Swiftcover - or Not so Swiftcover

The email chain below is quite lengthy, so I'll just say this - I hate insurers. They make money out of the fears and insecurities of us plebs. This complaint arose when our insurers refused to give me a simple piece of information over the phone about my wife's policy, quoting "data protection" as their reason. And guess what? 
I won! 
Triumph...

From: crowley stephen
Date: 31 May 2012 10:31
Subject: COMPLAINT - Policy Number: XXXXXXXXX
To: customer.relations@XXXXXXXX.com

Dear sir/madam

I wish to raise a complaint following a bemusing conversation I had yesterday with two of your colleagues at your offices.

Please allow me to briefly explain:
I set up a car insurance policy 12 months ago in my wife's name. It is now due for renewal. I tried renewing it last week online. I was told to expect an email confirmation. I never received an email confirmation. I tried renewing again today. It didn't work first time. The second time I tried, it did work (I think) as I received an email confirmation. However, given the first two unsuccessful attempts, I wanted to speak to a real person to verify that the policy has in fact been renewed. I mean, computers are really handy and all that, but have you ever seen 2001: A Space Oddyssey? The computer (called HAL 9000) in that movie goes mental! It ends up killing one of the astronauts! So, I thought it best to err on the side of caution.


I called your offices and was greeted by a very polite young lady. I explained my problem (see above). I then asked her to simply verify whether the policy has actually been renewed. Your colleague paused, and then (I have to say, predictably) explained that as the policy is in my wife's name, she cannot divulge that information to me.

Now, as you can imagine, I thought this was a nonsense. I set up the policy myself. I can log into your website and amend cover, add drivers, delete driver, even RENEW the policy. Let me make this clear - I am able to actually RENEW the policy, BUT, you won't TELL me if it has been renewed?! Could I ask you to read that sentence back to yourself one more time please? It sounds like utter nonsense, doesn't it? Let's analyse the logic of your actions shall we? I have effectively bought a product from you, but you won't tell me if I can have it. I am sat here, offering you my money, but like some errant child in a strop because his/her mum won't give her more sweets, you are saying 'No. I'm not playing'.

Let me apply the logic of your actions to a plausible, everyday situation:
Imagine walking into a supermarket. You want a tub of houmous. Your wife loves houmous. The carrot and cucumber sticks are all ready chopped and going dry in your kitchen, but you forgot to buy the houmous. Your wife is livid. You NEED houmous. So, you're at the chilled section by the coleslaw and single cream - you're distracted for a moment by an eye catching stand that is offering TWO kilogram packs of mature cheddar for the price of one. But cheese gives you terrible heartburn and brings out cold sweats under your eyes. So you focus back on the task in hand:

You can't see any houmous. Panic sets in. Your wife is going to kill you. You spot an employee of the supermarket. You politely ask if they have any houmous. As if to add gravitas to the situation, you wave a five pound note in front of them, as if to say 'look mate, I'm really serious about this houmous business. But, the supermarket employee says 'We might have, but I'm not going to tell you'.

Now, I am pretty sure that you or any other person in their right mind would not stand for that. At the very least, you would ask to speak to the manager. Yesterday, I asked to speak to the manager at Swiftcover. Unfortunately, she was unable to help either and just repeated what the first person told me. I am sure you will agree, the 'Houmous Debacle' as described above is principally and logically identical to the situation I had with your offices yesterday. Utter nonsense.

I did explain to your manager yesterday, that I am fully aware that this all stems from that infuriating piece of legislation, The Data Protection Act (1988, I believe). I explained to your manager that they are misinterpretting the raison d'etre of the act. I explained that I doubt very much that your manager has ever read the Act as it is very long and incredibly boring. So as part of your response to my letter, could you please provide me with the section of the Data Protection Act (1988, I think), that states that you are unable to tell a customer if they have successfully managed to complete a transaction on behalf of their spouse?

Secondly, your manager did say that if I wish to discuss my wife's policy in future, all I have to do is get my wife to contact you and confirm that I am able to act on her behalf. Well, as it so happens, my wife is sat here, next to me. So the next bit is written by her:

"Hi, I am Steve's wife. I hereby give Steve permission to deal with all of my financial dealings, insurance related, or otherwise. Steve absolutely did not write this himself, honest, it really is me, Steve's wife. You can tell it is me because I always type in italics. 

Hi - it's me, Steve, again - you can tell it is me now as I do not type in italics. I trust the above statement will be sufficient for your purposes.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kindest regards


Steve Crowley (and Steve's Wife)

From: complaints@XXXXXXXX.com
Date: 31 May 2012 14:34
Subject: COMPLAINT - Policy Number: XXXXXXXXX
To: crowley stephen

Dear Mr Crowley,

Firstly, I should like to apologise for any inconvenience, upset or difficulty that this matter may have caused. I am sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the service provided by our Help Team during your recent request for information.

At Swiftcover we take the protection of data, including our customer’s details, extremely seriously. As such, our staff are trained accordingly to ensure our protection processes are not breached and we remain compliant with the Data Protection Act. However, we try to make every effort to ensure such protection processes do not hinder the quality of service we provide to our customers. It appears in this instance, the level of service we have provided has not met your expectations.

Whilst I appreciate that you have access to the online account, I must advise that our staff can only discuss policy specific details with you should your wife provide us with permission via telephone. The information provided in your previous email is not sufficient. I have attempted to contact your wife via telephone today in order to obtain permission but I was unsuccessful in my attempts.

Overall, I was disappointed to learn that you feel the standard of service you received on this occasion was not of our usual high standard. Again, please accept my apologies on behalf of Swiftcover and thank you for your patience in this matter.

Kind Regards

Cherie McDougall

Swiftcover Customer Relations

Swiftcover.com



From: crowley stephen
Date: 31 May 2012 15:31
Subject: COMPLAINT - Policy Number: XXXXXXXXX
To: customer.relations@XXXXXXXX.com

Mon Cherie

Many thanks for your email, the contents of which are duly noted.

I would like to point out that I am very impressed by your SWIFT reply!

I would like to make it clear that I am not unhappy with the level of service - your colleagues were at all times polite and courteous, and I am well aware of what a pedant I can be. However, I feel that in this day and age, a man should be able to take total control of his wife's financial affairs without hinderance, prejudice, or even her consent.

I note that you did not point me to the appropriate section of the Data Protection Act (1988, I think) where it stipulates that you are not able to provide me with confirmation of a purchase which I bought for my wife. I note you also seem a little mute on the 'Houmous Debacle'. In order to rectify this complaint, I must insist on seeing evidence for your refusal to provide me with simple verification of renewal of my wife's policy. Perhaps you could rectify these points in your reply.

I note you need to speak to my wife in order to obtain consent for me to deal with her affairs. I do not understand, since my wife clearly gave her consent in my previous email. The only thing I can think of is that you perhaps do not believe that my wife wrote it. I suppose you think I must have written it on her behalf. However, to put your mind at rest, I can assure you that it is much better to get agreements in writing than on the phone since verbal contracts can be a tricky thing to enforce in a court of law.

So since it is agreed that written statements are more secure than verbal ones, here is my wife again (it may help to add authenticity to her statement if you ask a male colleague to read it in a high pitched lady voice):

'Hello Miss McDougall, this is Steve's wife again. I do hope you believe me when I say this is me typing, I absolutely do give consent for my husband to deal with my affairs, and he definitely has not coerced me into making this statement'.

 Hi there Cherie, it's Steve again - thanks for your time - I look forward to your reply.



From: complaints@XXXXXXXX.com
Date: 1 June 2012  10:03
Subject: COMPLAINT - Policy Number: XXXXXXXXX
To: crowley stephen

Dear Mr Crowley,

Thank you for your recent email,

Firstly, I should like to confirm that both agreements have now been noted to state that your wife has given us authority to discuss the details with yourself. You now have authority to amend and discuss all aspects of the policy including any claims, with the exception of the right to cancel and decline the renewal. It is the responsibility of the policy holder to inform us of any changes to this agreement.

Once again, please accept my apologies for any inconvenience, upset or difficulty that this matter may have caused.


Kind Regards

Cherie McDougall
Swiftcover Customer Relations



From: crowley stephen
Date: 1 June 2012 10:36
Subject: COMPLAINT - Policy Number: XXXXXXXXX
To: customer.relations@XXXXXXXX.com

Dear Cherie

Many thanks for your email. I am delighted to see that common sense has prevailed.

Can you confirm if my wife's policy has been successfully renewed?


Kind regards

Steve



From: complaints@XXXXXXXX.com
Date: 1 June 2012  11:47
Subject: COMPLAINT - Policy Number: XXXXXXXXX
To: crowley stephen

Dear Mr Crowley, Thank you for your recent email, As requested, I can confirm that policy number XXXXXXXXX for vehicle registration XXXXXX is due to automatically renew at midnight on 20 June 2012. Once the agreement renews, an automated email will be sent to confirm that the agreement has been renewed successfully. I hope that this has helped resolve your query. Kind Regards Cherie McDougall Swiftcover Customer Relations Swiftcover.com