silver sonic

iTrader: (4)

Keep away from foreign call centres.
just came back off holiday recently within 2 days of renewal.
had a couple of quotes before i went ,but didnt commit.
rings NORWICH UNION DIRECT gets an asian guy on phone .
struggles to understand him , and him me ,
quotes too high, but then has a 'SPECIAL DISCOUNT ' he then comes back with a good quote, modifications covered, lower price ,lower excess. result me thinks.
normally i do this in advance and get a quote through to make sure mods declared!but no time.
pays the full amount of over £500 on switch.
next day policy comes through only one mod , and £470 excess
rings back asian no2 , brakes don't need listing as they are security!!!
other mods and excess i agreed to ,put policy up £125.00
after a load of mudchucking , i tell him to cancel policy!
he tells me £30 admin cost!!!!
no way mate your at fault , more mud chucking
agrees to full refund , then tells me money will be refunded in 48 hrs,
so over £500 out of pocket and no insurance
fortunately i am in a position not everyone is in to pay out again,
so rings A PLAN and insures! FOR SAME Thanks lads.
3 days later no refund , so rings NORWICH UNION again , to be told "oh we tried refunding, and card refused it so we are sending you a cheque"!!
turns into MR ANGRY MODE!!!!
cheque turns up after 5 days- 4 days to clear , so 9 days i could have been without insurance!!!!!

so moral of story is never use off shore call centres!!!
RANT OVER

p.s i also have a bank that i deal with that has an irish call centre
all i do is keep saying pardon ?as some irish gash rabbles in broad irish at 300 words a sec.
new bank on the horizon!

Moley

iTrader: (9)

I love it when you ask for their names......

Best one recently was ''yes please, my name is John Wayne''!!!!

Quality

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

im sick of all the foreign call centres. does anybody else get them annoying calls (even if your ex-directory) from some totally uncharming pakistani/indian/bangladeshi person called derek/joanne/peter/mark etc. asking if you want another mobile phone contract, windows, doors, gas, electric bla bla... sick of it and i feel bad when i say no to them and hang up...

rant over

briforbes

I hate them too - I remember one great conversation with one of the minions at Elephant who told me my car did not exist and I must be mistaken as Mitsubishi never made a lancer evolution 1. Or 2 or 3 apparently. No, they started at 4, and only made the 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Plonker .

The reason cited for moving call centres to places like India was that they speak clearer English than the British, which may be true, however they don't understand the English language and any deviances away from what they've been taught, which is what causes the problems. Of course the real reason is probably cheaper labour......but ultimately - you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. (for the benefit of the PC brigade, that's not a racist statement).

Tony@Greenlight

sorry Bri.. this did make me smile, did you put your theory that numbers actually start from 1, then go to 2, then 3 to them?

Insurers are not alone in terms of outsourcing, Banks, Gas/Electric companies (powergen etc) do this, as do British Telecom (BT).

Most of the overseas call centres do work from scripting, although undoubtedly they will improve with time it's always going to be difficult for them.

We stopped dealing with Norwich Union and transferred the business to alternative UK based Insurers when N.U. moved their operations overseas.

Clients did not like the call centres, called us as their agent to handle the transactions or assist with claims and Greenlight staff then spent hours on end trying to communicate overseas, which was never fun when dealing with modified vehicles/claims or anything really - thus we stopped dealing with Norwich Union and transferred the business to alternative UK based Insurers.

This is the primary reason, there is no way companies would outsource if it wasn't dramatically cheaper to do so.


If you're looking for cover from a UK based source you could give Greenlight a go