Mobile Phone Insurance. Always a good thing to have whichever country you live in!
What THEY say:
‘They say’: WE must contact the police within “24 hours” (their bold) of discovering the incident.
‘They say’ : WE must report the incident to our airtime-provider within 24 hours (their bold) of discovering the incident.
‘They say’ : WE must register our claim with blah-blah-blah-insurance within 48 hours of the incident.
‘They say’ : WE must complete the Claim Form within 14 days of receiving the claim form. (no bold there!)
‘They say’ : THEY will assess our claim within 2 working days (my bold) of receiving our completed Claim form.
What THEY did:
THEY acknowledged receipt of my Claim Form 7 days (Thursday) after I posted it Royal Mail first class (Royal Mail guarantee delivery in 1 to 2 days, and from past experience they have!)
THEY posted a letter, which I received on the Saturday following the above Thursday, (so probably equal to 1 day) with the instructions of how to send my phone to them for repairs. (Couldn’t they have emailed the letter?!)
THEY confirmed receipt of my phone by email 3 days after I posted the phone ‘Recorded Signed For’ (Royal Mail: next day delivery!) Thank you ………………. we are pleased to confirm that this has now been received at our repair centre. We aim to repair your mobile phone within 5 working days from the date of this email.
To break it down:
Wednesday 7th I phone the company to say phone damaged
Thursday 8th they email claim form
Thursday 8th I post claim form
Thursday 15th I phone and they say they received it ‘today’
Saturday 17th I receive instructions on how to send phone to them
Monday 19th I post phone ‘Recorded Signed For’
Thursday 22nd They acknowledge they have ‘now received’ and it’ll take 5 working days which takes us to –
Thursday 29th at which point they will send an email to tell me that my phone has been repaired and is on its way back to me within 3 working days which takes me to –
Tuesday 3rd .
A Year 4 class were analysing adverts this week. One of the questions on the worksheet was, “Is the advert honest?” My group were quick to say that many ads were not honest, and as they read the small print they picked up the words which confirmed their suspicions!
So why do companies still try and fool the public?! Some of the public are naïve, yes, but the corporations and businesses trying to get our business and repeat business would surely be wise to deliver what they promise the first time (reminds me of the government!)
For this mobile insurance company I would have preferred them to say something like this:
Your claim could take up to one month to finalise. These are the steps:
1. Phone us
2. We email claim form immediately
3. You post claim form back to us
4. We will assess and if approved will email you instructions on sending us your phone.
5. You send us the phone
6. We try and repair and return to you or supply you with a replacement phone.
No delivery times mentioned except the up to one month. It might help if the claim form is emailed immediately from the call centre assistant and not having to wait 24 hours (it was sent fax-to-email!)
It might help if the company’s postal distribution is speeded up so it doesn’t take a week for the claim to land on someone’s desk!
It might help if the call-centre assistant is able to assess whether the phone should be posted for repairs together with the claim form – that would save a few days!
I’m not really complaining! I have been kept informed and the process is going quite smoothly. What I am saying is that the emphasis on time, with none of those times exceeding 2 days is not really being transparent!
