Admiral and foreign call centres (quite long)

Oct 02, 2006 Last reply: 2 years ago 11 Replies

Does anyone know an appropriate route to complain to Admiral Insurance about their foreign call centres - preferably one where my letter won't just be binned unread?



I was trying to do something that seems incredibly straightforward to me. I had a policy with Admiral due to start in the middle of October, but in the interim I'd sold the insured car and got another one, so wanted to have that insured instead. I had a quote from their Sales people and had a reference number for that. Should have been a very straightforward conversation.



Except I got routed to India, and the phone call took forty minutes without going anywhere. The person I spoke to was unable to understand English (told me they couldn't find 'wrist spoiler' when I said the car had a 'rear spoiler', for example), and wasn't able to process the quote number their Sales people had given me. I gave them all the car details again and they quoted me a figure which was 15 quid more than the Sales people had quoted.



I explained that I had been given a quote that was less than that and had been told it was good for 60 days, so I wasn't prepared to accept that quote. We went round on this for a bit then I asked to speak to her manager.



To cut a long story short, the manager was even less helpful. Tried the next day and ended up talking to another Indian call centre who told me I would have to cancel my existing policy (which hadn't even started yet) before they could insure me for the new car.



I ended up giving up on this entirely, phoning around and finding somewhere 50 quid cheaper. I would like to let Admiral how they've managed to turn away and alienate a customer who had already had a quote from them and was *trying* to give them his money!



The whole issue here is just one of communications. I've had excellent service from Indian call centres in the past, but this should have been a five minute conversation and the communications barrier turned it into a nightmare.



I wasted an hour of my time (and theirs) and it was clear from my conversation with them today that they've added notes to my record that I am being unreasonable. As I said to them, if this is the level of service I get for something straightforward where I'm trying to give them money, what kind of service can I expect if I actually have a problem?


Thats worrying because in the past when I've called Admiral I've always had a UK person and very good service. :-(

IANAL

That might be worth getting looked into - indian call centres are still covered by the Data Protection Act when hired by a british company AFAIK, and you should be able to make a subject access request to see exactly what they put on the notes.

Companies House will release the home addresses of the directors I believe for around £3, and you can guarantee that would focus their attention.

I did manage to get through to a UK person yesterday who said that someone from the UK-based Customer Services would call me back the next day. They didn't.

It may be that I've just been very unlucky, but I've called them five times and have had satisfactory service once. I certainly wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

Well, to be honest I don't really care what they put on my notes - I'm not a customer of theirs any more and certainly won't ever be in the future. I'm sure that the manager I spoke to put lots of things down to cover their own arse for their department's inability to fulfil a simple request and for the inability of their employee to understand English.

For example, I would not be surprised if their records have me down as an unreasonable yelling racist for saying loudly that the problem was that their employee just couldn't understand what I wanted to do, but is it worth the time and trouble to investigate and try to amend records that they shouldn't be able to share with anyone else?

Hmm, might be worth a try. I'm not after compo or anything, but I find it hard to believe that a company is knowingly providing such poor service. I'd like to let them know that they turned away a paying customer and why I won't be back, and perhaps writing to the directors is the only way to ensure that the complaint actually gets read.

Cheers

I had a problem with British Gas on Saturday. The person speaking with a heavy eastern European accent said that he was in South Yorkshire anyway he kept wanting to consume my account number. In the end he gave up when I kept querying why he wanted to consume my account number. When I eventually got through to somebody to complain they said that they cannot refuse to employ somebody with inadequate English as that would be discrimination. I had better start learning Polish and Czech the in that case. It is funny how they can discriminate against me because the non-English speaking call centre worker can't understand me.

Kevin

When I eventually got through to somebody to complain they said that they cannot refuse to employ somebody with inadequate English as that would be discrimination. I had better start learning Polish and Czech the in that case. It is funny how they can discriminate against me because the non-English speaking call centre worker can't understand me.

This isnt a new problem and not confined to call centres. Going back to the early 1970's we had a funny experience at a hospital. (funny now but not at the time) My wife used to suffer from fits and when she was out she almost got knocked over on a crossing and it really shook her up to the extent that although she got home okay when i got back she was suffering from memory loss. I took to her to A&E and was seen by a doctor YU HU. I suggested he address any general questions to me because of the memory loss. For about 10 minutes we went around in circles with him asking if her feet were okay and i kept explaining there was nothing wrong with her feet and it was her memory which was the problem. In the end a nurse came to our rescue and said he means how are her fits. instead of feets! lol

I remember this every time i get an overseas call centre. lol

x-no-archive: yes

here's a thought-- i wonder if these cal centres have a tiered sustem, where big spenders gert through to their local language, and low value ones get farmed out to indiacom or whatever..?

The airlines definately have that system, different numbers to call for gold card members etc.

Totally agree tried to renew my insurance, Delhi India call centre, hardly spoke English and could not understand me , no way was I given them personal info so gone to admiral instead, I would say I was happy with admiral until they moved call centre

A story from 17 years ago.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required