Co-operatives Customer Dis-Service

I hate to sound like Victor Meldrew here but honestly, what has happened to customer service these days? In May I received a renewal notice from Co-operative Ecoinsurance and it was more than I was expecting it to be. The letter said that unless I told them otherwise they'd be taking £300 out of my account on whatever date. So I looked around, got a quote for £230 from Sheila's Wheels and called the Co-operative. No, they couldn't better it so I said it wouldn't make sense for me to renew with them.



I continued to get letters from them which I never opened assuming they were simply advertising some other service. Meantime my bank account was lower than expected so eventually (and these things take me a long time to get round to) I looked at it and discovered that they had simply renewed my insurance anyway and taken £300 out of my account!



Fast forward to today. I called them to ask why, 3 months after them agreeing to refund the money, they had yet to do so. After going through the whole palaver of postcodes and DOB etc they said I was speaking to the wrong person. So they put me through to the "right" person who asked me all the questions over again and then told me that not only was I not speaking to the "right" person but I was through to the wrong company altogether. The Co-operative guy had (very unco-operatively) put me through to Auto Trader insurance!



And yet none of that is what I really want to have a moan about.



Finally I spoke to the right person (by now I know my DOB and my postcode off by heart!) and she informs me that in August they received my confirmation letter and my certificate of motor insurance. However, she says, there was no proof of insurance from Sheila's Wheels in with it.



Now I can't remember if I sent that or not. I do know that I sent whatever they asked me for and if they asked for that, I sent it. If I didn't, it's because they didn't ask. I was very motivated to get my £300 back you understand. That, however, is not really the point. The point is that they received a letter confirming I wanted (as had been agreed) my money back and what did they do with it? They filed it away! It didn't occur to them to write back or phone me and tell me they needed more information?



Perhaps it did occur to them but perhaps it also occurred to them that people lead such busy lives these days that they rarely have time to deal with that kind of thing. Perhaps they were hoping I'd forget all about it. All they've done however is prompt me to make a formal complaint about their shocking customer service - first, taking money they'd no right to take and then, 6 months later, still no refund. Am not at all impressed.