Car Insurance... what a pain!

It's time to renew the car insurance. Why do companies make it so hard to get quotes?

First thing is, when we got our second car (I know, I know, two car family... I'm hoping that either we move at some point or one of our jobs moves at some point such that we can get rid of it again) our existing insurance people wanted to know if we'd made any claims on our other car's insurance in order for them to give us a quote. Why couldn't they just look it up? I gave them our existing policy details and they used that to get all our personal details. But oh no, they can't go that extra little bit and pull up the record of any past claims to save me the hassle of having to figure out what and when I've claimed in the past. And of course I forgot something... and they pulled me up on it... Gits.

Next thing is, trying to get a quote from another company. My wife had someone go into the back of one of our cars last year. Not her fault - she was stopped at a red traffic light with the handbrake on when it happened. One of the questions they insisted on getting the answer to was how much total damage was done to both cars involved in the accident. Now one of the reasons we pay the insurers lots of money is so that we don't have to worry about that sort of thing. We paid the excess & the insurance company paid the rest for having our car repaired & all this was subsequently reclaimed from the other driver's insurance company. Neither we nor our insurers knew how much damage was done to the other car, so how on earth are we supposed to give a total damage to both cars? In the end I managed to get our insurers to tell me how much they paid for our car... but no way to find out the other car's damage...

Box-not-very-Clever-at-all

For some dumb reason I've been renting the same TV & video for quite a while. Like over 10 years. I wanted to return it to the company & cancel the rental agreement. So I phoned them up, canceled the agreement and arranged collection.

A few days later they ring me up and ask if I'd like to buy the kit for a nominal amount. I say no, I've no need for it. They offer me the video for free. Again I say no, just come and pick it up as arranged.

A week after that I receive a letter from them telling me they've closed the account & that I can keep the kit for free.

Now, I don't want the kit. I don't need it. That's why I asked them to pick it up. So I phone them up again. It takes ages to explain to the "customer services" rep on the end of the phone that I don't want the TV. "Oh," she says, "well, can't you give it to someone?" Well, I've already checked & no-one I know needs one. So I say no, come and pick it up like we arranged. "Well," she says, "we've already closed the account so we won't be collecting it. We could open the account again and re-arrange collection, but I don't know when that will be." In other words, they've cancelled a pre-arranged pickup without consulting their customer and in order for me to get the stuff removed by them they'll have to re-open the account, re-arrange the collection for a few months hence and charge me for renting the kit in the meantime.

And then when collection time's coming near I'd bet they'd tell me I can keep it for free again.

I just can't be bothered with that.

A quick search shows that I'm not the only one whose had fun with these guys. Based upon some of the search results, I think I'll hold onto the kit until after the next payment would be due to come off, just in case they "lose" the records saying I can keep the kit & they try to charge me with selling on their kit... After that it'll be a trip to the local recycle/re-use plant.