Today, we have a guest writing on this blog. I have shared it here so that we can all learn something from it.
Cyb3r
Some of you may relate to this experience if you have ever schooled in a boarding house. Getting your bucket of water to the bathroom and when you go to pick up your sponge, towel and soap, you return to meet an empty bucket. Yes, that’s what it was like to wake up and see a notification from my bank saying I have been debited because of an insurance company.
To be fair, I will say there was some negligence on my part but I will help create the awareness so no one gets bullied again.
It all started when I was a month away from completing my national service, a colleague approached me with an insurance policy which was like saving for pension so I was interested. After giving it some thought, I decided to join stating clearly I will be ready the following year when I may have probably secured a job.
Secondly, he said I could decide the fee I want to contribute making it flexible.
Three months later, he called me to find out if I had heard from the company, I had not received a call, text nor email from them so I knew the application was not processed and didn’t bother any more.
On 19th December, 2016, at 10:35 AM after a phone call, I received a message saying GHS XX.XX has been debited from a/c no …. I was filled with anger immediately. I called my friend, he gave me another contact, called that too and finally had to call their office. The instruction was I had to visit the office if I wanted anything done which I did with lightning speed.
Now that I cancelled the policy, here is what transpired. I can only stop after 2 years. If am to cancel, I forfeit the money debited, the cancellation can take place after January next year after the second debit is done. I can only apply for refund if any debiting then after January.
It’s one thing when you walk into an office and they say you forfeit a claim, but it’s feels different when they are arrogant about it. And when you tell them they should have made an attempt to at least make a form of contact, they ignore that and tell you, you signed onto the scheme. And you can’t leave a form there for more than 6 months. I am waiting to see if the cancellation will take place because others have had a very bad experience.
To have the customer service of a private firm, a financial institution this bad, is just WOW. Even some government institution will beat them with over 50% if we are to score. I sat listening to hear at least a “sorry” from them, but NO. So when I was given the cancellation form I started to laugh. You can clearly see that all their interest is in your money and not your well-being.
I bought items I didn’t need, giving out money and gifts to people I did not know in the process, just because of how the people treated me. The sense that the person has your interest at heart and not what you have only. It has a powerful rippling effect as studies show word of mouth advertising is the most effective and powerful method of advertising.
People are already skeptical about insurance companies and with my experience, StarLife you can do better.
#theinsuranceexperience
Ekow.
