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Norwich Union Exposed

Top Gear had an embarrassing 25 minute wait for a Norwich Union Direct quote live on the hugely popular BBC programme, when they got through the voice on the other end was barely understandable. DNA thought they would research some customer reactions...

Reviews available from www.dooyoo.co.uk.

I have to say, I am having a total nightmare with Norwich Union Direct at the moment. I am trying to make a claim on my car after my vehicle got stuck in a flood, their claims handling is inefficient, tiresome and it is impossible to get anyone to take ownership of any problems.

Not only have they not given me a claim number after 6 days of trying but I have had to do battle to get the courtesy car which I am entitled to on my policy. I am going round in circles with the Claims department who are based in India and can speak so little English that I had to give them my vehicle registration number in excess of 7 times before they understood it :/ Only to be told that they have no record of the claim, this has now gone on for almost a week, meanwhile my vehicle is sitting outside my house, filled with flood water and deterioating rapidly.

I would not recommend Norwich Union Direct purely on the basis that they seem incapable of handling claims efficiently or effectively.

They are going to have to put in a sterling performance from this point in to make me change my mind or to remain with them.

This is the worst corporate nightmare in my 45 years of existence.

This article is not so much about about Norwich Union Direct (NUD) but their corporate decision to use Dixons Insurance Group Services (DIGS)to carry out estimates/repairs on NU customers electronic equipment.

I took out home policy insurance with NUD some 6 years ago, recently I had experienced an unforseen circumstance where my computer needed replacement.

[NUD have a contract with Dixons to examine machines if they can be repaired or replaced depending on the extent of damage] so someone from xxxx@dsgi.plc.com was appointed to to examine it.

We agreed they could examine the machine after I came back from a 2 week contract in Munich.

After examination they said a report would be ready within 48 hours, but instead I had to wait 2 weeks (as you do) so after contacting them on an 0870 number hundreds of times to pull their finger out, they still couldn't be bothered! So in the end I had to pay for a leased unit while I waited and waited for a repair report. They came back to me and finally said *** 'they might need to check it again' *** - I felt like exploding at that moment!!

After waiting indefinitely, I got back to NUD and they suggested to get another quote from a local store, so I did, and a PC World engineer said it was beyond economic repair.

After another week of waiting I got a strange call from DIGS saying it was repairable, I asked about the damage report which was LONG overdue, they said it was just a DVD drive that needed replacement, now this was getting funny even though I was being jerked around because my machine didn't even have a DVD drive! They obviously hadn't examined it properly or lost the report I thought?

At this time NUD agreed a replacement would be in order, I pointed that I didn't want anything to do with Dixons/ PC World as they have in the past sold 2nd hand computers disguised as new ones! I insisted for a decent company like Dabs, Insight or Misco to provide necessary replacement. They suggested I get the same brand with the same model! They obviously didn't realise that Intel don't produce the same chips on their assembly lines over a six year period DOH!

In the end they agreed they would pay a cheque for todays equivalent in the retailers name which was fine by me but took them 3 weeks to complete!

My advice is don't use an insurance company especially NUD for household insurance, it's better to use use your bank instead. Don't use Dixons for ANYTHING apart from toilet facilities (if they have any?)

After some intensive research I learnt that not only do Dixons own PC World but also a subsidiary called PC Service call where they provide inflated quotations to insurance firms that DO NOT have accounts with Dixons. Hmmmm! Maybe the OFT should look into this?

What do you reckon?