I had a few miniute to spare this morning when my grandson, Cooper, went to bed so I decided it was an opportunity to renew my car insurance. So I went to the car and took out the disc to get the details, got my credit card ready and off we go.
The name of the insurance company was Aviva. It said so on the disc. So the next move was to Google Aviva and get a phone number. I dialled the number and after selecting twenty different options I eventually got to speak to a human person type. A nice, friendly lady.
I told her my insurance was due for renewal and gave her my policy number. She then told me I wasn’t insured with them and that I had gone through a broker. I assured her that I had an insurance disc in my hand that had Aviva written on it and I was pretty certain that I hadn’t used a broker for over forty years.
She advised me that I was insured with One Direct who had apparently taken over some of the Aviva business. Ok, but while I was on the phone with this lady I thought it would be worthwhile to get a quote. But there was a problem. Even though I had been a customer of this company for many years they couldn’t quote me for a renewal but they could quote for a new policy.
Right I said, lets go for it. The nice lady asked all the usual questions but the computer was crashing on her because it kept sending her back to the old Trevor instead of the new Trevor that old Trevor had to become in order to get a new quote. We eventually arrived at a figure of 590 Euro and then she advised me that I could get it cheaper if I did it online. I thanked the nice lady and hung up.
Next stop was One Direct. I went through the same ritual with another nice lady and eventually arrived at another price of 490 Euro. I thought that this was a bit excessive and she informed me that all the premiums had increased thanks to our nice Government people. I told her that it was too dear and that I was going to try elsewhere and the price immediately reduced to 460 Euro. I paid that because I had spent enough time on the phone and I was losing the will to live.
After a short rest I decided to pay the Road Tax. I got on to the website and entered my Pin. Went through the various pages of data and got to the point where I entered my credit card details and suddenly all these red letters appeared on my screen. They were telling me that I had entered some incorrect information so I tried again. Then the machine told me that they were cancelling my effort and that I would have to wait to try again because I had exhausted my time.
Well they were right about that. I had exhausted myself and apparently the machinery as well. So I just closed the lid of the lap top and put it away gently with the intention of trying again next week. I’m actually quite proud of myself because those nice people in the insurance companies and the motor tax office have no idea how close I was to putting the lap top into the car and sending the car into the river.