Lost glasses, insurance and call centres

The weekend before last OH lost his glasses. We were reasonably sure where they should be but no-one could find them. After several days they did turn up, but only because the one remaining whole lens glinted in the sunlight - they had been run over, in the paddock, many times! So on Saturday morning I persuaded OH to call the insurance co. Finally got to talk to a real person who took all his details, about the policy, what happened to the glasses, how old they were, what cost etc. It took about 15minutes, after which she said, 'the office isn't open at weekends so you need to ring on Monday and report all this to them.' 'So why have I had to tell you,' OH asked. 'Oh I have to log the calls', was the reply!!!!!! She sounded like an Indian so was from a call centre I guess. The efficiency of 21st century living I guess!

Sadly that is becoming so typical. Totally useless response from a call centre!!!!!!!! Hope he managed to speak to a real real person on Monday.

Our main reason for switching insurance companies from a big player starting with S to a three letter one starting with A was having an offshore call centre and very poor service. They alwasy denied that they were offshore but it's pretty easy to tell. While I have great respect for people fluent in a second or third language, I resent being unable to understand the person on the other end of the phone when doing business in my native country. Our new company is great as they have a local(ish) office (in Queenstown) and calls are automatically routed there when calling their 0800 number. If that office is busy or unattended the call goes through to Invercargill. It's so refreshing being able to deal with South Island based call centre staff. Usually we talk to the same one or two people in the QT office.

ASB bank Insurance is great, While they merely act as a broker for a couple of big NZ giants (whom underwrite a lot of other businesses business) they have their own office who takes your call. Being deaf and having trouble with phones, it's great to be able to get a kiwi accent on the first call so there's no need to puzzle through a call with an accent problem obfuscating the message, just the usual "Speak UP please!" ones.

Kiwi303;279476 wrote: ASB bank Insurance is great, While they merely act as a broker for a couple of big NZ giants (whom underwrite a lot of other businesses business) they have their own office who takes your call. Being deaf and having trouble with phones, it's great to be able to get a kiwi accent on the first call so there's no need to puzzle through a call with an accent problem obfuscating the message, just the usual "Speak UP please!" ones.

I thought the same with BNZ's insurance as well, until we had to make our house claim in October 2007.
Then you go back to the underwriter and deal directly with them, and when the claim seemed to be stagnating (before it went completely pear shaped) everyone at the bank just threw their hands up in a ''don't know'' fashion.
It was only earlier this year that our banker stepped in and brought in the top guns from the bank to liaise with the underwriter.[!][!][!][!]

There was no problem with the girl's English. What we objected to was having to give ALL the details only to be told it was useless and needed to be done again on Monday. Why couldn't she have told him that at the start and in order to 'log' the call did she really need all that stuff?

Unfortunately the last time I tried to claim on glasses, I was advised that the depreciation is so steep on these items that it is hardly worth the effort. I keep my glasses 4-5 years, but apparently most people keep them much shorter periods, so the depreciation pretty much writes their value off within a year of purchase...[!]

tigger - you need to change you insurance company FAST! All that I have dealt with have full replacement insurance for prescription glasses and prescription sunglasses.

Having said that, with the new fight between companies, it is cheaper to get new glasses if you can find a frame that you like but funny how when you go in, their sales people take you immediately to the expensive range. I wear graduated lenses through neccesity so having had the call up from my Optician, will be very interested to see what price they come up with. $800 for the last pair (as in one!)

That was with my last insurer, Didi, let's hope my new one is better on that count if I ever need it! []

last time I lost my glasses, paid in full, no depreciation, just excess.

We have NZI (now Lantern) and they pay in full except for excess so no worries about that part of it!!