And most of the shreholders die of stress caused by havng their claims declined or the inordinate delays in paying up. Aviva dragged their heels and put up all sorts of spurious excuses [which just made their staff sound as thick as mince; e.g. 'Dry Rot is not covered' ... Me: It isn't dry rot I'm claiming for; it's for the chemical treatment to the new wood that was installed by a qualified,
insurance approved company to replace the dry rot infestation. The flood washed the chemical treatment away: 'We don't cover dry rot as I've just explained ...'] until I complained to the Financial Services Ombudsman who found in my favour and awarded an interest penalty of 8% on the Friday morning. At 0815 on the Monday morning, Aviva phoned me. 'Mr March, we'd like to settle your claim and the interest. We can have the money in your account today ...'
The insurers confuse 'incompetence' with 'in competence', and there's quite a dfifference between the two. Add Call Centre staff working from scripts and an absence of Managers who 'don't take calls' [why are they employed, then? To monitor how long is spent by the staff taking toilet breaks?], and you have the absurdly low levels of expertise and customer service that existed in a bygone age when business looked after customers. Nowadays, this is restricted to the savvy local tradesperson who knows that a happy customer spreads the word and repeat business and new business from recommendations arrives. The arrogant corporates prefer to spend huge advertising budgets on facile adverts [Nationwide's latest, anyone?] to cope with the customer churn that crap service and 'the system won't allow it' [alleged] policies prescribe
Steve