Admiral Insurance

[dom2599]

Hi All

 

I have car insurance with admiral and pay it monthly by direct debit. I received a default letter from Admiral this morning stating that they had communicated with me last month and that i have ignored this communication, so am in breach of my credit agreement and require full payment.

 

I called their customer service and was advised that both an email and hard copy letter were sent to me the previous month stating the bank had rejected their direct debit. i advised them that i had not received either the email ( which i keep all of) or letter, the customer service rep basically said that their system says sent, so i MUST have received them.

 

Now i find it strange that i never got one or the other about this and advised the customer service rep that had i known about this i would have contacted them straight away, he stated that it was not Admiral's problem.

 

Now, after investigation it looks like the better half had cancelled the incorrect direct debit! I contacted them again and paid the outstanding balance as per their request.

 

i have 2 questons here;

 

1 - what impact is this default going to have on my credit rating?? it was 999 last time i checked (not registered anymore)

 

2 - should i chase them to find out what happened with regards to the phantom email and letter....i have still received their sales emails no problem (this makes me suspicious of their claim they sent one to me) i even got one wishing me happy birthday this afternoon!!

 

Sorry for the rambling post, just really annoyed at the moment

 

Thanks in advance

[unclebulgaria67]

Should not have affected your credit record.

 

When a Direct Debit is cancelled, the company holding the DD authority would have been informed by your bank. So I would have expected a letter to ask why you had cancelled the DD and to ask for other payment instructions. Then Admiral would have input the relevant request for a letter/email to be sent to you, when a payment was returned unpaid. The problem with these large companies, is that the staff can request letters/emails to be sent, but they don't actually see them being sent. The request goes to the relevant print centre or email system to produce/send to you. But it is widely known that these are not fault free.

 

If you are unhappy, send a written complaint to Admiral, asking them to carry out a full investigation as to what happened. Is there a system record of the letter actually being posted and not just printed ?

[dom2599]

Hi Uncle B

 

Thanks for the reply. When i called customer service all they said was that the system says an email and letter had been sent to me on the 28/03/2014 informing me of the DD issue and i failed to respond.

 

I have sent a complaint to them asking why i have received all other emails ( i listed them to cross reference) except this important one, i also explained that i found it really strange that i didnt get one or the other. I have asked them to look in to this and to check if there has either been a system error or a human process error. I will await their response before going further and asking for the email and letter contents.

 

I'm more bothered about my credit rating as i know a default can cause a huge impact on it

 

Thanks again

[dacouc]

Look in your junk email for their email.

 

You have used the sales email address when you took out the policy so it would not go to the junk email box, their accounts email may be classed as junk by your email provider

[dom2599]

Look in your junk email for their email.

 

You have used the sales email address when you took out the policy so it would not go to the junk email box, their accounts email may be classed as junk by your email provider

 

Hi dacouc,

 

That was the first place i checked. Because i get all my renewal emails and other guff all goes straight to my inbox i have never bothered checking for spam, however today i trawled through over 800 spam emails and not one from Admiral in there! i have however today received 2 from them, one inviting me to put my 7 year old son on my car

insurance!? and another wishing me happy birthday an hour after they took £250 off me.....!

 

Thanks

[dom2599]

Hi all,

 

Admiral have investigated this issue on my request, i asked them to provide me with certain information to prove that they had sent the email and letter they state were sent. I asked them to;

 

1 - Provide proof that the email was sent (screenshot of sent email time/date would suffice)

2 - Provide proof that the letter was sent (asked for date/time of batch process etc)

 

Their final response to my questions were;

 

1 - They had spoken to their IT department and they stated that they have had no issues with their systems and that they could see no reason why their customers would not receive an email

 

2 - They send letters to their 'letter printing company' in huge batches (25,000) in one go, so cannot track what has been printed or sent and they cannot provide me with any batch process information.

 

I did also ask for copies of the phantom email and letter, to which they have sent me their SAR form to complete, also requesting a utility bill and a copy of passport or driving license to 'validate' who i am!! surely they were already happy with this when they sent me the default notification!!

 

They have also stated that if i am not happy with their investigation to contact the financial omdubsman

 

On a brighter note, she stated that this would not have been reported to any credit reference agencies, this would only have happened if i had cancelled the policy and then not paid the premium after 3 months.

 

So, should i complain to the ombudsman stating that they have not provided any proof that these communications were sent and their reluctance to provide me with this proof? Or do i complain to the ICO that they have sent my personal data to 'somewhere' but will not provide the evidence that would make me more comfortable that they they are processing my data correctly??

 

Thanks again

[unclebulgaria67]

Waste of time in my opinion. The FOS and ICO won't be interested. You will write out all the info on your case and then get a letter back after a delay, saying that they won't be looking into it, as it is not possible to prove letters/emails sent or received. It is accepted that due to the volume Insurance companies deal with, that people won't receive communications for whatever reason, which cannot be explained after investigation.

 

Having worked in these large volume operations, the problem is that the IT that handles the communications is not 100% audited throughout the process. There is no way to check that an input at the start of the process, will eventually lead to an email being sent to the correct address or a letter being passed to the mail company to deliver. These companies will carry out some process checks with small volumes and they will work. But of course when they start putting thousands through on a daily basis, it is not possible to track every part of a process.

[dom2599]

Thanks Uncle B, its a bit concerning that they have no processes in place to audit this, i work in IT (huge organisation) and we can check everything as we are audited on a very regular basis.

 

I may just send them the SAR to give them something to do

[unclebulgaria67]

Thanks Uncle B, its a bit concerning that they have no processes in place to audit this, i work in IT (huge organisation) and we can check everything as we are audited on a very regular basis.

 

I may just send them the SAR to give them something to do

 

You would not know that a letter had been printed correctly, it had been put in an envelope, passed to a mail company and then delivered. You can only check certain things via IT. Visit a busy print centre on a regular basis and you will see piles of documents.

 

The sames goes with emails. There is no process for checking these are received. IT will only show that at x day/time, the email was sent. If there was a formatting problem with the email address, it won't have been received.