Admiral (van) insurance - part 2

[Quiney]

I had an unsolicited phone call this morning, from Admiral Insurance. A courtesy call to check if everything was OK, can you confirm a few security details - DOB, address.
I explained that I would never give out those details to an unsolicited call. He said it was about the insurance on a Peugeot van but he couldn't give any more details because of data protection. I agreed and said that I would not give him any details for the same reason, goodbye.

Anyway, this got me wound-up and so I called the Complaints number at Admiral. Initially gave the brief senario and was told as it was "van" insurance then they would have to get someone from that dept. to call me back. Did a bit of digging on the net to find that Admiral Van, whilst trading under the Admiral umbrella is actually a different company.

They did call me back (and asked the same security questions) and I explained it all again. She told me it was a call made within the first 14 days to check everything was OK and see if there were any other of their products tha might interest me. BINGO So it was nothing more than a marketing call. Why wasn't I given the option to opt-out of such calls?
She was the usual very apologetic, will pass my concerns on etc etc. :wank:

I then raise the point about verifying driving license details via the gov website. She said that it was down to the individual insurers but that more and more companies are now doing it, that it has only been live since later last year. So looks like it may well be coming to insurance companies near you folks soon as well -(

 

[andyBeaker]

Hmmmm. I ought a very nice oak table for my mum from Oakfurnitureland (don't knock it, the tables are really nice and good value, not so sure about all the other stuff). A couple of days after delivery I got a 'is everything ok ' call which started fine, a bit of advice about waxing the table and that if the table needed changing for a different size then they would be happy to exchange. All good stuff. He then went on to talk about what they could do if the table was scratched or damaged or upholstery ripped I.e. They could send out a French polisher or replace cushions, all fair enough. Then right at the end he dropped in that it was ?89 for the insurance cover for all this stuff that he hadn't even mentioned until that point. I really saw red and laid into him asking why he had not said anything about insurance until eleven minutes into the call. Underhand sales tactics and I wonder how many elderly or vulnerable people they sign up.

Will these people ever learn that if they piss people off they will never go back?

As an aside, I had a couple of telephone calls from a scammer saying he was from Microsoft and I had an Outlook message that was causing problems for their server. Nice man said if I gave him some details if my account he would resolve the issue. I thought I would string him along for a while but eventually I just told him that I had kept him talking so the call could be traced. Hilariously he got really annoyed with ME and said there was no reason for me to be so rude.

 

[Jaws]

When I get a call from Microsoft I deal with it in one of two ways..

I either string them along ( best so far is 90 minutes before he lost it and rang off ) or else ask them why they have rung a security branch of MI6 and where did they get the number from ..