Virgin Medicals...

I visited the Virgin Media website. Whilst on there, one of those annoying windows popped up with some faceless person called James, asking if I wanted help. If I wanted help I would have asked for it. So I thought I would have some fun with him:

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.

Aqua Card - The banking sectors' answer to Robin Hood

I received one of those speculative letters from Aqua Card not so long back asking me to apply for their card. What appauled me more than anything was that the credit company was clearly aimed at people with bad credit and probably little money. The card offered an incredibly high rate of interest compared to others on the market and I felt that poor people were being taken advantage of yet again by those rich bastards in the banking sector. They even claimed that by using their card REGULARLY, you could actually IMPROVE YOUR CREDIT RATING!?!?! Below is my letter to the company. Sadly, they never replied - I am considering applying for their credit card, and then sending a similar letter - once a customer, they will be obliged by FSA regulations to reply to my complaints as a customer.....

Customer enquiry

aqua card Services
Customer Care Department
Pitreavie Business Park
Dunfermline
Scotland
KY99 4BS

20^th March 2012

Dear Sir/Madam,

                        Thank you for sending me an application form through the post. I don’t remember asking for one – I feel like one of those lucky people who have been specially selected by Reader’s Digest to enter their prize draw. Would you believe I have been taking part in that draw for years and have never won a thing? Hopefully my luck is about to change once I acquire my new aqua card Credit Card.

I understand you have the best APR at over 32% - most other major banks offer a pathetic 16% or so – that’s only half what you are offering. Some banks even make you wait for 12-18 months before they even offer you APR at all. With great rates like yours, I am surprised you manage to turn over a profit.

First Direct Complaint

I applied for a small loan which was advertised at 6.1% in HUGE characters on their website. They offered me the loan but at over 10% interest. Naturally, I complained. Whilst not a complete victory, the polite lady at FD just called me, asked if my email was meant in jest, I confirmed it was, she asked if I was a wine drinker, I said 'yes, red' and she said there would be a bottle on it's way to me as a thank you - in addition, she is sending out some pre paid envelopes for me. The only thing I can say is that it had better be decent wine or I might feel another complaint coming on. Below is the email chain between myself and First Direct:

13/Mar/2012 09:51

To: Mr S Crowley
Re: Complaint

I write further to our conversation on 08-Mar-2012.