How do I publicise this to the unwary? ** Successfully Resolved **

[Frank4774]

In May this year my wife's sister-in-law asked if she could use our computer to search for a comparison site for car insurance.

 

To make a long story short, I'll cut to the chase and answer any questions later, I won't mention the insurer unless the Mods ask me.

 

She got a satisfactory quote, filled in the proposal form and remitted the full amount for 12 months insurance.

She received, via email to my address, a Certificate of Insurance citing insurance from June 2013 until June 2014.

 

Last week she received a letter from DVLA stating that no valid insurance for her vehicle appeared on their database.

I contacted the insurer via email, and was told that two emails had been sent to the email address she had provided, (mine), asking for proof of NCD, when no replies were received they cancelled the insurance.

 

 

In their email they quoted the email address that they had on record, it was close to mine, but minus one letter.

It materialised that they had credited the premium paid back to the sister-in- law, minus a reasonable amount for the cover they had provided until cancellation, and taken a £53 admin fee.

 

 

I pointed out that I was receiving their emails because they were replying to ones I had sent, which emanated from my computer, so how could they have a wrong address in their system?

 

 

Plus, if I had given them a wrong address, how did they send the Certificate of Insurance to the correct one?

I also asked how could they just let her drive for 4.5 months uninsured, when they had her address, and both her land line and mobile numbers to inform her of the situation?

 

 

They replied that they were an on line only company and did not send snail mail or phone customers.

She is not unduly bothered about the admin fee, but for 4.5 months she was driving completely unprotected, as were anyone that might have had an accident with her, fortunately she had no accidents.

 

 

The police were never involved, she has no prosecution pending, and is now insured with another company, but both she and I want to apprise the public about this in order that they can avoid it happening to them.

Edited October 15, 2013 by citizenB
formatting

[renegadeimp]

Name and shame the insurer. Or you can use the search box in the top left corner of this site to see if others have had the same issue as you.

[ims21]

Sounds like E-Car Insurance?

[citizenB]

Have you contacted the Insurance Ombudsman about this ?

[Conniff]

It would make life a lot easier, (an probably more profitable for them), if they were to charge the full premium and then make a refund when the proof of no claims was sent in.

 

But of course, they won't be able to charge a rip-off admin fee that corresponds to nothing.

[honeybee13]

Thread moved to the main insurance forum as no specific company is being discussed atm.

 

HB

[unclebulgaria67]

This is a lesson for people who arrange cover online. They need to check on the valididity of their cover within the first month or so. This is not an isolated case going by what is reported in various forums. I have worked with Insurance internet systems and databases. They are not as robust as they should be. Because of the volume of work that is handled, the Insurance staff won't spend much time on each case. The certainly won't be sending letters or making phone calls, when there is a problem. They will just process through their systems and relevant emails will be sent via whatever email address is showing on their system.

 

In this case, if the policyholder entered their correct email address and the Insurers messed up, then it is not the fault of the policyholder. The Insurers would have had to honour the cover arranged, had there been an accident or a problem of driving with no Insurance.

 

People can check whether they are insured as often as they like using the following link.

 

http://www.askmid.com/

[Frank4774]

Have you contacted the Insurance Ombudsman about this ?

 

 

No I haven't, I should stress, my sister-in-law is not overly concerned with getting back the admin charge, although that would be nice.

She is incandescent that Quote Me Happy just "pulled the plug" and left her unknowingly driving her car while uninsured.

I thought that the Ombudsman only mediated in a dispute, and that the possible dire consequences of Q M Happy's action was not part of his remit.

What I may do is, apprise the Association of British Insurers, or Insurance, of the companies actions, or lack of, to see what they say.

[Frank4774]

Name and shame the insurer. Or you can use the search box in the top left corner of this site to see if others have had the same issue as you.

 

It was Quote Me Happy, (or perhaps Unhappy.)

[ims21]

It was Quote Me Happy, (or perhaps Unhappy.)

 

Rats...I was wrong again

[Guest Aviva Support]

In May this year my wife's sister-in-law asked if she could use our computer to search for a comparison site for car insurance.

 

To make a long story short, I'll cut to the chase and answer any questions later, I won't mention the insurer unless the Mods ask me.

 

She got a satisfactory quote, filled in the proposal form and remitted the full amount for 12 months insurance.

She received, via email to my address, a Certificate of Insurance citing insurance from June 2013 until June 2014.

 

Last week she received a letter from DVLA stating that no valid insurance for her vehicle appeared on their database.

I contacted the insurer via email, and was told that two emails had been sent to the email address she had provided, (mine), asking for proof of NCD, when no replies were received they cancelled the insurance.

 

 

In their email they quoted the email address that they had on record, it was close to mine, but minus one letter.

It materialised that they had credited the premium paid back to the sister-in- law, minus a reasonable amount for the cover they had provided until cancellation, and taken a £53 admin fee.

 

 

I pointed out that I was receiving their emails because they were replying to ones I had sent, which emanated from my computer, so how could they have a wrong address in their system?

 

 

Plus, if I had given them a wrong address, how did they send the Certificate of Insurance to the correct one?

I also asked how could they just let her drive for 4.5 months uninsured, when they had her address, and both her land line and mobile numbers to inform her of the situation?

 

 

They replied that they were an on line only company and did not send snail mail or phone customers.

She is not unduly bothered about the admin fee, but for 4.5 months she was driving completely unprotected, as were anyone that might have had an accident with her, fortunately she had no accidents.

 

 

The police were never involved, she has no prosecution pending, and is now insured with another company, but both she and I want to apprise the public about this in order that they can avoid it happening to them.

 

Hi Frank4774,

 

I'm sorry to hear about what has happened. We've been in touch with our colleagues at QuoteMeHappy and they've requested if you can ask your wife's sister-in-law to email the team direct at [email protected] so they can look into this for you. Please have 'Expression of dissatisfaction' as the subject and include all of the details about what happened including the policy number.

 

Kind regards,

 

Martin Banwell

Aviva Social Media Support

[honeybee13]

Hello Martin.

 

Is this policy an Aviva one then? I wasn't clear, so I moved the thread out of your forum into the main insurance one. It can always go back if you're claiming it.

 

HB

[Guest Aviva Support]

Hello Martin.

 

Is this policy an Aviva one then? I wasn't clear, so I moved the thread out of your forum into the main insurance one. It can always go back if you're claiming it.

 

HB

 

Hi honeybee13,

 

QuoteMeHappy are part of Aviva; so although it's not an Aviva policy directly, we can assist by passing queries through to our colleagues at QuoteMeHappy. Feel free to put it in the Aviva section and we can monitor it.

 

Many thanks,

 

Martin Banwell

Aviva Social Media Support

[honeybee13]

Thank you for that, Martin, I hadn't realised you were in the same group.

 

I'll put this back in the Aviva forum.

 

HB

[Frank4774]

Thank you for that, Martin, I hadn't realised you were in the same group.

 

I'll put this back in the Aviva forum.

 

HB

 

Thanks for the interest shown in this thread by everyone, I am happy to report that Aviva have finally responded favourably to my emails.

They have credited the £53 cancellation fee back to my wife's sister-in-law, and issued her a letter of apology.

I have now gone from slagging them off big time, to recommending that they be considered if you're looking for insurance.

[citizenB]

Excellent news. I am pleased this has now been resolved and will amend your thread title to reflect this.

[honeybee13]

Good news Frank and thank you to Martin from Aviva for replying.

 

HB