Monday, September 24, 2007

A Tale of Swann Insurance

Heh! Don't get mad! Get your own back with your own website!

Last weekend, our Planet Muncher died. Well, it's not dead, but it had a bit of a sleep last week.

Mrs Llew was on her way back to SunnyO from somewhere, when the little warning light went on (Yellow Alert, not as serious as Red Alert), telling her to drive to an authorised workshop ASAP. She drove home of course.

The car would not start again after that.

Help was at hand though, we have an extended warranty through Swann Insurance.

I rang their 0800 number.

I chose the "Emergency Breakdown Service".

The voice told me that I'd called after hours & to ring back on Monday.

I rang the dealer we bought the beast from. He told me "Yes, you need to arrange this through Swann" but said to call him back if we have any problems getting them.

We arranged through relatives to borrow a van to get home.

Om Monday morning I rang Swann back. The Emergency Breakdown Service put me through to a clerk who sells extended warranties...

I emailed Swann instead, telling them that their emergency service wasn't all it was named to be.

I then rang the dealer, who arranged to get the car back into town.

Then Swann called me to apologise.

Then the dealer told me we'd be invoiced for $350 for the callout because it doesn't fit with Swann's criteria, which only covers certain mechanical problems, not, whatever problems we had.

So I'm actually wondering what use Swann Insurance are at all? You can't even get who you want by phoning them. Kudos to them that they're checking their email though I guess.

We persevered with them rather than NZI assist or the AA because this car is specifically insured through Swann, and that's what we were told to do.

Feel free to spread my referral.