breakdown service tactics !!

[tigler]

A certain breakdown service with a Yellow brand image wrote to advise of my renewal recently. Except I was a little unhappy about the price they wanted. Paid £69.50 to join as new member 2 year back, first renewal they tried to extort £95, I objected they capitulated and reduced to £69.50 ! This time they tried a new approach, apparently they value my loyalty so I was being upgraded to silver membership for a not inconsiderable £122.13
I voiced my objection again and they tried the usual blather about increased benefits of silver membership etc. I just reminded them that I could just go get a better deal as new member with a competitor or even themselves, and they folded and renewed at £79.50, against new member price of £74.

Is everything a scam these days ?!

 

[mike os]

yup... all run by money grabing b*****ds... just change every year I cant be arsed arguing with the 'holes

 

[Hitch]

Insurance of any kind seem like this.

Send you through your renewal, £500.....ring them up, tell them it seems expensive.... £400.... do it online, same comapny.... £300.

 

[octo0072000]

as said by mike os
just keep changing or as tigler threaten to leave i got 40% discount off home insurance with a certain red telephone co
good deal first year renewal nearly doubled so complain 40% off just for asking the questions just a big joke

 

[W4yne]

It's exactly the same with insurance whether it be car or buildings & contents.

 

[mike os]

i will not give them the opertunity to correct their "error" unless i am strugling to make a decent saving elsewhere

it is one practice that really gets my goat, espescially when you can get the same cover from the same firm cheaper just by signing up as a new customer rather than renewing

 

[Welderpaul]

I agree with Mike; unless im going to loose out, i cancel there and then - and when they ask why i am leaving i tell them its because they have just taken the p.

They try it on, many are wise to it, but imagine how many people there are out there who don't have the time to look for cheaper prices and automatic renewals kick in, or the little old ladies of the world who don't challenge what they are being asked to pay and just sign up for yet another year of increased costs.

Insurance is one great big con too imo.

 

[hotrodder]

Not defending 'em but the problem is that people are lazy when it comes to this sort of thing. If enough of the population had this attitude...

I agree with Mike; unless im going to loose out, i cancel there and then - and when they ask why i am leaving i tell them its because they have just taken the p.

they'd* start loosing out and stop the games. To really stand a chance of working though it needs everyone to take a stand even if it costs 'em a little more initially which'll obviously never happen

* All insurance/utilities and it kinda, almost applies to many other things too... buying metal for example, simply asking is often enough to get a discount even if you're a 'nobody' i.e. no account (loyalty) and a piddly little order rather than volume price breaks

 

[Justme]

To really stand a chance of working though it needs everyone to take a stand even if it costs 'em a little more initially which'll obviously never happen

I hope everyone does not do that. If they do then the companies will looses money & have to increase the premiums they charge across the board including new customers.

 

[hotrodder]

Good point, effectively the lazy are paying for the cheaper deals those us that shop around get

 

[Justme]

Good point, effectively the lazy are paying for the cheaper deals those us that shop around get

Shhhh they might hear you.

 

[Shox Dr]

Shhhh they might hear you.

I'm quite sure it currently works in their financial favour. If it didn't they would soon change it

 

[Justme]

The "they" I was talking about was all the lazy punters that just renew with the existing company & pay through the nose. If everyone shopped around every time then either all policies would cost more or new customer discounts would stop.


One of the things that pees me off is companies that accept 8+ years of NCB but when they send your renewal they only put 4 5 or 6 years on it. I keep a copy so that the next company I go to cant say I only have X years when I have not claimed for over 20.

 

[ibrooks]

I upset the AA a while back. I pay stuff like that in one go so that's what I had done. A couple of months into the year I cancelled the yearly direct debit they had set up (they had had the year's money up front so no reason for it to still be there).

At about 8 months I gets a phone call from them purporting to be a check that I was happy with everything and he wants to check on the direct debit details (the DD was just mentioned as if it was an aside to the real reason for the call). Ok says I and the first thing he launches into is could he get the DD details to set it back up.

Nope

He then spends some minutes trying to convince me that it would make my life easier when renewal time came around but I was having none of it. I finally just cut him off mid-way through a spiel and told him that I would not be setting the direct debit back up so he should maybe move to any other reason for the call.

He just said thankyou for my time and hung up.

I'm now with Autoaid.

Iain

 

[Dave3066]

I took out AA car insurance for my dad as he has no internet access so asked me to get him the best deal. The AA was the best overall deal and came with ***FREE*** home emergency cover for the car ie if the car broke down at home they'd send someone out. This was all paid for on one of those continuous payment authority things on my credit card. Well that was last year and the renewal came through last week. Whilst the premium has not gone up that much, around £10, they now want an extra £90 for the breakdown thingy, which will be taken as part of the continuous payment authority. "Oh not it won't" says I and promptly cancelled the payment authority with my bank. Apparently my dad now gets ***FREE*** roadside assistance this year with his insurance so I'm guessing that will come with a fairly hefty fee next year!

Dave

 

[ajlelectronics]

promptly cancelled the payment authority with my bank.

Sorry to say you might have a little surprise coming. When you agree a CCA, you lose control of it totally, unlike DD. You can stop a DD at any time and demand immediate return of a wrongly taken debit. With Credit / Debit cards, you have to rely on the recipient to cancel the charge or refund one. Even cancelling the card doesn't work as I found out to my cost.. .. I hired a car in Sweden that was damaged and rejected it before I even got near it. Thought that was the end of it, until a "repair" charge appeared on my credit card statement. Luckily it was AMEX who helped greatly and 6 months later, it was refunded.

Moral... NEVER agree to a CCA, always Direct Debit.

 

[MattF]

Every year with Green flag at renewal time, I go through their online quote bit, phone them and get the online price, which is always far cheaper than what they want on the renewal. Can't fault them though. They always do it with no fuss. The fact that one has to do that yearly to get a reasonable price could be classed as my only gripe.

It's the same with most companies these days though. They put most of their effort into gaining new customers rather than realising that they ought be keeping their existing ones happy.

 

[Dave3066]

Sorry to say you might have a little surprise coming. When you agree a CCA, you lose control of it totally, unlike DD. You can stop a DD at any time and demand immediate return of a wrongly taken debit. With Credit / Debit cards, you have to rely on the recipient to cancel the charge or refund one. Even cancelling the card doesn't work as I found out to my cost.. .. I hired a car in Sweden that was damaged and rejected it before I even got near it. Thought that was the end of it, until a "repair" charge appeared on my credit card statement. Luckily it was AMEX who helped greatly and 6 months later, it was refunded.

Moral... NEVER agree to a CCA, always Direct Debit.

No apology necessary but you are of course incorrect. EU regulations, which are now part of the rules in the UK, mean banks have a legal duty to sort out recurring payment cancellations for you, when you ask it to, and you can do this without contacting the retailer first. The regulator, the FSA says:

"You have the right to cancel them directly with your bank or card issuer by telling it that you have stopped permission for the payments. Your bank or card issuer must then stop them – it has no right to insist that you agree this first with the company taking the payments"

This should be where the problem stops. Yet banks are breaching these rules; lobby group Consumer Focus reported in May 2012 that 44% of bank staff didn't give the right answer when asked how to cancel recurring payments, while 28% wrongly said you must go to the retailer.

Dave

 

[wombar]

Yep same story here. Every year they send a "Special Price" renewal. Every year I cancel, and either go through a cash back scheme, or go to another company.

Last few years I've gone through cash back schemes that are offering £50 back on a ~£100 policy. One year they'll refuse to pay the cash back, but I'm still paying less than the renewal quote so I'm happy.

Bit of a hassle, but if you do this for all your policies over the year, it adds up to some nice new tools