interesting run in with AF

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cervantes
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interesting run in with AF

#1

Post by cervantes »

Nothing too amazing mind, had my renewal through a couple of weeks ago, previously on 4 yrs ncb i was paying £650, @ 5 yrs ncb it went up to £777 :icon_eek: so much for being safer and more experienced

so of course i was quite happy to see on page 2 of my renewal, in big red letters, we guarentee to beat a lower quote if you get one (i forget the actual wording) but eitherway this made me happy as i had a quote for under £433

Anyway, 1 call to AF later and mysteriously £200 has come off my renewal for no particular reason, i wish all companies could do that with my bills but i have a feeling they would go bust, but the nice young lady on the phone said she would forward the details of what was required for a price match, and a couple of hours later i had them

now i am on me phone rather than me pc right now so i will have to post up all the hoops you have to jump through to get this price match later, lets just say its a fair few and they seem a bit over kill


Anyway, i sat there, looked at it, and thought sod that it'll be easier just to cancel my renewal and save meself over £300

now surely, this is bad business practice on the part of AF, fair enough, i am one person and i do understand the need for fraud controls, but how many customers have AF already lost on this system?

so anyway, it was nice being with you AF, but you're just not the one any more, instead of hoping i was too lazy to look around so you could cream your (best part of) £780, or even the lowered amount of £540ish, why couldnt you just have given me a good quote? because now you get nothing




oh and while i think of it i also saved another £180 by reducing my excess down to just £50 from £250, yep put £20 on my insurance to do that lol :icon-lol:


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Re: Another customer gone!

#2

Post by petrolhead_rob »

Sounds very much like what happened with my renewal, Sean.

Was looking forward to see my renewal quote this time round - previously had an accident claim which was classed as "unsettled" when came to renewal last time so my renewal shot up to £700, due to third Party disputing liability, since then third party had accepted liability of the accident and I got my excess back. I was told by customer services at AF that once the claim has been settled and third party accepts liability that I would not only get my excess back but they would look at a refund for any premium that was increased due to the claim being unsettled - never got a refund for the increase in premium, but hey thats another story!

So, the claim was sorted out and as all costs to third party I was expecting the renewal to be lower, not by much as aware this would count as an accident so premium would still be higher then before the accident. My premium before the accident was £500.The renewal came through and wait for it! Went up to £730- so £30 more dispite the claim now being settled as none fault - this is with 5yrs NCB, my excess stayed at £300.

Decided to shop around as also saw the "we beat any quote guarentee" thingy! First spoke to Prestige, who were very helpful, premium went to £598 but excess to £450, then spoke to Luke at Sky insurance who offered £592 and excess £250! Not only lower in terms in premium but excess to! I checked with Luke and this was with all mods declared and no problems with future mods, and included key cover as well as the normal stuff!

So armed with this info I phoned up AF and spoke to a pleasant lady and told her what I had been offered by Sky, she didn't ask for any ref number (which I had ready) or anything but instead put me on hold for 2 mins to come back with £590 with excess £350.

Hang on a minute! - Sorry AF but how can you quote for insuring my car with one figure, then when I call you put me on hold for 2 mins it went down by £110.

In the end I went with Sky, yes it was an extra £2, but my excess went down and also the customer service from Luke at Sky was just brilliant, I have also received a courtesy call from Sky since taking out their policy to make sure I was happy with everything and received the docs.

I had used AF for a number of years for different vehicles and always recommended them previously as felt they were a company who understood "us" - however I have now learnt to shop around and customer loyaty means jack to AF!
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#3

Post by cervantes »

got to agree with you there mate, no such thing as customer loyalty anymore

pic of hoops to be jumped through as promised

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Re: interesting run in with AF

#4

Post by ZS »

A company should *NEVER* ask for your password for another site!!!
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#5

Post by androo 007 »

Jesus that is NOT good practice
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#6

Post by aaronyuri »

Now that is a complete [Copulating] joke. Utterly disgusting!

That is complete ATROCITY. The person who wrote that letter should be fired; along with the moron who thought up such a practice.

I think AF should be dropped as a sponsor of this site - members seem to be getting nothing but ridiculous treatment from them...
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#7

Post by ZS »

aaronyuri wrote:Now that is a complete Copulating joke. Utterly disgusting!

That is complete ATROCITY. The person who wrote that letter should be fired; along with the moron who thought up such a practice.

I think AF should be dropped as a sponsor of this site - members seem to be getting nothing but ridiculous treatment from them...
I agree, but its up to Daz and Faz... I suggest a PM to them if you feel that strongly about it :)
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#8

Post by thedupleman »

I'm looking
Look out guys it’s him that thinks he’s in charge!
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#9

Post by faz »

ok guys, im really sorry ive not been on to deal with this, i have massive amounts of work to do at home atm in time for spring to my time is very limited, daz has pointed me towards this thread.

tbh ive had enough of this now and although i will leave this section up for members to see adrian flux will not be sponsors of this club and will not be allowed to trade on this site from the second i hit the submit button

again sorry about the delay in acting on this but i shall deal with it now via pm with the flux rep
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#10

Post by faz »

ok im awaiting on a reply now and i will close this section when everyones has had chance to see it
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#11

Post by thedupleman »

rikthornton wrote:
aaronyuri wrote:...members seem to be getting nothing but ridiculous treatment from them...
:text-yeahthat: ...modern approach, traditional values!?! The hell they have!

My apologies if this is seen to be undiplomatic or out of line with my Moderator status - but I've been mulling over this and it is a gross liberty, as was their treatment of myself and Vik when we visited the office in person... They are getting on my breasts now.

I appreciate the reason behind why they ask for these details (so they can log in as the potential customer and verify the quote) but surely to God a printout of the New Business would do, or a selection of screendumps.
I will punish you later :angry-nono: :laughing-rollingyellow: :laughing-rollingyellow:

On a serious note moderators are freely encouraged on here to have an opinion-woe betide it that moderators are ever silenced in their opinion on these issues it's very important and equally equally everyone can have their say.

They should not be asking for passwords-completely gobsmacked- I feel someone ought to be contacting the ombudsman to ask if this practice is correct.Iv been a flux customer for years but I'm liking the sound of sky right now
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#12

Post by aaronyuri »

To be quite honest, I'm glad I've never had the 'pleasure' of dealing with them.
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#13

Post by cervantes »

Well, this thread ended up far more , active i guess not the word im looking for but it'll have to do for now, than i had expected, personally i just wanted to let peopple now what they were getting into when they tried similar as i, obv the asking for password was the sticking point for me as well, stay safe peeps
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#14

Post by androo 007 »

the last time i dealt with them was when they cost me £260 or something to insure a coupe for 3 weeks... (early cancellation due to selling) and had lots of silent clauses that were not explained to me at the time. I did ring up again a year or so later for another quote, but they were stupidly over priced.

VERY poor performance.
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#15

Post by DAN@ADRIAN FLUX »

Hi HCOC members,

We've read the following initial thread and subsequent comments and naturally thought we'd attempt to convey our side of the coin in this instance.

If I could deal with Cervantes post and the issues arising firstly. As an insurance Intermediary, Adrian Flux would source a panel of over 40 insurers to find you the most appropriate and competitive policy in the first instance - with a club discount in many cases.

As an intermediary we don't insure the vehicle ourselves - we find you the policy and are reimbursed by way of commission by the insurer. The policy does of course have to meet you, the customers, needs, i.e modifications need to be covered, the sum insured (max value the insurer will pay) has to be correct and other matters such as agreed valuations considered. At this stage we are of course duty bound to find you the policy. However at renewal time your insurer will invite the renewal at the rate (premium) they see fit. They may have had a not particular good year insuring certain postcodes, vehicles, occupations and so on. In these instances the premium may rise but we are duty bound to offer this renewal as your existing policy is with them. However we do often send a guarantee to 'beat any other renewal quote' that you may find should this no longer be competitive.

If you do find something of the same terms that is more competitive we will then source our other markets to attempt to meet or beat that premium. We do this as being part of the service of being your intermediary.

We do give customers the various options to send in details of these renewal quotes from other providers - we do often (to quote RikThornton) "...so they can log in as the potential customer and verify the quote) but surely to God a printout of the New Business would do." However occasionally the customers may have amended details, changed cover (from Comp to Third Party) and we merely ask for proof to verify and safeguard that the cover and terms are the same as our renewals.

We hope that this goes someway to explaining the position we are in and would certainly welcome any further comments or if you wish to PM me with your details I can investigate individual scenarios.

Many thanks.

Dan
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#16

Post by ZS »

Hi Dan,

First off thankyou very much for responding to the concerns... But asking for a persons confidential information for a 3rd party site (Username and password for example) is breech of law IMO (I happen to be a Security Consultant by trade and work closely with the NHS and other Government organisations) and should never be asked for by your company.

I understand people can change information etc, but if you are that worried you can ask for the site they got the quote from and simply put the information you have into that site, or contact the insurer directly yourself with their Quote Reference number to confirm, both of which are technically more legal that taking information from the customer about a 3rd party... although both mean more work for Adrian Flux, and herein lies the issue I think.

The insurance industry is in a good place, it is a Legal requirement to have insurance on your car, but the industry is not tightly regulated by the government, meaning that companies use it as a means to "print money" by charging stupid premiums etc... case and point my Brother who is getting quotes of £3k plus still for a small engined car even though he has a years NCD under his belt....
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#17

Post by villan1985 »

In response to having to offer the insurance companies renewal quote... You yourselves are still capable of running quotes with other insurers you deal with that may be cheaper... Why not offer an alternative quote still through yourselves to save us having to do all the work and the prove it to you?
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#18

Post by aaronyuri »

Hi Dan

I would highly suggest you consult your legal department on asking potential customers for their login details to a website that could potentially contain sensitive and personal information. How can there be a guarantee your employees don't use this information maliciously, do they have to go through any baseline security checks?

I'm sorry, but I think trying to defend such a practice (and clearly process) performed by Adrian Flux is an insult.

I understand that AF need to verify the quote's authenticity, but there's being precautions and then there's taking the piss.

AF need to take a long, hard look at the letter written above and think; will people put up with this? I can think of what the answer might be.
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#19

Post by DAN@ADRIAN FLUX »

When considering a customer renewal, we refer to the known market at that time and offer the most suitable and competitive policy available to us. The known market at that time would be all the schemes available to us from the insurance companies that we arrange policies for.

If a customer subsequently advises us that that has received a more competitive quotation from another company, we can consider the new known market, which includes all the schemes previously available to us and the quotation from the other company.

It is not possible to investigate all the available policies from other brokers and insurance companies that we do not have a relationship with and as a result we can only react if the customer advises us of a more competitive quotation.

There are a number of ways to compete with an alternative quotation. We can remove commission or approach the insurance company and ask if they would consider competing to retain or acquire the business. Depending on the difference between the premiums we may need to see evidence of the alternative quotation including the risk details. If we offered to access an online quotation with the customer’s permission, it would be only to save them the inconvenience and would presumable only allow us access to information that we already have.

It is often the case that the customer receives a more competitive quotation elsewhere because they have made the new insurance company aware of up to date details while we still have details from the previous year.

Thanks

Dan
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#20

Post by ZS »

IMO thats a rather weak explanation... but what do I know? I'm not an insurance underwriter (although my uncle is!) and I work with computers day in and day out, quite closely with government organisations and Computer law... Meh to be honest you've lost my business no matter how competitive you are, roll on renewal when I can move away from you without stupidly high cancellation fees (I still can't believe you charged me £100 to cancel a £200 a year policy after 2 months of use) until then I think I'm going to stay off of these AF threads. :angry-banghead:
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#21

Post by thedupleman »

Can't say I see many satisfied people here....
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#22

Post by cervantes »

:icon-lol: its not exactly worth the effort to be with them dupe, like i said, when its cheaper and easier to go else where, im amazed they have any business left
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Re: interesting run in with AF

#23

Post by androo 007 »

cervantes wrote: :icon-lol: its not exactly worth the effort to be with them dupe, like i said, when its cheaper and easier to go else where, im amazed they have any business left
+1. I especially wonder what with the recession and the mod scene dying down a LOT over the last couple of years - if anything theres the need to sharpen up a lot.... and become more competative - as the market gets smaller. But alas, i havent experienced this myself - which is surprising seeing as the general market seems to be a lot more forgiving towards modifications than say 7 years ago
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