I posted on 4/8/03, describing how Norwich Union's customer service was
atrocious, as was the repair that we'd had done by Hartwell Ford, Hereford.
In a nutshell, Norwich Union had done nothing to help progress a minor
accident repair, which has taken approx. 70 days to get sorted out. The
repair was poorly executed and had to be redone.

I emailed NU and copied the email to Hartwell's HQ. Hartewll got onto me
immediately the next morning and promised to put right the poor quality
repair (paint hadn't been cured, loads of *big* paint pinholes, a 6" long
polishing mop burn plus one of the three dents had been ignored). The car
got returned today and has now been properly repaired by Hartwell Ford,
Hereford.

NU got back in touch after 3 days and said that someone from customer
servuices would call. They haven't.

The complaint to NU was that, in spite of paying them hundreds of pounds for
insurance, they were doing absolutely nothing to deal with the repair
garage. We had to do everything ourselves (phone the garage, arrange for
them to visit to isnpect the car, phone the garage again 3 weeks later to
find out what was happening, phone them again a week later to ask why they
hadn't got back to us, phone them once more to get them to set a date for
the repair work, phone themagain to ask why they hadn't been in touch as
promised etc etc etc).

So, now we have had the car back due to our phoning the garage to re-repair
the car and arrange for it to be returned. NU have done nothng other than to
irritate us by having their customer service call centre shifted to Delhi in
India, of all places.

My advice is to AVOID NORWICH UNION. Go to a broker, they can phone around
for you and get better deals. We have saved 70 quid by going to a local
broker. As soon as the NU cowboy outfit has wraped up the paperwork, my
girlfriend is leavingthem and so will I. They are rubbish.

RMC

"beaverpup" <beaverpup (AT) tesco (DOT) net> wrote

I had the same problem dealing with Powergen - their call centre is in Delhi
(perhaps they share) After much ranting they finally transfered me to an
english voice - in Nottingham which is only 20 mins up the road from me!! I
made the joke to them that I always seem to be talking to "Little India" and
have they had an asian recruitment drive - and she replied "that is because
you have!!" Another funny thing - sometimes when I rang Powergens freephone
no. I would get Norwich Union - so perhaps I am right in that they share the
same call centre. I am with NU but only cause i have got a car til I pass my
test - when I pass I am having a series 2a swb landrover and will be getting
my insurance from the NFU - National Farmers Union!!

Gaynor

I have two vehicles insured with Norwich Union. Two days ago I
telephoned for a quote on a replacement for one of them. I was
answered by a chap whose English was not at all clear and whose use of
syntax and inflexion made him very hard to understand. Each time I
asked him to repeat what he had said there was a lengthy pause and an
audible sigh of impatience. The line was a bit fuzzy and this didn't
help either. He became pretty incomprehensible and after an abortive
attempt to enter the details in the computer system he eventually
quoted me an enormous amount to insure a car. Trying to make
conversation I said, "Whereabouts are you?" There was a long pause
and he said "India!"
I thanked him and telephoned a broker who will insure the car, should
I purchase it, for £300 less than NU. In fairness I think that the
Indian gent had difficulty understanding my very English accent and
pushed all the wrong keys resulting in an extortionate quote.
I told a friend this tale of woe and he informed me that he had
'phoned NU for a motor quote the previous day and had not been able to
decipher what he was being told at all!

I shall be reciewing the insurance on all the vehicles in the next 2
weeks!!



"RMC" <RMC (AT) home (DOT) com> wrote