you cannot sleep because of the prevailing conditions, seven days without response can feel like a lifetime.

Regards
Brumie.

[indebtstudent]

My complaint is less pressing that Brumie's, I've already drafted my letter of complaint.

[beccus]

I do apologise to both of you - I have been off sick this week and did pass onto the relevant areas on Friday - but you are right seven days is not good enough.
Becca

[smarts]

Your e-mail address is not working, please can you confirm it? Thanks.

[beccus]

Originally Posted by smarts

Your e-mail address is not working, please can you confirm it? Thanks.

hi
its rebecca.sibley@norwich-union.co.uk

Becca

[fowlerboxes]

I am new to the site but trying to get information regarding the Norwich Union reattribution.I have a with profits pension fund affected and would like to know if there is an internet forum where we might group together and exert some pressure over the matter,in particular why the regulator seems unwilling to get involved and force the life companies to pay a proper return on with profits policies.

[MARTIN3030]

Welcome to the site.
We do have a member of NU here on Cag who answers on behalf of them.
I will move your post into Beccus thread and see if she can throw any light on this.