treoleileagh
Full member
- Location
- Australia
For Aussi members.
I've recently had two occasions to discover what I've been paying for (over maybe 15 years) at Shannons insurance. I've had (more or less) ten vehicles insured during much of this time and until recently had never made a claim.
Last August or so, after a minor prang, cosmetic damage only, I filed my first claim (approx $3000). A day or two later, I received demand for payment of the excess, even though the claim had not been processed or approved. Afterwards the claim disappeared from their priorities. By November, with still no action from Shannons and having tired of waiting in their telephone bottleneck for well over an hour on each of seven or eight occasions, I called them, trying to progress the claim, I took them to the financial industries ombudsman. Shannons initiated communication for the second time (after demanding the excess) almost at once in brief words and affronted tones. Settlement followed a few days later.
I won't go into the many frustrations with that claim, including their outright lies ("the assessor says he will be approving it today" etc etc), or deliberate blockages (like afore mentioned telephone bottleneck) or getting all the photos they required through their 20mb gateway, or their broken and dysfunctional "self service" web site that could not even find my policy number.
I've never received replies to my letters by email.
You get the idea...
Now to their roadside assist plan that I had also signed up for a few years ago and somehow had never discontinued despite the debacle described above. Today, I needed to use it following a cold day starting issue. FFS!
Eventually, I walked to a battery store and bought a new battery since I could not get a human to take an interest in my plight.
My advice is, no one needs to engage with so much incompetence, especially no one ought to pay for so much frustration (like trying to correct the callout address that their system has devised from the telephone number of the caller) (who in this case happened to be my mate calling them from another State on my behalf.) Where do they get their IT goons from?
Shannons used to be a very fine company supporting the enthusiast market and many remember it that way. Sadly it seems to have been swallowed up in corporate monopoly and has been revised by marauding bean counters and 14 year old script kiddies.
Buyer beware! With insurance companies you don't know what you are paying for until after your mistake.
I've recently had two occasions to discover what I've been paying for (over maybe 15 years) at Shannons insurance. I've had (more or less) ten vehicles insured during much of this time and until recently had never made a claim.
Last August or so, after a minor prang, cosmetic damage only, I filed my first claim (approx $3000). A day or two later, I received demand for payment of the excess, even though the claim had not been processed or approved. Afterwards the claim disappeared from their priorities. By November, with still no action from Shannons and having tired of waiting in their telephone bottleneck for well over an hour on each of seven or eight occasions, I called them, trying to progress the claim, I took them to the financial industries ombudsman. Shannons initiated communication for the second time (after demanding the excess) almost at once in brief words and affronted tones. Settlement followed a few days later.
I won't go into the many frustrations with that claim, including their outright lies ("the assessor says he will be approving it today" etc etc), or deliberate blockages (like afore mentioned telephone bottleneck) or getting all the photos they required through their 20mb gateway, or their broken and dysfunctional "self service" web site that could not even find my policy number.
I've never received replies to my letters by email.
You get the idea...
Now to their roadside assist plan that I had also signed up for a few years ago and somehow had never discontinued despite the debacle described above. Today, I needed to use it following a cold day starting issue. FFS!
Eventually, I walked to a battery store and bought a new battery since I could not get a human to take an interest in my plight.
My advice is, no one needs to engage with so much incompetence, especially no one ought to pay for so much frustration (like trying to correct the callout address that their system has devised from the telephone number of the caller) (who in this case happened to be my mate calling them from another State on my behalf.) Where do they get their IT goons from?
Shannons used to be a very fine company supporting the enthusiast market and many remember it that way. Sadly it seems to have been swallowed up in corporate monopoly and has been revised by marauding bean counters and 14 year old script kiddies.
Buyer beware! With insurance companies you don't know what you are paying for until after your mistake.
