Churchill and Greenflag: Could it be Fraud?
Ayrshire August 6th, 2007The BreakDown
On Saturday 4th August I had the unpleasent experiance of my car breaking down 20 miles from home on a motorway. As I sat in the broken down vehicle I didn’t looked stressed or nervous, why, because I’ve been paying for a rescue service that I got included in my latest car insurance deal from Churchill.
The super deal I got on rescue cover was provided by Greenflag and I recieved 10% off at the time of taking this rescue cover package which costs only £109 a year.
As I travel from Ayrshire to Glasgow everyday it was important for me to be covered. The last thing I want to happen is my car breaking down on the M74.
So, I phoned the “Breakdown in the UK” number provided to me and with my policy number in hand I wait on the automated messages to finish so I tell the nice person on the other end of the phone my problem and they’d have a tow truck sent out in a flash to rescue me.
Finally,
Greenflag “Hi, Have you broken down” echoed through the phone to my delight.
Me “Yes,Sir” I anwsered back. Great we’ll be on our way soon.
Then things started to turn a little pear shaped.
Greenflag “Sir, Can I have your postcode?” Postcode provided.
Greenflag “Sir, There’s no policy at that postcode” Eh!
Greenflag “Sir, What’s your vehicle registration?” Registration provided
Greenflag “Sir, There’s no policy for that vehicle” Eh!
Greenflag”Sir, What’s your full name, address and postcode?” Provided,
Ok now I’m panicking, it’s really raining as it does in Scotland and I don’t know the telephone number of any garages. That’s because I have piece of mind with my Greenflag rescue cover.
Greenflag “Sir, We have no details for your name, address, postcode or vehicle, did you get your cover from Churchill?” Yes, I did, why, wait, I have the policy number of the insurance and the rescue cover package. Provided,
Greenflag “Sir, We have no policy for that, Can I transfer you to Churchill they can sort this out for you?” Ok, After listening to about 10 minutes of automated messages about car insurance fraud I was then notified and mortified that,
Churchill “The chuchill offices are now closed please call back………” Now panick has set in.
A quick call to one of those 118 numbers and I was transfered to a local breakdown company, the phone the rung once, explained my problem, breakdown truck arrived prompty and £180 was withdrawn from my wallet to pay the nice man.
The Fraud
So now it’s Monday morning and time to call Churchill to find out why they’ve been withdrawning money from my bank account every month and not providing the service that I’m paying for. In most cases this would be a form of fraud, wouldn’t it?
Firstly, I got talking to Tim at Churchill, nice guy, understood my problem (which I thought was strange, getting many phone calls accusing you of fraud Tim?) details given, I was told I had cover but they’d pass the buck to Greenflag and off I was to Greenflag, I’d provide the name of the customer services agent but I wasn’t given one. My problem explained again, why have I been paying your company evey month and the one time I need to use it no one could find my account details. The anwser was short and sharp “Send us the reciept and we’ll reimburse you for the tow truck at £180, and look into paying you back for the 3 months cover that I wasn’t getting” Great I thought, pay £109 for a years cover and get £180 back, sounds like a good deal. The girl was nice and again understood my issues and would look into it, but my account is there alive and kicking and you won’t get that problem again.
After I came off the call something was still bothering me. The girl mentioned that there was far to many telephone numbers and she’d be unable to track who handled my call.
What if when I called the customer support number they could find my account and when I called the rescue number they couldn’t find my account, what a great scam that would be.
So, off out to the car and back in the house with the rescue number for Greenflag 0800 400 665.
Green Flag “Hi, Thanks for Calling Greenflag, how my I help you”
Me “Hi, My cars broken down”
Green Flag “What’s your postcode”
Me “KA* ***”
Green Flag “I’m sorry Sir but nothing is coming up” I’ve heard this before.
Me “Ok, I’m calling to confirm that you actually have my details as I called on Saturday and nothing was found and when I called customer support 5 minutes ago they said my account was there and setup ok, what’s going on”
Greenflag “Can I have your vehicle registration”
Me “Ok, *********”
Greenflag “Ah!, there’s your account, can you provided your name and address”
Me “Why, don’t you already have it, it should be in my account information”
Greenflag “We need to confirm it’s the correct account”
Me “Ok, Boydie, Ayrshire”
Greenflag “Sir, your account is here and setup ok, it appears that there’s a space in your postcode and that’s why it didn’t show up.” I thought all postcodes had a space in the middle, strange but by this stage the girl was sounding stressed and I really didn’t want to spend any more tim on it.
Me “OK, thanks, bye”
So, what do I make of this, are Greenflag finding my account when I call customer service but losing my details when it comes to actually attending my breakdown.
Has anyone else had similiar problems?
Blogged with Flock
August 9th, 2007 at 8:55 am
What a carry-on. Sounds like either when they developed the program someone forgot to insert the trim() function around the variable holding the postcode text field entry or it was an inept muppet trying to locate your details. Probably the latter.
August 9th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
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August 29th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Yikes! Maybe next time get the Jack Russles to tow you home. Probably be more effective.
September 6th, 2007 at 5:47 am
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September 9th, 2007 at 2:28 am
Sounds like they are pulling a fast one right enough, bawbags. Consider yourself dugg (from one Boyd to another)
April 11th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Both companies, Churchill and Green Flag are owned by RBS and have similar practices so beware. Also last year I took Home Ins from Churchill for around £160 on line, because I would be out of the country when renewal was due I asked to renew early, they were unable to do so. In the circumstances I used the internet to obtain new insurance from Churchill, about £160 again. Shortly after and a couple of days before going abroad, I received a renewal for the original policy £260+. By chance I read the whole renewal document and on the back of the 3rd page I found a reference to automatic renewal, which said that they would renew the insurance unless I advised them otherwise. Of course I did and I told them why. Having written to complain to Churchill, they informed me that their assumptions I had agreed to this corrupt process. Obviously I checked and their answer was substantially incorrect. I found the clause at the end of a section termed policy summary. However there are more than one policy summaries on their website and the one to which I agreed had no such clause. I have found that Green Flag have adopted this corrupt policy also. RBS? I have been informed that another bank owned Insurance companies also does this. My bank inform me that they do not make any checks on requests for ‘automatic renewal’ but make automatic payments, a gift for any criminals out there!
April 11th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Thanks for the comment Keith,
May 9th, 2008 at 10:23 am
There definitely seems to be some cracking deals around when your looking hard enough for breakdown cover, and let’s face it we all need it because you never know when that moment will come when your stranded on some motorway in the pouring rain. Personally I travel long distances and upon my breakdown cover renewal I found that Green Flag were coming up with some good deals too but I don’t really know anyone who uses them so is it worth giving them a try?.