As I briefly mentioned in a MPSIMS thread the other week, I got caught speeding recently. I know this because I received a letter from the police saying “we saw you do it, now sign here”. I signed and sent back my admission of guilt (caught fair and square).
Now I’m in the limbo of waiting to hear what’ll happen. Is a court case hurtling my way? Probably not, but you never know. I’ll probably get fined and have some points put on my licence. Wait a moment, if I get a conviction, I’ll have to notify my insurance company. I hope that doesn’t put my premium up.
Well, being the far-sighted person that I am, I went to the website of the insurance company, and brought up the details of my cover. Many times in the past I have changed details on there to see what effect on my premium it would make (when I was thinking of moving to a different post code, or adding another driver). It clearly states that no changes will be applied until I confirm them, and I know this to be true because, as I said, I’ve tried this before to get quotes.
So I fill in the conviction form, guessing at what the type will be and how many points I’ll be given. When I click on the submit button (not the confirm button), a message tells me they’ll have to email me the details - they can’t do this automatically. Drat, what a nuisance. Still, it’ll be useful to know what I’m looking at. Next day, an email arrives from a helpful person at the company telling me that there is no change to the premium, and that the details have been added - new documentation is on its way. Woah woah woah… I didn’t want to add them, I just wanted to know what would happen… I made it up - that conviction doesn’t exist - it was an exercise.
So I reply to the email explaining the situation and requesting that they immediately remove the conviction from my details - presumably incorrect information on the cover means it is not legal. No reply. That was on the 27th July - last night I emailed again.
Today I got a phone call from someone at the company. “Hi Mr A Trois, I understand you want to remove the conviction from your policy?”. Certainly do, my good man, please do so asap and I suggest you change your procedures. “Ah, well, you see, before we can remove a conviction such as this, we need proof that the licence doesn’t have points on it”. At this point I ask for further explanation. “Well, our underwriting requires that we see proof that you have no convictions before we remove them”.
What!? You didn’t need proof that they existed to add them! And even though I understand the difference, I’m not happy that now I’ve got to fax my licence to you just to get you to correct an action that should not have been taken in the first place. So now I’ve got to wait till I go home this evening, find my licence, bring it to work (where the fax machine is) tomorrow, fax it to you with a cover letter explaining what’s going on, wait for you to correct the error, receive new cover note which is the same as the one I used to have. Grrrr.
No changes will be applied without confirmation my arse.
Apologies for the lame pitting. I just had to vent. At least I’ve learned that if I do get that particular conviction, it won’t cost me any extra.