Direct Insurer Blues
Published |
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2011
Wed
23
Nov
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A Facebook friend, Neil, recently shared an experience that readers may relate to.
He requested a quote from a direct insurer, using his cell phone, but requesting it in his wife’s name. On receipt of the quote, he informed them that he would not act upon it.
Within an hour he received calls from two other direct marketers – African Bank and 8ta, with whom he had never done business before. What intrigued him was that the callers asked for his wife, while the calls were made to his phone.
He commented about this on Twitter, and “hash tagged” the company. Within an hour he received a call from the direct insurer to try and address his concern. The provider’s representative indicated that they had received similar complaints in the past, and that their forensics department was investigating the matter.
Neil says: The questions they ask are very personal, and the process to obtain a quote takes about 45 minutes. My problem with this is that they then know everything about you, and it is obviously stored electronically on their system.
I contacted the direct insurer for their side of the story, and received the following response:
We guard the personal details of our clients and prospective clients and would not disseminate any confidential information. Any possible breaches of our code of conduct is regarded in a very serious light with strict penalties attached.
As such, we have investigated the concerns raised and have not found any information indicating that the personal details were provided by us.
We have asked for assistance from the person who believes we distributed his information, in requesting the companies that have contacted him, where they obtained his details from.
This has not been forthcoming.
At this juncture, we do not believe that the information was provided by any staff member and we reiterate that is against our company policy to provide any such details.
Neil had, in the meantime, sent a text to African Bank and received the standard response:
As discussed telephonically, we are investigating your concerns and will revert with feedback.
Since his altercation with the direct insurer, Neil’s wife received 7 calls on one day from a Durban number, all trying to sell her funeral cover. This despite her request that she not be contacted again after the first call.
This product provider is in the same group of companies as the original caller. Odd?
If permission to forward-sell one’s contact details is contained in the fine print, I am of the opinion that it should be outlawed, if it is not already illegal.
Surely if there is an obligation on providers of financial advice to make sure that the client is allowed to make an informed decision, it should apply to all providers?
Should it prove to be the case that the applicant’s personal details are sold or passed on to other providers, one has to ask what legislative remedies are available to consumers to defend themselves.
We recently published a guide to direct e-mail marketing, and how the Consumer Protection Act impacts on it. Please click on the link below to download a copy.
http://www.moonstone.co.za/wp-content/downloads/industry-news/Consumer-Protectio-%20Act-Email-Marketing.pdf
This extract provides some guidelines:
The biggest change to email marketing regulation introduced by the CPA is the mandatory compliance with an official “do not contact” list that will pre-emptively block direct marketing to consumers who put their names on the list. At the date of writing this the “do not contact” list tender has just closed, but we can expect that it will take up to a year before this facility is implemented and available to consumers. It is however more important than ever before to provide recipients with a clear and easy to use mechanism for unsubscribing from future correspondence. Currently the DMA-SA provides a service to consumer for opting out www.optout.co.za this list is made available to DMA members on a monthly basis.
Neil has lauded Twitter as the new Wonder Bru; wonderful support when and where you need it to get things back in place.
Many corporates monitor any negative posts as part of their damage control, and Twitter is apparently high on the priority list – a lesson no doubt learnt from what happened to despots who thought that they were untouchable.
Source: Paul Kruger: Moonstone Information Refinery (Pty) Ltd
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