Lord give me strength. Every flippin’ phone call I make and every flippin’ store visit I make sees me bombarded with these, they are doing my head in.

Here’s today’s example … I took out a new car insurance policy and noticed in the smallprint, thank goodness I checked, that it’s subject to automatic renewal unless I inform them otherwise. That pi$$ed me off for a start.

So, as I couldn’t do this online I phoned to hear that I would automatically be ‘given the opportunity’ to participate in a survey at the end of the call.

I HAVE NOT OPTED IN TO AUTOMATIC RENEWAL NOR HAVE I OPTED IN TO TAKE PART IN A SURVEY.

Spoke to real person where I complained that automatic opt in was out of order as there was no choice to opt out and I wanted to be opted out. She then asked if I would take part in the survey to rate my experience. 😐

I apologised to her for refusing but the bottom line was that if they had not automatically opted me in to automatic renewal and automatic survey then there would have been no need for me to have phoned them and had my time wasted. I requested that my feedback be passed on to the numbskulls who think this is a terrific wheeze.

And relax …

Has your experience on this thread so far been

A) positive, it was good to have a bit of a rant

or

B) I’m still feeling irritated and my mood will be affected by the posts that follow my OP

?

So they gave you chance to give some feedback to the actual company but you declined that and complained to us instead? 😈

😳

Edit: the survey was about customer experience with person I spoke to, not their dumbar$e opt in baloney.

We get a lot of these at work to rate the performance of supporting roles or suppliers, (HR, IT, travel bookings etc.) and the thing that irritates me is the question always begins with

‘would you recommend xxx to your colleagues?’

But we have absolutely no choice in other suppliers as it’s either an internal department or centrally contracted service. Stupid question.

I now regard them as an email address collection exercise.

This thread may be recorded for training purposes. Please wait until a customer services representative is available.

[Lady in Red starts playing on continuous loop]

Auto-renewal stops forgetful people from driving uninsured.
If you are not forgetful, then you can remember to phone up your insurers and cancel, which took me about 30s.

No surveys were mentioned (Swinton). 🙂

Auto-renewal stops forgetful people from driving uninsured.

No, it makes an assumption that people will forget which is frankly insulting. I don’t know how they can legally get away with this.

No, it makes an assumption that people will forget which is frankly insulting. incredibly common…..

They still send you a letter or email about your renewal and you should have 14 days to get out of it. Can’t see the issue really.

Yeah, but they still write / email to tell you in advance of the renewal that they are putting the fee up – so you can tell them stop then 🙄

Edit – oops a bit slow

I don’t know how they can legally get away with this.

By putting it in the T&Cs that you agree to when you take out the policy

No, it makes an assumption that people will forget which is frankly insulting. I don’t know how they can legally get away with this.

They always have to send you a renewal quote in plenty of time to either accept that quote (by doing nothing) or make an effort and shop elsewhere. They’re not assuming you’ll forget, because reminding you is part of the renewal process – so they won’t let you forget, they’re just making staying with them your the easiest option.

No, it makes an assumption that people will forget which is frankly insulting. I don’t know how they can legally get away with this.

Making assumptions that people will forgot is insulting but making assumptions that people will read their contract isn’t? 😀

Shirley not as annoying as websites you click onto for the very first time which immediately ask you to take a survey about how good their website is?

Ferkin muppets.

We get a lot of these at work to rate the performance of supporting roles or suppliers, (HR, IT, travel bookings etc.) and the thing that irritates me is the question always begins with
‘would you recommend xxx to your colleagues?’

That’ll be because they’re using Net Promoter Scores, and that’s the question. They need a 9 or 10 to be a “promoter”, 6 and below is “detractor”, 7 and 8 is “passive”. I actually think they should provide that info, as it does guide what I score.

took out a new car insurance policy and noticed in the smallprint, thank goodness I checked, that it’s subject to automatic renewal unless I inform them otherwise. That pi$$ed me off for a start.

😳
Sorry I may / may not have designed and implemented that system (depending upon who it’s with). You know when you have to design something (as the business have asked for it) but you also know you probably don’t want that particular ‘feature’ yourself.
Once again…sorry
Our only excusebusiness justification is that everyone else is doing it and making money from it

I don’t get what all the fuss is about. Mine auto-renews, (and I assume most others do too), but they remind you well ahead of the renewal which gives you plenty of time to shop around, or get them to price match if you find better and cant be bothered to switch, or just cancel?

That’ll be because they’re using Net Promoter Scores

this, it’s what the plastic executives measure their success by, market share and NPS, key Deliverables dontcha know..?

I’d be very very surprised if there is ANY car insurance policy that will not automatically renew.

That’ll be because they’re using Net Promoter Scores
this, it’s what the plastic executives measure their success by, market share and NPS, key Deliverables dontcha know..?

That’s exactly what it is, but it’s still a stupid way of wording the question. Didn’t know about the promoter/passive/detractor limits though. That’ll be why you get an individual phonecall if you give them 6 or fewer.