Just need to vent. Will try to be brief. But probably won’t be!
Took out a family policy with Staysure in April for a July holiday in Spain. Some complex health issues amongst the three of us but declared absolutely everything and got a single trip policy for just under £100. All fine, logged onto my account online and could see all 3 medical declarations - checked them.
I got a few emails after this thanking me for purchasing asking to fill in feedback forms. Noticed they were all addressed to my partner rather than me who’s email they were sending it through to and had actually paid for it but thought it must be because I filled all his details in 1st. After a few of these I thought I’d call them and say can you change it to my name please because I’m the one you’re dealing with here. They did so.
A month or two later and I’m planning a solo trip with a friend (who’s got her own insurance). I haven’t gone on the family trip yet, so I phone them up and ask if I can add this trip onto my existing insurance policy for an additional payment but they say no - you’ll have to take out an entirely new policy. OK. No problem.
I go online and fill out a completely new application form and purchase an insurance policy for my September trip. Just under £60 - money comes out of my account. I receive a confirmation email. On my birthday they even send me an email wishing me happy birthday. Bless.
So it’s 2 weeks before my trip and I think, I’ll log onto my account, take screen grabs of the policy numbers and details so they’re in my photos as well. I log on and can only see the documents for my expired policy - for the family trip we took in July. No sign of my forthcoming travel policy on there at all.
I phone up and speak to a really helpful guy. He asks my date of birth and I give it him and then he says, that’s not the date of birth we’ve got for you. I’m puzzled by this (they sent me a birthday email afterall?!) so I think and say - ah I’ll have a guess then that you’ve got this date of birth and give them my partners - and he says, yes, that’s what we’ve got for you. I say that’s wrong, there’s evidently been some mangling of mine and my partners details because I used you earlier in the year for family insurance.
The guy goes away for about 2 seconds and then up pop the details of my forthcoming travel policy on my online account. Brilliant I say - thanks so much - what was the issue? And he said, for some reason your policy was attached to an account in your partner’s name. How very strange I said but all sorted now - great.
i looked at the summary detail and the dates were right, address, name etc… The next day I went to do my screen grab and downloaded the Validation Certificate only to discover that, whilst I was named as the Policy Holder, and my age was down on the form and all MY medical details were listed - under the ‘Person(s) insured section it said my fecking partner’s name!!! He’s not even going on this trip, he’s not paid for this insurance or had any of his details filled in - it’s MY policy.
So I get on the phone again and get a woman who has a bit of a struggle understanding what the issue is - has to go off and ask her support team - and then says she’ll have to ring me back. All I want her to do is change the ‘person insured’ to the correct name - me, the policy holder. I explain the previous shenanigans but I’m not sure she’s entirely understanding the situation. I get 2 phone calls that I answer and that immediately cut off, then on the third occasion she actually speaks. She says unfortunately if I want to change the name I have to pay them to do this or I have to cancel the policy and buy a new one. They can’t reimburse me because I’m out of the ‘cooling off period’. It just sounds like she’s reading from a script.
I keep my cool and say, assertively but politely, that I’m not having this. I have not done anything wrong - this is some sort of online glitch on their part - their colleague admitted as much a day or two before - I’m going on holiday in less than 2 weeks - I don't want a policy with any ambiguity on it because if I need it, it will be voided if my name doesn’t match. She goes off again to ask her support team and comes back to say she’s instigated a complaint and I will be contacted in 3-5 working days. I said I don’t want to complain, I just want you to fix it! But reluctantly leave it there.
I wait a day or two and then receive an acknowledgement of my complaint and that it could take up to 8 weeks to complete investigations! I phone them again, spend another 20 minutes explaining the situation to another lovely, but baffled, employee who said at the end - sorry, but because you’ve gone into a complaints procedure only the complaints department can deal with it. Very calmly I ask if they can put me through to their complaints department. No. You’ll have to wait for them to call you. They will probably call you on Monday.
So here I am - stealing myself for another marathon phone call -tomorrow - 5 days before my trip - with an insurance policy that is a total waste of paper and money. Of course I could just buy another one and ditch Staysure but why the hell should I? If it comes to it, of course I’ll have to.
Sorry. Rant over, for now. I’ll update you after tomorrow’s phone call but so far I’m singularly unimpressed with Staysure Travel Insurance!! I hope I can come back tomorrow and tell you they’ve redeemed themselves..,