Picture the scene if you will. A Friday afternoon in a leading high street bank, with only two counters open and a queue out of the door. A chap is getting foreign currency and an elderly woman is paying in various bags of coins she had been saving up. Can things get any worse? Yes is the answer.
Looking around I notice a flip chart on which is the somewhat robust headline:
"We guarantee to save you money on your home insurance" - with no mights or maybes. Bit of a sweeping statement, I think.
Then the woman with the coins is asked whether she wants a home insurance quote. She politely declines.
Asked again, she advises that her husband deals with such matters, but the bank clerk is not finished. "I'll just get the appointment book and get you a slot for next week."
She then tells the woman their cover is the "best" and that "we're always the cheapest" - at no time does she ask about the woman's previous claims, property construction, occupation, property security or material facts, or disclose the bank's status and details of access to complaints.
I watch on in sheer horror. Every aspect of the rulebook trampled on. Sweeping statements made without foundation or the full facts.
No consumer information provided and status/ complaints procedure/disclosure etc never even touched upon. How far have we really come when a national institution can behave like this and get away with it?
Upon arriving home, the phone rings in the hall. It is a well-known life office calling from India. Would I like a quote, as following recent legislation our cover is probably invalid?
I ask them whether they are authorised and regulated by the FSA, as I can't believe what they are saying. They hang up. No number revealed on 1471 to ring back. Aaargh!
J A Sweeney
Managing director
Sweeney Insurance Associates
